Corporate values: how to create and use?
How do corporate values work in companies?
Does your company seriously think about the formulation and implementation of corporate values? Do you want your values to be accepted by employees and used by them in their work? "Vision Trainings" company provides full consulting support in the creation, formulation and implementation of values in the corporate culture of the organization.
What are corporate values in organizations for? Where does corporate culture come from? Many young companies, at the stage of their rapid growth, were faced with the fact that either they take control of the formation of corporate culture in their own hands, or the culture is formed by itself, just as informal values arise in any team that everyone adheres to.
Does your company seriously think about the formulation and implementation of corporate values? Do you want your values to be accepted by employees and used by them in their work? Vision Trainings provides full consulting support in the creation, formulation and implementation of values in the corporate culture of the organization.
How much do corporate values need in organizations? Where does corporate culture come from? Many young companies, at the stage of their rapid growth, were faced with the fact that either they take control of the formation of corporate culture in their own hands, or the culture is formed by itself, just as informal values arise in any team that everyone adheres to.
What are corporate values?
There is the following definition of the concept of “Corporate values”: these are the rules and principles adopted and shared by all members of the organization that determine the relationship of the organization’s employees both with each other and with the external environment (its customers, suppliers, partners, media and the state). Corporate values are created on the basis of the Strategic Vision of the organization, and are intended to help the company and its staff concentrate all efforts on the realization of their mission and on the realization of their Mission.
Corporate values of the company are fundamental and unchanging (created for a long period of time), and are more permanent in nature than the organization’s strategy or its organizational structure. Of course, everything can change in life. But if a company abandons its Mission and corporate values, then most often it means the disappearance or complete transformation of the organization. (“We realized that we had chosen the wrong Mission ....” or “We now share other corporate values” - such fundamental features of the organization cannot be changed at one time). While the organization’s strategy can be adjusted and revised much more often if managers find a better way to achieve the organization’s strategic goals (for example, achieve the same, but in a different way).
How do corporate values work?
When a company has a clear Strategic Vision of its own future, which is shared by all managers and employees, then it becomes necessary to be able to focus on a common cause, even in a situation where it seems that neighboring units are engaged in some unknown other tasks . Each unit in the organization is responsible for its contribution to translating the Strategic Vision into reality.
Imagine that some employees work with full dedication, while others pursue only their local goals. Such internal sabotage can often be found in companies with a low level of corporate culture. But when you want to be firmly convinced that having done your work as qualitatively as possible, you can count on the same result from another unit, then you cannot do without some common value that would help you unite your interests. Such corporate value, in some companies is Trust!
Employees of the company who share this value will never cover the actions of those employees who did something contrary to generally accepted corporate values. And on the other hand, relying on Trust as a corporate value, they will openly share information and provide their colleagues with all the necessary support, because they understand and realize that "we are all in the same boat." Corporate values work there when it is necessary to make important decisions, allocate company resources, accept or fire employees, and resolve disputes with customers and suppliers.
All situations should not be prescribed in job descriptions, and in the provisions on interaction between departments. Therefore, it is corporate values that are the measure that can be taken as the basis of a decision. If the decision that you are going to make corresponds to the corporate values of your company, if it brings your organization closer to achieving its Strategic Vision, then you are doing everything right. Otherwise, decisions that run counter to corporate values will sooner or later lead to negative results that affect the work of all other employees.
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A set of corporate values determines the culture and character of the organization itself. And just as the Vision and Mission of the company are unique, the corporate values of companies cannot be the same. The existing corporate culture allows suitable employees for it to immediately feel at home, "at ease", in a group of enthusiastic like-minded people. And on the contrary, no matter how valuable the employee is, if he is not close to or does not like the existing values and principles of the company, then he will be tormented by internal contradictions, and will not be able to realize his talent in this organization at 100%.
Organizations of the future will be radically different from those companies that exist in the markets now. In the same way, the steel industry in England differs, for example, from the British representation of Google. Attitude to people, functional responsibilities, jobs, principles of leadership, all this is being transformed thanks to new technologies and new approaches of modern management.
Linear structures will separate and disappear, and they will be replaced by matrix teams, mobile offices, project teams and communities of people united by common interests and common corporate values. Values and ideology are now coming to the fore! Employees do not want only money, they want to participate in the creation of something Great! And at the same time, they want to work in an organization that would attract them with its corporate values, which they are ready to subscribe to as if it were theirs! Either the organization offers people worthy corporate values, or it finds itself in the fading, the turnover of the best personnel, and ultimately in death! Such will be the world of the future! Its signs are already beginning to appear now, and the mission of «Vision Trainings» is to contribute to its speedy advance! Be with us!
Diagnostics of corporate values
Many of our clients ask themselves: “What if our company has formal corporate values, but nobody follows them?”, “What if we do not have and have never formulated corporate values?”, “Can I change existing corporate values? ” Each of these tasks requires a separate approach. Indeed, even if corporate values in a company exist only on paper, in fact, every day many employees have to be guided by some principles that help to unite common efforts to achieve a common result. Corporate values of an organization are of two types: formal and informal.
