Employers’ Masterclass: The art of using storytelling to build inclusion

At the heart of every organisation is its people – all with a personal story to share that shapes and defines them. Harnessing the power of personal storytelling as part of your Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) strategy is an effective way to build inclusion into your workplace culture and gain the trust of your employees – whether you are managing a campaign to collect the diversity data of your workforce; planning a recruitment campaign for your early talent programme; or looking to build psychological safety and support a more inclusive workplace.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful forms of communication – grabbing our attention, creating empathy, and allowing opportunities for everyone to be open to new perspectives.

Building storytelling into your communications:
- Enables under-represented groups to share their experiences to help their colleagues to understand any challenges they face because of their backgrounds.
- Encourages a shift in perspective and allows colleagues and leaders to understand how they can help.
- Empowers employees to feel that they can be their authentic selves at work.
- Promotes an inclusive culture, as it validates and values personal experience beyond one’s own.
- Builds trust and creates psychological safety among employees, by communicating that senior leaders have a true understanding of the issues, and are committed to improving them.

In this masterclass we explored how storytelling can help your organisation to have inclusive conversations about class and socio-economic background within the workplace.