I love my job as a writer; don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day, its still a job with a cycle to it. I have a lot of other value-filled things placed above it, like my loved ones, exercise, travel, filming, a cup of coffee, or my mom’s hot jellof rice. But over the course of my stay at my workplace, I discovered that there are some ways to make a job feel more meaningful and humanly, and it all boils down to company values.
In addition to having wonderful colleagues and engaging projects, company values can guide team members towards a shared objective and unite groups around a larger purpose. So if you want to learn more about this term and how it can help both your employees and clients, then stick with me.
Key Point
- Company values are defined as guiding principles that outline an organization’s vision, mission, and core beliefs, fostering unity and a shared purpose among employees.
- Clear and concise company values enhance employee alignment, making work more meaningful and increasing job satisfaction.
- Effective values should be actionable, memorable, and unique, directly reflecting the organization’s culture and goals.
- Embedding values through consistent communication, hiring practices, and leadership example ensures long-term adoption and impact.
What are Company Values?
A company’s core values are incredibly important in establishing a human workplace. In my opinion, a company’s core values can also pass as clearly defined principles that outline the organization’s vision, mission, and guiding beliefs. This approach ensures that everyone is united by a common philosophy aimed at serving employees, customers, and the wider community.
This can also serve as a definition of company culture. Values and culture are closely related in many respects. Both focus on the elevated goals of a company. The outcome represents the DNA that is essential to a company’s identity.
To make sure that everyone grasps those ambitions, effective internal communication is essential. Many companies mistakenly believe that their workforce understands what is most important. Just because there’s a statement on a wall, website, or in a handbook doesn’t mean employees actually understand the message. Even I myself do not.
So a consistent and straightforward delivery of information is essential to support those principles.
Why are Company Values Important?
Like I mentioned earlier, many organizations possess a mission statement. It could be displayed on a wall in the corporate office lobby, close to the HR department, or used as a screensaver background. It might also include a set of values designed to assist employees in aligning their behaviors and work habits. But do they really do that?
But with a company’s value, employees who find meaning and purpose in their work and whose personal values match those of the company are over four times more likely to love their jobs. It is important to express those values clearly and show how they can be realized within your organization.
Additionally, having happier employees and an improved employee experience positively impacts your financial performance.
Elements of Company Core Values
Let’s quickly take a look at what your company values should look like to ensure that they fulfill their purposes in any business:
#1. Simple and Direct
A company’s value should be simple, clear, and straight to the point; no long talks. Also, when you have way too many values that may not make sense or contradict each other, along with excessive jargon, it can make them feel hard to grasp for new or younger employees.
It is important to maintain clear company values so that all employees, no matter their level or position, can understand and embrace them.
#2. Concise and Impactful
Don’t over-explain your company values—keep them brief instead. Using bite-sized values will help with memorization, increasing the chances that they will be internalized and embraced as part of your company culture.
Additionally, having brief and memorable values can help establish a unique brand identity, providing your company with a competitive edge.
When your values are memorable and unique, it becomes simpler to set your company apart from others in the market, trust me.
#3. Focused on taking action
Using appealing but unclear terms like “authenticity” and “diversity” can be simple, but it’s important to consider how these concepts truly relate to your company’s efforts. Your values need to focus on taking action to make a meaningful difference.
#4. Thoughtful
Also, understand that your core values form the basis of your company’s culture, so they should be distinct to your organization and truly represent your mission, vision, beliefs, and goals.
Maintaining alignment between your values and objectives can help build a genuine brand image and cultivate trust with your customers, partners, and employees. This will also help draw in and keep employees who share the same values, leading to a more united and efficient team.
#5. Flexible
Core values should align with your overall mission, but it’s okay to make changes as your company evolves; I wouldn’t advise you to be too uptight about it.
Your company might not resemble its initial form, and the original values may not hold the same relevance or effectiveness as they once did because change is constant.
Top Company Value Examples for Your Business
Creating your organization’s values requires careful attention. Hence, I have created a top list of company core values to inspire your creativity.
Keep in mind, though, that these are just starting points. Every value you select needs to be accompanied by a descriptor to enhance specificity and effectiveness in the company. Let’s take a look at them:
#1. Integrity
Integrity revolves around trust and ethics. Integrity drives your approach to business, team management, and interactions with others.
Integrity serves as the foundation for several other widely recognized company values, such as honesty, transparency, and respect. This is one of the company’s values you need to adopt.
#2. Creativity
Encouraging innovation can result in transformative solutions and a competitive advantage in your field. Innovation can be defined as a new and original creation or idea. To create an innovation, you need to have the right skills or talents, including creativity and resourcefulness.
Being innovative can also mean working efficiently. Over the years, it has been discovered to be more effective than just working hard, as hard work doesn’t always lead to tangible results.
#3. Diversity
In today’s global workplaces, diversity stands out as a vital core value that acknowledges, values, and honors the unique differences among employees.
Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or physical ability, prioritizing diversity guarantees that every employee feels valued and respected in the workplace.
#4. Collaboration
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” Promoting team values can enhance collaboration among employees, allowing them to leverage each other’s strengths and support one another during challenging times.
When combined with common objectives and effective leadership, this can enhance team morale and job satisfaction while also increasing overall productivity, ensuring that your team and company maintain a competitive advantage.
