You promise to prioritize employee wellness, cultivate diversity, inclusion, and equity, and support continued learning, but are you acting on your promises?
Though company values are built with the purest of intentions, it’s easy to deprioritize these promises to react to the “fire drills” that fall on your desk day in and day out. However, it’s time to break out of this habit, because letting values fall to the wayside may be why you’re losing your top talent.
According to Achievers Workforce Institute data, employees who say their companies align their decisions, actions, and communications to their values are nine times more likely to be highly committed to their jobs. Today, employees are demanding more from their organizations, especially when it comes to cultural alignment, and they’re not taking values washing lightly.
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Leaders, are you guilty of value washing – or, in other words, manipulating a brand’s image via empty words (without fundamentally changing how the company operates)? Here are three tactics to help align your actions to your words, squashing insincerity and building cultural alignment:
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Communicate
Values-aligned behavior starts with openly communicating exactly what the core organizational values are – across every level and department. To create a consistent employee experience that feels sincere everyone must understand and align on how the company communicates, whether you’re a frontline manager or senior leader.
Knowing how to communicate your company culture and why it matters is essential. That’s why it’s important to consider your culture throughout the entirety of the employee lifecycle, from defining your employee value proposition (EVP) in your job descriptions to highlighting your mission in every exit interview.
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Recognize
Recognition is often a chain reaction—those who are recognized are likely to recognize others. That’s why recognizing values-aligned behavior is the cornerstone of sustainable cultural alignment. Recognition is a results accelerator, reinforcing the right behaviors, actions, and values to improve or maintain culture and performance. Employees, especially leaders, should have a list of the values handy when sending out recognitions, praising people for emulating company values in their work.
Almost all (96%) effective recognition programs align their categories to their company values. Because recognition is a critical behavior-driving tool, recognize behaviors that align with your values – not just a team member’s hard work on a specific project. For instance, if work-life balance and employee wellbeing are core values for your organization, recognize that team member who takes lunch every day or a mental health day off.
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Take Action
Lastly, every decision the organization makes should relate to the specific values outlined. From hiring to reducing your headcount, prioritizing your company values will help you come across as authentic and trustworthy – even when faced with tumultuous, difficult decisions. Those who report that their organization has strong cultural alignment are three times more likely than average to trust their company leaders.
Investing in collective success is possible by leveraging shared genius and promoting teamwork by embracing authentic, timely communication. As one team, more collaboration and co-creation will help the group as a whole to thrive.
Creating values is not a “one and done” exercise but should be regularly refined. If your values are getting stale, it’s time to look at where your culture stands today – and where you’d like it to go. By combining your actual and aspirational cultures, you can build sustainable values employees feel connected to and motivated by. An unstoppable organization can only be built on an unstoppable culture – let’s ensure yours is up to par.
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