“My participation in online communities (within BHive) provides me with a platform to engage & converse with my peers and build camaraderie based on shared interests. Through ‘Tastebuds’, our online community for foodies within Brocade, I have engaged like-minded individuals to discuss recipes, exchange restaurant reviews and promote healthy eating, resulting in a sense of belonging centered around a common interest.”

BHive is a private online employee social community. BHive is leveraged to help promote many wellness initiatives which helped make Brocade one of the top 100 companies to work for, making Fortune’s 2011 & 2010 list.

Within BHive, employees friend and follow each other as well as earn points for posting and answering questions and contributing to discussions. The most popular topics that Brocadians are discussing online are WellFit (includes ViveCoach challenges, Sports Groups), WIN (Women in Networking), BInvolved (volunteerism & community involvement) and San Jose Campus (employees posting photos from various work events like the annual Chili Cookoff). Brocade uses BHive to gather information from employees through polls and discussions and generate engagement in offline company and community events. During May, employees worldwide participated in “Bike to Work” and posted their photos online. 

With the ViveCoach platform, Brocade engages employees through their mobile phones. During social challenges, employees receive mobile messages about additional challenge points needed by their team, team work-out reminders, healthy nutrition or fitness tips, reminders (“drink lots of water” or “take the stairs”), team banter and leader board status.  Brocade had a team of remote employees join a recent challenge and they are planning a competition that includes spouses and family members. “We believe that it is important to include employee’s family members so these lifestyle changes become more sustainable”, explains Lisa McGill, VP, Worldwide Human Resources at Brocade.

What is the secret for being on the leading edge of employee engagement?  In June 2010, Brocade launched their WellFit Council with 15 representatives from all departments and geographies. These employee advisory Council members are divided into four work teams (Health & Wellness, Fitness, Education & Communities) and meet once per month to provide input and guidance on wellness related events, education, communication channels/content and metrics to motivate and measure engagement at Brocade. Each employee member leverages their own employee network to bring additional ideas and feedback to the Council meetings and into the dedicated online WellFit Council discussion area within BHive. “Being part of the Council has been a great experience and for me it has really affected how I manage my health, wellbeing and work-life balance.  Some of the ideas are even rubbing off on my husband”, shares one WellFit Council member.

Learn more about Brocade’s successful initiatives to drive employee engagement at the Healthcare Unbound conference panel, "New Directions in Employee Engagement: Competition, Coaching, Community and Compensation".

Shape Up The Nation Comparative Data

According to Hewitt Associates’ survey with employers, A Road Ahead- Emerging Health Trends 2010, “changing employee behaviors related to health (e.g. encouraging employees to live healthier lifestyles and manage chronic conditions) will continue to be top of mind for employers over the next several years”.

Medium and large employers are evaluating different cost effective approaches that leverage technology to engage employees in their health. One approach that has generated results at the work place is social competition. Employees that participate in social competitions between co-workers and other companies gain the support and encouragement from their teammates to realize personal benefits such as getting more exercise, eating healthier and losing weight.

GTECH, a global technology company with over 3,000 employees in the U.S., piloted Shape Up The Nation’s platform back in 2007 in their headquarters office in Rhode Island.  They noticed their employees were actively participating in the program and decided to roll it out to all U.S. employees located in 24 states the following year.

“Our employees tell us that they like to have a structured program with the option of participating in any of the three options (e.g. weight, exercise and nutrition) with the team aspect”, explains Leo Perrone, Director, Employee Benefits at GTECH Corporation.

Through the technology, employees can track and monitor their progress. “What they really like is the comparative information because it motivates them to strive harder, serves as positive peer pressure and it helps the team captains to send out motivational messages”, emphasizes Perrone.

In fact the team captains are an essential piece of the social competition. GTECH recently had a meeting with their team captains to share best practices and make sure they have the tools that they need.  

Team captains regularly send out messages to encourage their teammates to try harder together and to congratulate them on their past efforts. Employees also send virtual ‘high fives’ and messages of support to their teammates.

Perrone discussed the employees’ response to the nutrition information that was tested in the platform this summer. “Our employee loved it. They entered in their meals and saw the calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates and sugar breakdown for the foods they are choosing. Our employees became more aware of what they are really eating on a daily basis”.   One of GTECH’s benefits for employees is the option to participate in six nutritional sessions each year. We agreed that the nutrition information from Shape Up  The Nation’s platform would be valuable to share with their nutrition educator for further insight.

GTECH plans to continue with this social competition approach. “This is a foundational program for us since it makes a difference in the personal health of our employees and it also helps with team building. Our employees get to know each other through these competitions and this helps our business” concludes Perrone.

More on employee engagement as the series continues...

Have you seen "Challenge Me" as an engagement driver?

MyRegence.com

During the 6^th Annual World Technology & Innovation Congress (WHIT), I led a panel to share Social Community insights from The Regence Group and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island. With my extensive online community experience, I was impressed with the capabilities and design of this healthcare social community that Regence has built and grown to over 600,000 members across five Plans and four states. 

Torben Nielsen, Director of myRegence.com has been leading the community development from the beginning, incorporating features to engage the member such as rewards, ratings, decision support tools and an integrated experience tying together content into community.

