Enhancing the Employment Experience – Onboarding and Retention – With Guest Dr. Aliaa Remtilla | HR 70

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Hi, welcome to the podcast HR inside out. I'm your

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host Susan day and I am absolutely thrilled to welcome

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Dr. Alia REM Tila to today's podcast.

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Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: Hi. It's great to be here with you.

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Thanks for having me.

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And thank you so much for saying yes. Now first a

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little bit about you know, Dr. Alia Rotella is an

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anthropologist and a filmmaker whose mission is to improve

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understandings of the human experience. originally trained

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as a filmmaker at Harvard University, Alia it takes

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complex ideas and communicates them to the general public

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through emotive storytelling in the visual medium. Allie is also

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a professional researcher with an MA and a PhD in Social

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Anthropology from the University of Manchester in the UK. She's

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worked as a researcher at both the Institute of Ismaili Studies

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in the UK, and at Simon Fraser University here in Canada.

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Together she has conducted research in over 20 countries

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including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Portugal, 10, chica Stan, and

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Tanzania, examining the confluence of religion,

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economics and politics. Alia has also served extensively with the

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she Ismaili Muslim community through the Agha Khan councils

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in Australia, New Zealand and in the United States of America.

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Alia is skilled at shaping the strategic direction of community

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organizations at all levels. For example, at a grassroots level,

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supporting youth to navigate their Muslim identity while

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living in a western context. at an institutional level,

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establishing strategic partnerships with government and

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civic entities. Ellie is currently the Chief Scientist

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and the co founder of storytelling, a platform that

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uses anthropology and tech to bring more authenticity to

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workplace relationships. Love it by offering a simple automated

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way to create impactful, personalized films to show

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employees that they matter. Specifically for new graduate

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hires, storytelling reduces the risk of reneges and it speeds up

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the time to productivity with automated and personalized what

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Aaliyah calls keep warm videos. Elena has actually recently

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posted a YouTube video titled Gen Zed engagement, beyond

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myths, the HR innovation, where she very nicely explains how

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these videos and narratives work, and how they can enhance a

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number of organizational initiatives, not only for Gen

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Zed, but for all other generations of our work

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colleagues, employment experiences. God love that. Oh,

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yeah, I love that you started with a personal passion to be

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different. And that sure caught my attention. There's got to be

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a story there. Can we can I get you to jump in? With a little

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bit about

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Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: you? Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, because

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as you described my background, you know, we talked about dei

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EDI, all of this and there's a lot of that in who I am, right?

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You know, we're talking about me being Muslim working with Muslim

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communities and actually 911 took place the night before my

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first day of classes at Harvard was a very interesting, you

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know, like, and then I'm physically, I mean, our

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listeners can't can't hear that as can see me, but I have brown

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skin, I'm of Indian origin. But I was born and raised in

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Vancouver. And for me, it was how can I just be Canadian? And

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it felt like you know, growing up well, I visibly was not what

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the you know, external, potentially general perception

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of what a Canadian might be, which did not include being

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Muslim and having brown skin. So I think that was part of, of

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just being different to begin with, outside of any choice of

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my own. And then also, I was female, and I was a massive

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hockey fan. And this is another way that we talked about being

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underrepresented and this is changing today with PW HL but at

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the time well, like if I wanted to be a professional hockey

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player, was that even possible as a woman, you know, and what

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it led to was this process of self discovery where this is, I

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guess, the story of at one point, going from wearing my

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female cousins hand me downs to my male cousins hand me downs,

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cutting my hair off into a boycott and saying, Well, you

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know, what, if to be my dream of being a professional hockey

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player, I need to be a man. Well, let me start dressing like

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one right and I remember the sort of pride and ROI of, you

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know, skateboarding after my parents on a bicycle, who were

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driving away on a bike their bicycles, and having someone

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chase after them and telling them your son is trying to catch

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you. And it this wasn't a gender exploration it was, how can I be

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what I need to be in order to achieve what I want to achieve,

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because I didn't see people like me doing the things that I

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wanted to do. And as I went through this journey, I think

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part of what I realized was that, you know, I mean, he went

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back to wearing clothes that are traditionally defined as being

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female, I grew my hair out. But that these very things that may

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need different could actually become assets. And I could lean

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into the difference instead of trying to cut the hair off and

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change my clothes to the norm, if that makes sense. And so it

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was very much a journey of, of how do I, if I'm going to be

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different, do something with that difference that, you know,

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can be what I need it to be even as to still enable me to go in

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the places that I want it to go. And I think that this is very

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much the journey of authenticity, right? And, you

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know, preteen, it's it's quite different from that journey as

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an adult. But I think it's very, like the having gone through

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that experience as a child is very formative in how I continue

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today, to really want to value authenticity in all aspects of

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our lives, and create spaces where difference really can be

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embraced.

