The Importance of Communicating Corporate Values

Communicating corporate values is an important and often overlooked component of the process.

If you don’t effectively communicate corporate values, employees may not understand what the company stands for and may not be as engaged or motivated to work for you. Values provide a guide for employees on how to behave in their roles. It can be used as a guiding principle for decision-making, both for leadership and support staff.

Customers also appreciate when a company has clear values. It can help them make decisions about whether or not to do business with you. If they know that your Business Aviation company has a clear focus on excellence in the areas that matter most to them, they may be more likely to trust you with their money and their time.

How to Communicate Corporate Values

Make sure that your corporate values are front and center on your website, in marketing materials, and in any communications that you send out. This helps to create a clear identity for your brand and from here, your customers know what to expect from you.

A clearly communicated set of values also gives your employees a greater sense of purpose. Likewise, attracting talent becomes easier because high-quality candidates will have lots of potential job offers to choose from and a clear set of corporate values helps them to decide which one to choose.

As leaders, it’s important to live your values and be an example for others to follow. This will show your employees and customers that you mean what you say. So, if you have stated that diversity is important to the company, it’s important to go beyond token messages on notable days like International Women’s Day. Instead, look at more substantive policies including supporting flexible working or return-to-work schemes for new parents.

There are a few key ways to communicate corporate values effectively:

Make it Memorable

Create a corporate values statement that is short, easy to understand and easy to remember.

Complicated and wordy corporate values statements can be hard for employees to follow and even harder for customers to understand. It is important to keep your values statement simple and easy to remember.

Live it Every Day

If you want your employees to take your corporate values seriously, you need to lead by example and live them every day. This means making sure that your management team is also following the values. If there are any discrepancies between what is preached and what is practiced, it will be difficult for employees to buy into the corporate values system.

Make sure that everyone in your company is aware of the corporate values and knows how to apply them in their day-to-day work. Teach employees about the history and meaning of the values, and how they can be used to make decisions. Create a company culture that is based on respect, integrity, and accountability, and see where it takes you! As an example, remember these principles should be your guide and be considered in all decision-making. Encourage employees to live the values every day. This can be done through training programs, posters, events, and other communications.

Reward Employees

Reward employees who demonstrate your corporate values in their work. One way to reward employees for demonstrating your corporate values is to give them a special designation or title. For example, you could create a “Values Ambassador” program and give employees who go above and beyond in living the company values special recognition.

You could also give employees who exhibit your corporate values financial incentives, such as a bonus or raise. Or, you could give them a gift card or other type of reward that is meaningful to them.

Whatever you do, make sure that employees know that you appreciate when they live your company values in their work. Thank them for their efforts, and let them know how their actions are positively impacting the company.

Integrate Values into the Employee Lifecycle

At every stage of the job, from hiring to promotion to leave-taking, we should be making decisions that reflect our company’s values. By integrating this into each stage of our employee lifecycle we ensure our new hires can easily make decisions in line with our values and are motivated and engaged to enable our success.

Make it Visible

Make sure your corporate values are front and center on your website, in marketing materials, and in any internal or external communications that you send out.

One easy way to make sure your corporate values are visible is to post them on your company website, in your office, and even print them on employee ID badges. This will help ensure that everyone who works for or does business with you is aware of what the company stands for.

What are your core values? Why do they matter? How do you communicate your corporate values to employees and customers? Let us know!

If you would like help in defining and communicating your corporate values, please get in touch at info@whiteorchidinsights.com