How to Promote Core Values in the Workplace - UPDATED 2023 | A Complete Guide

In this aritlce we explain How to Promote Core Values in the Workplace, and why its important to any organisation in 2023. 

To successfully instill these values throughout your organization, it's imperative to seamlessly integrate them into every facet of your employee-related processes. This encompasses aspects such as the hiring process, the design of performance management systems, criteria for promotions and rewards, and even policies related to dismissals. 

Taking the initiative to carefully align your core values with the day-to-day operations of your business ensures that employees are well-informed about the behaviors management values and why they are integral to the overall success of your organization.

Nurturing your organization's core principles among your team members remains pivotal for a positive work environment. While sending enthusiastic responses to this article remains a voluntary act, it's appreciated (to some extent).

We previously guided you in crafting or refining your work culture. The overwhelming volume of authentic praise we got in return has inspired us to delve back into this subject. No need for incentives for such genuine commendation!

Here we stand, prepared to guide you in the subsequent phase - fostering your values among your colleagues. 

No stress, correct? …Right?

It's widely acknowledged by half of the business leaders that a strong culture influences productivity, profitability, and growth.

Next, we explore strategies to align your core values with your staff, a critical aspect for your organizational ethos and the work environment you cultivate.

The Importance of Workplace Values

Your workplace values serve as the fundamental principles that hold significant importance in the way you approach your work. 

These deeply ingrained principles act as a compass, helping you distinguish between right and wrong ways of working. 

They play a pivotal role in guiding crucial decisions and influencing career choices throughout your professional journey.

Here are some examples of workplace values include:

1. Being Accountable:
   • Taking responsibility for one's actions and decisions, and being answerable for the outcomes.
2. Making a Difference:
   • Striving to have a positive impact and contribute meaningfully to the betterment of a situation, project, or the organization as a whole.
3. Focusing on Detail:
   • Paying close attention to specifics and ensuring thoroughness in tasks to achieve accuracy and precision.
4. Delivering Quality:
   • Consistently producing work and results of high standards, meeting or exceeding expectations.
5. Being Honest:
   • Upholding the virtue of truthfulness, sincerity, and transparency in all communications and actions.
6. Keeping Promises:
   • Fulfilling commitments made to others and honoring agreements to maintain trust and reliability.
7. Being Reliable:
   • Demonstrating consistency and dependability in fulfilling responsibilities and obligations.
8. Being Positive:
   • Cultivating an optimistic outlook, contributing to a constructive and encouraging atmosphere.
9. Meeting Deadlines:
   • Adhering to specified timeframes and ensuring that tasks and projects are completed within established deadlines.
10. Being a Great Team Member:
    • Collaborating effectively with others, displaying teamwork, and contributing positively to group dynamics.
11. Respecting Company Policy and Rules:
    • Adhering to the established guidelines, regulations, and protocols set by the company.
12. Showing Tolerance:
    • Demonstrating understanding, patience, and acceptance toward diverse perspectives, ideas, and individuals.

Alignment of values contributes to the organization's ability to fulfill its core mission by establishing a shared purpose. When values are not aligned, individuals may work towards divergent goals, harbor different intentions, and yield varied outcomes. 

This misalignment has the potential to harm work relationships, hinder productivity, impact job satisfaction, and limit creative potential.​

How to Identify Your Core Workplace Values

​Before delving into identifying the values of others, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of your own values. Ask yourself: is meeting project deadlines paramount, or do you prioritize delivering exceptional work? Once you've established your core values, you'll be better equipped to recognize and appreciate the values of others.

Engage in conversations with your most respected team members to gauge their perspectives on workplace values. Ask them to brainstorm values they believe are prevalent among high-performing individuals. Document these values on a whiteboard or flip chart for collective viewing.

After brainstorming, work together to narrow down the list to the five most important workplace values. If reaching consensus proves challenging, consider utilizing the Modified Borda Count method.

Next, explore how these values manifest in everyday work practices. How do team members bring these values to life? What strategies can be implemented to encourage more of these value-driven behaviors?

Engage in one-on-one conversations with team members to gain deeper insights into their workplace values. Guide them in exploring their beliefs and values, or simply observe their actions. For instance, a team member might express valuing teamwork, but it's those who willingly stay late to assist colleagues who truly embody this value.

Organizational values hold equal importance to team and individual values. These values are often outlined in employee handbooks or accessible on intranet sites. 

Additionally, organizational values can be discerned by observing workplace dynamics and examining the company's actions over time.