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I love that. And you know, it's vulnerability, right?

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But I love that you modeled it, because when we model it, we

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make it easier for others to to follow suit. You talk a lot

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about the power of authenticity and the work that you do. And

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with regard to this podcast, specifically and employee

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onboarding, can, can we start there? And just what have you

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learned from your research? With specific regard to the

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onboarding experience? Let's start there. Yeah,

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Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: I mean, there's, there's a real problem

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here, right? I was shocked when I learned 20% of new hires will

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quit their job in their first 45 days on the job. Oh, really

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high, right? That's like one in five people. Some people don't

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even show up on day one. So this is like that Rena egg rate that

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we were you're talking about, right. And I think it gets

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worse, especially in the early career space, or potentially, in

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some context, there's like up to an eight month gap between job

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offer and start date. So it becomes hard to keep that

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interest. And that's where I talk about keep warm. I think

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that that the challenge that we face in HR is that there's so

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much practical stuff we have to deal with. Right? There's the

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paperwork, compliance, like, and then there are legal

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restrictions, I think it's California, where you like,

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there's certain things that you can and cannot do with someone

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before they get there, like officially on payroll, right,

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like so there's, there's even legally a limitation on how much

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engagement we can do. And essentially, I think with all of

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this, what gets lost is the stuff that matters most to the

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new hire. And I think if I'm starting a new job, that's as

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much as the social aspects of things that I'm really, really

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keen to figure out, you know, who's going to be the people

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that I'm going to be working with? Am I going to like them

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like a boss? Are they gonna like me? Are we going to have, you

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know, stuff to relate about relate together around. And I

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think that this the social emotional connection to

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colleagues, managers, direct reports, and a company right to

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feel like this is a company I'm excited to be working for. I

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think that's the stuff that really, really matters. And that

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sometimes right now is falling through the cracks.

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I've certainly seen, not so much the people quitting

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in that short timeframe that you've expressed and supported

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by the research but where there are lag between offering and

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somebody's first start date, especially if you're hiring from

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outside the country. And you're right, all the paperwork and

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stuff that's that's involved. of, yeah, people accepting

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something else in the interim, and not showing up. And which is

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really tough, not only on the organization in general, but on

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the colleagues that are waiting for, you know, help with with

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the work that that individual is going to help with. Totally. I

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want to take us actually, as we talk about this to a research

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article that you referenced on your website, it was titled,

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breaking the manor eliciting their best reframing

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socialization around newcomers have authentic self expression.

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And in that article, I learned that companies that emphasize

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personal identity during the onboarding process experience a

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250% increase in employee retention after just seven

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months, given the cost of losing an employee, which, you know,

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you can use up to sometimes two or three times their annual

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salary. That's a pretty exciting statistic. What are you finding

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in the other research that you've, you've been doing? Oh,

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Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: it's so good that you bring this up. And

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especially because I think it's bringing together everything

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we've discussed so far, right? So from everything from my own,

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need to figure out in my own personal journey, who I am, and

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find that authenticity. And I think that's connecting my own

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personal journey to what we were just discussing in terms of new

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hire, onboarding, and, and creating space for authenticity

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in the workplace. And I think that this the need for for

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individuals in the work context, to feel that they have a place

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to be themselves, emphasize that personal identity, and have that

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be connected to employee retention. Almost seems logical,

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right? Once you think about all of that, and, and I think so if

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you're asking about the other research, I think McKinsey did a

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study in 2021, and said that exactly like this, this lack of

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connection and appreciation is the number one driver for

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attrition for people quitting, and people are three times more

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likely to quit, because they don't feel like they belong at

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work, then because they feel like they're poorly compensated.

