Which employee segments does your HR engagement strategy best-serve? And, in serving these higher-performing employees, does your strategy marginalize, exclude or intimidate other employees?
Consider the impact of storytelling on connecting employees across the organization. What happens when employees connect their “what I do” stories to the story of “what everyone else does?” The stories they co-create are more than just fairy tales, where everything is perfect. And everyone lives happily ever after. (Wouldn’t that be great?)
Storytelling for HR engagement is an expansive strategy without becoming an exclusive one.
Today’s inter-connected, digitally transforming workplaces are characterized by software interfaces and machinery which often get along far more compatibly than their human co-workers do. Because these systems are built to connect everything to everything else in our work environments.
Shouldn’t your HR engagement strategy target the same outcome?
When employees discover the behaviors, values and actions they share in common, they are better able to build bridges across gaps in knowledge that separate them. Otherwise, the workplace continues to divide employees into prioritized subgroups. That process makes other employees feel marginalized, excluded or intimidated.
Storytelling creates a more professionally diverse and inclusive workforce culture. Think about it.
An HR engagement strategy which includes a storytelling component becomes a learning and development tool.
Creating stories, together, provides all employees with a more complete understanding of their individual and collective impact on organizational well-being. Consequently, storytelling provides a bigger picture of the workplace. And, that picture extends beyond the boundaries of individual, team and departmental KPIs, which often favor higher-performing employees.
One manufacturing client experienced a 20% decrease in order-to-invoice lead time which translated into a 12% increase in profitability. All because employees across multiple disciplines sat down at the storytelling table and connected their stories. Regardless of job titles, pay grades, levels of education and generations.
Why wait until an urgent scenario prompts your people to react and connect their stories to one another? When your HR engagement strategy includes storytelling as a continuous onboarding strategy, everyone gets to where they need to go. Together.
What are you waiting for? Contact me here. Let’s get started telling engaging HR stories, Together. Contact me here.
Babette Ten Haken’s One Millimeter Mindset® Storytelling Speaking Programs, Workshops and Facilitation Services leverage storytelling for STEM professionals and left brain thinkers to catalyze employee and customer success and retention. She motivates individuals and teams to combine courage, curiosity and critical thinking skills to co-create compelling stories which inspire trust in one another. Especially in digitally transforming industries with STEM and left-brain stakeholders.
Find out more about Babette’s professional story here. Babette is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association. Her playbook of communication tools and methods, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Babette’s speaker profile is on the espeakers platform. Contact Babette here.
Image source: Adobe Stock
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