What are the 5 core values?

How to write core values

Writing core values involves articulating the fundamental principles and beliefs that guide an organization's behavior and decision-making. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to write core values:

1. Reflect on Organizational Identity:
   • Consider the identity and purpose of your organization. What principles are integral to its mission and vision? Reflect on the organization's culture and long-term goals.
2. Engage Stakeholders:
   • Involve key stakeholders, including employees, leaders, and other relevant parties, in the process. Gather input and insights to ensure a diverse perspective on the values that matter most.
3. Identify Key Values:
   • Distill the essential values that align with the organization's mission and resonate with stakeholders. Focus on a concise set of values that encapsulate the organization's ethos.
4. Use Clear and Concise Language:
   • Express each core value using clear and concise language. Avoid jargon or complex terminology to ensure universal understanding across the organization.
5. Prioritize Impact:
   • Prioritize values that will have a meaningful impact on the organization's culture, decision-making, and relationships. Choose values that will stand the test of time and remain relevant as the organization evolves.
6. Ensure Measurability:
   • Craft values that are measurable and observable. This allows for easier evaluation of adherence and integration into day-to-day operations.
7. Connect Values to Behaviors:
   • Provide concrete examples or behaviors that illustrate each core value. This helps employees understand how the values translate into actions within the workplace.
8. Consider Organizational Aspirations:
   • Factor in where the organization aspires to be in the future. The core values should align with long-term goals and contribute to the overall vision.
9. Seek Feedback:
   • Share the drafted core values with stakeholders for feedback. Ensure that the values resonate with the team and are perceived as authentic representations of the organization's identity.
10. Finalize and Communicate:
    • Once feedback is incorporated, finalize the core values. Communicate them clearly and consistently to all members of the organization. Incorporate the values into onboarding materials, internal communications, and other relevant channels.
11. Live the Values:
    • Encourage leaders and employees to embody the core values in their daily work. Foster a culture where the values are not just words on paper but principles actively practiced by everyone in the organization.

Remember that core values serve as a guiding compass for the organization, influencing its culture, decision-making, and relationships. Regularly revisit and assess the relevance of these values to ensure they continue to align with the evolving nature of the organization. 

9 Strategies for Fostering Important Values in the Workplace 

When your company's foundational principles are clear, it's crucial to animate them throughout your business. This is how you can foster important values in the workplace:  

Step 1 – Initiate with the Leadership ​

Encouraging your staff to support values not fully embraced by the leadership can diminish trust in management and render the values superficial. A workplace where values seem as generic as slogans on inspirational feline artwork is undesirable.

Begin by consulting every leader and department head regarding the fundamental values and their relevance in their specific departmental context.

Organize sessions to immerse your leaders in these core values. An illustrative query could be "Our value of ____________ signifies that our team ____________".

Encourage them to present concrete instances where their team members have exemplified these values.

Such sessions double as excellent team-building opportunities and a method to vivify your values, enabling leaders to identify tangible examples in their teams.

Conduct these sessions with senior management, department heads, and team leaders — all who oversee a team.

Visible representation of these values in the leadership is equally vital. For instance, if diversity is a core value, it should be evident in your senior management team. If prioritizing employee well-being is a value, choose department heads who regard staff welfare as paramount. (And, naturally, exhibiting humanity and empathy is always recommended.)

Step 2 – Pinpoint Instances Where Business Activities Reflect Your Values 

Finalizing step one is a prerequisite for this stage. It depends significantly on the commitment from your senior leaders, department heads, and team supervisors, coupled with their skill in discerning your core values in practical scenarios.

Likely, a team member or an entire group has already exemplified a key value, embodying the very essence of one of these principles.

Consider an instance.

Suppose "personal accountability" is a foundational value, fostering a culture where individuals take charge of their responsibilities and leaders trust their teams for exceptional performance.

You or another leader might have observed an employee identifying a problem. Although it wasn't in their formal role description, they didn't simply escalate it. Instead, they inquired, collaborated with colleagues, and kept their superior informed, finding a solution through their initiative. Simultaneously, they manifested another value, "collaboration." This individual exemplifies how your core values manifest in action.

Urge all managers to initiate recognition initiatives, seeking such illustrations. These need not be limited to individual efforts; they could encompass projects or processes that enhance your company's values. Perhaps it's an entire team demonstrating these principles collectively.

An essential subsequent action is to celebrate individuals or initiatives that bring these values to fruition. This could be through rewards or perhaps a company-wide acknowledgment. Ensure clarity in these recognitions, highlighting how the actions or projects align with your values.

