John Hancock - Best Internal Communications Campaign

Company: John Hancock, Boston, MA
Entry Submitted By: Porter Novelli
Company Description: John Hancock is the U.S. division of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. John Hancock provides financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. John Hancock is one of the largest life insurers in the United States.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Internal Communications - 100 or More Employees

Nomination Title: Camp Manulife/John Hancock

Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched: July 20, 2020

A recent New York Times surveyfound that80%of parents who are working remotely during the pandemic have also been handlingchildcareand education. Further, the 2020 Archangels National Caregiver Survey, conducted in collaboration with Blue Cross Blue Shield, found that 57% of all caregivers reported clinically significant levels of stress, anxiety or depression.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/upshot/coronavirus-home-school-parents.html
https://www.verywellhealth.com/caregiver-health-covid-19-5078294

John Hancock knew many of their own employees were working hard to find a comfortable and sustainable work-life balance, with parents and caregivers feeling added pressure. The company offered salary continuance for employees who were not able to work remotely while caring for loved ones at home; free mindfulness classes and industry-leading mental health practitioner benefits; and an extra “Thank You Day” off and five personal days in 2021 to support employee well-being. But as the school year began to draw to a close and traditional summer camps couldn’t take place, they wanted to do more.

The company formed a working group tasked with fusing the traditional elements of an in-person summer camp with those of an interactive, virtual experience. In July 2020, John Hancock and its parent company Manulife launched Camp Manulife/John Hancock to help ease the burden on parents with a program designed to get employees’ children across the U.S. and Canada learning, moving, and – above all – having fun.

The Camp working group brought together a mix of employees from across the company who were parents themselves or had previous experience as camp counselors or teachers. There were several key considerations that rose to the top during the planning process: determining age groups; selecting activities that could be completed largely independently and publicly available; using materials commonly found in homes; and limiting the amount of screen time for children.

These elements led to the final concept: Camp Manulife/John Hancock, a program with four weeks of online and offline content for children ages 4 to 10 years old, including downloadable PDFs and videos from employee “camp counselors” and Manulife CEO Roy Gori. To act as the face of the program, Doug Jackson, Head of Human Resources for Global Wealth and Asset Management at Manulife, gained a second title: Chief Camp Counselor.

The activities would fall under one of five categories: Sing/Share, Play, Create, Learn and Go. It would be published on a weekly basis to John Hancock’s YouTube channel and website for families to complete activities whenever it worked best for their schedules. The company would pay for KiwiCo STEM and art boxes to be shipped directly to families’ homes and stand up a pen pal program to match up campers within the same age group. Finally, there would be a special show with a celebrity guest at the end of the summer to conclude the Camp program.

To promote the four-week program internally, the Communications team distributed weekly communications to parents, providing highlights from the previous week, sharing the coming week’s Camp schedule and encouraging parents to send in photos of their children completing the Camp activities. Externally, the John Hancock team created a Camp hub on Manulife.com and JohnHancock.com; promoted program highlights on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram; and engaged select media publications including The New York Times and HR Executive to inspire other organizations to find unique ways to support employees during the pandemic.

Camp Manulife/John Hancock had over 3,300 campers participate in the program, with 92% of parents saying their children loved Camp. Hundreds of parents provided unsolicited positive feedback and shared over 1,300 photos and videos of campers completing activities. As of the end of the program in mid-August, there were over 22,000 video views and nearly 300 likes on YouTube, as well as over 15,000 visits to the Camp web pages.

With such a positive response to this program, John Hancock is keeping a pulse on how parents are feeling and what they need, which will help inform similar initiatives in the coming months as remote work continues.

“Thank you for not only being so invested in your employees, but also our children. I cannot tell you how much that means to me, especially during this crazy, difficult time.”

Supporting materials include:

Parent feedback & Photos
https://mfc.sharepoint.com/:b:/r/sites/o365g_communicationsteam/Shared%20Documents/Thought%20Leadership/Awards/PR%20Awards/2020%20SABRE%20Innovation%20Awards/Camp%20Manulife%20Photos%20%26%20Feedback%20Highlights.pdf?csf=1&;web=1&e=ahHlVZ

Introducing Camp Manulife/John Hancock: https://youtu.be/YBsxgoiEVg0

Camp Manulife/John Hancock Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhHqtxaGxQk&;list=PL5IuFkcUdpNACbhvv4FV7-NCBXihXGqXX&index=2

Camp Manulife/John Hancock YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5IuFkcUdpNACbhvv4FV7-NCBXihXGqXX

John Hancock Webpage: https://www.johnhancock.com/about-us/camp-john-hancock.html

LinkedIn Article from John Hancock CEO Marianne Harrison: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bringing-summer-fun-families-camp-john-hancock-marianne-harrison/

Media Coverage

HR Executive: https://hrexecutive.com/john-hancock-latest-to-sign-on-to-virtual-camp-trend/

The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/upshot/pandemic-workers-benefits-disparity.html

Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindsaykohler/2020/09/15/is-employee-engagement-a-painkiller-or-a-vitamin/#74a5806c493d