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And that's crazy, right? Because whenever we think about

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retention, we think about, Okay, how are we going to increase

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salary packages? How are we going to, you know, give them

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more incentives? And we think practically, we think about,

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like, you know, oh, let's, let's give them more gift cards, let's

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give them this. But actually, sometimes, all they need is to

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feel socially connected. And, you know, this is becoming so

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much worse, with remote and hybrid work. So I think that

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this, this, it becomes harder, right? Like, it's, if you're

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connecting over the water cooler, or you just happen to

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have to say hi to someone when you're coming into an office

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that facilitates the sort of informal connection, and you

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almost don't need a formalized program to resolve it. But yeah,

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this is a problem. I think another stat at 57% of employees

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are feeling invisible at work right now. It's high, right? If

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if you're feeling invisible, you don't feel connected, and you

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don't feel like you have your personal identity being seen.

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It is absolutely critical. And something that I

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certainly have worried about with this one thing with this a

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hybrid work environment where individuals at least come in,

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you know, to be working with their colleagues in person

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periodically. But for those who are working completely remotely,

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that's always been a concern of mine from a from a caring about

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people perspective. Yeah. Is that

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Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: sorry, go ahead and done it. You know,

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that this that to the point of of the hybrid, I think there are

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different ways of doing hybrid. And I think that like, there's

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also a question within hybrid of whether folks are coming in on

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the same days, because in the type of hybrid where you know,

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you pick your days, then you may still not be getting that

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connection, if the like if there is no one to connect with on the

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days that you're there.

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Good point. Good point. Now, that for our

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listeners, it's like, yeah, Susan, guy, like, we know about

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all of that. But what can we be doing differently? And that's

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what's so exciting about when you were telling me about your

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business storytelling, where you've talked about how

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storytelling can be used as a follow up to the recruitment

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process, please? Yes, yes, there is a tool list. Over to you

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please to share a little bit about storytelling and how it's

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used in the recruitment process.

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Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: Yeah. So I mean, I think so much of what

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we've been discussing right now is the importance of creating

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human connection and then starting off on that foot. And

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that's what we're doing with storytelling is we're trying to

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say, okay, even if you're working in person, and it's

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fully in person work context, before the first day, everyone's

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remote, because the new hire is not coming in, right? So in that

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fully remote, pre boarding time, like the pre day, one time, we

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facilitate a way to actually start the creation of those

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social connections. And we do that through I mean, I guess the

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fancy word would be asynchronous video, but essentially what we

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do our tech makes it smooth. For easy and quick to collect videos

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from different videos like personalized video recordings

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from different individuals, and then auto edit them together

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into a beautiful gift for the new hire now, we realize this.

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So essentially, let's start like, what would this look like?

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Let's say that we've hired someone there starting in one

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week, two weeks, and we want to give them this amazing warm

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welcome and start as quickly as possible. The creation of the

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relationships between that individual and our future team.

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What we enable companies to do is to say, okay, that feature

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team, let's have them all, send a video message, introduce

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themselves, tell them a little bit about why they're excited

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for the new hire to work with them and to start, and we

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collect those videos. First of all, we make it super easy for

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everyone to record those videos, we know that most of us are not

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in Gen Zed, we don't know how to record a video, and it feels

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super awkward. So we've designed a product that has pre written

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scripts teleprompters, making it like just dummy proof, remove

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all the stress from the process. And then we integrate with HR I

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SS ATS is to smooth out that whole administrative part of

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things. And then once the videos are collected, we enhance them

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with music, company branding, title cards, edited it all

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together into this gorgeous website that includes a list of

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all of the people on the team and their photos. So that that

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new hire, basically before they even starts is just like, wowed

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by the fact that they are they're like wait, really, that

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these folks took the time to send me this amazing custom

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video just for me. And what ends up happening is they show up on

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day one, and they already kind of know everyone a little bit,

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right. So you just speed up that entire process of building those

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relationships, which the data tells us our key to retention.

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And this all gets done before day one, and it takes like two

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minutes from each person, which is way quicker than the 30

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minute coffee chat that you would otherwise have to schedule

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after they start. So it's a massive time saver for everyone

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involved. And it wow was the new hire to set off in a really

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great start. And yeah, it's, it's really excited about it.

