Learn how to turn reluctant employees into enthusiastic storytellers.

1. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Getting Employee
Stories From
Reluctant Storytellers

2. © 2021
Today’s Speakers

3. © 2021
Lori Sylvia
Founder and CEO
Rally
Kaitlin Hurley
Employee Experience “EX”
and Change Specialist
Evans Consulting
Katie Potter
Director, Recruitment
Marketing
TAG - The
Aspen Group
Erik Ayers
CEO
GoodSeeker

4. © 2021
About Evans Consulting
Evans Consulting is a boutique, management
consulting firm that partners with large
organizations to co-creating healthy organizations
where everyone can thrive.
Our people, “Evans Nation”, are our strategic
differentiator - we mean it and believe it!
“Amazing people-centered culture that walks the
talk!” - Glassdoor Review

5. © 2021
About TAG - The Aspen Group
Aspen Dental Management, Inc is now TAG - The Aspen
Group, officially expanding beyond dental to embrace a
new vision.While our name is new, our mission is
unwavering. We’re setting out to achieve one simple goal
together: to bring better healthcare to more people.
Because we believe in a future where health and wellness
is accessible for all.

6. © 2021
About GoodSeeker
Heart and soul builds brands. So tell more
people stories to bring out the best in work.
SaaS to collect employee generated stories,
candidate Q&A's, and proof of your EVP in action.
Spotlight and attract talent at the same time.
● Built to benefit company AND employee
● #Employee Experience #Candidate Experience
● Learn from story-data
● 2000+ employee stories discovered

7. © 2021

8. © 2021
What you’ll learn today
• Methods for collecting employee stories that make it easy & comfortable for
employees to share their voice by contributing experiences & success stories
• Overcoming blockers that can get in the way of employees creating stories,
whether emotional or logistical
• Techniques for discovering, encouraging & fostering employees to be authentic,
sharing day-to-day experiences
• Advice & best practices for working collaboratively across teams to bring stories
to life

9. © 2021
Getting Employee
Stories From
Reluctant Storytellers

10. © 2021
Top Challenges of Building Stories Library:
• Manual - lots of back and forth
• Need to be kept current & fresh
• Employees don’t know what to say
• Don’t know who to ask
• Giving equitable visibility
• Need for diversity in creators
• Leadership doesn’t see value
• People forget details as time passes
• Wonder why when story is not shared
• No urgency, unclear WIFM
• Tracking employee permission
• Getting approvals for social sharing
• Pushing to website is manual
• Hard for other departments to leverage

11. © 2021
Top Opportunities of a Stories Program:
Retain
• Connect talent to culture and values
• Connect appreciation to impact
• Capture lessons-learned and ideas
• Discover new ambassadors
• Promote talent mobility with fairness
• Locate skills and talents
• Personalize onboarding
Attract
• Reinforce / balance review sites
• Personalize recruitment outreach
• Keep talent networks warm
• Introduce teams and communities
• More active ambassadors
• More diverse referrals
• Spotlight impact of DE&I / CSR

12. © 2021
Blocker 1:
Requests
for stories
get ignored
or missed

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Requesting Stories
• Email vs. Tech tools
• Collaboration across team
& getting managers to
support this effort
• Sharing in staff meetings

14. © 2021
Requesting Stories
Working in non-office settings
• Reaching people on their mobile devices
• Publishing stories and dropping in offices
• Company emails from leadership
• Social listening and company recognition
tools

15. © 2021
Blocker 2:
Worried
they’ll say
the wrong
thing

16. © 2021
Storytelling Coaching
• Have dedicated coach (or a few)
• Walk employee through process
• Reinforce their story is meaningful
• Think about best format for
coaching
• Phone/video over email

17. © 2021
Leadership Buy In
• Show connection to growth, trust & reputation.
• Employees stories are “valuable assets.”
• Remove fear of “my story isn’t big enough.”
• Visibly supportive of employee storytelling.
• Read, learn and act on them.

18. © 2021
Blocker 3: Hesitation to
being seen publicly

19. © 2021
Privacy Settings for Tech Tools
• Privacy settings
• Having ability to edit and change stories
• Options for what info is shared
• Careful about what info is being shared
• Proper systems in place to manage
privacy requests

20. © 2021
Blocker 4:
Busy,
unmotivated,
or unsure
how it works

21. © 2021
Make it Part of Onboarding
• Use to help new employees onboard
• Show on the first day
• Use employees’ stories to teach values
• Helps them “meet” their new co-workers
• Invite to author a story as part of
onboarding
• Show them how to use the tool to
recognize others

22. © 2021
Start with Your Most Engaged Employees
• Start with most invested/willing/
comfortable team
• Use stories as real examples
• Campaign themes
• Other sourcing options
• Social media
• New employee notes

23. © 2021
Recognition and Rewards
• Honor the employees that create the most
• Incorporate stories into culture
• Highlight great stories during staff
meetings or company communications
• Vote on the top stories each month
• Incentives

24. © 2021
Pro Tips & Perspectives
● Tie to the big picture
● Make it personal
● Incentivize the
behavior you want
● Meet people where they
are - mobile, social, etc.
● Coach through the
process
● Make request specific
● Connect to goals
● Diverse group to start
● We all want to teach

25. © 2021
Thank you!
Up next… Q&A

28. © 2021
Lori Sylvia
Founder and CEO
Rally
Kaitlin Hurley
Employee Experience and
Change Specialist
Evans Consulting
Katie Potter
Director, Recruitment
Marketing
TAG - The
Aspen Group
Erik Ayers
CEO
GoodSeeker
Q&A

29. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Thank you!
Getting Employee
Stories From
Reluctant Storytellers