by David Pinto
What are Company values?
Our core values are what motivate and drive us. What is most important to us is represented by our core values.
They are life principles to which we adhere: our personal code of conduct. Values are not selected.
They are as unique as our fingerprints and are intrinsic to who we are.
Company values (also known as corporate values or shared values) are a set of guiding principles and fundamental beliefs.
They enable a group of people to work as a team to achieve common business goals and to dream big.
Core values are not just buzzwords; they should motivate people to take action. Everything you need to know to make your company's values a reality."
These values are frequently associated with business relationships, customer experience, and the growth of a company.
A company's core values can also be used to define company culture. In many ways, values and culture are interchangeable, and they're both about a company's loftier goals.
The end result is the DNA that is central to a company's identity. Therefore the core values impact employee satisfaction, employee's business perspective, and the overall employee experience.
Instead of just the leader or management, companies should try to establish their company values as a team and what their company stands for.
By doing so, everyone in the company will feel like they belong, that they are needed, and that they are not being ignored.
This will encourage engaged employees and provide a positive team spirit within the entire company.
Examples of company core values
Company values do not have to be unique; they should reflect what your company expects from itself and its employees.
Company core values examples:
Loyalty
Honesty
Trust
Ingenuity
Accountability
Simplicity
Respect
Value-centricity
Importance of having company values
A core set of company values and core philosophy, from a business standpoint, makes it easier for a company to make decisions, foster teamwork and help the entire workforce collaborate, quickly communicate principles to clients and customers, and hire employees with the right attitude.
Starting a business is similar to starting a community: if you want the community to function as a whole, you need a shared code/vision/identity/ethos, an organizational culture that governs who you invite in, and how the community functions as a whole.
If you don't own, define, and care about your community's values, they will evolve on their own, potentially harming your business.
Your company values play an important part in instilling a sense of responsibility in your employees because they reflect what you and your company stand for.
Company values make decision-making easier. It's easier to make decisions when everyone knows what's important (or not) to the organization. Values assist in the establishment of clear priorities; they make it easier to say "no" to things that do not align with their core beliefs. This will pursue growth and allow the company to provide valuable insights to both their employees and their customers.
Customers learn about you through your core values. When a company puts its beliefs into action, its partners and clients know what to expect (or not) when doing business with that company.
It is important to provide open and honest relationships with both employees and customers.
Indeed, every decision made by your employees should be consistent with the company values you've communicated to them.
As a result, core values can be found in every aspect of business decisions. Everything from operations, sales, and marketing to internal HR processes is covered.
Core values are also an essential component of company culture.
How to represent your company's core values
How do you communicate your company's core values internally?
Even the best-planned mission statements are useless if they are kept hidden and rarely discussed.
The company's core values must be on display, in the spotlight, for all to see.
That is what effective internal communication accomplishes. It consistently draws attention to strong company values through a steady cadence of reminders about what distinguishes the organization.
It also highlights examples of how the company is living those values, as we'll see.
Keep it brief. Your core value should be simple for your employees to remember and embody. Instead of writing an essay, consider the true meaning of your values. Reduce them to words that the average person can understand and follow.
Maintain your focus. Writing in ambiguous corporate jargon is perplexing and dilutes the meaning of your words. Values must be directly related to your company's goals and mission. They should be relevant to your company's products or services as well as its culture.
Address both internal and external objectives. Decisions made by a company have an impact on the employee experience, but they also have an impact on the outside world. It is dishonest to fail to consider how your company affects external groups. When you address how your company wishes to interact with the outside world, it gives employees hope and inspires trust in your customers. This will avoid actively disengaged employees.
Make them one-of-a-kind. Using the same values as another company, or worse, a competitor, makes your company appear ordinary. Consider what distinguishes your organization from others and focus on highlighting those aspects in your company values to attract the right customers and employees. Producing aspirational values that are unique will allow the company's culture to thrive and provide success.
Leaders need to focus on building a company culture that aligns with company core values, as making values the basis of organizational culture should be a priority of any business looking to motivate its employees or achieve collective success.
Standard communication tools of core company values
Email
Intranet
Company website
All hands meetings/town halls
Digital signage
Printed posters/signs
Mailers/newsletters
Collaboration systems
You should communicate your company's core values to your employees as well as your external stakeholders.
This ensures that everyone is on board, from your employees who are willing to go above and beyond for your company to your customers who are proud to be a part of your community.
Every day at work, your company values and mission statement should be visible, and they should be an integral part of your internal communication strategy.
It is important that all employees understand the company goals and core company values.
This is how you can foster synergy, foster commitment, champion diversity, and boost employee engagement at your workplace.
The company's core values may sometimes emerge as a natural extension of your company's overall mission, and the core values represent a culture that already exists.
The founders of the Patagonia clothing brand, for example, aimed to create clothing with a low environmental impact, and their core values of eco-friendly sustainability came to reflect that mission statement.
The problem with core values
Most organizations have a major problem with their core values and company culture. They fail to meet the standards set by their executives.
Most values are meaningless.
Approaching your culture by simply listing some inspiring (and politically correct) values will not help your organization.
It will be difficult for people to bring your core values and company culture to life if they do not understand or remember what you stand for.
It’s not just about coming up with your values. It’s about living them.
As your company grows, the core values need to evolve, too. Perhaps some of the values established early on no longer define how your people should act today.
Perhaps society has changed, and the words or beliefs must be updated to reflect those changes. The company values important five years ago may not be as important nowadays.