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Wow, I can't even imagine how wonderful that would

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feel. And I know when we talked, you know, you also the

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encouragement about a little bit something about personal about,

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you know, the fact that you are a dog lover, or you know,

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something that you know, sometimes in the busyness of our

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work, especially when we don't have those water cooler

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conversations, it's really hard to get to know your work

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colleagues. So that would be such it's such an incredible

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gift. And that's not withstanding that those 30

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minute coffee conversations afterwards are still incredibly

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important. But what a marvelous gift. I know that you also have

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used storytelling or not you but the organization's for

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recognizing individuals, or groups of individuals with

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personalized films such as what you've just described, perhaps

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to recognize a milestone like a project that's been completed

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and boy, putting in hrs new systems that deserved at least

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that. Can you provide an example from the work that you do,

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actually telling us a little bit about an organization not

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necessarily identifying who they are, but how that application of

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storytelling has been used? Yeah.

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Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: So we have a number of different I mean, I

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think that the, the way I see it is you essentially have three

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phases in which you can use storytelling. So the first that

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is in the recruitment process, so the ability to use our videos

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for testimonials that can be embedded in Job, Job, adverts

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information about the company that gets crowdsource things

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like that. So that's in the recruiting process. I've also

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seen storytelling used for immediate follow ups. So if you

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want to send like a company branded, you know, with the auto

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editing that we have to offer a quick follow up after an

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interview with a stellar candidate, especially like let's

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say you're going to a job fair. This is like in the early career

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space. I've seen this a lot where there is massive

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competition for the top 10 candidates and every company

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wants that candidate. following it up with an that one of our

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storytelling edited video saying we love talking to you. And this

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is why in a video that has your company branding is pretty cool.

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Oh yeah, definitely a way to company apart. So that's the

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first bit in the recruiting context, I think the second is

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what we've talked about so far in terms of the pre day one. So

