Having a clear set of values helps companies support their vision and shape their culture. It provides a strong sense of direction, fosters common purpose, and builds a powerful ideology for stakeholders to strive towards. In essence, it becomes an organisation’s DNA, enabling it to stand fiercely apart from competitors. And internally, inspiring all employees to be mindful of their actions, thoughts and beliefs. From improving departmental cohesion to enhancing team motivation, to eliciting higher productivity and retention rates, values can be regarded as the driving force of business goals.
But in for it to be effective, it must be understood.
Top management may have resonated with the organisation’s core values, having (mostly) chalked them out themselves, but what about the others? The secretaries, trainees, accountants, interns, peons, cleaning staff, lunch bearers and other personnel. It is vital to ensure that this comprehension and understanding trickles down the organisation to people at every level. After all, why bother having core values if nobody knows what they are, or what they stand for?
Businesses need to translate their philosophies into actionable competencies, and communicate them in a manner that is understandable to all – employees, shareholders, customers, supply chain partners, and the community. Only then will people know – “this is who we are”.
Process Marrying Principles
Every employee – executive leadership or entry-level – must align their actions to the company’s core values. This sense of accountability should come into play every time a decision is made, whether it is production, marketing or finance. As a result, employees are more likely to make the right decisions that help achieve the company’s targets and objectives. Simply because, they resound with the mission statement, share the same virtues, and believe in the integrity of the brand.
For Team Camu, the fundamental values include integrity, trust, respect, passion, collaboration and entrepreneurship. With designations, but no hierarchy, ambition but no internal competition, we create a happy workplace that excites, motivates and inspires everyone to work together.
Let us map out five easy ways in which you can reinforce and live your company values!
Create a culture deck to communicate and support values – By breaking down the company’s mission, vision and values through a visually-appealing culture deck, you are mapping out the ethos in a way that will be easily understood and remembered.
Introduce a peer-to-peer recognition system – By consistently acknowledging employees who exude and display company values every single day, you will be simultaneously encouraging other team members to mirror this action. Positive reinforcement through value-based rewards rarely fails.
Plan and schedule activities that align with values – If your core value is trust, why not have your employees perform the trust exercise in a circle. Or, if you want to propagate inclusivity, inculcate a yearly tradition of giving back to the community via a charity drive. Make sure these activities are relevant to each employee’s frame of reference.
Brand your values as a public asset – By being transparent about your values and culture, all stakeholders will feel a certain sense of responsibility to uphold these philosophies and beliefs. Additionally, this instils more trust within the organisation.
Leverage market research tools to garner employee feedback – By regularly checking in with staff, you can take informed steps to ingrain your values deeper into the organisation. A pulsing survey will help gather anonymous employee feedback to ascertain whether values are being met or not.
It is a fact; there is a clear link between living company values and accomplishing company goals. So, there is merit in grooming your employees to understand and act upon these principles.
Follow the steps mentioned above to ensure that everyone is on the right track!
