If you’re like most organizations today, you’re struggling to attract, train, develop, promote, and retain great team members. Heck, you’re struggling to find and retain team members – regardless of how great they may be! You’re also dealing with a myriad of supply chain and pricing issues, social and political divisiveness, altered expectations of ‘the workplace’, and much more. All of these pressures make ‘just doing what you do’ a true challenge. So how do you attract, train, develop, promote, and retain great team members during crazy times? It comes down to one thing: Your organization’s culture and how well it aligns with the personal values of the team members you have or hope to have on your team. The more aligned your team members are with who you are and what you believe is important, the more likely you are to develop a company culture that enables your business and your team members to thrive.

The more aligned your team members are with who you are and what you believe is important, the more likely you are to develop a company culture that enables your business and your team members to thrive.

Qualtrics recently conducted a study and found that on average:

• 70% of employees who believe their personal values align with their company’s values are likely to refer to their employer as a great place to work (Now that’s great first-hand word of mouth advertising!)
• 72% of employees who believe their personal values align with their company’s values are likely to feel a sense of personal accomplishment in their work (They’re fulfilled by their work. They like it. They want to do more of it.)

Similarly, Gallup has found that on average:

• Employees whose values align with their employers’ values are 3.7 times more likely to be engaged with their work (They like it. They connect with it intellectually and emotionally.)
• Employees whose values align with their employers’ values are 5.2 times more likely to recommend their employer to their colleagues and friends (There’s nothing better than good people recommending good people to you!)
  and
• Employees whose values align with their employers’ values are 55% less likely to seek work elsewhere (You’re retaining people who WANT to stay with you because they ‘get’ you.)

So how do you create company values that help you develop a culture that will help you attract, train, develop, promote, and retain a great team? You do three things – and you take them seriously.

1. Identify and describe the company culture you want and need to maintain your relevance in the marketplace, but one that will also enable you and all team members to feel connected to it, aligned with its focus, and valued for what each contributes. (This may sound touchy-feely to some, but getting your company’s ‘tone and personality’ right, helps you shape the rest of your business and human capital strategies going forward.)You might identify descriptors such as: Innovative, Collaborative, Self-Starters, Trusting, Customer-Focused, and Profitable.
2. Determine the behaviors of team members (regardless of position) that would be needed, day in and day out, to make the desired company culture come alive. Capture these behaviors as actions.You could now take these descriptors and convert them into actionable behaviors for all team members:
   • Innovative => Be Innovative. Find Better Ways.
   • Collaborative = > Collaborate with Customers and Team Members for Win-Win Outcomes.
   • Self-Starters => Identify Opportunities. Don’t Wait. Be a Self-Starter.
   • Trusting => Be Trustworthy. Be Honest. Follow-Through.
   • Customer-Focused => Listen to, Identify How, and Support Customers in Ways That Make them Feel Better for Having Interacted with You.
   • Profitable => Eliminate Waste. Enhance Efficiencies. Increase Your Company’s Value (for an ESOP)

   These actions now become your company’s values. These are the non-negotiable behaviors that are expected of everyone (from the newest front-line hire to the CEO), day in and day out, that enable all of you to work well together and develop – and perpetuate – the company culture you want and need.

3. Communicate, model, and reinforce the values. Now that you’ve identified your core values, communicate them to all current and prospective employees. Put them on your website, make them a part of regular team meetings, training sessions, coaching and mentoring programs, performance management programs, etc. If they’re not a part of your daily lives, they’re not supporting your culture.As a leader, your team watches what you do, not just what you say, so it’s imperative that YOU are able to model every one of your company’s values. If you can’t, your values are not ready to be shared. Either you or your values need to change.

Finally, to become an organization your team members refer to as a great place to work or one that they’ll recommend to their family and friends, the values (i.e., behaviors) need to be upheld, reinforced, and well…valued for what they do for you. They provide you, as a leader, an objective list of behaviors you are expected to model, and that you are expected to ensure every team member models – every day – as well.

By reinforcing the values and holding everyone accountable to them, you create the pathway to develop the company culture you want and need. Your unique, desirable culture will be your key to success in helping you to attract, train, develop, promote, and retain a great team of people who want to and enjoy working with you!

Copyright MMXXII – Liz Weber, CMC, CSP – Weber Business Services, LLC – www.WBSLLC.com +1.717.597.8890

Liz supports clients with strategic and succession planning, as well as leadership training and executive coaching. Learn more about Liz on LinkedIn!