Health departments must have good, consistent, clear, crisp communications both internally and externally. A comprehensive and strategic communications plan for the department sets the foundation for staff to develop and execute communications effectively: to reach the target audience in the right place, at the right time, with the right message. This planning takes leadership, teamwork, internal collaboration and sharing, as well as continuous improvement. Doing this effectively will lead to coordination of team activities, allow for adept reaction and response to current events or crises, produce results, and maximize health outcomes. This spreadsheet will help you to address and organize essential factors of communications planning, execution, and evaluation. Doing this preparation work before you communicate will save you valuable time and resources when and where they are needed most.
Under the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) Standards and Measures, communications plans are required for several PHAB standards including:
- Standard 2.4: Maintain a plan with policies and procedures for urgent and non-urgent communications.
- Standard 3.2: Provide information on public health issues and public health functions through multiple methods to a variety of audiences.
- Standard 5.4: Maintain an all hazards emergency operations plan.
Before you begin using this tool, ask yourself these questions:
- Who is the audience?
- What do we want the audience to do?
- Why are we doing it?
- What is our simplified message?
With this information in mind, the Planning Before You Communicate Tool has five tabs to help you organize your communications plan:
- Overview – Defines strategic communications, and states what is required, the benefits, and key points to keep in mind while going through the communications planning process.
- Project Information – Essential data for all team members to know, such as the project name, goals and objectives, target audiences, messaging themes, dates, and internal and external partners.
- Communications Tactics – The vehicles and platforms that will be used to transmit messages with corresponding execution dates.
- Collecting and Measuring Data – How will you know if you are successful? What will you measure and how will you measure it?
- Lessons and Observations – After analyzing the data, what did you learn? What will you improve for the future?
If you have questions about this tool or how to apply it for your use, please contact:
Nolan Gill, Communications Manager, at ngill@phf.org.
Strategic Communications Planning Workshop
PHF offers a half-day Strategic Communications Planning Workshop designed to help health departments develop a strategic communications plan, and includes a practical demonstration of how to use the Planning Before You Communicate Tool. Learn more about this in-person training opportunity.