Platforms like AgilityPortal facilitate team-wide acknowledgments, resembling social media interfaces, allowing effortless shout-outs. Such recognition on an internal network can foster interactions like likes, comments, and shares.

The more engagement a shout-out receives, the more it motivates others to participate. Encourage everyone in the organization to engage in these recognition schemes, identifying and celebrating stellar examples of your values in action as a collective.

Step 3 – Recruit Suitable Candidates 

​At this juncture, your leadership team grasps the essence of your values, and the entire organization knows their practical application.

The subsequent phase involves recruiting individuals who embody these values.

Incorporate your core values explicitly in job listings. This might necessitate redrafting them – a worthwhile effort for the sake of aligning new recruits with your organizational ethos.

Consider, for example, "creativity" as a key value. Your aim would be to attract candidates who showcase innovative thinking and aren't hesitant to occasionally diverge from their defined roles.

You could encounter a candidate whose efficiency is remarkable, yet they rely heavily on established procedures and may not be comfortable with autonomous decision-making. Despite their qualifications, they may struggle in an environment where creativity supersedes strict adherence to procedures.

Conversely, if your value centers on "data-driven decision-making," this same candidate might be an ideal match.

Craft your interview questions to reflect these values. Don't hesitate to discuss them with prospective employees, inquiring about how they've previously embodied these principles.

Honesty and clarity are vital in the recruitment process. Recruiting individuals who don't resonate with your core values can lead to dissatisfaction and a high turnover rate. Prioritize alignment with your organizational values to ensure a harmonious and enduring workplace culture.

Step 4 – Reflect Your Values in Onboarding Procedures

It is standard to include business values in the hiring process, but it takes more than just saying them out loud to really have an effect on new employees. Not only should these values be stated, but they should also be fully explained in terms of what they mean and how they are used in the company.

Use the way you've learned in management workshops. Show new workers how these values are used in the real world of work by giving them real-life examples. This helps them see that these principles are not just abstract ideas, but are actually very important to how things work every day.

Change these models so that they work for different types of jobs. New employees should think about how these values can fit into the tasks and responsibilities they have been given. Personalization at this level in the training process helps to teach these principles from the start.

You might also want to use this value-based method to teach your current staff. This kind of ongoing training makes sure that long-term employees stay in touch with the company culture and fit in with how it's changing. This is very important to keep workers who have been with the company for a long time from feeling disconnected or unimportant.

Going over and promoting company ideals on a regular basis helps make the workplace more united and welcoming. It makes sure that everyone on the team, no matter how long they've been there, understands and contributes to the organization's culture. 

This all-around and welcoming method of hiring and training staff makes sure that the company's values are deeply ingrained and shown regularly at all levels of the business.

Step 5 – Revise Your Performance Evaluation Approach

You don't have to completely change your current performance review method to focus only on business values in order to take this one step toward better performance reviews. It's important to remember that there are other important business goals that need your full attention and are just as important for success.

To keep things fair, you should include at least one Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that shows a key company value. For instance, if your company values "adaptability" and you have an employee who usually does the same thing, push them to learn a new skill that is related to their job. After that, this could become part of their usual duties.

This method has two benefits: it helps the company by creating a more flexible workforce, and it helps the employee grow personally and improve their skills.

It's very important that these KPIs, or success measures, are clear and measurable. It's possible that vague goals like "show adaptability" won't work unless the employee in question already has this skill.

If the employee is okay with it, you might want to show the rest of the team some great examples of how core values have been shown. In addition to recognizing and appreciating the work of people, this sets an example for other team members to follow. Sharing wins helps to reinforce the company's values across the whole business, which makes people more likely to act in similar ways in their own jobs.

Platforms such as AgilityPortal provide an opportunity for employers to publicly acknowledge these achievements, enabling other employees to engage with likes, comments, and shares. This practice fosters a culture of recognition and shared values across the organization.

Step 6 – Evaluate Your Internal Communication Content

​Company communications typically encompass diverse forms, including:

• Email newsletters
• Visual posters
• Group meetings and team-building activities
• Managerial toolkits
• Decorative elements in workspaces
• Digital notices on company intranets

Your company's core ideals should be woven into all of its internal communications in a way that is both subtle and clear. Even if these ideals aren't always stated directly, they should be clear from the message that's being sent.

Start by taking a close look at all of your present internal communication tools. Make sure they are clear and consistent, and that they reflect at least one of the organization's core ideals. This step is very important to make sure that the message on all platforms is consistent and fits with the company's values.

