With values in place, employees have a shared understanding of how they are expected to behave and engage with each other. They are more aligned, have a stronger sense of belonging, and an enhanced employee experience. In this article, we explore how to meaningfully integrate company values across employee experience touchpoints.
A values-driven Culture
HBR cites three elements of company culture: behaviors, systems, and practices. All of these elements are underpinned by a set of values, meaning when a company establishes its values and specifies the virtues (or the behaviors associated with the values), it establishes a critical part of the employee experience; company culture.
For example, if one of the company values is compassion and the leader espouses it, their actions will permeate across the organization. A leader may regularly have intentional check-ins with their team, which will inspire employees to do the same with each other. Eventually, this leads to a culture where employees exhibit compassion in their work and interactions, making the value a tangible part of the employee experience.
Values-based Recognition
Employee recognition is a major contributor to a positive employee experience. Beyond performance, companies can implement programs to encourage employees to recognize each other for espousing the values. This can be a shout out in a dedicated Slack channel, or adopting a tool like Nectar which has a specific values-based recognition feature.
Recognition not only increases employee engagement, but it also keeps employees more motivated to continue living out the values, and identify them in action. This has a positive impact on retention and performance, and according to Gallup, companies that make employee recognition a priority have workers who are 56% less likely to look for a new job.
Rituals to bring values to life
Designing and implementing rituals to reinforce and celebrate company values is one way to meaningfully engage employees around the values. At Cosmic Centaurs, excellence is one of our company values, and we have rituals to bring this to life. For example, we host retrospective meetings at the end of every month or after closing a big project to collect feedback and learn from our experience. We are diligent about scheduling them, and we use the input to improve our work, striving for better outcomes each and every time.
Having values-based rituals helps employees feel a deeper sense of belonging to the organization, and they establish behaviors that reinforce the company’s culture, leading to a better employee experience.
There are many EX touchpoints through which we can integrate values. From recruitment to onboarding, to upskilling and L&D, values can be built into various aspects of the employee journey to align and engage individuals at all levels of the organization. If you need help (re)establishing your values, or exploring new ways to bring them to life across your EX, book a 1-on-1 consultation with us today.