Telling Stories to Improve Job Inductions (Part 2)

According to an article by Steve Osborn in The Safety & Health Practitioner June 2007, formal job induction training must deal with performing specific tasks safely, information about duty of care (both the company and workers) along with standard emergency procedures.

In particular management expectations with respect to health and safety need to be addressed along with certain standards of behaviour being made a condition of employment.

In this article, it was found that staff need to be inducted but also refreshed annually. More importantly, business leaders should be involved and be seen to be involved.

As mentioned in my previous blog post, company-specific stories are a useful means of communicating the firm’s history, traditions, and values. This technique can also be skillfully transferred to show new employees how to do their jobs safely and correctly by talking about how others have done their job in the past. It has also been found to be an effective communication method to change poor behaviour or attitudes within companies about the importance of safety.

In order to use corporate story-telling in your company, think about some examples where a staff member has worked safely and avoided an incident by thinking ahead. Was their an employee who worked safely despite his colleagues urging him to do otherwise that resulted in an accident being avoided?

Stories frame information so that it is meaningful, memorable and understandble. They provide a power tool for communication, problem solving and perpetuating important company values. Video storytelling is a great way to communciate your company stories.

Can you think of ways to include storytelling in your inductions? What legendary stories do you have in your organisation?