COMPANY VALUES

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Values are aspirational messages that drive people towards something desirable.  They are a key tool for companies as both instructions to their employees and for communicating to customers.

 

People favour companies whose values align with their own personal values.  When values are aligned, people believe in the product and the company.  When belief enters the equation, passion exudes from your employees, and the customer believes in the product.  It is this authenticity that produces the relationships upon which all the best organisations are based.  Relationships build trust.  And with trust comes loyalty.

 

A strong set of values helps build a company’s reputation.  It sets you apart from the competition.  If you take them seriously, your core values will help you form a solid brand identity.  They let your customers know what you stand for, how you run your business, and why they should buy from you.

 

Values also guide the management team when developing their strategies and plans, providing a firm understanding of the agreed vision of the company and how it will operate.  They also guide employees on how to approach every-day internal decision-making within the company. 

 

What To Look For

 

There are thousands or words and phrases that managers and employees might choose for company values.  Be conscious of the following when making your choices:

 

• Values are purposeful.  Your values shouldn’t be a list of generic ideals. They should be specific to your company, and they should align with your company’s goals.  For instance, a commitment to justice for a legal firm; a commitment to privacy for a tech company.

 

• Values are targeted.  Decide if your values are directed at your employees or customers, or both.  You might decide to have one overriding message for customers, and supporting values to instruct the actions of your employees, ensuring they are aligned.

 

• Values are choices.  Rather than seeing your values as beliefs, treat them like choices.  Most companies will say they believe that customer service is important.  What differentiates your company from others will be the choices you make in the name of customer service. 

 

• Values will cost you.  Like any choice, values come with an inherent cost.  Make sure you are ready to uphold your company’s core values even when it would be easier or less expensive to ignore them.  If your company claims a commitment to sustainability, you should use eco-friendly materials even if that decision cuts into your profits.  Values that cost you nothing aren’t worth having.

 

• Values require action.  Beliefs without action are just empty words.  For instance, if you say your company values innovation, you can’t stifle employees with a “this is how it’s always been done” mentality.  Instead, you should be actively encouraging and considering new ideas.  

 

• Values are timeless.  Although your company’s practices and strategies may change over time, your core values should be constant.  Choose values you can stand by regardless of economic conditions, external incentives, competitive advantage, or corporate trends.

 

Process to define your values

 

It is essential that the person leading the task has the right leadership qualities.  Get this wrong, get the values wrong.  Someone who has the ability to communicate with other people to draw out their views, without imposing his/her own personal views.  Someone who is happy to follow the process to seek different perspectives, and the capacity to analyse the information gathered and refine it into a coherent framework.  Every leader believes they have the qualities, but these qualities are rare.  Pick the right person to lead the process, including with an eye for words. 

 

The process can start with a brainstorming session.  It can be combined with giving people the opportunity to contribute outside of a brainstorm setting, to allow for more considered contributions.  Invite key people who understand and embody the traits you want your company to be known for.  These could include CEO and other senior company officers, including HR, Legal, Policy etc.  Include key employees from different parts of the organisation.  Ask each participant to list what they think the company’s values are or should be.  You can guide the process with questions, for example:

 

• What core values will resonate with our customers?

• What principles should guide our choices?

• What do you want our company to be known for?

• How will our values distinguish us from competitors?

• What qualities do we value in employees?

• What are we honouring?

 

Group similar ideas together.  Values should be specific to your company and circumstances.  For values to be truly effective they must be verbs.  It’s not ‘integrity’, it’s ‘always do the right thing’.  Telling people to have integrity doesn’t guarantee that their decisions will always keep customers or client’s best interest.  It’s not ‘innovation’, it’s ‘look at the problem from a different angle’.  Articulating values as verbs gives a clear idea of how to act in any situation.  We can hold each other accountable to them, measure them, or even build incentives around them.  

 

Values should be easy to remember.  They should be limited in number (no more than 10 initially, which will later be reduced to circa 5).  Circulate initial values to a wider audience in the company for their views.  Make it clear that these are initial thoughts and additional suggestions are welcome.  You are looking for other concepts (commitments) and possible changes to existing concepts.  

 

After a few weeks, re-look at the values and the concepts, and seek to refine them into a handful of values.  At this stage, take the views of the senior management team from across the organisation.  It is essential that they ‘buy in’ to the proposed values.  Senior management has to be involved in the final decision.  The values define the organisation, and everyone will be held to the same standards.  

 

Embedding Your Values

 

Company values are meaningless unless they are shared and adopted by everyone in the company and drive the way you operate.  Everyone must operate to these standards, and key decisions must be guided by the values.  To create a value-based company culture:

 

• Interview and hire according to the core values.  The best strategy is to vet employees from the very beginning to see if their core values align with those of the company.

 

• Train around those values. Employee training should do more than simply state the company values.  Employees should work through hypothetical situations to internalise what the company’s values are and how they affect decision making.

 

• Discipline employees who do not honour the values, and reward those who do.  The most effective way to ensure company values are being practiced is when you recognise and reward employees who follow them and discipline employees who fail to do so.

 

• Evaluate performance in accordance with core values.  Performance reviews should be closely tied to how your employees exemplified the company’s values in their work.

 

• Model behaviours.  Managers and executives need to model the company’s core values in every decision and interaction.

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