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Say goodbye to gossip

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, March 17, 2006

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One way to discourage gossip at your organization is to write a communication policy. Regardless of what causes the negative communication among your staff, failing to address it in your policies and procedures leaves you with little recourse if the situation escalates, says Rosemarie Nelson, MS, a practice management consultant from Syracuse, NY. To help you draft your communication policy, consider the following suggestions:

1. Ask your staff for input on the communication policy. Broach the topic of a communication policy in a nonconfrontational setting (e.g., a routine staff meeting or luncheon), and come prepared. Also give a deadline for staff to submit additional comments. Announce when you plan to present the final policy, as well as when it will take effect.

2. Write from the positive, not the negative. Although your communication policy may mention gossip, it should not come across as harsh or negative. The policy should encourage positive communication by including behavior you'd like to see (e.g., "We will speak respectfully to each other").

3. Keep it general. Even though you should list specific positive behavior, keep the overall policy general. If you list positive behaviors, state that the list is not all-inclusive.

To learn four more tips for creating a communication policy, go to Patient Care Staffing Report (PCSR). For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire January issue of PCSR. Click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. Subscribers to the online version of PCSR have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their January issue.

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