Get your artistic team involved with this. With everyone's help, make a list of standard messages that fit with the goals of your company. It's easier to stick to the same story in all forms of internal communication when you have a list of pre-approved, value-aligned messages on hand. This method makes it much less likely that people will misunderstand or be confused about what the group stands for.

By using this approach, you can be sure that the company's core values aren't just words on a page, but are actually shown in all internal communications. 

This action makes the company's beliefs real for every worker by making them a part of everyday life.

Step 7 – Initiate Value-Centric Activities

​At this point, most members of your organization are likely well-versed in the aspirational values and mission of the company.

To deeply embed these values into your corporate culture, the subsequent move is to animate them in everyday operations through strategies aimed at engaging employees.

Motivate your staff to contribute to highlighting organizational values, either through recommended activities or their innovative ideas.

For instance, if your company hosts regular internal podcasts, an employee might propose conducting a series of interviews focusing on colleagues who exemplify these values.

Consider organizing competitions that invite narratives showcasing your cultural values.

Beyond engagement initiatives, it's crucial to ensure that these core values are reflected in your policies and operational procedures. When formulating a new procedure, ponder its contribution to your values.

Crucially, foster a sense of ownership among your employees. Encourage them to interpret and apply your value statements in a manner that aligns with their perspectives. Resilient core values should be versatile enough for diverse interpretations and applications.

Step 8 – Promote Open Feedback

​In every business, there are workers who are skeptical or not interested in their work. It's better to have positive conversations with people who have these views than to ignore them. Their unique points of view can give us important information that we might miss otherwise.

Start short, regular polls about the company's core ideals to get a feel for what's going on in the business. Ask for feedback from all staff members, but pay extra attention to those who might not normally say what they think.

Getting this done must be easy for everyone. Make sure that these polls are easy for all workers, no matter what area or job they are in, to access and fill out. This openness is necessary to get a full picture of how employees feel across the whole company.

Utilize tools like AgilityPortal that make it easy to make and send these polls through an employee involvement platform. People who use these kinds of tools are known to participate a lot more. In fact, a spokesperson at Agility Online Ltd says that up to 96% of people are now actively participating. This high level of involvement shows that the platform is good at reaching and keeping a broad workforce interested.

With these tactics in place, you can make sure that every employee feels heard and appreciated. This not only helps find places to improve, but it also encourages a mindset of openness and growth all the time.

Step 9 – Maintain Openness and Clarity

It's usual for companies to set core ideals but then have trouble putting them into practice in their daily team exchanges. Actively living out these beliefs at work is important for creating a good company culture and getting employees more involved.

Talking about these principles in an open and honest way is important. Allow open conversations to happen and encourage workers to share their ideas and experiences linked to these ideals.

When an employee questions whether or not a value is real, it's important to fully understand their point of view. Often, the problem isn't with the value itself, but with how it's understood or used at work, whether that's through company rules, specific processes, or the actions of coworkers.

Encourage a work environment where your ideals are clearly understood at all levels of the company. Ask leaders to talk about these ideals in their everyday conversations. This shows the team that talking about and living by core values is normal, which makes the workplace more open and focused on values.

Remember that the people in charge of a group often set the tone for its character. Leaders who talk about and live by these core values set a great example for their workers, showing them that these kinds of actions are not only acceptable but also necessary for their professional growth and the company's culture.

Tools to Foster Core Values

​Regularly discuss your core values and weave them into your employee engagement strategy.

Leveraging an employee engagement platform offers a straightforward method to connect with staff across different levels of your organization and stimulate discussions.

For instance, with AgilityPortal, you can link any update to a specific company value, ensuring it remains a constant element in your organization's digital environment. This approach is significantly more impactful than traditional methods like displaying values on a boardroom wall.

Interested in learning how AgilityPortal can enhance the promotion of core values within your company? Consider scheduling a demo with AgilityPortal to explore further.

Wrapping up 

It takes more than just identifying core values to successfully integrate them into a company; it needs a uniform and inclusive approach at all levels. Every step is important for integrating these values into the company culture, from customizing training and performance reviews to encouraging open conversations and using digital tools for feedback. 

Companies can build a more involved, unified, and value-driven workforce by engaging both new and long-term workers, pushing leaders to set a good example, and fixing any gaps between stated values and day-to-day operations. 

In the end, merging core values only works if they are consistently applied and everyone in the company is committed to them.