In February 2001, Baptist Health Care (BHC) launched the BHC Daily, a scripted 10-minute daily learning activity designed to foster employee communication and increase organizational knowledge.

The scripted 10-minute activity is provided at the department level to all employees throughout the BHC system and takes place at various times each day. At the end of each week, according to Pam Bilbrey, president of BHC's Baptist Leadership Institute, department managers receive an electronic file containing the following week's BHC Daily scripts. Each script typically includes content on a "topic of the day" (which typically focuses on BHC's mission, vision and values; customer service; leadership skills; or national health care news). Also included in each script, she says, are discussion questions designed to encourage interaction among team members, an inspirational quote, and a "Healthy Living Tip."

Each department is responsible for setting its own specific time for employees to gather and review the BHC Daily. During that time period, says Bilbrey, participants literally stand up for the 10-minute learning session.

The activity, she says, delivers an array benefits to the organization. It enables every BHC employee, for example, to receive more than 40 hours of training and development each year in a "cost- and time-effective manner." It helps to sustain a culture of service and operational excellence. And it fosters communication throughout the organization (which is no small feat, notes Bilbrey, considering the fact that the BHC system includes more than 60 different service sites dispersed across two-states). Employees throughout the organization have found the BHC Daily so useful, in fact, says Bilbrey, that they took it upon themselves to request that back issues of the BHC Daily be placed on the organization's employee intranet for easier retrieval and review.

Last but not least, the tool is saving BHC time and money. "We have found that this tool actually saved the organization money by eliminating the need to publish newsletters, flyers, and other communication tools," Bilbrey says. The tool also has helped to reduce the number of meetings taking place organization-wide, she says. "A lot of departments will just add on a couple of extra minutes to the Daily for departmental updates and team Q&A, which prevents many departments from having to call other weekly meetings."

Best Practices
Interested in designing?or refining?your own daily communication program for employees? Here are some of BHC's tips for doing so:

? Keep messaging crisp and concise. "Determine what your key message points are and stick to them," recommends Bilbrey. In addition, she advises, "make sure that your messaging is aligned with strategic business priorities and that your communications reinforce the mission, vision, and values of your organization."

? Benchmark. Good ideas are everywhere, so don't be afraid to benchmark with other organizations and open the lines of communication with your outside peers. The BHC Daily, for example, is modeled after Ritz-Carlton's "Daily Lineup" and is the direct result of benchmarking visits to Ritz-Carlton made by several members of the BHC training and management team.

? Allow room for fun. BHC department managers are encouraged to make the BHC Daily fun for their staff by adding activities such as contests and skits to their daily roundup.

? Recognize. Many BHC managers also use the 10-minute activity as a platform to publicly recognize employees on their team who have exceeded the expectations of co-workers and customers.

? Make it a team effort. According to Bilbrey, publication of the BHC Daily is very much a team effort. An advisory committee meets monthly to outline topics for the coming month, for example, and each member of the advisory committee also is tasked with soliciting feedback from the organization that can be included in the publication, such as employee stories and examples of service excellence.

? Create a captive audience. To ensure that BHC Daily messaging is heard by all, BHC makes the 10-minute activity mandatory, but also allows for flexibility by encouraging employees to join in should they be visiting another department during a scheduled BHC Daily time.

About Baptist Health Care
Baptist Health Care is a health care organization headquartered in Pensacola, Fla. In 2006, it placed 61st on Training magazine's Top 100 list, an annual ranking of organizations that excel at human-capital development. To learn more about the Top 100, visit the the Top 100 section of ManageSmarter.com.

For more on what hospital systems, including Baptist Health Care, are doing right when it comes to training and development, check out Training Rxes.