Reading Time: 7 minutes

If you’re a company, team, people leader, or all of the above, you likely have a constant pulse on what’s happening culturally at work. And, you have a vision for what it could be and the company culture goals you’d like to achieve!

As you look for ways to reinforce key aspects of your culture — and carefully evolve it into its ideal form — employee stories will be the key to your success. Because employee experiences prove culture in action, stories are the best communication tool to launch, reinforce, and reinvigorate your most important initiatives that impact culture. 

Here are a few ways that Stories Inc. and employee storytelling has achieved company culture goals. 

Company Culture Goal #1: Improve the mental health of employees 

According to the 2023 State of Workforce Mental Health, ‘supporting employees’ mental health’ was the top challenge reported by benefits leaders heading into 2023. If your company provides mental health benefits and programs, employee stories are the best way to drive awareness and employee participation. 

Trane Technologies, a global manufacturing company with more than 39,000 team members, found that mental health stigma was contributing to low program participation across the company. In order to increase program participation, they first needed to address mental health stigma in their workforce. 

Solution: Mental Health Anti-Stigma Storytelling Campaign

To address this challenge, Trane Technologies partnered with Stories Inc. to launch a mental health anti-stigma storytelling campaign. The nine-video campaign focused on stories from leadership about their own experiences with mental health and how they have found support at work. By prioritizing leader stories, leaders “went first” in showing that it is okay to talk about mental health at work. 

Vulnerable stories, like this one from VP of Human Resources Ann De Man, show colleagues that Trane Technologies wants them to prioritize their own mental health:

Once they had their compelling content, Trane Technologies used QR codes, lift-out quotes, and monitor displays at manufacturing sites to reach their deskless workforce. The campaign was a success: the nine videos received an average of 13,500 unique employee views and drove more than 5,000 visits to the company’s Mental Wellbeing Hub in the first five months of the campaign. 

Read the full case study with Trane Technologies here.

Company Culture Goal #2: Reinvigorate DEI Commitments

Employee stories are still the #1 best way to show you walk your talk, and ground your lofty DEI goals in real employee experiences. 

We’ve heard from some leaders that their workforce is experiencing DEI communication fatigue: after years of campaigns, messaging is no longer effectively capturing employees’ attention. With stale delivery, the impact of DEI messages is plateauing. 

Solution: Employee Stories that Communicate Your DEI Progress

If your company made lofty DEI goals in 2020, it’s time to show the progress you’ve made towards those objectives. In addition to sharing data that supports the work you’ve been doing to attract and retain underrepresented talent groups, uncover stories from team members who have been positively impacted as a result of the commitment.

What value has joining your organization brought to their lives and careers? If you’ve worked to build a more inclusive culture, what are tangible examples of ways underrepresented groups have benefitted? By focusing on real employee experiences, these employee stories can help reinvigorate your important DEI messages and re-engage your workforce on why it matters. 

Industry Example: African American Women in Technology at Intel

For example, Intel made goals of exceeding 40% representation of women in technical positions and doubling the number of women and underrepresented minorities in senior leadership roles by 2030. To highlight their progress against both of these goals, they partnered with Stories Inc. to uncover stories from Black and BIPOC women in technology about how they’ve experienced inclusion at Intel. 

The campaign consisted of nine videos, seven blogs, and five talent community emails that spoke to inclusion across a variety of themes: impactful work, career growth, community impact, and Intel’s commitment to DEI. Hear LaToya’s story below:

These stories of inclusion reinforce to candidates and employees alike that Intel’s DEI promises weren’t just lofty goals. They were business objectives that influence how the company works, hires, and nurtures connection every day. 

Read the full case study with Intel here. 

Culture Goal #3: Promote Work/Life Balance by Modeling Real Time Off

More than a third of employees feel unable to disengage with work. Knowing that real time away from work is associated with higher levels of employee engagement and retention, many organizations are looking for ways to promote healthier work/life balance across their workforce. 

Like any company culture shift you are trying to make, employee stories that model positive behavior is the best way to encourage employees to change their behavior, too. 

Solution: Real Time Off Storytelling Campaign

Here at Stories Inc., we launched our own storytelling campaign to celebrate our four day work week and remind team members that they should be using their Fridays to invest in their lives outside of work…

Whether that’s exploring a new location:

Enjoying some self-care:

Or driving your children to and from summer camp! 

By sharing stories that represent a variety ways to spend a Friday off, we modeled to our team that Fridays are for investing in yourself.

What stories will you tell to reach your company culture goals?

Employee stories are the best communication tool for launching, engaging, and re-invigorating employees around your company culture goals.

Have questions about how a story campaign can help your organization. Contact Stories Inc. to learn more about creating your employee story content library.