Using Storytelling to Make Onboarding Effective

Описание: Storytelling is a powerful and yet underutilized vehicle for making onboarding more inspiring and effective, especially the new hire orientation component. An onboarding program should accomplish a few objectives. First, it should validate and reinforce your employee value proposition and employer brand. You don’t want new hires to have their initial experience contradict what your brand promised.

Communicate and demonstrate that you satisfy important drivers of employee engagement. Research and communicate to new employees how their upcoming work experience will meet these critical needs. Get employees up to speed quickly so they can provide the most value quickly. At the simplest, most fundamental level, effective onboarding allows employees to start providing value as quickly as possible. Set up new employees for success. When employees get the training and support needed to become effective and productive as quickly as possible, it has a profound effect on their satisfaction, motivation, and engagement.

Establish an emotional connection with the organization, its mission, and vision. If they believe, “I am part of something great, that makes a difference in the world,” they will bring greater passion and commitment to their work. Make new employees feel welcomed and part of this community. The more that employees feel a sense of community and that they are part of a team, the more bonded they feel to their employer.

Enculturate new hires. For an organization to maintain its positive culture ongoing communication about, “Who we are and how we do things here,” is essential. Including stories in your communication with new hires enables you to make your onboarding process—and especially your orientation program—more inspiring, engaging, and informative. Stories make ideas and concepts, such as cultural values, concrete, and therefore understandable. Thus they dramatically increase the listener’s ability to make sense of your message and therefore its impact.