You Have Values – Now What?
So, you’ve sat down and gone through all the things that matter to you, you’ve brainstormed, you’ve included all the people who matter, you’ve added your values to your website and marketing materials. Now what?
The things is values don’t live on a paper or a website alone. Having them up in a prominent place for your team and customers to see them is all well and good, but if that’s all you are doing to them, you’re resigning them to the bin. There was no point to creating them in the first place. Sticking them on a wall, doesn’t make you live and work by your values – it just makes a pretty display.
Make them count
Examining every part of your business processes and seeing how you can include your values is a really valuable – and eye-opening – exercise. Here are some examples of how you can live and breathe your values.
Advertise your values
But don’t just create a list and be done with it. Tell people, your employees, your customers, and your suppliers why they are important to you. It can be as simple as creating a PDF document on your website and in leaflet form and regularly written about in blogs. Take a leaf out of Xero’s book too and include it in your annual report.
Share them
Share your values with customers and suppliers whenever you can. Of course, don’t go around forcing your ideals on people, but people will appreciate your caring attitude. It can be quite catching!
Include values as part of your recruitment process
You can add them to the advertisement by stating the qualities you want from potential applicants, so they will know in advance if their values align with yours. In job ads put the qualities of people you are looking for to that match those values. They can also be part of the interviews by having questions or conversations centred on your values.
Include them in training
It doesn’t have to stop after the interviews either. You have included training on the values of the company when you have new recruits. They can then be used to assess and support all your staff if you have given them the chance to learn about how you want to run the company. Make it a meaningful discussion too – include your team in creating and discussing values, especially ones that they find challenging, so you can either support them or improve your values.
Make decisions with your values in mind
Ask yourself, “does this decision pass the values test?”. It could be choosing new recruits or suppliers or making a decision on a recommendation.
Don’t be afraid to talk about your values
It may seem awkward to talk about values at first. Let’s face it, it can be difficult to talk about emotive subjects. But the more times you have it as part of your vocabulary, the easier it is to have them embedded in everything you do.
Use them when you work with the services that support you
Make sure your business advisors and accountants for example know and are in alignment with your values and they can readily support them. That way your working relationships will be a lot smoother.
Want to know more about adding values to your company. Contact us today.
