Communication Success Factors

Introduction: Letter from Lois Quam
If you’re like me, you’ve seen dozens of books, articles and speakers emphasizing how effective communication helps businesses better leverage sales opportunities, enhance operational effectiveness, and improve teamwork and collaboration.

Intuitively, that all makes good business sense. But, what does effective communication mean for us, specifically, at Ovations? What’s expected from each one of us? How does communication support our strategic goals and help drive our long-term success?

This handbook is designed to answer those questions. It provides the tools you need to be a great communicator and outlines our respective accountabilities as managers and employees. We all have an obligation to share information and seek it out. I encourage you to support an open communication environment that allows us, and our businesses, to thrive.

The following success factors show the communication roles we play as managers and employees.

These success factors show the communication roles we play as managers and employees.

Leadership Communication Success Factors Employee Communication Success Factors a. To learn about business strategy and division management issues in preparation for communicating with employees. a. To understand how Ovations strategy influences business decisions. b. To help employees make the link between Ovations business strategies and operational tasks. b. To connect daily responsibilities to the Ovations “big picture.” c. To use multiple means of communication as appropriate, with a focus on voice-to-voice methods, to ensure key messages are received and understood. c. To approach managers with questions and take advantage of opportunities to discuss topics one-on-one. d. To cascade senior management messages on a timely basis. d. To keep myself informed about issues that impact my job. e. To serve as a strong, reassuring conduit for upward communication. e. To provide feedback and demonstrate an openness to share information. f. To promote and enable lateral and diagonal communication (communication between Ovations functions and division and across United Health Group segments). f. To collaborate within teams and across functional lines.

Along with these success factors, our Employee Communications Team has identified some key initiatives for fostering interactive communications throughout Ovations. We’ll be working on these initiatives over the next several months. They are:

• Incorporate communication success factors into manager and employee performance appraisals, beginning with the April 2004 review cycle.
• Incorporate questions related to our communications objectives into our next employee survey.
• Hold senior staff meetings to discuss lessons learned and exchange employee communication best practices.
• Conduct senior management site visits and lunch meetings with employees.
• Identify communication “advocates” among employees to promote an open communication environment and measure communication effectiveness throughout the organization.
• Conduct periodic zoomerang surveys to test the effectiveness of our communications process and measure employee understanding and other communication opportunities.
• Expand the Ovations intranet calendar to include key meetings and other communication opportunities.

I’m excited about this initiative to enhance our culture by improving communications and ask you to take part in building in a dynamic, interactive and open communication environment. Thank you for your help and participation in the process.

Sincerely,

Lois Quam

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