Susan Ney: 00:20:19

post job offer pre day one. And I'll come back to that, because

Susan Ney: 00:20:22

I think there's some good examples there. And then the

Susan Ney: 00:20:24

third is in the ongoing engagement. So that's where

Susan Ney: 00:20:27

they're what you were talking about just now with work

Susan Ney: 00:20:30

anniversaries, birthdays, I've seen a lot of really good uses

Susan Ney: 00:20:36

around personal milestone vacations. So having a new baby

Susan Ney: 00:20:41

getting married, getting citizenship, or getting your

Susan Ney: 00:20:44

permanent residency milestones that are really big, right,

Susan Ney: 00:20:49

like, that's huge and a person's life, and recognizing it in a

Susan Ney: 00:20:53

way that shows real real value, I think there's a certain

Susan Ney: 00:20:57

category of employee that's earning a lot of money already,

Susan Ney: 00:21:02

where a $50 gift card or $100 gift card, I mean, really, and

Susan Ney: 00:21:06

then in Canada, there's an additional tax burden on the

Susan Ney: 00:21:09

gift, you're essentially getting them to pay more out of pocket

Susan Ney: 00:21:13

to get something they may not even want. Whereas this type of

Susan Ney: 00:21:16

gift is the gift that just you know, it's it's emotionally

Susan Ney: 00:21:20

valuable. So you can even place $1 value on it. There for that

Susan Ney: 00:21:25

middle type of category there, the pre boarding before day one,

Susan Ney: 00:21:29

I've seen two different types of companies really lean into this

Susan Ney: 00:21:34

that have a specific need. One is in a context of really high

Susan Ney: 00:21:39

high frequency turnover, high volume of hires, customer

Susan Ney: 00:21:43

service matters in the space, right, like, if you're talking

Susan Ney: 00:21:46

about retail, you need that new hire to be really excited to get

Susan Ney: 00:21:50

going. So wowing them before day one makes a big difference. And

Susan Ney: 00:21:56

because turnover is so frequent, you kinda want to do every

Susan Ney: 00:22:01

little extra bit that you can, with out paying them a ton more,

Susan Ney: 00:22:06

because that's actually, you know, probably go against what's

Susan Ney: 00:22:09

best for the company. So that's where a video helps. And then

Susan Ney: 00:22:13

the second is, is that that sort of grayed hierarchy form problem

Susan Ney: 00:22:16

that we were talking about. So I think those are two of the like,

Susan Ney: 00:22:20

niches that I've seen, multiple companies really, really need

Susan Ney: 00:22:25

it. And then of course, the other type of company that tends

Susan Ney: 00:22:29

to really gravitate towards using storytelling are your

Susan Ney: 00:22:34

cultural leaders. So companies that are performing really well

Susan Ney: 00:22:39

on already creating a great work environment, they tend to be

Susan Ney: 00:22:44

early adopters of any new technology that is arising to

Susan Ney: 00:22:49

make things even better for further employers or their

Susan Ney: 00:22:52

employees. So I think those are maybe three different categories

Susan Ney: 00:22:56

of companies that use us,

Susan Ney: 00:22:58

as I was listening to, I was just thinking of a

Susan Ney: 00:23:03

situation where somebody was just being honored with their 20

Susan Ney: 00:23:08

years with the company. And their boss took the time to

Susan Ney: 00:23:15

basically list out in an email, every accomplishment that you

Susan Ney: 00:23:20

know, every promotion that that individual had experienced

Susan Ney: 00:23:26

through their career with the organization, and how much that

Susan Ney: 00:23:30

meant. And I can't even imagine how that would be just made so

Susan Ney: 00:23:37

much, even more impactful if it had been the video with the boss

Susan Ney: 00:23:44

talking about those and just, you know, again, just so much

Susan Ney: 00:23:47

more personal. Yeah, well, I could see this would be huge,

Susan Ney: 00:23:52

and making a really significant difference. For anybody. I can't

Susan Ney: 00:23:58

imagine anyone not being Oh, just blown away by receiving a

Susan Ney: 00:24:06

storytime.

Susan Ney: 00:24:07

Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: Absolutely. And you know, it never gets old.

Susan Ney: 00:24:10

Like, every time it can be the exact same thing over and over.

Susan Ney: 00:24:14

And as a giver, you're like, Oh, this is going to be boring. It's

Susan Ney: 00:24:16

going to be the same thing again, for the recipient never.

Susan Ney: 00:24:21

It's, they just keep them coming. Right. And it is it's in

Susan Ney: 00:24:27

the nonverbal you're right that there's something very very

Susan Ney: 00:24:29

unique about video. It's it's the the facial expressions, and

Susan Ney: 00:24:34

you know, the things that aren't spoken but are seen. That

Susan Ney: 00:24:40

indicates a lot.

Susan Ney: 00:24:41

Well, it's that authenticity that comes through.

Susan Ney: 00:24:46

So I know when we were talking and I'm thinking oh my goodness,

Susan Ney: 00:24:50

this would be very expensive. And I worked primarily in

Susan Ney: 00:24:54

nonprofit and public sector through my career. And there was

Susan Ney: 00:24:58

very little money If that, you know, unfortunately was able to

Susan Ney: 00:25:02

be budgeted for these kinds of initiatives, what can an

Susan Ney: 00:25:08

organization expect? Working with you and your colleagues? If

Susan Ney: 00:25:12

they're interested in using storytelling and in their

Susan Ney: 00:25:15

recruitment retention? Initiatives? What kind of costs?

Susan Ney: 00:25:22

How would it work? ballpark?

Susan Ney: 00:25:25

Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: Yeah, great question. I'll start by saying

Susan Ney: 00:25:29

that there's a lot of personalization. So we're not

Susan Ney: 00:25:32

one of you know, we believe in in the value of authenticity,

Susan Ney: 00:25:36

and we work really directly with our company. So what can you

Susan Ney: 00:25:40

expect you can expect to have a call with me directly? And, you

Susan Ney: 00:25:44

know, not just with some sort of salesperson who's trying to turn

Susan Ney: 00:25:47

out monthly quotas, so and that personalization goes to pricing

Susan Ney: 00:25:53

as well. So we work with companies based on how we can

Susan Ney: 00:25:58

for us, it's it's a question of how can we have impact on that

Susan Ney: 00:26:01

company? I think in terms of like the formally listed prices,

Susan Ney: 00:26:06

packages still are very cheap. So ballpark, starting as low

Susan Ney: 00:26:09

from as $300 a month, Canadian dollars. So but but you know,

Susan Ney: 00:26:15

we're always really keen to explore new use cases. And our

Susan Ney: 00:26:19

our vision is to improve authenticity and that human

Susan Ney: 00:26:24

relationship in as many workplaces as possible. So we're

Susan Ney: 00:26:28

really keen to work with companies to design solutions

Susan Ney: 00:26:32

that match their specific budgets, we never want pricing

Susan Ney: 00:26:35

to be a bet barrier.

Susan Ney: 00:26:36

You did mention per month? Yeah. Oh, is that

Susan Ney: 00:26:40

something that you need to sign a contract that it's specific

Susan Ney: 00:26:43

months? Or again, you really work with the client and find

Susan Ney: 00:26:47

out? What would work for that client? That sounds like you're

Susan Ney: 00:26:50

pretty flexible. But yes.

