The concept of corporate culture has been a hot topic among executives since long before the onset of the global pandemic. When Jeff Weiner, the former CEO of LinkedIn who was once named Entrepreneur of the Year, first joined LinkedIn, he met with his leadership team to discuss exactly what corporate culture would look like for the social media giant.
“I sat down with the leadership team, and we started talking about the kind of organization we wanted to be a part of and what kind of personality we collectively believe that the company should be manifesting and espousing.” – Jeff Weiner, former CEO, LinkedIn
While creating a well-defined corporate culture is certainly important in building a strong business, the pandemic has also demonstrated that the sands beneath a corporate culture are constantly shifting. New speed bumps will always line the road ahead and affect how corporate culture plays out, both in the short term and in the longer run.
Although corporate culture may be ever-shifting, it can still provide a strong direction for the business as long as that culture is guided by the company’s Core Values.
These non-changing values ask the question: “What are the consistent, accepted behaviors of your team members?” and are one of the most important drivers of a successful team.
At PFD Group, our company culture is guided by a central manifesto that consists of three main elements, our Core Values, our Core Purpose, and our BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals.)
Before all else, our Core Values – grow to give, create value, communicate proactively, invest in our team and community, and be the confidant–drive everything we do and inform how we communicate to the world. They remain unchangeable no matter what challenges face us on any given day.
The Importance of Actively, Specifically Living Out the Core Values
Are Core Values really that important?
History is full of companies not exemplifying their Core Values. Wells Fargo listed “ethics” among its Core Values while employees created thousands of fake accounts. United Airlines, whose flight crew famously dragged a bloodied passenger off a plane, listed “we fly friendly” among its Core Values.
This disconnect between Core Values and employee actions isn’t that uncommon. A recent MIT Sloan Management Review study found “there is no correlation between the cultural values a company emphasizes in its published statements and how well the company lives up to those values in the eyes of employees. “
Core Values do matter says the study. It is just a matter of closing the gap between “official values and cultural reality.”
“As a first step, leaders can communicate corporate values more effectively by providing concrete guidance on desired behavior, ensuring their organizational values are distinctive, and linking them to outcomes that matter to employees.” –MIT Sloan Management Review
It isn’t that Core Values are unimportant, but rather that they are useless if the CEO isn’t actively engaged in exemplifying these values and creating a space where employees can safely live out these values as well.
“Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall. We have the power, by living the values, to build the culture.”
– Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb
Ensuring employees are aware of–and fit–the company’s values requires leaders to consistently live their Core Values and to regularly communicate them to employees.
Core Values Should Serve as a Magnet for Recruiting
Once a business has activated its set of well-defined Core Values, these values can serve as an excellent recruitment tool, especially in these modern times when employees are seeking greater personal fulfillment from their employment.
An Edelman study calls this new type of employee, “belief-driven employees who are motivated not just by salaries and benefits, but also social impact and personal values.”
“The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) now looks like a tripod, balanced on the traditional enticements of pay and career advancement, a newer focus on employee well-being, with flexible hours and remote work, and now an employer commitment to act for good on society’s biggest challenges. Employers must stand up every leg of this tripod if they want to win and retain the activated employee.”
The Edelman study found people are increasingly selecting work options that align with their personal beliefs. Six in 10 of the people studied said they “choose, leave, avoid or consider employers based upon their values and beliefs.”
With up to 60 percent of the workforce now seeking employment that fulfills their personal values, companies with strong Core Values stand to attract the best of the best among these belief-driven employees.
Coach for Performance, Not For Core Values
In a previous article on our site, The Ethics of Hiring Well, we detailed the importance of hiring people to match your organization's Core Values. In the words of Verne Harnish, author of Scaling Up, hiring well boils down to one important question: “Would you enthusiastically rehire everyone knowing what you know today?”
Hiring and retaining these A-Level employees can save frustration on the part of the supervisor and the employee when it comes to coaching the employee’s performance, as it requires less emphasis on encouraging the employee to “change their behavior.”
Change isn’t easy, and behavior change will almost never come about in response to a performance review. “...change must start with a deep, personal, intrinsic motivator. A company cannot educate behavior change,” said Lowinn Kibbey, global head of the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute.
When the behavior is already aligned with the company values, it leaves the employee the space to focus on their performance metrics and allows the supervisor to focus on measuring performance, rather than trying to fix bad behavior. The alignment also provides employees with a workplace that allows them to thrive.
Finding and hiring employees who are already aligned to the company’s Core Values means supervisors can focus on measuring performance against company-set performance metrics.
If you’d like to learn more about aligning your business Core Values with your hiring principles, we would love to support you and your senior team. Please reach out to us to schedule a call.