Are Your Company’s Current Core Values Still Relevant In The New Normal?
Innovation. Collaboration. Passion. Too often company’s values are defined by these rather “generic” North Stars that most companies would want included as part of their cultural and brand definitions. But values such as those are now table stakes. It’s a new day, and time for companies to deeply examine who they are, who they want to be, and the behaviors that will get them there. In the New Normal, will your brand shine or cling to the old way of doing things at the risk of getting left behind?
It is not uncommon for companies to not revisit their vision, mission, or values for decades. In fact, you don’t have to go far to find a lobby with the company vision and mission – what they aspire to be and what they exist to do – literally etched in stone. There is something to be said for an evergreen, foundational vision and mission that help to steadily steer the ship, as they ground us in why the company was started in the first place.
However, Core Values – what is important to us, how we show up every day to our workplace for employees, customers, and community – should be tied very closely to behaviors. Values guide behavior and, therefore, should be reviewed and refreshed more frequently. Can companies use this time of health, economic, social, and individual uncertainty and change to propel their organizational cultures to a better place? Companies whose values don’t include diversity, inclusion, and sustainability to name a few, risk being perceived as a dinosaur, pedantic, and bureaucratic; they risk the ability to attract the next generation; they risk extinction.
What do a few of these New Normal Core Values look like?
Diversity: Do your leaders, managers, boards and teams represent equal opportunity, equity, dignity and respect? Are you hiring with diversity top of mind?
Inclusion: Do you applaud ideas and feedback from outside your direct teams? Do you encourage and value a variety of opinions from every level and every type of job within your organization?
Sustainability: Do you care about your organization’s impact on the environment? Is it living in harmony with the planet? Do you provide time for volunteering in the community? Do you reward recycling, for example?
So how do you know whether or not your company’s Core Values are working for you? Ask the C -Suite, HR, Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and others the following:
Are your employees satisfied with their work environment? How do you know?
Are you successfully attracting desired talent?
Was the process for developing your company values inclusive? Why, or why not?
Is your company narrative and messaging tied to your values?
If not, then it sounds like it may be time for you to take a hard look at your culture, before you, your company, and your brand get left in the dust. There is no better time to look deeply within and to reinvent yourself then now.
Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how our organizational change management consultants can help your organization reexamine who you are and who you want to be.
A special thanks to Carolyn Hudson, Internal Communications, Employee Engagement and Culture Transformation consultant, for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog.