“Stories are a device… [that] provide managers with a form of social and intersubjective interaction that reflects belief systems, role expectations, interpersonal norms and conditions for work behavior”- International Journal of Management
“Spoken word audio listening is up 40% in the past seven years, and up 8% year over year”- National Public Radio Organization and Edison Research
“As technology evolves, people have more options available to them, which may explain why [reports] found younger adults to be more likely to opt for audiobooks and the multi-tasking they enable”- Forbes
“The storytelling process yields positive impacts on internal and external stakeholder outcomes including increasing employees’ thriving and meaningful work, as well as the attitudes and trust of multiple external stakeholders”- Journal of Strategic Marketing
“When it comes to digital storytelling for branding, there is, a more positive attitude towards the company when the employer branding message is using digital storytelling”- Management Dynamic in the Knowledge Economy Journal
“The most recent era in audio entertainment… users are asserting power over the medium to select particular content at particular times”- Mass Communication and Society Journal
“Online audio (podcasts, radio shows, music and audiobooks) has become more popular than ever before”- Publishing Research Quarterly
“[the way employees are on-boarded] sets the tone for the culture of a place, the people, and the values of a new institution and can have a significant impact on employees’ sense of belonging”- Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education
“Brands can bring their CSR (corporate social responsibility) efforts to life through authentic storytelling [and] Millennials want to know what companies are doing to make the world a better place”- Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University
“Audio platform superiority was about the desire to use an audio platform that is perceived to be superior to other audio alternatives, including on-demand convenience (time and place) and content (vari- ety and uniqueness)”- New Media and Society Journal
“Audiobooks have had a big shift in popularity in 2018 where for the first time, “a full half of all Americans ages 12 and older have listened to an audiobook, up from 44% last year”- Forbes
“The majority (79%) of Millennials want to work for a company that cares about how it contributes to society and 69% would refuse to work for a company that is not socially responsible”- Journal of Education For Business
“19% [of Millennials] say they have paid in the last year for a subscription service for eBooks or audiobooks such as Kindle Unlimited or Audible”- American Press Institute
“116% growth in spoken word listeners 13-34 years old in the past even years, with 18% growth in the last year”- National Public Radio Organization
“A focus on social responsibility is particularly important to attract, retain, and increase the commitment and engagement of Millennial employees and talented women”- Center for Creative Leadership
“Employees have a deeper affiliation with the message through organizational storytelling due to aligning stories with their own experiences and understanding”- International Journal of Business and Social Science
“The corporate world cannot ignore the demands and expectations of Millennials, who are devout in their desire to associate with companies aligned with their values”- Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University
“Millennials are more technologically advanced than any previous generation [and] survey data has shown a correlation between age and reading preferences [where] younger people listen to more audiobooks than older Americans”- State University of New York
“Three uses for storytelling in organizations: (1) to motivate employees, (2) for education and (3) to consolidate corporate culture”- Journal of Marketing
“64% of Millennials consider a company’s social commitments when taking jobs and will not work for a company if they do not have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) values”- Cone Communications
“73% of the U.S. 12+ population (an estimated 209 million people) have listened to online audio in the last month, up from 68% in 2021”- Edison Research
“There are currently about 1000% more titles published since 2011”- Audio Publishers Association
“Storytelling is essential to successful branding, since your brand is the sum of all your corporate behaviors and communications that inform your customers’ experiences with your product or company”- The Journal of Business Strategy
“Storytelling that integrates a moral and spiritual component can transform an organizational culture so members of the organization begin to feel connected to a larger community and a higher purpose”- Journal of Business Ethics
“Over 71 thousand audiobook titles (were) published in 2020, a 39% growth between previous years”- Statista
“Corporate storytelling is suggested to help demonstrate the importance of the corporate brand to internal and external stakeholders… as well as help a firm to bond with its employees”- Product & Brand Management
“Should produce positive effects on key audiences, such as increasingly positive attitudes toward the company and eventually behavioral intentions to support this company”- Public Relations Review
“There is value in a story that is, designed to drive the simulation and to elicit the [employee’s] best performance”- Society for Human Resource Management
“Employees have a deeper affiliation with the message through organizational storytelling due to aligning stories with their own experiences and understanding”- International Journal of Business and Social Science
“Audiobook sales revenue has been on a steep rise since 2018, reaching 1.3 billion USD in 2020”- Statista
“The audiobook market share shifted from 42% digital copy sales in 2009 to 87% digital copy sales in 2017”- Audio Publishers Association
