How to tell your people stories authentically
From the engaging to the downright relatable – guidance on getting real stories seen and heard.
- 6 minute read
- DE&I
So, you’ve got all these amazing stories but no idea how to tell them. Or maybe you just want to know a bit more about how authentic people stories will benefit your employer branding. Whatever it is, we’ve got you covered. Read on to find out about:
- The importance of people stories
- How to create and share genuine employee stories that resonate with diverse audiences
- Examples of work we, at ThirtyThree, have done
What are people stories and how do they make a difference?
Utilising people stories in your work can be the key to unlocking an award-winning campaign. They’re relatable, personable and often evoke an emotive response to draw you in. But, most importantly, they’re real. People stories allow the audience to hear directly from employees experiencing the work environment, every day. This allows the audience to believe that what they’re hearing is what they’re actually going to get.
Let’s put it this way, imagine you’re applying for a new role and get excited by the promise of this environment and that benefit, only for it all to be completely different after all your hard work getting the job. It happens. And it’s frustrating for both business and employee. But employees sharing their experience of working at your organisation can give your talent comms more authenticity and allows candidates to feel more confident when applying. It’s a win, win.
How can I make these stories inclusive?
When it comes to finding and selecting your people stories, it’s crucial that you don’t cherry pick – no favouritism. Be open to really hearing and understanding all your employees willing to share their stories, not just a handful of people with the same experiences. While each and every person’s story is – of course – valuable, you won’t be able to attract a diverse audience if you don’t feature a range of stories from people with different backgrounds.
But how do I know this really works?
Don’t take it from us, take it from the 340 UK-based adults in full time employment we surveyed. From this survey, we found that employee stories are the most trusted source when talking about diversity and inclusion within a business.
70%
of people trust content from employees
This shows that candidates are looking for social proof – real stories from real people they can relate to. So, for your employer brand to gain the most trust from potential candidates, sharing employee stories – or at the very least, short testimonials – is a must.
Key tips to bring people stories to life and help them resonate with diverse audiences
Create connections with your employees
Before you’ve even started creating a story-based campaign or employer brand, you’ll need to build connections with your employees. This can be done through continuous, inclusive communication throughout your employees’ time with you. Regular feedback mechanisms can help to get a real understanding about their needs. Listen to your employees and follow up with appropriate actions to build trust. This will allow you to develop better relationships and will encourage a more positive response when the time comes to ask them for their stories.
Think about and understand the audiences you want to reach
The stories you choose should depend on the audiences you want to reach. For instance, if you want to target young talent right out of school or university, show them age-appropriate stories of how young employees got their career started with ease at your company. This also runs into the DE&I side of things. For example, if you want to increase the diversity of your teams and make everyone feel welcome, increase the diversity of your stories to match. Never forget that representation matters.
Keep your employees in the loop from start to finish
Once you’ve built up great connections with your employees and they’ve been open enough to share their stories with you, it’s imperative that you keep them updated with the project and where their stories are going. Everything needs their approval as well as yours. This includes approval on any scripts that get written, the decision to use the real employees or any hired VO artists, actors, or models in the campaign, as well as final edits, visuals, films etc before they go out to the public.
Share emotive content for your specific audiences
Once you’ve got the audience you want to target, and the stories to target them with, you need to determine how you’re going to tailor emotive content to them. For example, if you want to tug on their heartstrings, show them teams which foster a sense of belonging. Want to make them feel inspired? Display the scope of development opportunities available to them. The choice on what emotion you want to lean into all depends on what you’re trying to say about your business – which could be a mix of everything if you’ve got the stories to back it up.
Do what you can to deal with all topics sensitively
At every single step, sensitivity is the most important part of your people stories campaign. When we talk about lived experience, some topics will be incredibly personal to these individuals. Take time with the work, don’t push anyone to say or do anything they don’t seem comfortable with, and don’t make anything up – this defeats the point and will detract from the real stories you’re sharing.
Want to see it all in action?
Here at ThirtyThree, we know a thing or two about creating employer brands and award-winning campaigns that bring people stories to life in the best way. From research and ideation to copywriting and art direction to production and post-production. We do it all.
Here are some examples of previous people story, DE&I-led campaigns we’ve done.
A campaign that showed people how it really feels to work at B&Q. Covering 5 stories from 5 incredibly different individuals, this was all about belonging. If you want to learn more about this campaign, we also featured it in our June 2024 Unlocked event, where we talked about all things DE&I and people stories. You can watch it here: Unboxed: The recipe for an award-winning DE&I campaign.
An idea that helped Accenture create one collective, inclusive conversation. An idea that stood for the empowerment of identity using a series of influential stories.
An inspiring, bold campaign that used stories from 5 women to show that Openreach engineers aren’t defined by gender, they’re defined by what they do.
How can I take it further than people stories?
DE&I goes beyond sharing your people stories. We encourage you to consider your own DE&I strategies throughout your business, alongside improving your employer brand with authentic storytelling. At ThirtyThree, inclusivity is at the forefront of every conversation. And we know that outdated or biased content will deter top diverse talent. That’s why we offer ‘Unlocked,’ an all-in-one, inclusive comms audit, which evaluates the inclusivity and accessibility of your website and social content. You’ll get a full report and actionable plan in just a matter of weeks.
Take a look at Unlocked to get your DE&I journey started, or, if you want to chat employer brand, get in touch at hello@thirtythree.co.uk
