Winner: Pfizer & Cone, Inc.
Campaign: Pfizer's Global Health Fellows Program
If you think volunteer stints in third-world countries are just for Peace Corps-bound kids fresh out of college, talk to Pfizer executives. In 2003, they formed the Global
Health Fellows (GHF) program, which deploys highly skilled employees around the world for three- to six-month assignments on a biannual basis. Now celebrating its fifth
anniversary, the program has successfully expanded health care services in developing nations like Rwanda, India and Honduras.
Road To Recovery
However, the road to becoming a catalyst for change wasn't without its challenges, which the communications team had to handle on a massive scale. For starters, they didn't
have any footsteps in which to follow.
"When the GHF program was first announced, there were very few successful models from which to learn," says Rekha Chalasani manager of Worldwide Philanthropy for Pfizer.
"Because Pfizer isn't a services firm centered on sending people out to the field, we had to start from scratch and identify core competencies, as well as whether or not they
translated to meet a local need."
Partnering with Cone, the executives overcame this hurdle, as well as those presented by HR policies, liability and safety, by pulling together a cross-divisional team and
establishing an infrastructure for supporting the Fellows, both in terms of training and reintegrating them back into the company after their trip.
Then there was the issue of getting employees to join. "More recently, in the face of a contracting environment, Pfizer colleagues were concerned that participating in the
program may impact the security of their jobs back at home," Chalasani says. To overcome this, the internal GHF program team used strong internal communications methods,
including a letter from the CEO that emphasized corporate support for the program; articles featuring GHF in the company news letter and online; and NGO partner ?validation.
Communications Is The Best Medicine
Thanks to strong partnerships with organizations abroad, unwavering support from senior leadership, strong internal communications and technology to bridge the gap between
employees around the world, the team has made the GHF program a huge success. Since 2003, 128 Fellows have traveled to 31 countries, bringing much-needed health care training to
local communities.