It is reassuring to hear that talking about culture, values and behaviour is no longer taboo! It now appears to be okay to discuss what is sometimes referred to as the ‘softer’ side of the workforce business. However, in our experience it is the most challenging but if embraced can make the difference between ‘getting by’ and ‘being world class’.
Considering the impact on bottom line performance, why then is it not embraced as readily within organisations? This may be fear of the unknown as opening your soul in any organisation takes courage, conviction and a real will to want the best for the organisation, the customer and the people.
How then do you decide core values for an organisation? In our experience, the best way is to engage the workforce to ascertain what their core values are. You will find synergy at every level of the organisation in relation to what individual core values are. You may find some surprises in their too which may lead to the deployment of a different strategy that more clear aligns with what you workforce are telling you. You need to be open, listen to understand and be prepared to change.
You also need to be willing to refresh core values as you recruit new staff with their own core values which may change the whole dynamic of what your workforce needs!
Having the values on shiny posters dotted around the place is not how you embed them, you need to examine how you embed into all HR processes but you also need to support staff to bring them to life for themselves. Ask people, for example, what does ‘respect’ as one of our values mean to you personally, your team, your department, what do you hear people saying, see people doing and how do you feel when you experience that value being lived by others and personally.
Value based decisions lead to wellbeing in us all.