Susan Ney: 00:26:55

Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: The landline? Should we just let it

Susan Ney: 00:26:57

ring and make a note to just delete this? Yeah. off, wait for

Susan Ney: 00:27:01

it to finish ringing? Forget they my parents set up a

Susan Ney: 00:27:07

landline. Okay. Do you want to repeat the question? Or do you

Susan Ney: 00:27:14

share that?

Susan Ney: 00:27:16

You mentioned that it's a per month cost. So, but

Susan Ney: 00:27:22

you've also talked about being really flexible with regard to

Susan Ney: 00:27:25

an organization's specific needs. So I'm assuming you would

Susan Ney: 00:27:29

be flexible, but perhaps you could speak to that? Yeah,

Susan Ney: 00:27:33

Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: for sure. So there are there are companies

Susan Ney: 00:27:37

that want to pay just for one video. And that's always a

Susan Ney: 00:27:40

possibility, we find that the majority of use cases are

Susan Ney: 00:27:44

actually repeat use cases where companies want to do you know,

Susan Ney: 00:27:50

let's say a video for every new hire, and hiring is ongoing. So

Susan Ney: 00:27:55

it works out more economically friendly to our customers to

Susan Ney: 00:27:59

just sort of do a one off set up and then have a monthly

Susan Ney: 00:28:05

subscription, that just sort of enables them to keep using the

Susan Ney: 00:28:09

product and use the software as as much as they want. And so

Susan Ney: 00:28:13

that's why we've gone to instead of buying a package of a certain

Susan Ney: 00:28:17

number of videos to actually say, You know what, let's solve

Susan Ney: 00:28:21

solve the issue, just keep using it. Once we've done the setup

Susan Ney: 00:28:24

and the customization. Just just just pay and we actually don't

Susan Ney: 00:28:30

charge for the setup and customization. So our general

Susan Ney: 00:28:33

approach is to have a monthly subscription paid annually. And

Susan Ney: 00:28:40

that enables us to sort of invest in that upfront cost to

Susan Ney: 00:28:45

customize algorithm for that company with their branding.

Susan Ney: 00:28:49

And, you know, all the video editing algorithms, all the

Susan Ney: 00:28:52

integrations with ATS as hrs is all of that stuff that enables

Susan Ney: 00:28:56

it to be really seamless. And by the way, it's really quick,

Susan Ney: 00:28:58

right? So if a company decides to use it today, I mean, within

Susan Ney: 00:29:01

a day or two, they're they're off and running like it's yeah,

Susan Ney: 00:29:05

it's really not heavy on the setup. But yeah, to your point,

Susan Ney: 00:29:10

if if that type of pricing is a major barrier, we can we can

Susan Ney: 00:29:16

discuss other things I just I haven't seen for the use cases

Susan Ney: 00:29:21

that I think we thrive on that seems to be the best pricing

Susan Ney: 00:29:24

model at this stage.

Susan Ney: 00:29:25

Okay, what I'm hearing you say is that call me?

Susan Ney: 00:29:30

Oh, wait, let's leave it at that. As we bring this podcast

Susan Ney: 00:29:37

to a close, is there anything that I haven't thought to ask

Susan Ney: 00:29:40

you that our listeners might find helpful regarding this

Susan Ney: 00:29:43

very, very important topic?

Susan Ney: 00:29:46

Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: You know? I just don't think anything beats

