Practicing Core Values Will Improve Your Bottom Line
No doubt about it. Defining, setting and practicing strong, positive company values demands relentlessly examining your actions to make sure you're walking your talk.
The results of actively practicing what you preach are well worth the effort—more than 20 years worth of research clearly shows that companies enjoy the greatest long-term success when they define and consistently practice positive core values throughout the company.
If you discovered that a friend who told you he values honesty had lied to you, you'd stop trusting him. The same thing happens when employees see that the values they hear management state aren't supported by the actions management takes. They stop trusting management. Morale, performance and productivity drop. Turnover increases as disillusioned employees find jobs elsewhere. Customers, sensing that they are in some way being lied to, become dissatisfied and begin spending their money elsewhere.
Let's say that one of your stated company values is helping employees achieve a balance between work and life. Do you schedule work hours and time off with that value in mind, doing your best to be sure that employees have the time off when they need it for family, school and other activities? That's walking your talk.
If supporting family life is a value, do you support it with paid family leave when employees need to care for an ill parent, child, spouse or domestic partner, or bond with a new child? That's walking your talk. (Federal law provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave. In July, California will become the first state to offer workers paid family leave by allowing them to receive 55% of their salaries, to a maximum of $728 per week, for up to six weeks,)
Is taking a day off from work every week a company value? Chick Fila thinks so. Its stores are closed on Sundays. By walking its talk, the company tells employees that it cares about people, not just about selling chicken sandwiches.
Living your values may sound expensive, and sometimes it is. But not living them is morally and financially devastating.
Getting all employees to express company values takes a lot more than putting your values list on the company bulletin board or a wallet card. Employees have to see managers and executives expressing values every day.
Are honesty and open communication company values? Encourage employees to bring problems to management attention. When they do, make sure managers listen courteously and are helpful.
Don't limit performance reviews to managers reviewing employees. Ask employees to review how well or poorly managers are performing. Provide them with a way to do this anonymously.
Strong values are a cause for celebration. Celebrate them every day by recognizing people who express them. Rewards for walking the company talk don't have to be costly. They can be something as simple as publicly acknowledging an employee who expressed your value of good customer service by handling a difficult customer pleasantly and well.
Take the following seven steps:
- Identify your company's core values and describe them using clear, simple language
- Communicate your values company-wide; put them in your employee handbook, post them on the company bulletin board, include them in business cards and ads
- Build your values into vital systems such as recruiting and hiring, managing performance and developing leadership
- Make it clear, beginning with the hiring process, that you hold all employees accountable for acting in accordance with these values
- Look for opportunities to reinforce your words about values with actions that demonstrate them; seize every opportunity that appears
- Gain employees' support through actions that support your values such as asking them to provide anonymous frank feedback about how well those in charge express company values in the day-to-day work life
- Celebrate employees who express company values by publicly recognizing them and providing an appropriate reward
As I pointed out earlier, the bottom line is impressively clear. Companies that clearly define and communicate their core values, infuse their values at every level of employment and reward employees for living those values benefit by improved levels of employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity. They also increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and are better able to make effective changes and weather economic problems.