Company: Dominion
Dominion's "Choose Well, Use Well" campaign won the PR News Empolyee Relations Patinum Award
With 17,000 employees in 22 states and across Canada, energy giant Dominion faces massive medical care costs. In its latest move to trim expenses while still offering
aggressive benefits, the company introduced several new plan options and also asked employees to shoulder a greater portion of the cost.
But how did Dominion get its message across to its workforce? That was the job of PR.
"The communications group really played a role in making things easier for employees to understand," says Chet Wade, director of employee communications and creative
services.
Initial research by the communications group showed a number of challenges. Employee surveys showed workers were not selecting plans that best served their needs, and required
education to better explain plan options. At the same time, surveys showed the implementation of mandatory online enrollment, while a sound business option, would meet with
resistance if not done carefully.
The core of the effort, which cost $189,000 in employee time, consisted of a 165-person group known internally as "The Survivors." They came from human resources,
communications and information technology, and worked at diverse locations across the enterprise.
The Survivors supported the messaging that came from communications in a range of formats. Employees got four mailings describing the new benefits. Word also went out in
multiple issues of "Connect Today," Dominion's daily electronic news update. Three issues of the company's monthly Connect magazine also addressed the topic.
In addition, the communications group addressed 200 employee meetings and launched 10 Web casts.
More Details To Follow
The messaging, though informative, also was deliberately vague at times. It gave extensive detail as to plan options, but omitted what some might consider as crucial
details.
"One of the most important strategic decisions that was made was to not provide the specific pricing information until it was time to make specific decisions," says Wade.
Why was this significant information initially left out? "We were concerned that they would focus solely on the monthly contributions and their decision-making would end at
that point," Wade adds.
The communications team believed in the soundness of this strategy, which was meant to encourage people to take a broader look at their medical plans. Yet the PR pros had to
stand their ground on this one, as even senior executives pressed for more details. "We knew that [disclosing pricing too early] would ultimately not lead to the best decisions
for all of our employees," Wade acknowledges.
Rather than talk numbers, the team talked concepts. "We started to educate them about not just how much medical costs were going up, but also why they were going
up," says Wade. "A lot of employees don't really appreciate how much a company invests in these programs."
Even before talking to the employees, however, the communications team started by talking to those who would be spreading the word: training the trainer, as it were.
To this end, a lot of effort went into making sure that the IT staff would be ready to handle questions about benefits. With people checking information and even enrolling
online, there was sure to be a new communications burden on the IT staff.
"They needed to be ready to respond to the various types of online communication we needed to create, including information on the HR Web site," says Carol Zedaker, manager of
HR communications. "They also needed to support us as we worked with an outside vendor to develop an online healthcare decision-making toolkit."
Zedaker also worked closely with IT to make the online registration system more user-friendly. "It was very much approached as a communications issue, as well as a technical
issue," she said.
While the integration of technology into the HR process presented new challenges, it also offered new opportunities. Though the communications team tried to create in-person
meetings whenever possible, several offices were too remote to make this practical. The team therefore turned to Lotus' Sametime software to conduct numerous web-based
seminars.
The results indicate a significant new awareness among employees, 31% of whom migrated to new health plans. More than 95% of employees attended a meeting or webcast. The online
component also seemed to click, with more than 10,000 hits logged at the Open Enrollment Toolkit benefits calculator.
Perhaps most significant from a communications point of view, 85% of survey respondents said they were totally satisfied with the open enrollment process, and 85% also declared
total satisfaction with the communications materials and tools they had received.
Contacts: Chet Wade, 804.775.5697, [email protected]; Carol Zedaker, 804.771.4276, [email protected]
Make Time For Face Time
At energy company Dominion, Chet Wade, the director of employee communications and creative services, helped lead an effort to explain a new benefits plan to employees. In a
big organization, with literally dozens of players involved, such an effort demanded fax, phone, e-mail and teleconferencing.
But it also required face time.
Wade recalls the communications team spending an entire day of round-robin messaging in order to determine that the new plans should be called "A, B and C" as opposed to being
given numbers or names. That to him seems excessive.
"Sooner or later you need to get people into a room to say: Okay, we all agree on this. Let's stop sending drafts around on email," he says. "That face-to-face part becomes
really important. No matter what you are doing, that is still the best way to do things when you have to get a group decision."