Telling Stories to Improve Company Staff Inductions (Part 1)

Company induction training is all about communicating the company’s core values and its nature, in order to motivate new employees to adopt behaviours that translate into action on a daily basis. It is about shaping staff’s work values and sense of identity with the company.

Typical information includes a company introduction, history, nature of the business, organisational philosophy, human resources policies and procedures.

In a Management Research News article (August 2003), Cirilo and Kleiner found that highly effective induction training painted a vivid and detailed picture of the firm and used corporate story-telling techniques.

In “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” author Verne Harnish also concludes that corporate storytelling is crucial for successful staff indoctrination. He believes that a little bit of story and legend is needed to cement the bond between the CEO (or other senior manager) and employee.

For example, US company Nordstrom is renowned for its customer service. Their orientation of new hires consists of telling stories about heroic customer service (e.g., the employee who ironed a shirt for a customer who had a job interview on the day of the purchase).

Effective induction training allows for the new employee to possess a good sense of what actions are valued and how they can manifest it in their own behaviour.

Rather than just telling staff what to do or giving vague parameters, corporate story-telling raises the bar further and encourages staff to undertake exemplary behaviour. Or just understand the company history and values in a more detailed way.

And of course, corporate story telling comes to life in video format.

Stories can easily be incorporated into induction training videos. The story can be told by senior managers or those involved with the story. This only involves a small amount of time to be filmed which can be used to show many staff across many locations for years to come. Reenactments can be filmed to make the story come to life.

Can you think of ways to include storytelling in your inductions?