GEN48 Promote your organisation and its services to stakeholders

Overview

This standard is about promoting your organisation and the services it provides to a range of stakeholders. This involves developing plans to promote your organisation and its services, communicating key messages to stakeholders, and evaluating the effectiveness of promotional activities. Users of this standard will need to ensure that practice reflects up to date information and policies. Version No 1

Knowledge and Understanding

You will need to know and understand:

1. stakeholders in your organisation and their interests
2. your organisation, its purpose, values and the services it provides
3. relevant people within your own and partner organisations with whom you need to agree key messages and communicate promotional plans
4. the people available to promote your organisation and its services
5. organisational policies and requirements relevant to the functions being carried out
6. how to explain complex material to improve people’s understanding, both orally and in writing
7. how to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences
8. the importance of consulting with relevant people and how to do this effectively
9. the importance of agreeing key messages and communicating promotional plans with relevant people before releasing information
10.  the principle of confidentiality: what information may be given to whom
11. the importance of giving people opportunities to ask questions and seek clarification, and how to do so
12.  the importance of feedback on the effectiveness of your communication
13. how to improve plans and activities in the light of evaluation
14. the importance of establishing how the effectiveness of promotional activities will be measured, and how to do so
15. the range of methods for evaluating the effectiveness of promotional plans and activities
16. the importance of checking your information is accurate and up-to-date, and how to do so
17. the knowledge, skills and competences required to promote the organisation and its services and how to ensure people possess these
18. the importance of identifying key messages to communicate to different stakeholders and how to do so
19. the range of opportunities available to promote the organisation and its services and how to select those opportunities which offer the best possibility of communicating key messages
20. your organisation’s promotional plan
21. the resources required to carry out plans and how to identify and obtain these

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do the following:

1. identify the range of stakeholders to whom you wish to promote your organization and its services
2. consult with representatives of these stakeholders to understand their actual or potential interests in your organisation and its services
3. identify the key messages that you want to communicate to the different stakeholders and agree these with relevant people
4. take account, where appropriate, of cultural and language issues
5. identify opportunities to promote your organisation and its services to stakeholders and select those which offer the best possibility of communicating key messages within the resources available
6. identify and obtain the resources required for your promotional plans
7. communicate your promotional plans to relevant people
8. ensure those who promote your organisation and its services have the knowledge, skills and competence to be able to do so
9. select methods of promotion in line with organisational resources and requirements
10. identify how the effectiveness of your promotional activities will be measured
11. use selected opportunities to promote your organisation and its services to stakeholders in line with your promotional plan
12. seize ad hoc opportunities to promote your organisation and its services to stakeholders as they arise
13. communicate key messages promptly in response to a crisis
14. agree key messages and the promotional opportunities to be used with relevant people in advance
15. communicate key messages to stakeholders clearly and in ways:
1. designed to help them understand the key messages and how these messages affect them
2. that respect individuals’ rights and the requirements of confidentiality
16. provide stakeholders with opportunities, where possible, to ask questions and seek clarification about the messages you are communicating
17. seek feedback from stakeholders, where possible, to ensure that they have understood the messages
18. ensure the information you communicate is accurate, up-to-date and in line with organizational requirements
19. select evaluation methods that are capable of identifying
1. whether key messages have been communicated to, and understood by, stakeholders
2. whether promotional activities have led to desired changes in attitudes or behaviour by stakeholders
20. ensure your evaluation is sufficient to reveal effectiveness of promotional activities
21. take appropriate action to improve your promotional plans and activities in the light of the results of the evaluation

Additional Information

This National Occupational Standard was developed by Skills for Health. This standard links with the following dimension within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (October 2004): Dimension: G8 Public relations and marketing This standard has replaced DANOS BB1.