Keeping hold of company values as the business grows
We often hear business founders talk about “company values”, but it’s crucial that every employee understands the relevance and importance of those words if they’re to stand the test of time.
More than just a trendy ‘buzzword’, values are what shape the company’s decisions, culture and behaviours. In short, they carve out an organisation’s identity.
But as companies grow and new employees come on board, business leaders have to be careful that their values remain at the core of the business. If they are reduced to a few words on a company website or in a company handbook that gets dusted off now and then, their importance will be seriously diminished.
Bringing values to life
We often get asked how to bring values to life and the only way companies can truly achieve this is if every member of staff lives and breathes them.
Companies should take the time to regularly share with staff what the values mean to the organisation, the wider impact and the importance of staying true to those values as the business grows. And they need to make sure they’re not just words plucked out of thin air as some type of marketing tool. They must have true meaning to the business and its mission.
In an increasingly competitive world, it’s becoming more and more important that companies are authentic. Employees want to come to work with a sense of purpose and know their contribution makes a difference, so it’s vital they connect to the company values. It shouldn’t be a matter of telling people how to behave; values should be a collaborative process, where everyone has a shared vision from the moment they come on board. Values may have originally been crafted by the business founder or senior management, but they are not owned by a select few people - values are an everyone thing.
Communicate, communicate, communicate
The key is communication; values should be a core part of the entire business process from recruitment and hiring to onboarding, feedback and appraisals. They should also be brought alive in team meetings.
A great way of ensuring values stay relevant is to regularly bring employees together and ask them what the company values continue to mean to them and what they believe the company stands for. Then link those values to behaviours so that all employees see how their actions reflect those principles.
We have seen companies hold ‘values weeks’ where they devote time to ensuring their values are truly understood and upheld. Offering awards to employees who have represented a particular value can be a great way to highlight their importance and show appreciation.
If employees share common values and vision, they are much more likely to build a stronger, happier culture which has a positive impact on both their performance and productivity. The proof is in the pudding; nearly three-fifths (58%) of companies with a well-communicated, understood sense of purpose experienced over 10% growth, compared to just 42% of companies that don’t make purpose a priority.
Revisit your values
As the business grows, it becomes especially important that business leaders revisit why they started the business, the mission and what it stands for to make sure their values remain relevant.
It doesn’t send out a good message to completely overhaul values every few years, but it is worth making sure they’re still appropriate and easy for employees to align themselves to.
Values should be motivational and inspirational and importantly, they should be kept simple. While there is no magic number when it comes to values, no one wants to remember a long list of different words and phrases as they’ll quickly lose their impact.
Values are particularly important within the creative industry, where so much of what we do is based on ‘brand.’ Having a brand that stands the test of time, and which employees truly believe in, will give companies a competitive advantage and make them much more attractive to both potential employees and clients.
“A third of employees did not feel their company’s core values aligned with their personal values, and 19% said they either didn’t understand their core values or simply didn’t know what they were.”