The background
DE&I practices at work have been causing something of a ruckus (and plenty of column inches) so far in 2025. Yet no matter where you stand on the debate, it seems hard to disagree with its central tenets. Namely, that the roots of work-based DE&I policies lie in preventing discrimination of women, people of colour and other groups who historically have been marginalised. Meaning when it comes to jobs, promotions and other work perks, all people are considered on equal ground.
Hear hear, to that.
But many DE&I policies at work are not just the right thing to do, they make business sense. DE&I-focussed companies are more likely to financially outperform competitors, be more productive and make better decisions.
The brief
Our client, a global energy company, approached us to produce a series of people stories, with strong DE&I angles. These stories needed to capture the spirit, inclusivity and progressive nature of the company to:
- attract top talent
- showcase the company culture
- speak to current employees
As storytelling is in our bones, we couldn’t wait to get started.
Digging deep into DE&I
First up, we reviewed the company’s employee value proposition (EVP) and spoke to various stakeholders, so we were crystal clear on the approach, the messaging and the impact they wanted these people stories to have. Then we spoke to the nominees: to begin with in the US, then the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
DE&I, we learned, was in the company’s DNA. One day we might be interviewing a young female graduate working in a traditionally male-dominated environment, the next we’d meet a neurodivergent geologist. We spoke with young fathers who were given parental leave, senior IT managers whose work side-projects included attracting refugee talent, and employees who were treated with compassion and understanding while they coped with various physical and mental health conditions.
These were often delicate, sensitive matters. As such, the interviews had to be handled with care and compassion but also a strong sense of curiosity.
The experiences and stories that poured out of our interviewees floored us. Honestly, we could have written books on the people we spoke to. That was the biggest challenge: keeping the articles down to just a few hundred words. But to have the impact the client (and, indeed, we) wanted, we had to keep them short and powerful.
What we delivered
01
Strong narrative effects
Interviews conducted, we wrote them up with powerful storytelling elements. We’ve written elsewhere about how stories are sticky, memorable and embedded in your very being. That they trump facts and figures, stir your emotions and give your brain a workout. (In short, stories rule.)
Let’s suppose you want to let others know about your DE&I initiatives. Telling others, “We’re committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace,” can be abstract and hard to picture – not to mention a bit clinical. Let’s face it, it’s not the most rousing or relatable statement you’ll ever meet.
So, it’s important to show, not tell. Show that you’re committed to DE&I practices by unveiling stories from your diverse, equal and included employees. And make the narratives human. Because all communication (corny as it might sound) isn’t B2B or B2C, it’s H2H: human-to-human.
02
Words backed by science
Understanding more about us humans – how we think, feel, and act – helps you better understand how humans process words.
So nearly all of our work contains strong fluency effects and narrative effects. And why do we use the curiosity effect? To get readers hooked. Using concrete language means that messages are more easily visualised – and so more likely to be remembered and acted upon. And the bizarreness effect states that unusual things stand out and are better remembered than homogenous stimuli. (When we get the chance to be distinctive, we’ll leap on it.)
We used these kinds of effects, and more, when writing up the narratives. Peppering our work with such insights means we can be sure of the impact these stories had.
If we’d stuck to just the initial, tactical brief, we might not have had the deeper understanding that allowed us to respond quickly to all the unexpected, fast-turnaround opportunities that popped up.
The power of DE&I: in numbers
According to a LinkedIn learning report:
60
%
of respondents to a LinkedIn study say that diversity within their sales team contributes to the teams’ success.
+25
%
Organizations in the top quartile for gender diversity are +25% more likely to financially outperform their peers.
36
%
Organizations in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are +36% more likely to financially outperform their peers.
2.5
x
Diverse companies earn 2.5x higher cash flow per employee.
35
%
Inclusive teams are shown to be 35% more productive.
87
%
Diverse teams are reported to make better decisions 87% of the time.
Sources: LinkedIn, McKinsey, D&I Global Market Report, Peoplemanagement
The outcome
Our first batch of stories must have gone down well as we were soon asked to write another. Then another. Then another.
And, with lots more stories out there still to tell, we’re looking forward to taking the work even further.
Like what we do?
Have stories about your company culture you want to tell the world (in a human-to-human way)? Get in touch for a friendly chat and we’ll go from there.
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