Effectively creating or updating your company values.
Strong company values shape a company’s culture and act as guiding principle that unites all employees to work consistently and cohesively. When companies evolve, so should their values. Regularly revisiting your values is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity for a thriving company. As such, there is a need for a practical approach that can help organizations effectively shape their values. With over 25 years of experience in HR and having supported many companies in developing a strong set of core values, I offer a new and unique approach, the Hybrid Model, and a step-by-step guide on how to apply this method in your organization.
The importance of company values
It’s common knowledge that values are both fundamental and unique to each industry and that they act as powerful statements to support and uphold what is central to a company’s ethos. When Peter Drucker famously wrote ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’, he couldn’t be more right. You can have the best strategy in the world, but without a culture underpinning this, your strategy will be rendered useless.
Only through culture will your employees embrace the business strategy and implement it on a daily basis. I daresay we can take this notion even one step further because ‘Values eat culture for breakfast’. A flourishing culture cannot exist without clear values at its base, because they will help your employees understand what you stand for and shape the atmosphere on the work floor.
In addition, strong company values provide a much-needed sense of purpose, which young people now more than ever crave in their jobs. Meaningful employment can act as a motivator, giving people a reason to get out of bed in the morning. A clear purpose should be an essential part of your employer branding: not only to keep your current workforce engaged, but also to attract new up-and-coming employees in the ongoing ‘war for talent’.
So, how many core values should a company have? It’s about making the right choices, focusing on your priorities and choosing those values that will have the biggest impact on your intended strategic ambitions. Overall, 4 to 5 values are an ideal number to consistently guide people’s actions.
Why revisit your company values?
Simply ‘having’ a set of company values will not suffice, as it’s crucial to revisit them on a ‘regular’ basis. Why? Because times change, and so does your company. Mergers, acquisitions, new shareholders and leadership can inherently transform your company’s foundations, meaning your values need to evolve and adapt this change. Values should accurately reflect who you currently are as a company, as well as your aspirations for the future. They are inseparable from strategy and every time your business strategy is revised, your values will need to be updated.
Traditional approaches: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up
The two most frequently used methods to shape values in contemporary workplaces are the Top-Down and Bottom-Up approaches. Let's look at how they work, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
BOTTOM-UP
Creating values from the bottom up means that your values have been shaped by involving the entire organization. Employees at different levels within the company can have their say, either through surveys or workshops. All individual voices are heard, opinions can be listened to, and ideas brought together. This approach gives employees the opportunity to affect the way they work by voicing their opinion, but ultimately management will take the final decision in defining the set of core company values.
This inclusive approach can result in high employee engagement, and it can offer the opportunity to make people feel more empowered and connected to the company's goals. Employees will be more likely to work together to reach these goals. On the downside, the bottom-up process can be very complex and extremely time-consuming to implement. At the end of the ride there might always be some that feel discontent because 'their values' did not end up in the final list. Another risk is that people start mixing up their personal values with those of the company.
TOP-DOWN
In a top-down approach, values are defined at the highest level and then 'imposed' on the rest of the company. Executive management teams, stakeholders and HR often schedule a meeting to brainstorm for a few hours and come up with a set of values. These are then simply communicated to all employees.
The advantage of this approach is that it's an extremely fast process to implement with each value perfectly aligning with the company strategy. However, the limitations of a top-down approach outweigh the advantages. This approach is quickly considered authoritarian because it doesn't inspire employees or invite them to engage. When people simply get told what to do, they won't feel motivated to embrace and act on the values. However efficient, the top-down approach does not inspire connection, engagement or collaboration.
The solution? The Hybrid Model
I believe that the answer lies in bringing together the best of both worlds: a holistic approach that combines the benefits of the bottom-up and top-down models. That's why I created a hybrid model that combines the advantages of the traditional models into a straightforward and effective approach.
In the hybrid model, management will take the lead and provide direction but, at the same time they will actively involve a 'working group' comprised of a balanced blend of key employees: high-potentials and representatives with high seniority, experience and expertise, both blue and white collar. This 'working group' together with management should consist of around 15 to 20 people. Both management and this diverse group of representatives work together in a series of workshops to create and determine the new or renewed values.
BENEFITS OF THE HYBRID MODEL:
- Employees have a voice and feel acknowledged.
- Employees will support and embrace the company values, having had their say.
- The strong interaction and the dynamic between management team and employees can lead to new
and refreshing insights.
- The new values will accurately reflect the business strategy.
- It's a much faster approach than the bottom-up one.
- It's a holistic approach combining the benefits of traditional models, whilst providing a new simplistic
framework to explore company values.
5 Steps to applying the Hybrid Model
Step 1
Create a workshop where the management team and the selected employee group can work together. In the first workshop, the emphasis should be on understanding the company's strategy and on brainstorming about corresponding values. In about 4 hours you should end up with a provisional list of 10 to 12 values that accurately reflect your company's strategy. Many working groups choose to involve an external moderator, as they can smoothly manage this process.
Step 2
The second step would be to benchmark the values on your provisional list with the values of a peer group and industry leaders. In this exercise, management determines the 'peer group' and only one person (either a moderator or someone from management) does the actual benchmarking. Comparing your values to those of industry leaders or 'the champions' can serve as a great tool and help you to set apart and define your own individual company values.
Step 3
The person responsible for benchmarking the provisional list reports to management and makes recommendations on how to adjust the values on this list accordingly. Management can then validate and approve this definitive list of 10 to 12 values.
Step 4
Management and the selected employee working group reconvene in a second workshop to vote on this list of values. In a maximum of 2 hours, all values are debated, and everyone votes for their top 4.
Step 5
The results from the vote are evaluated and a list of the definitive top 4 core company values are drawn up. In case there is too much disagreement about the final 4, there's always the option of adding a fifth value. Management will always have the final say, and this is communicated at the outset of this model, ensuring all expectations are met.
A smooth start of the Value Journey
My hybrid model provides an easy-to-follow process and allows companies to really get to grips with creating these important values, which underpin and shape your company ethos. The hybrid model combines traditional ways of thinking and offers an innovative structured methodology, in which to create and manage your company values. It's a ‘simple and straightforward' way of creating strong core values.
Drawing up a list of company values is only the start of your exciting Value Journey. The next challenges are creating plenty of awareness around the new values and bringing them alive into everyday employee behavior. Once everyone has adopted the values into their individual and team working objectives, you will inevitably end up with a thriving and successful company culture.
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