New Tidelands Health newsletter builds on employees’ roles and ideas

In the fall of 2014, Tidelands Health launched a new kind of newsletter embodying a fundamentally changed organizational culture in which the ideas, opinions, personal stories and achievements of its employees were suddenly much more important. The eye-opening results of this transformation, reflected in the name of the newsletter, “Partners,” have made Tidelands the winner of the “Best Print Newsletter” category of Ragan’s 2015 Employee Communications Awards.

The editor of this new content-marketing employee newsletter, Margaret Lamb, states that, “‘Partners’ reflects a new attitude, a new design, and a new [coverage] of our employee partners to convey [our] strategic messages.” She and her team found some unforeseen benefits, too:

• Lamb and her staff unearthed a sizable roster of good writers among the 2,000 nurses, doctors, admin staff, and service workers at nearly 50 Tidelands’ hospitals and clinics on the South Carolina coast.
• “Partners” features brisk, pungent employee biographies that uncover the passions, vocations, and histories of Tideland employees. The employees’ individuality and quirks come through loud and clear.
• Lamb’s firm editorial hand and respect for good writing permeate “Partners.” Lamb’s editing aims at literacy. It eschews corporate jargon, and sets high standards for her writers. Every story in “Partners” is highly readable.

Lamb might easily move the section of “Partners” devoted to department news, continuous process improvement, patient safety, leadership, and work standards toward the front of her newsletter. It’s that good. Her writers are so able that these stories could easily be longer and more detailed. 

Congratulations to Margaret Lamb, Jane Arthur and Amy Stevens, associate VP of marketing and communications. Kudos to Kevin Pontiff, art director, and Mark Roberts, photographer, and to Lamb’s stand-out contributing writers: Gary Kollm, Gary Life, Greg Nobles, RPH, Jessica Sasser, Renee Shore, and Linda Sine!