How Can You Use Storytelling Ιn Employee Training And Onboarding?
We’ve been listening to stories to understand the fundamental morals of life. Most of the stories we hear are factually incorrect; despite this, stories hold the power to captivate us and draw us in. Storytelling in employee training and onboarding plays a very important role as it helps in retaining the employees’ attention span. Thus eliminating the possibility of negligence on their part. It has a highly positive impact during training programs and improves employee engagement.
Storytelling not only creates a meaningful connection between the employees and the organization but also makes the whole process memorable. It is one of the oldest and most powerful forms of communication that humans have tried and tested through the years. We can learn more about one another, become more involved in each other’s lives and connect with others by sharing stories.
Let us delve deeper into knowing how storytelling impacts the employee training and onboarding program.
Why Employee Training And Onboarding Should Include Storytelling
There are several reasons for incorporating storytelling in employee training and onboarding programs, they are:
- Storytelling can enhance your onboarding experience as it can contribute to a long and happy partnership between the company and the employee.
- Incorporating storytelling into the onboarding process will ensure that all pertinent information is retained.
- Several facts can be introduced to your employees through storytelling. Creating a memorable link between the event and the employees in an interesting way will help them remember things more fondly.
- Onboarding and training are the very first steps for an employee and you will want them to remember the same. It is possible to make that happen through storytelling since it is a unique way to start the training process. Also, they will feel a sense of connection.
- When you use storytelling in an onboarding process, you can create a genuine bond with the employees, helping to keep them motivated.
- Mentorship is scaled through stories of successful leaders or managers.
- Provides a repository for storing organizational memories. This is important as this phase sticks with the employee throughout their tenure.
How Can Storytelling Be Used In Employee Training Programs?
The unique characteristic of storytelling makes moments memorable which makes the training and onboarding process interactive. By incorporating storytelling in the training and onboarding process, you can make certain facts come to life through words. It can also enhance the learning experience of your employees during the training process.
● Know Your Audience
The first step toward telling stories that connect with your audience is to understand who they are. Knowing about them will help you understand what you can gain from them and how you can have an impact through your words.
● Plan How You Will Tell Your Story
If you have analyzed your audience and understood how to get the message across, the next step is to decide how you want to tell your story. Storytelling does not always need to have a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, it should be designed to connect with the targeted employees in a way. That enhances their learning experience and helps them retain the most information.
● Ultimately, You Want To Train Them
Your ultimate goal is to train and onboard your employees. So don’t lose sight of that while telling your story. True stories require communication of certain parts and ideas that your employees should know about. The main aim of storytelling should be making the employees aware of the company’s culture, skills, management systems and other important facts. Neither you nor your organization will benefit if you don’t clearly define your desired outcome.
● Engaging Tones Are Key
To improve the training programs, take the time and effort to develop new, relevant stories. You will not be able to engage your employees in the process of onboarding if you do not deliver the store in an engaging tone.
● Keep Things Simple
Don’t complicate the training process, but rather use it to enhance the learning experience for your employees. Making training simple will enable it to be more effective. The stories will also help employees retain the facts and opinions you are conveying.
● Include A Learning Objective
Learning objectives must be incorporated into storytelling for it to be effective. You can explain the company’s objectives through stories to explain their roles and responsibilities during their tenure.
● Add Curiosity Through Mystery And Suspense
Having your employees wonder how an event plays out or what steps are taken to solve a problem. Decipher a clue can make them feel a sense of curiosity. As a result, anticipation and expectations will be generated, which will result in participation and engagement among employees. Eventually, the learning program will prove to be meaningful, and the purpose will be served.
● Give A Brief History Of Your Organization And Its Important Facts
It would be nice to include information about your organization’s history and accomplishments. It will also give your employees a better sense of what your organization is about.
Storytelling in employee training and onboarding is not just a basic concept. It has the power to positively or negatively impact a person’s life. When storytelling is incorporated in the training and onboarding process, it has far-reaching effects on the employee’s mind.
They can grasp the knowledge and instructions given to them better. Storytelling establishes a positive connection between the employee and the organization. It helps the employee have a better understanding of the company’s culture and functionalities.
It is a valuable addition to business learning methodologies and it can make your company more competitive in the future. Hence, we cannot deny the fact that businesses can retain better employees in the long run through storytelling for further improved business performance and ROI.
If you are looking for comprehensive training programs for your employees, You can have a look at DAN Institute. With the goal of learning and development, you can find a wide range of ideas here to enhance the employee training process. Through these listed online courses, your employees can enhance their skill sets by gaining expert assistance and access to tools that will improve their proficiency. Thus contribute to your organization’s growth.