“Researchers have shown that storytelling strengthens the connections consumers have to brands, so that to a great extent what a brand means to a consumer is based . . . on the narratives he or she has constructed that incorporate the brand.”- Journal of Business Strategy
“[onboarding] can also aid employees in identifying values congruence which is critical to career contentment and commitment which can significantly impact retention to both the field and the institution long-term” - Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education
“Maximizing success through onboarding by storytelling during orientations, [helps employees understand] the company's culture and values [and] its goals and history”- Society for Human Resource Management
“Storytelling that starts with the persona allows us to tap into these deeper recesses, where the influence of attitudes and emotions is greater… loyalty and trust are found there”- Journal of Business Strategy
“83% of Millennials would be more loyal to a company that allows them to contribute to social and environmental issues”- Cone Communications
“Story-telling is an important element… involving the sharing of experiences and creation of mental-maps of the environment in which people are motivated to perform to their full potential”- Leadership and Organization Development Journal
“Audio narrative has recently benefited from profound cultural shifts in media consumption associated with on-demand television’s binge watching revolution and the advent of digital longform storytelling”- Journal of Radio & Audio Media
“A poor cultural fit is frequently cited as one of the main reasons [an employee] decides to leave an organization… defining the organization's culture through storytelling should start with branding of the organization and continue through the interview and onboarding process”- Physician Executive Communication Journal
“Narrative presentation of corporate strategy, comparative advantage, is more effective at producing a consistent and confident choice of competitive advantage among an audience than a presentation of corporate strategy using a PowerPoint style, bulleted list approach”- Journal of Strategy and Management
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play_arrowWhy Employers Are More Concerned Than Ever About Employee LoyaltyBUY IN
You will never see a line item on a business plan that says, “Turnover – first 5 years: $500,000.” Yet if that’s all it costs, you’d be lucky! Turnover is perhaps the largest hidden cost to any organization. Now that so many folks are working from home, what’s to stop them from clicking on a better-paying pop-up offer to pop into a new company, and pop out of yours?
Can They Identify?
Today, especially millennials want to identify with their employers. They want to work for a company with which they can identify. Everything else is just a temporary job until that “right” job comes along, the one they can buy into.
Hidden Costs of Turnover
And when you lose an employee, it’s not just the replacement cost of recruiting, interviewing, on-boarding, and training you are out, it’s the relationships they have developed with fellow employees, suppliers, and yes, even buyers! These relationships are priceless when it comes to supply chain management, internal and external communication, cooperation, and cash flow.
Why Stay?
So, what is it about employees that makes them stay with you? Is it the compensation, the hours, the flex time, the benefits, or even the acknowledgment for a job well done? Certainly, these all play a part. Increasingly though, it is something else. They want to identify with and buy into your mission, vision, story, and character. They want to know they are not just making a living – they are making a difference!
What Format Works Best?
But how do you convey your message to your employees in an effective and compelling way? How do you get and hold their attention? How do you impress them and make it memorable? Why do they care about you and your company? Why do they identify? What makes them want to write the next chapter in your company’s story? In other words, why do they buy-in?
Perform Your Story!
Capture their attention and engage their imagination with the story of your company. From humble beginnings to its biggest challenges, from serendipitous events to strategic alliances, from your faith in your product to the tenacity to succeed, your story is the key!
Now Hear This!
Instead of conveying that message in print, presentation, podcast, video, interview, or timeline, now you can use the magic of the “theater of the mind” through audio performance. Audio is a familiar page-free and screen-free format. They can take it with them, listen to it when they want, and enjoy it while they are hiking, biking, commuting, or working out. Audio theatre is not just read to them. It’s performed for them. The scenes come alive with characters, action, dialogue, sound effects, and music. “It’s cinematography for the ears!”
Emersed your employees in a gripping tale that benefits the customer, community and resulted in their job. As they listen, they identify with the goals and principles of the founder – and pull for their success! That’s buy-in!
We Can Help!
If your company is concerned about lack of engagement, turnover, and employee commitment, if you want to attract and engage the kind of people who identify with your mission and vision, if you want to imbue your people with a sense of pride, advocacy, and making a difference, discover Business Audio Theatre.
We have the business background, technical expertise, and the award-winning experience to produce your Business Audio Theatre. This is an important audio asset that will return on investment for decades! When your people experience your true story they will be more likely to identify, buy in and even write the next chapter!