If formal corporate values are not accepted by the majority of employees (for example, such values as: Proactivity, Open Relations, Mutual Respect), then informal corporate values come to the forefront (for example, such as Visibility, Closure, Internal corporate struggle, Competition for resources).
Very often, the presence of informal values in the organization is a great revelation for the top management of the company. After all, looking at the organization from the top level, it is often simply not visible what values and principles guide average management, and even more so ordinary employees. To detect such gaps, there are special tools for strategic diagnostics of corporate values of the organization, which help to understand what principles the employees actually follow and to identify their main patterns. After the current situation becomes extremely clear, and the management has a complete picture of actual corporate values, you can proceed to the next stage of work, namely the creation (updating), the formulation of new corporate values of your company.
Corporate Values Creation Algorithm
For the effective creation of corporate values of an organization, it is necessary to do the following stages of work (independently or with the help of business consultants), and only by going through all the points of the algorithm for creating corporate values, you can be firmly convinced that the new values of the company will work and not remain forgotten in two weeks:
Stage 1. Diagnostics of current corporate values
Stage 2. Analysis of the company's strategic vision and mission
Stage 3. Analysis of the strategic goals of the company
Stage 4. Analysis and assessment of key competencies of the company
Stage 5. Creating an expanded list of possible corporate values based on the Vision, Mission, Strategic goals and Key competencies of the company.
Stage 6. Attracting staff from different levels to work with a list of possible values.
Stage 7. Strategic session for the formation of the final list of corporate values.
Stage 8. Transfer of each corporate value to a level of behavior (What exactly needs to be done to be, for example, “Client-oriented”? What actions should be taken to be Proactive in your work? And so on)
Stage 9. Approval of the final list of corporate values decomposed into a level of behavior.
Stage 10. The longest and most difficult - Involving company personnel in the awareness, acceptance and adherence to corporate values of the organization. The most difficult thing is that what is presented to people from outside takes root. If you have a small organization, then it is better to attract as many employees as possible to work on corporate values. If the scale of the organization is more than 50-100 people, representatives of all levels of the organization should be involved in this work, and rely on the most experienced employees who are “opinion leaders” for their colleagues
"Vision Trainings" company provides services for the application of the algorithm for creating corporate values, both as a whole and as part of individual stages. If desired, representatives of top management, and with the support of experts from the personnel service, many of these steps can be done independently, and attract consultants only when finalizing the list of corporate values.
Application of corporate values in business
What is primary goal or value? If the goals of the company are at the forefront, is it worth it to achieve them at all costs? Or are there values that are more important to you than achieving goals? Making a million dollars more important than leaving consumers more satisfied? Each company itself answers this question.
Some declare beautiful values, and easily sacrifice them for the sake of their profit. Such companies are doomed in the long run! Remember, consumers are vindictive! Others would rather donate part of the profit, but in disputes with customers, they will make a decision based on their values. And to such organizations, customers will come back again and again!
Therefore, it cannot be said that corporate values should be completely based on corporate goals, because values are the link between the Vision and the Mission of the company, and its strategy. If the company's mission is to deceive consumers, then any list of beautiful values that they still will not follow is enough for them.
Of course, no organization will write that "Our Mission and the reason for our existence is to deceive consumers in the most sophisticated ways, and to improve this key competence," but in fact there are a lot of such companies, and their actions in relation to consumers , especially with their terms of service - they show that they are doing just that!
When developing corporate values, it is important to remember that they should be directed both inside the organization and outside (should affect what is inside and what is outside), namely: the values of the company itself, the principles of its work with partners, its relationship with customers and staff, its development principles. Therefore, working on a list of corporate values, it is necessary to look at us from different angles of view, trying on the positions of various managers and employees of the organization, and also ask questions:
- Why and why should we follow these values?
- Why is it profitable for me as an employee to follow these values?
- What will happen if you do not follow these values?
- How will this or that value be taken into account when making decisions?
- How to behave in accordance with a particular value?
In many companies, employees are financially and non-financially motivated only for achieving a result (sales volume, volume of work, number of processed orders). In the case of introducing a system of corporate values, it is also necessary to apply motivation methods to those employees who, by their behavior, have demonstrated compliance with any of the corporate values of the company (for example, did more for the client than they should, prevented a possible conflict, in case of a critical situation, took responsibility and found a solution, etc.)
To train employees on how to use orientation on corporate values in their work is best done using the most striking examples of the manifestation of corporate values. Such examples need to be found from life, and to raise the experience of resolving various situations, conflicts, or vice versa, achieving victories and beyond results (to find thanks to what values it was possible). To compare the viability of your corporate values, we give you examples of how values are spelled out in well-known organizations.
And remember, the implementation of corporate values in the minds of employees, and fixing them at the level of behavior is possible only through the involvement mechanism, through group work or through training on corporate values, which you can order in our company.
Still have questions about corporate values? Do you want to work with corporate values of your company? Ask us a question, or contact our experts!
Start work on your company's corporate values today, and the results from the fact that your employees will be inspired to follow new corporate values will not take long!
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