Making People the Center of Your Universe

Not only does Storyteller Overland build out-of-this-world adventure vehicles, but it’s also a company that takes pride in its work culture.

As the company states in its open job postings: “We are proud to have a values-based culture, which means we focus less on rules and transacting and more on values and transforming. Our goal is to create workplaces and spaces where great people can do great things in order to thrive and flourish both professionally and personally.”

One person helping to guide the Storyteller Overland ship through this universe is Christina Linton, the company’s chief people officer. Here, learn more about her role and Storyteller’s mission.

RV PRO: You were recruited to be the chief people officer at Storyteller Overland, and you’ve been here about a year now. When coming onboard, did you know what that title meant and what your job would be?

Christina: I don’t know that it was a title that the company ever had on the radar, at least not so early in the company’s history.  But [their recruiter] understood the culture, and she helped the key leadership team understand how important it was to have a position like this in place early – take all the great ingredients that were already there, enhance those things, and then build upon them. And I definitely understood what my role would entail and the impact that it would have since I was working essentially in that same capacity within another company that modeled what great culture looks like. This was simply a stepping stone in my own career.

RV PRO: So, what are the main things that you’ve put in place here since you’ve been here? And what are some of the things you foresee for the future?

Christina: We want to be a destination employer and recognized as a best place to work… and in order to do that, we have to build programs that support our people and their families. So, during our 2023 Galaxy open enrollment, we unveiled our Storyteller rewards program. Most companies refer to rewards as benefits. Our rewards program has both monetary and non-monetary components focusing on all the areas that impact a person; their health, their wealth, their work, and their home. The goal of the program is to help our team members and their families thrive in both their work life and their home life. Because what happens at home impacts you at work and vice versa.

So, one of the things that we are working to create for the future is a leadership development program. While we are not a traditional company as it pertains to job titles and org charts, we do understand that leadership is critical to maintaining a healthy workplace culture and continuing to crush our goals. By growing our leaders, they can in turn grow their team members which allows us to take a full circle approach to development at all levels of the company.

Storyteller Overland Founder and CEO Jeffrey Hunter says about Christina: “As a rapidly growing company, we value and prioritize our people and the health of our community above all else; so we absolutely refuse to be the kind of company that starts strong only to begin losing focus and taking our success and one another for granted. That’s why I am truly excited that Christina Linton is bringing her expertise and passion for building stellar teams and positive cultures to our executive leadership suite at Storyteller. Her energy and vision is exactly what we need to help ensure that our unique Storyteller culture remains inclusive and empowering and our values remain constant through this next chapter of our growth.”

 

RV PRO: Tell me more about the traditional benefits that you offer and any that are out of the box.

Christina: We have the core programs like medical, dental, and vision. We also added standalone telehealth for all of our team members and their qualified dependents. You don’t have to be enrolled in our medical program in order to access a doctor on demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our wellness or employee assistance program – offers five free counseling sessions annually. Really anything that you’re experiencing in your life – good, bad or indifferent – you can call this service and they can point you in the right direction. Grief, parenting problems, divorce, just the whole nine. The program also has a variety of legal resources and many online learning programs as well that covers various professional and personal development topics.

We also have a nutrition program with a registered dietician. We partner with Cultivate Wellness, and they can help our team members have more of a proactive wellness approach to life. Like, how are you fueling your body? Are you moving? How you care for yourself impacts the energy that you take home at night, right? And then also you take that into the workplace.

Additionally, we have a demo purchase program. We have a fleet of vans that our marketing, sales, technology, engineering and design teams will drive and showcase throughout the year. And when the van has completed its tour of duty, we will sell them to our employees at cost. Which is still a pretty penny because they are luxury vehicles, [but it’s] yet another great reward if you are interested in having access to that type of lifestyle.

RV PRO: How do you collect feedback from your employees?

Christina: Early on in my tenure, we launched an employee satisfaction survey because we needed to find out what we were doing well and where we had some opportunity, as I like to call it. So now we send out the employee engagement survey annually. It is a deep dive survey and covers a variety of areas – pay, rewards, workload, resources, leadership, etc. That’s how we prioritized our needs early on. Then we do an employee net promoter score survey twice annually. This asks just two questions: Are you proud to work at Storyteller, and would you recommend a family or friend? It also allows the team members to share open feedback so we can keep a pulse on employee satisfaction and clues us in to issues that may have bubbled up.

So those are two formal and standard ways that we gather feedback. But also, we lead culture chats, which [are] one-to-one discussions – What do you love? What don’t you love? What are we doing well? What do we need to work on? – to receive some anecdotal or direct one-to-one feedback. And then we’ve also implemented a variety of other surveys that are delivered through various survey platforms and are typically related directly to an experience or event. After a town hall, we’ll have a QR code [with] five questions – how easy was the information to understand? Was it informative? Did you like what you heard? To name a few sample questions.

