Most organisation’s core values are deeply integrated into their culture and outcomes. Communicating and promoting these values is key in creating a positive environment of engaged team members with an aligned purpose.
In the best cases, new team members you bring on board may already be familiar with your organisation’s core values through your employer brand, messaging and brand image. But there’s more you can do.
Here are tips from members of Forbes Human Resource Council.
Integrate values into your interview process
“Start by discussing the company culture early in the hiring process when engaging candidates and continuously talk about and exhibit it through the interview process. When they come aboard, make discussing the culture a key part of the first-day onboarding process. Then ensure their manager takes a lead in exhibiting the culture during their continuous onboarding so those behaviours become natural.” – James Banares, Valimail
Introduce values early, and repeat
Don’t delay introducing and emphasising your organisation’s core values throughout the recruitment process, carrying it through to their onboarding, and continuing to promote your values through employer branding and internal communications.
Continue to repeat this messaging across internal communication channels to reaffirm your mission, vision and purpose. Articulate and reinforce your values in one-one-one sessions, team meetings and organisational events.
Connect their first responsibilities to your values
“Engage new hires in your values right away. Tie the values to everything that they do in their first few weeks. For example, if they are assigned their first project, explain how that contributes to the organization’s mission and how it exemplifies the values.” – Lotus Buckner, NCH
Harness the power of events
Events are a great way to share and promote your values through presentations and activities. If your organisation participates in community or charity-fundraising initiatives, it’s great to articulate how your participation ties in with your values.
Use training and online learning
A Learning Management System (LMS) empowers your people to learn at their own pace and revisit content if they need to. Integrate values into your training and online learning modules.
“If one of your core values is “No Arrogance,” the online training module will have a situational question to evaluate how an employee responds to arrogance or how they treat others when they hold powerful positions. Whether they get the answer right or wrong, the core value is explained through a video of the CEO explaining why it is so important to the company’s culture.” – Abhijeet Narvekar, The FerVID Group
Repetition and reinforcement
Reinforce your values in training tools, handouts, marketing, signage and other visal displays.
Showcase people in your organisation who have embodied your values through awards and recognition.
Storytelling
“There’s nothing more important than immersing new hires in your culture and values. Make day one memorable by putting the paperwork aside. Have a senior leader highlight their favourite value, followed by a discussion. Stories stick, so rather than just defining the values, describe a time when your values helped the company make a hard decision. Have people write down what the values mean to them.” – Mikaela Kiner, Reverb
Your organisational values are a core part of your brand identity and service capabilities. Promoting your values to your new hires will ensure success for both them, and your organisation as a whole. Incorporate your values so they naturally integrate into your recruitment and HR function, everyday communication, training, awards, events and more.
Source
10 ways to successfully introduce new hires to your company’s core values
Forbes Human Resources Council
Forbes