What values are and why they’re important:
Do your employees know your company values and what they mean? Would they be able to recall them or easily recount stories which demonstrate them in action? If not, they may not be truly understood or lived within the organisation.
Values are the moral code which guides an organisation. They are a set of principles that reflect the ethics of the people in the organisation so that everyone can be held accountable to a consistent standard of behaviour (Coleman, 2022). They are more often than not thought of as how a company should operate at its natural best, rather than being purely inspirational (Sinek, Start With Why).
While most organisations have values, there often is a disconnection between these values are lived in organisations. A study from the workplace consultancy firm Gallup (2018) states that just 27% of employees strongly agree that they believe in their company’s values, and only 23% of employees strongly agree they can apply their organisation’s values to their work every day. What this tells us is that a brand’s values need to be relevant. Values should be simple, and while they don’t need to be completely original they should be distinct, meaningful, and memorable.
Strong values matter because they’re the bedrock of an organisation’s culture. A values-driven culture can fuel organisational growth and attract talent. Talented people want to work for organisations that have strong cultures, and employees who belong to fulfilling workplaces are more likely to serve as brand ambassadors to deliver compelling customer experiences.
How brands are expressing their values
Values have been typically thought of as one-worded nouns – think, honesty, integrity, innovation. Many of the world’s leading companies subscribe to this view, with one study finding that 55% of all Fortune 100 companies claim integrity is a core value, 49% espouse customer satisfaction, and 40% tout teamwork. Yet, while these inarguably are good qualities to have within any organisation, they do not provide a distinct blueprint for employee behaviour. In recent years, what we’ve seen is a move away from one-worded brand values into more action-orientated statements with more of a behavioural focus, making it easier for employees to connect and engage. As Simon Sinek laments, “The value isn’t ‘honesty’, the value is ‘tell the truth’, but if you have to write ‘honesty’ on your wall to remind you to do it, then you probably have bigger problems anyway”, or likewise, the value isn’t innovation. You can’t execute on innovation, it’s not an instruction. But you can tell people to ‘look at the problem from a different angle’.
Bringing your values to life
Values are there to be lived. There are numerous ways in which values can be brought to life and embedded into organisational cultures. One way to activate this is planning, hearing, believing and living it.
Planning it
Planning is cornerstone of any brand engagement program because it ensures that every action taken aligns with the brand’s strategic goals and long-term vision, and it aligns the efforts of all stakeholders towards a common goal. Planning is not only central to making time with the senior leaders to champion the programme, but who, how and when can train and champion the values through each department, and each facility. Many workforces are in working situations where they have little day-to-day communication, so it is key to plan how to reach everyone through the channels that they have access to.
Defining it
Creating the approach and platform to engage, listen and create the values is central to ensure they are meaningful, representative, and actionable. Build a diverse and broad team to build the inputs, stimulus and starting points to create initial values that reflect the collective input of the organisation. Ensure that there is also an ongoing collection of stories from around the organisation – these can help bring the values and associated behaviours to life for other employees. Once created these can be focused and refined.
Hearing it
Employees need to be informed about the brand’s mission, values, and goals. This involves clear communication from leadership about what the brand stands for. This is more than communication giving but inclusive onboarding through workshops and training sessions to give them the reasons, meaning and expectations on what our brand is, the values and why they are important.
Believing It:
Once employees are informed, they must develop a belief in the brand. This can be fostered through training and involvement in brand-related activities that resonate with their personal values. Having values front and centre is a must, reinforcing the values, examples in practice that make an emotional connection between each core value and all employees, and communicate these through making prominent in areas where employees can access them or congregate.
Living It:
Finally, employees should embody the brand in their daily actions. This requires integrating brand values into company culture and ensuring that employees feel empowered to represent the brand positively in their interactions with customers. Recognising and rewarding values-centric behaviours is important and how values can be integrated and achieved.
Sources:
https://hbr.org/2022/03/its-time-to-take-a-fresh-look-at-your-companys-values
https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtsteinhorst/2019/10/17/rethinking-the-value-of-core-values/
https://www.groovehq.com/blog/core-values
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/406418/company-values-words.aspx
https://www.groovehq.com/blog/core-values
https://www.fastcompany.com/90901044/13-ways-to-instill-your-brands-core-values-across-all-channels
https://www.loreal.com/en/group/culture-and-heritage/our-values-and-mindset/