Susan Ney: 00:29:51

face to face interaction. Like we're talking about

Susan Ney: 00:29:54

authenticity, we're talking about creating real

Susan Ney: 00:29:56

relationships. We're talking about the the need For, you

Susan Ney: 00:30:00

know, creating space for personal identity in the

Susan Ney: 00:30:02

workplace, I'd love it if we were put out of business because

Susan Ney: 00:30:07

every single person in the office actually took the time

Susan Ney: 00:30:11

out individually, to have those real face to face conversations

Susan Ney: 00:30:18

to, to take the time to develop those real human relationships

Susan Ney: 00:30:23

in their workplace. I also realized this is impractical,

Susan Ney: 00:30:28

which is why we exist. I know that it takes a lot of time to

Susan Ney: 00:30:32

do that, I know that we are in a world where we're remote is here

Susan Ney: 00:30:36

to stay. And I know that that companies grow, right, so what

Susan Ney: 00:30:41

may be possible for a smaller company for a smaller team. As

Susan Ney: 00:30:46

you know, I remember talking to this one company where the CEO

Susan Ney: 00:30:51

personally cooks a barbecue lunch for his team once a

Susan Ney: 00:30:56

quarter. And, you know, you can't like don't replace that

Susan Ney: 00:30:59

with a storytelling video. But I also we were talking why because

Susan Ney: 00:31:05

the company was getting too large for it to be feasible for

Susan Ney: 00:31:09

the CEO to cook that up that much. But you know, for Yeah, so

Susan Ney: 00:31:14

I think it's essentially that's that would be my my sort of

Susan Ney: 00:31:20

final point, I think, like at that point where it becomes too

Susan Ney: 00:31:23

difficult to do, at that sort of individual level. Reach out this

Susan Ney: 00:31:29

is this is, you know, if you're recognizing the problem, need

Susan Ney: 00:31:34

help solving it. And even if you don't know that storytelling is

Susan Ney: 00:31:38

right for you, that's fine. I'm always happy to chat, discuss

Susan Ney: 00:31:41

options, I have been working in this space for a while, I've

Susan Ney: 00:31:46

been doing a lot of research in this space. And ultimately, I

Susan Ney: 00:31:50

want to be helping companies foster stronger and authentic,

Susan Ney: 00:31:53

more authentic human connections amongst their employees in any

Susan Ney: 00:31:56

way possible. So really, really happy to connect with folks who

Susan Ney: 00:32:00

who are, you know, exploring this for their own companies.

Susan Ney: 00:32:05

It really is the core of who you are. And it's

Susan Ney: 00:32:07

interesting, because, you know, even if companies were to use it

Susan Ney: 00:32:10

for those key positions that, you know, tend to go through a

Susan Ney: 00:32:15

number of interview processes. And I'm just, I could see even

Susan Ney: 00:32:20

through those interview processes of using this from and

Susan Ney: 00:32:24

I think you and I talked about, with the recruiters, you know,

Susan Ney: 00:32:28

because often there are multiperson recruitment teams,

Susan Ney: 00:32:33

saying a little bit about who they are, you know, or just

Susan Ney: 00:32:37

encouraging someone along the process so that you don't end up

Susan Ney: 00:32:40

losing good candidates, I could see a whole bunch of different

Susan Ney: 00:32:42

uses. And that brings me to you also have been very interested

Susan Ney: 00:32:50

in in. And I think you talked about it in the giveth and nudge

Susan Ney: 00:32:55

YouTube video, keeping family stories alive. So before we

Susan Ney: 00:32:59

before we come to a close, little bit about that I think

Susan Ney: 00:33:02

your grandma was was What took you on that journey? Yeah,

Susan Ney: 00:33:10

Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: I think so. My grandma turned 90, nearly 10

Susan Ney: 00:33:14

years ago. She's turning 99 This year, and she's still with us.

