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Strong organizational values support your company’s vision, shape its culture, and communicate its goals and aspirations. It is surprising how many organizations have dedicated significant time and energy to developing and solidifying company values but then fail to integrate them into the employee work culture.
These three steps will help you bring your company’s values to the forefront and keep your employees on board.
#1. Communicate Them
Communication of your core values is important both within the leadership and publicly among all employees. Leaders must have an unshakable commitment to organizational congruity and be able to transmit that to others. A survey by Deloitte has found that 70% of the employees who agreed that their companies had performed well financially said their executive management team speaks to them often about the core aspects of the company’s culture.
Talk about your organization’s values often. Include them in meetings, emails, and employee training programs. Especially when conveying company culture to new hires, tell the story of your company and it developed, and outline concrete examples of engagement with its core principles.
Showcase your values. Hang them on the wall in the breakroom if you need to. A study by Globoforce shows:
88% of employees who are well versed in company values say they are engaged
54% of employees who don’t know their company’s values say they are engaged
2. Recognize Them in Action
Acknowledge those who are living up to company standards with tangible rewards and public recognition. This will motivate employees and give them further incentives to consider values when making important decisions.
During performance reviews, coach employees on how to better embody core principles and remind them of incentives, promotions, etc. Be open with those who are not acting in accordance with core values and offer suggestions for improvement. Recruit and hire people whose values are naturally aligned with company culture.
3. Revisit Them
Leadership is responsible for defining values and keeping them at the forefront of the company. Before expecting individual employees to act accordingly, you must ask yourself:
Is the organization at large moving in the direction of its values?
Is the leadership encouraging the right kind of growth?
Are the organization’s tenants held in account when considering new business prospects or new hires?
If the answer to any of those questions is “no,” or “not sure,” take time to revisit your values and, if necessary, restructure your company in ways that will better focus on carrying out them out OR rework them to better reflect the company’s current vision.
Ask employees how they feel about the company’s direction:
Do they feel that core values are being engaged?
If not, what improvements do they envision?
How do they feel values could be better integrated into their individual positions?
Though the ideas at the heart of an organization can sometimes seem like nothing more than a clever slogan or mantra, they are key to any successful venture. By learning to communicate values effectively and consistently, you will contribute to a stable and happy workforce which encourages growth in the right direction.