Who owns the values of a company? Should it be HR?

When values are genuinely reflected in the workplace they become a tangible part of a company’s DNA, says Matrix's HR director

It's never been more important for companies to have a clear set of values. Not only can it provide a mission and mantra to galvanise, inspire, and motivate the workforce, but it can also help set a business apart in a crowded marketplace both as a supplier and, just as importantly, as an employer.

More than ever, candidates are looking for businesses with a distinct set of values that align with their own and resonate with their beliefs. Failure to align means shrinking the available talent pool, which today amounts to commercial suicide.


Read more: Defining your organisational values


However, it’s not enough for an organisation’s vision and values to begin life in the marketing department and boardroom – and stay there. HR must spearhead the initiative to ensure these values are embedded throughout the entire employee lifecycle, becoming part of everyday language and practice. When values are genuinely reflected in job adverts, interviews, inductions, objective setting, recognition and training programmes, they cease to be mere 'nice words on the wall' and instead become a tangible part of the company’s DNA.

Bringing values to life

For values to truly define the essence of a business, they must be present in every aspect of how the company operates. This means that HR should lead the charge in ensuring that values are not just a set of statements but are lived and breathed daily by every employee. When team members consistently use the same language in their interactions, feedback, challenges, and celebrations, it's a clear sign that values are deeply ingrained.


Read more: Workplace culture: values matter


Defining vision and values in this way means they bear a direct relation to how a business operates. Simply sending them out to all staff, who’ve never been consulted, has more than a faint whiff of arrogance. Yet this frequently happens.

A company’s true vision and values are woven into the fabric of its people through how they work, the products and services they create and deliver, and how they build customer relationships. These values must be distilled, assessed, and embedded across the workforce. This change needs to be discussed closely with employees to ensure they buy into and support it.

Only then will it resonate, inspire and motivate, becoming projected into the marketplace as a vital differentiator in an increasingly competitive world. A vanilla statement about ethical values, commitment to collaboration, and putting customers first will have little impact either inside or outside the organisation, no matter how it’s dressed up with flowery prose.

HR leading the charge

HR can play a critical role in ensuring a company’s vision and values do what they say on the tin. As such, they form the essence of the brand, inspire the workforce to perform at its best, and turn customers into loyal advocates. Yes, it’s that important. HR should not just support the process, but actively lead it.

In many cases, the journey to an organisation’s vision and values starts with good intentions. For example, HR might be tasked with setting up focus groups to gauge the feeling on the ground. However, these should be more than a tick-box exercise to ‘validate’ statements already signed off by the senior team.

If employee engagement stops there and feedback is disregarded, then staff will see the situation for what it is. The people who are supposed to be projecting a company’s vision and values into the marketplace will struggle to embrace something that’s simply been dictated to them rather than giving them ownership. This renders the whole exercise pointless.

Common threads

As the beating heart of an organisation, the workforce should be leading the push towards an authentic vision and value set, not having this imposed on them. This starts with HR. Engage employees from the start by involving them in one-to-one interviews where they discuss their personal values and provide feedback on an initial list of company values. Finding common threads in this feedback can accelerate the process, creating an instant connection and buy-in across the workforce.

Once distilled, the prototype vision and values can then be presented, with feedback encouraged. If the prototype has been built around  staff's own vision and values, it should reflect values that are shared across the business, and it is more likely to be accepted and embraced.

It’s the workforce that should own the values of an organisation, not just marketing and the C-suite. But this should be driven by HR.

Once achieved, an entire business can be united behind a common belief system. This creates happier, more motivated people, who believe in what they do. They then bring this drive and passion to their day-to-day roles, proud of their work, and proud of their organisation. This not only improves performance and service levels, boosting the customer experience but also attracts new talent drawn by word of mouth and an inspiring culture.

Beyond the permanent

Importantly, a company’s vision and values should not stop at full-time employees. What about the growing temporary workforce that many businesses rely on for scalability and agility in response to changing customer demand? Where do they fit in?


Read more: Why values should drive decision-making


Quite simply, an authentic vision and value set presented effectively through HR upon their appointment will get them up to speed quickly on what an organisation is all about. Working alongside a permanent workforce that’s already firmly on board will accelerate their integration so that they too are able to embrace and project the culture where necessary.

Developing this sense of belonging will ensure that temporary workers are keen to return to the business when required. This will help create a dedicated pool of temporary talent already immersed in the culture, saving time, effort, and also driving consistency between the permanent and contingent workforce. Again, it’s HR that holds the key.

 

By Jodie Ratcliffe, HR director at Matrix