How To Create a Company Culture That Illustrates Your Core Values
Business values can heavily influence your brand identity and how outsiders view your company. It is therefore imperative that a company has very firm values and the same is embodied in all aspects of their business.
Values are individual belief systems that motivate people to act one way or another. They serve as a guide for human behaviour. Generally, people are predisposed to adopt the values that they are raised with. Some values have intrinsic worth, such as love, truth, and freedom. Others, such as ambition, responsibility, and courage, describe traits that are instrumental as a means to an end.
Much like individuals, organizations also need values directed towards a specific purpose, be it growth, development, or business success. These cannot be attained in the absence of a strong value-based organizational culture.
Why Culture Matters
Organisations are involved in making hundreds of decisions every day. The decisions they make are a reflection of their values and beliefs, directed towards a specific purpose — the satisfaction of organizational needs.
Successful organizations develop and follow their organizational values. For instance, Walt Disney is not just among the most recognizable brands in the world — they also are the kindest community on the planet. Disney extends the magical experience even to its employees as a part of the company’s culture.
“Unparalleled heritage, pride and culture, wonderful community, amazing growth opportunity, and a creative atmosphere sets them apart. Disney only hires people who align with what their brand stands for.”
— Disney Employee (via SurveySparrow)
Disney strives to make every place the happiest place to work and is compassionate towards each other. People can tell when their company cares for them — and in Disney’s case, employees care back!
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
— Peter Drucker
A work culture can absolutely be the deal-breaker or decisive factor when it comes to defining a company’s success. Great company culture doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s beyond the inspirational quotes on the pillar, glowing customer recommendations lining the walls, and bean bags on the floor. Great organizational culture is more than paychecks, fun, and perks.
How To Create a Culture Around Your Core Values
Company culture is a difficult concept to put into words but it is synonymous with your business environment. Good company culture takes years to develop, but there are some steps that you can take today to get this plan in motion:
1. Pin Down Your Core Values
First things first — you need strong core values to set up the base for your company’s culture. Your core values need to be established and ingrained in your company if you are to have a successful company culture. If your core values are not defined, there will be no culture.
In the absence of a defined culture, organizations usually form their own culture, which is not based on values and best practices. This can be detrimental to the business image in the long run.
“When I began my startup, I did not have any set values. Personally yes, I had a set of values I operated upon, but it didn’t seem necessary to establish company values at such an early stage. Eventually, my business grew and so did my team. I now started seeing the challenge of encouraging the team to make decisions based on the values I personally embody. This became an even bigger challenge with employees who operated remotely. I finally realized the importance of having set company values. But once I sat to actually pen down Moneyjar’s values, it didn’t take more than 15 mins.”
— Rohan Agarwal, Co-Founder, Moneyjar
To create your business values, think about your personal values and business objectives, and align them to match your workforce potential. Keep the ones that serve your indicators of success — and remember, your values should be tailor-made and should not be more than 3-4 in number.
2. Identify Behaviours That Demonstrate These Values
Once you have nailed down your core values, you must bring them into action. Sometimes organizations may be operating under unspoken core values — communicate them formally to the workforce and practise them daily. Daily reinforcement is the best way to form a habit.
Identify touchpoints to remind employees of these values. Everyday decisions like setting business hours, determining employee benefits, and internal communication reflect your culture. So, ingrain your values in these decisions from the start.
Establish Key Behavioural Indicators that demonstrate your core values. For instance, if your company has adopted “Going the extra mile to achieve customer satisfaction” as a core value, your employees must embody the same value.
“A mother together with her two children had spent a few days at the Ritz-Carlton on vacation, and when they got back home, her son discovered that his beloved stuffed giraffe, Joshie, had gone missing. The boy was devastated, so his parents told him that ‘Joshie is just taking an extra-long vacation at the resort.’ An attendant overheard this and took it upon himself to ensure they leave happy. That very same night, the Ritz-Carlton called to say they found Joshie. After a couple of days, the parents received a package with Joshie and a bunch of pictures that proved Joshie’s prolonged holiday.”
— Brand24 Blog, on Ritz-Carlton’s legendary customer service
3. Induct All Employees Into the Values
When bringing on new employees or when you update your company values, don’t skip onboarding and training. These are great opportunities for you to set the tone.
Talking about your core values periodically can help implement them in your corporate culture:
- Send out monthly newsletters that showcase employees who successfully follow your business’s values
- Bring up core values in goals meetings and determine whether you are reaching them
- Discuss core values during employee performance reviews
- Frame them and hang them on the wall for employees and customers to see
- Post them on your website, social media pages, and any other digital front
- Display them on video walls or television screens at the front of the office
4. Reward Employees Who Demonstrate the Values
So the values are set, the employees are inducted, and business is great! But is it enough to just establish a successful culture?
Employee Recognition plays an important role when it comes to building a company culture. Once values are set and employees strive to adhere to them, it becomes your responsibility to recognize these efforts and reward these behaviours.
Acknowledging and rewarding value-based behaviour encourages the employee to perpetuate this throughout their tenure. When these behaviours are rewarded, it creates an emotional connection between the employee and company — they achieve a state of synergy and eventually attain true employee engagement.
Today, employee recognition can be done digitally, which allows business owners to track individual performance and measure it against core values. Platforms like Buzzz allow peer-to-peer employee appreciation, where employees across departments and ranks appreciate and recognize fellow employees for demonstrating certain behaviours — creating a chain reaction of acknowledgement that drives a value-based culture.
Conclusion
Core values are beliefs your business must follow in all aspects of its operations — be it marketing, human resources, administration, and finance. They guide decision-making and define what your business stands for. But if you and your employees fail to uphold your core values, you could face bemused or disappointed customers.