Effective storytelling involves a deep understanding of human emotions, motivations, and psychology in order to truly move an audience.
Luckily, storytelling is something we all do naturally, starting at a very young age. But there’s a difference between good storytelling and great storytelling.
We discuss the job description with a candidate or a candidate resume with the hiring manager or our client, what we are doing is narrating a story. When we explain the role to the candidate with a background on who handled the position in the past, how the role has evolved; you are doing nothing but telling a story. Story telling is an effective tool that a recruiter can use with enough practice.
Storytelling acts as a connection between causes and effects, providing a narrative which most people use as a means of communication in their daily life. The act of storytelling stimulates the area of the brain which processes language, as well as the Insula which attempts to relate emotion to the story being told. An empathetic response to a story can therefore be useful to understand and utilise in your own business, creating a personalised and memorable message that is more likely to prompt a response.
How to Use it in Recruitment
1. Incorporate aspects of storytelling in your job ads; explore the ethos of the company and their vision. Instead of bullet pointing the benefits, tell a short story of how they have benefited workers in the past or how they can aid a future employee.
2. Focus on blending the talents required for the job as part of your story. To attract talent which might normally ignore your ad you need to make it appealing. Do you have any videos or visual media which can accompany the story you are trying to create?
3. Tell the story of the people who benefit from working for the company. What are the perks with the job – would they get more family time? Attempt to tell the human side of the story and why a new candidate should feel happy in this new job. Does the company have negative Glassdoor reviews? If so, it’s even more important to convey a convincing story of current employee experiences.
4. Whilst it should be fairly brief, it still needs to be imaginative and capable of capturing the attention of potential new talent. What are the buzz words that would catch their attention? Incorporate these into your ad.
5. Use your own recruitment experience to describe the success of a similar candidate to the one you are looking for – what was the story of how you caught their attention and helped them secure the job?
6. Share stories with candidates and attempt to form a better, more personal connection.
Stories are an incredibly useful tool but should always be based on facts. You can be descriptive and imaginative in how you tell a story to capture their attention, but never stray far from the truth.