Wayside Youth & Family Support Network

Wayside Youth & Family Support Network

Communication Protocols

Thank you for your cooperation in following Wayside’s Communication Protocols as we work to better serve the needs of our clients and families. The following procedures and expectations are for use by Wayside employees at all of its locations.

Greeting Visitors, Clients, Parents, Guests:

All Staff will make every effort to assist people at their program location and visited Wayside locations or connect them with a Wayside staff that is better able to assist them. Ask them if they are being helped. If they have not been greeted or are in need of assistance, offer to assist them. Our goal is to make every visitor feel welcome.

For example: Greet visitors, parents and guests, people in the reception area when the receptionist is not present, people walking around the building or in the parking lot, people trying to find a particular program, room or conference room.

·  It might seem obvious, but a smile goes a long way! Basics like smiling and making eye contact are important “non-verbal cues” that tell people that you are focused and interested in them.

·  It’s a good practice to stand up when meeting someone. This is a welcoming and respectful gesture that will put new people at ease.

·  Introduce yourself immediately. Ask how you can help.

·  Pay attention to names when you meet people.

Your goal within the first few minutes of meeting other people is to make them feel comfortable and at ease.

Appointments:

·  Please give the receptionist advanced notice when you are expecting people for meetings and appointments. This includes DCF workers, clinical appointments, parents, visitors for clients, tutors, collaterals, etc.

·  Please give the receptionist your name, the name of person expected and how to notify you when the appointment arrives.

Our goal is that wait times for all visitors to Wayside are reasonable (within 5 minutes of scheduled appointment) and as expected.

For program events, including open house, teacher conferences, family nights, client meetings, groups and appointments before 9:00 am and after 5:00 pm, a staff person should be assigned to wait in the reception area to greet visitors.

Program Intakes:

·  Staff must notify the receptionist of all intakes including expected arrival time.

·  Staff completing the intake with the client’s family/guardian is expected to give the client/family/guardian the name of the program, program director, clinician and their contact information.

Cell Phones:

·  All Wayside cell phones must have a voicemail recording including the name of staff person or program name. Cell phone voicemail should be checked regularly for messages. Messages should be returned by the end of the business day.

Example: You have reached the voice mail of (Staff Name/Title/Wayside Youth & Family Support Network/Program Name). Please leave a message including your name and telephone number and I/we will return your call. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Name, Title, and Program Name at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Thank you.

·  Text messaging is banned for all drivers in Massachusetts, as well as other Internet-related activities. Fines: $100 (first offense), then $250, then $500.

·  All Wayside cell phones must be answered, except while driving clients or while participating in clinical sessions or meetings.

Telephone:

·  All Wayside telephones must be initialized with name/extension.

·  All Wayside telephones must be answered!

Example of how to answer incoming telephone and cell phone calls:

Thank you for calling (Wayside). This is (Name, Program Name), how may I help you?

·  All staff will initialize their voicemail, record an outgoing greeting and check their voice mail on a daily basis.

Example: You have reached the voice mail of (Name, Title, Program Name). Please leave a message including your name and telephone number and I will return your call. If you need immediate assistance, please contact me or my cell phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX or contact Name, Title and Telephone Number. Thank you.

·  Staff are expected to return voice mail messages within 24 hours. It is each employee’s responsibility to ask individual program directors how to access email from outside the office.

·  Staff are expected to record an out of office message when they will be out of the office for an extended time.

Example: This is (Name, Title, Program Name) I will be out of the office (date) and returning on (date). I will respond to your email upon my return. If you need immediate assistance please contact Name/Title/Telephone Number. Thank you.

Email:

Sending

·  When sending emails, always respond to people within 48 business hours and do not send unnecessary attachments.

·  Attached clinical documents should be password protected when sent to a recipient outside of Wayside’s email system.

·  As a general rule, only copy (cc) someone who really needs to see the email, such as several people working on a project together. Do not use your "Reply All" feature unless all members of the group really need to see your response. Otherwise, simply click "Reply."

·  When you speak to individuals in person, they can understand your tone of voice – an advantage that doesn't translate to an email message. Read your email aloud before sending it if you question whether or not someone will find it impolite.

·  Use client initials only, need to know basis.

Formatting

·  While sending an email isn't like sending a long, formal letter, you must still format the email properly, which includes a salutation and proper sign-off.

·  Your emails should also include proper breaks in paragraphs. People will generally find one long chunk of text difficult to read or follow, so remember to hit "Enter" between longer thoughts to make the email easier to read and comprehend.

Out of Office Assistant:

Microsoft Outlook

Tools

Out of Office Assistant

Send Out of Office auto-replies

Type message in message box:

Example: I will be out of the office (date) and returning on (date). I will respond to your email upon my return. If you need immediate assistance please contact Name/Title/Telephone Number.

Thank you.

Name

Title

Program Name

Wayside Youth & Family Support Network

Please adapt the Wayside standard for email signature.

To create an email signature:

Microsoft Outlook

Tools

Options

Mail Format

Signature

Email signature

New

Enter Name

Ok

In the signature box, type the text you want to include in the signature

Ok

Wayside Standard – Calibri 12

Name, Title

Agency, Program Name

Address, City, State, Zip

Telephone/Extension/Fax/Email address

Tag Line – Building Strength, Hope & Resiliency

Website – www.waysideyouth.org

How to insert social media links to your email signature:

The above images can be downloaded from Wayside’s intranet. Please save them to your computer.

1.  Open Microsoft Outlook. Click TOOLS and then select OPTIONS.

2.  Click MAIL FORMAT and then STATIONARY AND FONTS.

3.  Type in your signature here using the format above.

4.  To insert social media links, please click on the “INSERT PICTURE” icon

5.  Double-click on the social media images from the location you saved them (do this one by one)

6.  To link the image to the website (called a hyperlink), click the button on the right that says INSERT HYPERLINK

7.  Paste the address:

Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/WaysideYFSN

Twitter is https://twitter.com/waysideyouthorg

8.  Hit SAVE and you’re done!

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Revised 8/2014