Does your company walk the talk when it comes to recognizing corporate values and have mechanisms in place to reward employees that demonstrate the values?

If your company is like most, you’ve spent a lot of time, money and energy to identify your core corporate values. What has happened since the corporate values have been identified? Are they articulated on the corporate web site and in the employee manual or on a plaque in reception but if you ask an employee to recite them, they’d be dumbstruck? Can the CEO and other top executives articulate clearly what each value means and what behaviours demonstrate the values? Can the Line or Hiring Managers articulate the behaviours? Can the HR Department? Are performance reviews and other programs designed with the values in mind?

Some examples of effective verses ineffective behaviours:

Corporate Value: Team Work

Effective Behaviour: Gathers information from a number of departments and sources to base decisions on a comprehensive perspective.

Ineffective Behaviour: Relies on a limited or narrow source of information and ignores input from other functional units to formulate strategy.

Corporate Value: Innovation

Effective Behaviour: Redesigns work flow based on changes in market, operational needs and resource limitations.

Ineffective Behaviour: Sticks with tried and true methods without consideration of changes that impact the efficiency of the procedure.

Corporate Value: Communication

Effective Behaviour: Shares information 360 degrees - to peers, subordinates and superiors.

Ineffective Behaviour: Hoards information.

Corporate Value: Honesty

Effective Behaviour: Demonstrated respect for a customer by listening to their needs and giving an honest appraisal of the company’s ability to meet their needs.

Ineffective Behaviour: Tells customers that we can meet their needs at all costs before determining if the company has the products or services that will meet and exceed customer needs and expectations.

Corporate Value: Respect

Effective Behaviour: Ongoing interest in learning about other cultures and lifestyles and actively supports initiatives to increase diversity in the workplace

Ineffective Behaviour: Hires with a racial bias and/or demonstrates intolerance to cultural diversity.

If your company isn’t crystal clear on what behaviours demonstrate the corporate values then you have wasted resources on determining your values. Instead, if a company does the next step, i.e. articulates the values in terms of the behaviours (both effective and ineffective) that demonstrate each value, then other processes and systems can be developed around these definitions. For example:

• Behaviour based interview questions can be developed to ask candidates for scenarios that demonstrate the effective behaviour
• Incentive programs can be developed that reward employees for demonstrating the values in their work
• Leadership development and other training initiatives can be focused on tools and techniques to increase the demonstration and recognition of the corporate values
• Compensation structures, particularly bonus payout criteria can be linked to demonstration of the values in addition to hitting productivity targets.
• Performance reviews can be designed to evaluate demonstration of the values

If you have comments or suggestions on this article, please start a discussion

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