RV PRO: How does the company get buy-in from employees for its culture and its vision?

Christina: Well, that’s actually pretty easy to do because we show our team members that we care about them through our actions. There is this old saying, ‘they don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care’. And that really starts at the top with our CEO, Jeffrey [Hunter]’s heart and vision. He’s obviously brilliant but also really has a heart for people. So his approach to leadership and enterprise management has resulted in the culture that we all get to experience today. On the one hand, it is magical and amazing, and we should never take for granted who Jeffrey is and who this company is and the wonderfulness that we have here. On the other hand, it can somewhat be challenging to describe our culture because well if you saw our values, you’d probably notice quickly that they’re lengthy. So, how do you transfer that information in a meaningful way so that people can internalize those things then live that out daily and “buy-in” to the value system? We have to be willing to talk about it, be good coaches, teach people, be patient, and model the behaviors. And sometimes that means having the not so fun conversations. We also have our values in our Galaxy Guide, which is our form of an employee handbook – our North Star if you will. We make sure that all of our policies, standards and procedures, and I hate to say rules, but we do have rules as a legal entity, embody those values as well. So basically, we rally around the culture and the vision by allowing the values to serve as our guideposts which in turn builds trust and organically creates buy-in.

RV PRO: Tell me more about the Galaxy Guide.

Christina: We published the Galaxy Guide this year, which is our form of a handbook. It really sets the tone and standards for our teams and is illustrated in a very Storyteller way. The voice is not in a traditional handbook tone, it truly embodies who we are as a company. In the former employee manual, it was almost like we had two different cultures. We had this “stated on paper” culture and then a different experience culture. But what the Galaxy Guide did was make the culture real for new [employees] especially. I think that it outlines well what our standards and expectations are, which is really important because while we’re fun and exciting, we also have standards of excellence and value propositions that we make and keep to our external community. It also gives everybody a really clear understanding of how they fit into the galaxy and what it means to be a galaxy member and things that are important to them: How much vacation do I get? When do I get to use the vacation? What does your hiring process look like? What is the hiring methodology? I think people want to know those things.

RV PRO: What is your hiring process like, and how do you measure performance?

Christina: We use a topgrading hiring methodology and at least three sets of eyes and ears. Interviewing is the greatest opportunity that we have to protect the culture that we have all built together.  And different people see different things. This interview style allows us to learn about the candidate’s full journey while uncovering patterns and trends of behavior. It really allows you to get to know the candidate and understand if they are a great fit for the role and the culture.

Once we move through the topgrading process and gain consensus across the hiring committee, then, we’ll make you a competitive offer. I say competitive because being competitive in this area is very important to us. And once that offer is accepted, then we onboard you.

Everything’s digital so that way it’s streamlined. We use BambooHR, which personally I love. It’s a really fun introduction to the entire organization.

But then we’re looking for a first 30- to 90-day acclimation plan to be built from the leader because we want the new team member to understand what their first 90 days looks like. So, once [someone is] on board, there’s a 90-day provisional period, a time of acclimation, learning, training. And I hate to say ‘if you make it through that’ because we have less than 5% turnover as it stands today, which is virtually unheard of. But after your provisional period, we would hope that we’ve set you up for success and you can fly free and we have a ton of autonomy here. We’re not micromanagers. We want you to have all the tools, resources, information, and then give you space to do your job well.

We just launched an annual feedback evaluation through Bamboo. It is easy to complete and straightforward. This way everybody has a true pulse on opportunities, how they’re contributing, what value they’re bringing to the team, and what they could improve upon. We actually don’t require the annual evaluation. Sometimes annual evaluations can be clunky and we like to take a modern approach to how we support and evaluate our teams. Ideally, you’re meeting with your team members at least weekly or monthly, and you have a good flow of feedback in both directions. [It’s a] joint venture from the leader to employee, employees to the leader. But we have said, ‘OK, leader, if your team member completes their self-evaluation in Bamboo, then we’re asking you to complete that because that is them stating they want formal feedback.’

RV PRO: What kind of leadership training does Storyteller Overland do?

Christina: So, I would say that’s a future state. I’m actually writing up a leadership accelerator program curriculum. I can talk about the framework. The idea is that I want to help leaders better understand who they are as a person and as a leader. And then I want to flip the lens and focus on their individual team members, and then put those two together. So, now that you understand who you are and how you lead, and now you hopefully better understand how your team members are wired through a tool such as the DISC assessment, then let’s think about where they are on their own learning curve – situational leadership. And then, finally, how do you and your team contribute to the greater organization.

RV PRO: What do you think makes Storyteller Overland special?