Key Concerns for Social Communities

As health plans develop their social community strategy, they often confront three key concerns from internal stakeholders. The first is around addressing negative comments by members. “We tell them that your members will say what they want about your plan but you have an opportunity within the community to have a customer service contact them directly to resolve any issues or post a response to their comment”, explains Torben. A second concern is about the posting of personal health information which can be filtered by the community software.  The third issue is about consumers offering inaccurate information. “One of the roles of our moderators is to ensure that the member is directed the right answers when necessary”,  replies Torben.

Engagement Capabilities within the Community

The Regence group designed MyRegence.com with  a compelling set of features to engage and empower members. Here are four capabilities that I feel are the most compelling:  

1. Reviews. This social community requires that you have a claim before you can review your provider experience. Your provider can post a response to your comments following your review. Other community members can send you a message to learn more about your experience as they consider using the provider.

2. Rewards.  Members earn rewards points for using the Community to review new health information, become part of a wellness group and for entering their wellness activities such as exercise, diet and preventative care.

3. Decision Support.  As a member considers a particular treatment option, he can review the percentage of members who have had the treatment done or prescribed and see the estimated treatment cost range and an estimated personal cost.

4. Integrated Experience.  When a member reads information about eating healthy, she can click a link to watch videos from Chef Tse, discuss ideas for cooking light meals with the community and request to receive eNewsletters filled with food related articles and links into additional content and community discussions of interest.

My Blue Community

The Regence Group has defined a part of my Regence.com as the My Blue Community to serve as a national online community platform that supports members from other participating Blues plans including early adopters  Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana. Kimberly A. Holway, Market Segment Manager, Strategic Marketing & Product Innovation from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island discussed their experiences planning and rolling out My Blue Community to their members this past summer.

Value Proposition to Members

“When we marketed My Blue Community to our members, we positioned it as a ‘safe and secure place to share experiences and get support’ from others”, explains Kimberly.  “We view this as a way to expand the network so that members can more readily find people with their same health issues and interests”.  BCBS of Rhode Island members are expressing the value that they see with the community. One member confirmed that it was a ‘safe environment to seek advice’ with peers that are ‘trustworthy’.

As Torben pointed out, you need to be a member of the health plan to log in which ensures that they are an adult participating in the community.

Another BCBS Rhode Island member expressed the value that she gains ‘by reading what other people have posted’ and ‘seeing stories which are relatable’.

Member Engagement Validation

There is so much to learn about how consumers engage in private vs public (e.g. Facebook, destination health sites) social communities. Healthcare organizations are experimenting with both formats to understand the differences in the content shared and the frequency that consumers engage just to name a few. When evaluating engagement, it is also important to understand how much consumers gain when contributing vs consuming content from these communities.

How can health plans bring new sources of value to educate, support and enable members to collaborate with others about their health within these social communities? Stay tuned.  

As social media explodes in healthcare, companies are launching new communities and communication tools to connect consumers with each other and with experts. Research has shown that consumers value learning about and from the experiences of others and receiving emotional support.

Healthcare organizations are building online support communities combined with social media tools, enabling consumers to connect with friends and strangers to share a common bond.  Consumers are responding by visiting their channel on YouTube to upload a video about their personal experiences or sharing a comment about a video that moved them. They are on Facebook leaving their “thumbs up” when they like what they see. Consumers are there (virtually) with words of support for those newly diagnosed and those experiencing set- backs.

“I am scared because my child is having problems managing his diabetes at school and I don’t know what to do”.

"My MS is getting worse. I am frightened to speak with others who are further along but would like to reach out to those who are experiencing what I am right now.”

“My family is getting the brunt of my frustrations and I feel terrible.”

“Support Me” Opportunity:  Provide the capability to share encouragement, validation and an emotional connection with other people and experts.

Engagement in Action:
These innovative organizations are offering consumers the capabilities to demonstrate their support online.

• Livestrong Facebook community has over 700,000 fans. Community members are extremely engaged posting pictures and comments about their most personal experiences on this very public site. Unlike many communities which have a more limited response, Livestrong is a vibrant community with hundreds of posts sharing thoughts and endless support. Livestrong also engages their community off line through events, further connecting and building bonds between their members.
• TuDiabetes ran a Making Sense of Diabetes program leading up to World Diabetes Day. Members uploaded videos sharing their experiences living with diabetes on a daily basis. Many of these videos received high ratings from the community and comments were shared showing support.
• AARP has launched LifeTuners, an online community for young adults (20s and 30s) offering “unbiased, balanced resources, information and financial advice”. Within the community, consumers are accessing advice and support from experts and their peers and rating the recommendations they read.  AARP has built this support community to educate young people about the things they can do now that will impact their future. Notice the parallels with wealth and health.
• MDJunction offers an online community with the ability to share different types of visual messages such as “a hug”, “a cheer up”, “a happy for you”, “a prayer” and “a salute”. Community members can also display one or more than a dozen different color ribbons showing their support from gray for Juvenile Diabetes to black for Melanoma Cancer.

Healthcare companies need to move beyond the basics of setting up different social media destinations and envision integrated offerings that enable consumers to care for one another anytime and anywhere, through online and mobile. They also need to determine the role that the “expert” plays to support and strengthen the community.