FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12/22/10
CONTACT: Jim Wozniak
(423) 230-8237
EVERYONE HAS A STORY TO TELL: 365 RECORDED AND
WRITTEN ONES NET WELLMONT A NATIONAL AWARD
KINGSPORT– Ask employees of Wellmont Health System what they enjoy about their jobs, and they eagerly share their stories.
So Wellmont's human resources and marketing communications departments developed a forum for employees to tell those stories – for 365 straight days. The economical way the departments made it happen recently caught the attention of judges and online voters in a nationwide contest.
Wellmont earned a gold award, the highest available, in the 2010 Best-in-Class Client Awards sponsored by Greystone.net and StayWell Custom Communications. The health system was honored at a ceremony in Las Vegas in the category of "Most Efficient Use of Limited Web Resources" for its "Your story. Our mission." employee branding campaign.
Working with Wellmont's human resources department, marketing communications department employees devised a strategy for Wellmont employees to spread the word in short but powerful stories about enjoyable aspects of their jobs. Each video, shot on a handheld Flip video camera, lasts about 30 seconds.
"We were happy to share, through the eyes of our valued employees, the high-quality, compassionate health care Wellmont delivers to the Tri-Cities region," said Pat Kane, senior vice president of marketing communications.
"These stories show a healing environment is alive and well at Wellmont and should attract many highly skilled professionals to our health system as applicants and future employees. Patients and their families should also be comforted by the pride employees take in their jobs."
The sky wasn't the limit on the budget the departments had at their disposal to devise and execute the campaign. The health system invested just a few hundred dollars to purchase the inexpensive Flip video cameras.
Most of the campaign involved sweat equity – marketing department employees interviewed their colleagues at Wellmont, edited the stories to a compact size and presented the finished product on the system's website, www.wellmont.org, and Facebook page. Wellmont.org/myStory was entirely an in-house production.
The videos and written stories live on today at www.wellmont.org/careers and www.wellmont.org/econnection/mystory/calendar.html.
"In these challenging economic times, Wellmont has sought groundbreaking and novel ways to tell the story of our regional, state and national leadership in health care," said Hamlin Wilson, Wellmont's senior vice president of human resources. "We accomplished that in spades with these personal stories from employees who make the lives of our patients better every day."
The eighth annual awards program honored hospitals and healthcare systems in 12 categories in addition to recognizing the best overall websites. There were nearly 140 entries and more than 50 finalists. Other winners included Emory Healthcare and St. Louis Children's Hospital.
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Wellmont Health System, Attention: Amy Stevens 1905 American Way, Kingsport, TN 37660 United States
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Jeff Fleming
Kingsport Blog
