Alfred Knight Awards Entry

Title of Entry: Gallup to the Polls!

CATEGORY: Internal Communications Campaign, Annual Budget Less than $50,000
NAME, TITLE & ORGANIZATION: Donna Arbogast & Associates for Holy Cross Hospital
Campaign Planning and Implementation: Donna Arbogast, Leslie Whitlinger; Graphic Design: Pam Whitlinger

To increase Holy Cross Hospital employee participation in a corporate-wide annual satisfaction survey administered by Gallup. (The hospital's parent company, Trinity Health, had placed strong emphasis on generating greater participation than the hospital had seen in the past.)

Employee response to previous surveys was low, in part because the surveys were long and employees were concerned about confidentiality. To address these issues, Trinity Health contracted with Gallup to ensure a professional and confidential process, they shortened the survey to 10 minutes and allowed employees to answer questions from any phone, at any time.

To communicate these important changes and generate enthusiasm for participating, Arbogast and Associates recommended the following strategy:

Make it fun.   Develop the entire campaign around a Western "Gallup to the Polls!" theme, playing on the words Gallup/gallop to emphasize the well-regarded outside organization and the fact that the survey could be completed in a hurry.

Make it worth the employee's time. Award prizes to the top three departments with the highest percentage response.

Make it meaningful. Emphasize the value of this opportunity for employees to voice their candid, confidential opinions to help make the hospital a better place to work.

AUDIENCE: All employees of Holy Cross Hospital

Promotional Activities (beginning two-weeks before the official kick-off):
1. Wanted: Your Opinion! posters, banners, fliers and table-tents;
2. Memos to department heads with a Gallup to the Polls button to spur staff participation;
3. Paycheck stuffers, a letter from the president, e-mail reminders and in-house TV promotions.

Kick-off Activities (day of the event and continuing for two weeks):
1. Southwestern Day in the cafeteria (i.e., food, music and decorations) with a $1 off coupon;
2. Free chips, salsa, guacamole (menu varied per shift) in phone bank rooms during campaign;
3. I Galluped. Did You? sticker given to all employees who completed the survey;
4. The Round-Up Progress Board of a horse racing back to the barn - to show hospital-wide momentum toward the participation goal.

Participation more than doubled. In previous years, 25% of employees participated; the Gallup campaign helped to generate a 54% participation rate. Based upon last year's success, the hospital plans to repeat the theme again this year, with a few updates to keep it fresh.