core values and behaviours 3 – Living and demonstrating them.
So we have defined our core values and behaviours, written them up shared them as signs on noticeboards and they are on the website and facebook, linked, twitter, insta etc, Then we just get on with business as usual…NO What you just created is a WORN document, Written Once, Read Never. So the values and behaviours you worked so hard to produce just get ignored. There is a next step, a really important step, that is to translate the values and behaviours into behaviours that are easy to understand by your employees.
There are 6 easy ways to communicate the core values and behaviours to every member staff, lets get on with it.
Sorry but you have to live these values you can’t just tell people.
Talk about values and behaviours
Whilst 70% of employee agreed that their companies had performed well said their executive management team speaks to them often about the values and behaviours associated with the culture of the company. Its “observational learning” that makes the difference. We learn by observing others. Therefore, it is important for us and others in our organisation that have influence, to live the values so that others can learn.
Integrate your values into new employees’ induction training program. Have a story for each value chosen and what your organisation expects in terms of behaviours related to the values. 88% of employees who know their values and behaviours say they are engaged with the organisation, which means you are more likely to retain them, compared to 54% who did not know any of their company’s values and behaviours.
Don’t just recruit on competency. Recruit people who already have your values. This point is linked to the Competency Iceberg model which demonstrates that 20% of an individual is mostly the technical competencies i.e. education, work experience, whereas 80% (the hidden/below the surface of an iceberg) is all about the essence of the individual i.e. values, beliefs and feelings. You can always always train a person to do a job but its a lot harder to train a person on your values.
Objectives
79% of employees say recognition tied to values and behaviours gave them a stronger sense of company goals and objectives. Rather than employee of the month for hitting targets, you look for Employee of the month exemplifying our values and behaviours and get staff to vote for them. It might equally be something quarterly or yearly.
Performance Management is key and Incorporating values and behaviours as part of your performance management process is essential. Those values and behaviours should in some way be measurable.
Reviewing people based on values is interrelated with rewarding people for demonstrating the values. So supervisors need to watch for these values and behaviours and demonstrate how they are recognised. In other words its useless to have a value of accountability or openness if no one knows how you demonstrate this.
So by clearly communicating and integrating our values and behaviours with the processes such as recruitment and performance management, we can increase employee engagement which in turn leads to higher productivity and reduced turnover.
Whats not to like?
