Employee Story Strategy Template 👈

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Use this guide and checklist to assess your readiness. Build a plan for your new employee story initiative.

1. Make sure the timing is right.

If you want to add employee stories to your recruitment marketing and candidate experience toolkit make sure you are set up for success. Ideally, answer yes to all of these questions.

2. Clarify key roles and work as a team.

We highlight 5 main objectives for your program. Knowing who is thinking about each and taking action is important. It could be one person or a team. In cases where you have more than one person involved make sure everyone is clear on ownership of key roles.

5 Key Roles

1. Planning - prioritizing content needs and timing for campaigns.
2. Collection - responsible for engaging and coaching employees as storytellers.
3. Internal Sharing - ensures stories are leveraged across departments.
4. External Sharing - ensures approved stories are promoted for recruiting, sales, etc.
5. Leadership Support - ensures that leaders encourage involvement from employees.

3. Create internal champions by linking to goals.

Review plans, documents, and resources to find clear links where employee stories can help other departments and teams. This can boost internal support for your program. Below is a list of some of the most likely company documents that will give you clues.

4. Have a plan to deliver value ASAP.

One of the biggest barriers to sustained leadership support for employee story programs is not delivering immediate measurable value. Show how the stories you collect will be used internally and externally to enhance existing processes and functions.

5. Create a calendar for key campaigns.

After aligning with company goals plan-out specific campaigns and when you will run them, and for how long. Some may be promoted to all employees, others to specific audiences. For example, if you expect a hiring surge for creative accountants January start collecting stories from creative accountants in September ahead of tax season!

12 Awesome Recurring Campaign Ideas

1. Celebrate Success - monthly campaign to collect stories aligned to values.
2. New Hire Heroes - campaign to collect stories about new hires and their impact.
3. Day in the Life - campaign highlighting an employees' day (by staff level).
4. First Month Wrap - Invite new hires to share highlights from their 1st week or month.
5. Anniversaries - campaign to collect employees' proudest moment for every year.
6. Intern Impact - seasonal campaign to capture stories about intern work experiences.
7. Campus Recruiting - capture stories alumni who attended schools you recruit from.
8. Career Transition - collect stories to spotlight successful transitions from another industry.
9. Candidate Journey - campaign to capture stories about the candidate journey.
10. Mentor Moments - campaign to spotlight mentor and mentee relationships.
11. Corporate History - invite long-timers to recall pivotal moments and why they matter.
12. Training Time - invite employees to share a success related to prior technical training.
13. Day, Week, Month Celebrations - Administrative Professionals Month, etc. See All.

6. Know who to ask for stories

Not everyone is ready to share their story. Consider various triggers that are ideal times to ask employees for stories. Doing so increases the likelihood getting a story from someone who is eager and happy to share. In GoodSeeker users can Request Stories from others. We recommend having one person be responsible for each of the triggers below.

• New hires (30 and 60 days is a great time to reflect on your earliest days!).
• Work anniversaries (just after 2, 3, and 5 year milestones).
• Hiring Managers (anyone who has responsibility for building the team)
• New mentors (They are in it to help others, and a great source stories).
• Interns (at the beginning and end of an internship when optimism is hight).
• Recent certifications (they are happy to achieve a goal, and likely to encourage others).
• Recent promotions (a key point in their career when they should feel accomplished).
• Volunteers (typically engaged and happy to share your community story).
• ERG Members (engaged in doing more to build culture and the brand).
• Internal Awardees (when someone is recognize through other means).
• Active Socials (anyone who has posted something positive on socials).
• Referrers (anyone who has submitted an employee referral within last 30 days).
• Referral Makers (anyone who has told you that they left a positive Indeed or Glassdoor review).

7. Turn Leaders into Story Influencers

Employees want to know that the stories they share are seen and matter. When leaders acknowledge contributions it can spark more stories and break the ice for others. We have learned that there are a number of inspirational themes employees would like to hear from leaders.

• Be a part of our company history. Every story matters.
• Your story can be a positive influence our future and the people we attract.
• Your story increases visibility and transparency at all levels inspires me.

Simple Leader Actions:

• Comment on stories - simply leave comments to show you notice.
• Share on socials - make it clear you are connected to people at all levels.
• Request stories - a simple ask is encouragement to authors.
• Publish stories - share examples of others living company values.
• Like stories - simple interaction goes a long way by showing acknowledgement.
• Tell stories in meetings - weave them into other communications.

8. Other critical success factors

In addition to planning you need the right tools and processes in place. Below are some of the key tactical considerations to help ensure success and value from your efforts. Another outstanding resource to aid your planning is shared by Rally Recruitment Marketing HERE.