CEO makes employees the stars of his movies

MemorialCare chief executive Barry Arbuckle interviews workers for quarterly webcasts designed to make strategy digestible

MemorialCare Medical Centers communicates to employees via print and online newsletters, an intranet, a CEO blog and multiple face-to-face meetings.

A few years ago, its leaders decided that wasn’t enough.

“We were searching for another vehicle to more visually communicate the corporate and systemwide strategies and activities in a way that was visual and engaging and fit the Southern California lifestyle, which is very video-oriented,” Carla Asta, executive director of marketing and communications for MemorialCare Medical Centers.

And, given that the system includes 10,000 employees spread throughout six hospitals in a large area of Southern California, that vehicle had to easily span the distance.

The solution? President’s webcasts: quarterly 10-minute-or-shorter online videos, for which MemorialCare’s president and CEO travels to a different hospital each time to share a “teaching moment.”