Susan Ney: 00:33:17

Oh, yes, amazing. And for her 90th birthday, we wrote a book

Susan Ney: 00:33:26

about her life. And it was not the most fun to put that book

Susan Ney: 00:33:30

together because the technology wasn't great. And, you know, my,

Susan Ney: 00:33:35

we tried to solve that problem, actually, by, you know, we're

Susan Ney: 00:33:39

pretty good at helping people open up a video for them. And we

Susan Ney: 00:33:44

we built a tech product that enabled families to capture

Susan Ney: 00:33:47

their life stories we actually are about to have. We've

Susan Ney: 00:33:50

submitted, we had a university in Australia, the University of

Susan Ney: 00:33:53

Canberra, who worked together with an aged care facility to

Susan Ney: 00:33:57

assess the efficacy of that tech product that we built in

Susan Ney: 00:34:01

improving the quality of dementia care by having the

Susan Ney: 00:34:06

caregivers talk to the dementia of the folks with dementia and

Susan Ney: 00:34:12

capture their stories with their tech in video form. And so

Susan Ney: 00:34:17

hopefully that publication will come out soon to valid and it

Susan Ney: 00:34:20

does that the publication that we that the paper that we wrote

Susan Ney: 00:34:23

does validate the efficacy that our tech is very good at doing

Susan Ney: 00:34:27

this. So yeah, it's something that's a bit of a side project

Susan Ney: 00:34:32

for us and you know, something that we yeah, we really care

Susan Ney: 00:34:35

about in terms of this, this mission to capture stories and I

Susan Ney: 00:34:40

think it goes back to honestly where we started right, which is

Susan Ney: 00:34:43

about our identity and about creating I think that if if we

Susan Ney: 00:34:47

want to build communities, that and and future leaders really

Susan Ney: 00:34:54

that are confident in the entirety of who they are, with

Susan Ney: 00:34:58

all of the diversity that comes As with an all the diversity,

Susan Ney: 00:35:02

right, because there are many layers of different types of

Susan Ney: 00:35:04

diversity, a lot of that is feeling comfortable and rooted

Susan Ney: 00:35:08

in our stories and our heritage in our family traditions, in our

Susan Ney: 00:35:12

community traditions, however, community is defined in

Susan Ney: 00:35:16

understanding those legacies that we inherit and how they

Susan Ney: 00:35:19

have shaped us and come to be. So I think this is actually

Susan Ney: 00:35:22

quite critical. And I know, you know, yeah, on the side have

Susan Ney: 00:35:27

also written a book that specifically about my own

Susan Ney: 00:35:31

community, my the Ismaili, Muslims, her history from East

Susan Ney: 00:35:36

Africa, and this has also been part of that own journey for me

Susan Ney: 00:35:39

right as understanding my own heritage. So I think it's really

Susan Ney: 00:35:43

shaped so much of who I am. And I do believe that you know,

Susan Ney: 00:35:47

whether or not you're capturing it in a video forum, I think

Susan Ney: 00:35:52

that going home and talking to our parents and our grandparents

Susan Ney: 00:35:55

and our aunts and our uncles, and just, you know, asking the

Susan Ney: 00:35:59

questions beyond the mundane, you know, so not like, what did

Susan Ney: 00:36:02

you have for lunch today? But, you know, questions about your

Susan Ney: 00:36:06

childhood? What were your you know, what was school? Like for

Susan Ney: 00:36:09

you? What were some of the challenges that you've overcome,

Susan Ney: 00:36:14

and understanding that and, and being, when stories repeat

Susan Ney: 00:36:18

themselves, because that's part of the process, but only

Susan Ney: 00:36:22

continues to ask those questions and to learn? Again,

Susan Ney: 00:36:26

what a gift and a legacy individuals within

Susan Ney: 00:36:30

organizations? Yeah, wouldn't it be wonderful to capture those,

Susan Ney: 00:36:34

you know, as part of an organization's branding? Yeah,

Susan Ney: 00:36:37

you know, well, I can just see so many uses of storytelling,

Susan Ney: 00:36:41

and it's, it's so exciting what you're doing. And just, I so

Susan Ney: 00:36:46

appreciate the you're saying yes, to coming and sharing a

Susan Ney: 00:36:49

little bit about your journey, your personal journey, and the

Susan Ney: 00:36:52

work that you're doing with storytelling. And, and, and

Susan Ney: 00:36:57

others, like this book that you've just referenced, how do

Susan Ney: 00:37:00

people contact you, and I will put not only your contact

Susan Ney: 00:37:04

information, but also a link to the book, if that's okay. And to

Susan Ney: 00:37:09

some of the articles that that we've referenced in the show

Susan Ney: 00:37:13

notes to the podcast. So how do you how do people contact you?

Susan Ney: 00:37:17

Dr. Aliaa Remtilla: Yeah, reach out to me on LinkedIn, I'm

Susan Ney: 00:37:19

always on it. Always tricky messages. So me, I will respond.

Susan Ney: 00:37:23

Excellent. Thank you. And I do encourage that reach

Susan Ney: 00:37:29

out to at least learn a little bit more. I just, I think this

Susan Ney: 00:37:33

is just a phenomenal idea, and one that really could be helping

Susan Ney: 00:37:36

us with recruitment and retaining those employees within

Susan Ney: 00:37:41

our organizations. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And

Susan Ney: 00:37:47

making the time it is time for us to say goodbye. And for our

Susan Ney: 00:37:52

listeners. Thank you for connecting with us and

Susan Ney: 00:37:55

supporting HR inside out. Remember, dare to soar? Because

Susan Ney: 00:38:02

we believe you can. It is Elia and Susan signing out. Have a

Susan Ney: 00:38:08

great rest of your day everybody. Bye. Take care. Bye

Susan Ney: 00:38:12

bye