Building a Happy Workplace requires that Employees Know and Live Your Company’s Core Values

What is a core value?  It’s the basis of how your company thinks and acts.  It guides your decision-making, selection of vendors and employees and dictates how you treat your customers.  It is the backbone of who you are and sets the standard for what you, as a company, represent.

  Award winning Happy Workplaces have strong core values and their employees know and live those values every day.  This sets them apart from companies who spend large amounts of time and money coming up with core values, only to hang them in offices where their employees ignore them.  How do you know if your company is among those whose employees know the core values? Do this:

Step One:  Employees

Invite a group of employees to lunch in a private room.  At the luncheon ask them to write the company’s values on a post-it note then have each person stick those notes on a shared board. Hold a discussion around the results pinned on the board.  Then spend time discussing your company’s actual values from those on the board and add any that were missed.  Once everyone’s on the same page, have each person take a different value and how they’ve seen it “in action” at work.

For example, if respect for one another is a value, are employees demonstrating it through good teamwork, even helping each other out when not prompted to do so?  What actions are they taking to demonstrate that they value their coworker?

Step Two:  Leaders

Ask another question:  “Are our leaders living those values?  Are they “walking the talk?”  For example, if one of the values is commitment to our people do leaders have an open door policy?  What would happen if an employee needed help with an issue and walked into their leader’s office late Friday afternoon just as the leader was preparing to leave?  Would they get an audience?  If you find there is a disconnect and your leaders are not living the values, then implement step three.

Step Three:  Leaders are accountable to their employees 

Are your leaders held accountable for the morale of their workgroups?  A proven way to ensure leaders stay on task with this area is to build it into their performance measurement.  A good 360 degree review is also an excellent source to ensure leaders understand what their employees are thinking and feeling and get them back on track with any disconnect.

Without values, companies flounder.  Take a lesson from award-winning companies like Southwest Airlines, David Weekley Homes, and Briggs & Veselka, who have all been recognized as top employers.  In each company you will find their core values alive and well.  Join the enlightened companies who realize that having strong core values that their employees both know and live by pays big dividends in better customer service, higher productivity, a better bottom line and Happy employees.

Years ago as the Director of Employment for Southwest Airlines I tried to explain to a community what “hire for attitude train for skill” meant.  They were fixated on the skills and couldn’t quite grasp the attitude element.  So one day I invited them to come to our headquarters to acquaint them with us.  Throughout the day we brought different departments in to explain how we hire, how we train and how we communicate.  Ultimately, it was the last exercise of the day that got them to truly understand what we meant.

They were allowed, for one hour, to roam our hallways and talk to anyone they wanted.  At the end of the hour we reconvened and they were so excited.  “We get it!” they excitedly exclaimed.  Everyone we met loves this company.  They were so nice.  They took the time to talk to us, walked us around and answered all our questions…totally unsolicited!  We understand now what the attitude of “nice” and “going above and beyond” looks like.  Try that same exercise with your customers.  See what values in action they see and experience during their own walkabout.

By determining if the values are both understood and then being followed on a daily basis by both employees and leaders, you can begin to reinforce those values. You’ll be joining the highly successful companies who understand that identifying and living up to strong corporate values are a huge competitive advantage and your bottom line will improve.

Lorraine Grubbs is an author, speaker and business consultant helping companies create "Happy Workplaces".  Learn more about her work at www.lorrainegrubbs.com