Christina: I would say again, it starts with Jeffrey’s leadership. We’re literally sitting in his vision. I think like any company, the people are what makes the company great and, obviously, the culture, which is in our beliefs, our languages, our norms, our behaviors. I think it’s really centered upon Jeffrey, and he would push back and say, ‘well, it’s everybody.’ And it is everybody now. But it really starts with the No. 1 person and what type of environment they want to create for everyone else. And then we all become cultural gardeners, right? We’re keeping the weeds out and the plants healthy. So, there’s a lot of personal accountability there, but it comes down to Jeffrey.

RV PRO: How do you bring together the people on the plant floor and the people in the offices?

Christina: It’s work in progress because they’re definitely different types of personas. I think it really is a lot of, honestly, studying and research, understanding how people are generally wired, but then treating them as individuals and human beings. Things that motivate our administrative team do not necessarily motivate our manufacturing team.

I think the beautiful thing about Storyteller is that it is a culture where we try to support [and] try to meet people where they are. We are also very kind, considerate, and respectful. Just because we are seemingly different, doesn’t mean that we cannot find common ground. It’s there. There’s a standard, but above that, how can we help you be more engaged or more satisfied through your day-to-day, and maybe certain initiatives speak to you and other initiatives speak to a different work group.

RV PRO: Storyteller Overland is based in Birmingham, Alabama – has it been a struggle finding people to join your workforce?

Christina: For our technicians, a lot of our manufacturing work [is] upfitting, so we’re not building from scratch. Those are very trainable and coachable roles. If it is a specific skill set that we’re looking for, such as electrical or wiring or plumbing – yes, that can get a little trickier. But honestly, our reputation is so good, our culture is wonderful, and our pay is competitive. We haven’t struggled to fill open roles. If anything, we’ve struggled with our funnels being so large, our candidate funnels, and then whittling those down to put the right people in the right seats.

I’ve continued to remind the leaders: we are a destination employer – do not ever make a hiring decision out of desperation. Or if you don’t think you have 100% of what you’re looking for, keep [looking] because people want to be on our team. You have that luxury. That’s a great place to be.

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What words would you use to describe Storyteller Overland?

Daniel Moody, Parts Quality Manager – I would say challenging and rewarding. I’m pushed to go the extra mile. We have developed something that’s quite frankly awesome. And wanting to keep that up and maintain it, it’s definitely a challenge for me because I’ve moved to heights that I haven’t been to before. But it’s also very rewarding to see where I’ve come from and where I’m at now. And it’s the same with the company; when I got here, we were making six vans a week. Now we’re doing that many a day.

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What words would you use to describe Storyteller Overland?

Daniel Mojica, R&D Technician – Creative, thoughtful, and as odd as it sounds, very loving. This has been the only company that I have worked for that we work very closely together and we do think of each other as a family. [Also,] the more people that we get, the more ideas that we get of how to do things or as simple as how to rearrange a toolbox to fit your needs. I work in the research and development department, and we’re getting more designers over there and engineers, and it’s like getting to see more minds click together and more input. And that is very cool to see people work together instead of just being like, ‘Well, no, my idea’s better.’ Then finally see the product once it goes out to the customer and be like, ‘Man, y’all really thought about everything that you think you could look at.’

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What makes Storyteller a great place to work?

Summer Trammell, Chief of Staff – What Storyteller does well is find the gifts in people. Because you don’t have to change who you are when you come [here]. You can take time to figure out what your gifts are and then somehow figure out a way to amplify those in a position or in some sort of role or on a project. And I think that’s what people really love too – you show up how the world made you, and I think that’s what makes Storyteller really special.

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When a new employee arrives or you’re training someone new, what do you want them to know about the company?

Shelly Frese, Graphics Lead – Mainly heart, you know? When you care, you’re going to do the best job that you can do, and [we] don’t expect you to go fast, because speed comes with knowledge and ability. So, just learning the basics and we go from there and you’ll get faster. And if you mess up, that’s awesome because now we know how to fix that…both of the girls that are on my team, they’re like, ‘But I don’t want to mess up.’ And [I say], ‘No, I need you to mess up.’ Please don’t be afraid. Ruin something really quick so we can just figure out how to not do that again. Move forward.

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What makes Storyteller a great place to work?

Daniel Mojica, R&D Technician – Whenever you’re learning how to do something, sometimes you might get a good idea…you can take it to your superiors and move up the line and say, ‘could this be a good idea? Could this be a new idea?’ I was kind of scared to try it, but we did it anyway…everybody’s input is kind of analyzed. Everyone has a voice.

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How is Storyteller different from other companies?

Summer Trammell, Chief of Staff – I think that’s what separates us, too, from a lot of bigger manufacturers or bigger outfitters. We don’t have this level of bureaucracy up above – it really is at the production level or the R&D – you guys are creating stuff and doing the things. Having that awesome opportunity to create something from the ground up and not having to take something from a corporate R&D group and then just have to accept it. They all have a hand in making our product better.