#5. Curiosity
Embracing growth is essential for your personal and professional advancement, so there’s no need to fear it.
Curiosity drives growth and fuels the desire for ongoing learning. If you’re seeking knowledge and experience, remember that they won’t be found in your comfort zone.
So, take an interest in different ideas and cultures from around the world. Motivate yourself and your teammates to inquire and seek clarification. If not, how will you find the answers?
#6. Humility
Humility is rooted in truth and reality. The concept is that, no matter your own accomplishments, you can stay humble and approachable with your coworkers.
Keep in mind that humility contrasts with pride or arrogance. Leading with humility involves valuing the thoughts and opinions of others equally, if not more, than your own.
#7. Respect
Respect encompasses a wide range of ideas. What does respect mean to your team?Do you want to value other people’s time? Make sure to arrive on time. Do you want to honor the thoughts of others? Encourage a spirit of teamwork.
Respect is essential for building positive relationships among employees and between employees and leaders.
#8. Trust
Trust serves as the core element for any thriving business. Establishing trust with your employees and customers may require a significant amount of time. Once you earn their trust, you can connect with them and build lasting relationships that help you stand out from the competition.
However, years of hard work in building trust can be lost in just a few minutes if you are not cautious. Without trust, the foundation of company culture will begin to weaken.
#9. Working Together
By making collaboration a fundamental value of your company, you can enhance growth by utilizing the combined knowledge of your team and welcoming innovation and creativity to establish a competitive advantage.
Instead of concentrating on individual intelligence, teamwork can inspire employees to join forces in solving problems more quickly, assist one another in reaching common objectives, and grow together to achieve success.
Collaboration can create a supportive work environment and enhance overall productivity.
#10. Bravery
Courage is a valuable quality that has many aspects when viewed from a company perspective.
It signifies that employees possess the courage to confront mistreatment or misguided actions, while also providing them the chance to take risks for a larger reward.
These opportunities allow for the freedom to fail, motivating individuals to question the norms and promote change.
#11. Truthfulness
Trust is fundamental to every business and organization. For trust to grow, team members must engage in honesty and openness.
#12. Leadership
Leadership guides every business, directing the strategy to foster growth and influence the organizational culture. Strong leadership is essential; without it, the other company values lose their significance, and the business risks falling apart without the right guidance.
A leader who embodies and promotes values such as humility, trust, integrity, respect, accountability, and passion is one who can guide your business toward lasting success.
#13. Putting others first
Being selfless is essential for strong leadership and teamwork, which can lead to success in the corporate environment. It’s important to prioritize others while also being responsible and maintaining ethical conduct.
#14. Communication
Clear communication is essential for nurturing valuable relationships with both internal and external stakeholders. Inadequate communication can harm relationships with external vendors and customers, disrupt the team environment, and result in a tarnished reputation and lost business opportunities.
When communication is a key element of your business strategy, it leads to smooth operations, effective decision-making, teamwork, and enhanced productivity throughout the organization.
#15. Judgment
In an ever-changing business environment, you must make quick decisions and address challenges, which makes sound judgment a valuable asset for your business.
Encouraging values such as collaboration, courage, honesty, accountability, and communication can enhance your employees’ judgment and enable them to make swift decisions independently. This approach boosts agility and productivity while upholding integrity.
#16. Service
Customers and clients form the essential foundation of every business. Not delivering great service to your customers will surely push them to seek alternatives with your competitors.
If you make service a core value in your strategy, you can provide a better customer experience that gives you a competitive advantage.
#17. Sustainability
Sustainability is a key concern for today’s businesses, as customers now expect them to act in an accountable, ethical, and sustainable manner.
This involves minimizing the environmental impact and carbon footprint of your operations, ensuring a positive effect on nearby communities, and maintaining business continuity.
Neglecting the effects of your operations on the environment or disregarding future generations will lead modern customers to distance themselves from your business.
#18. Accessibility
Many businesses are concentrating on diversity and inclusion to ensure that their products and services are accessible to all, regardless of physical abilities or limitations.
Emphasizing accessibility involves ensuring that your products, services, and facilities are user-friendly for everyone, while also incorporating tools that support individuals with disabilities.
Making accessibility a core value in your business strategy can expand your market reach, foster innovation, and ensure your brand is recognized as an inclusive business.
#19. Passion
Passion can apply to many different businesses and teams. It can relate to commitment or passion in advancing the organization’s causes.
It can also signify a strong commitment to other values, such as respect and the acceptance of diversity. Passion drives creativity and enhances performance, no matter where it is directed.
#20. Responsibility
People generally prefer not to collaborate with someone who is quick to assign blame when issues arise.
How to Implement Company Core Values
Planning a company’s value is not as easy as implementing them, I have been there a couple times. But not to worry, with these tips, you will find the process much easier.
#1. Promote conversation as a way to foster acceptance.
When employees engage in more discussions, whether in meetings or one-on-one, they are more likely to remember, recognize, and embrace the core values as something new and significant to learn and adapt to. So enegage them and always put it up in a conversation.
#2. Recruit and integrate according to the values.
While you may have successfully engaged your current employees, it’s essential to make sure that future generations are also inclined to embrace these values.
Encourage recruiters and hiring managers to integrate these values into interviews to identify candidates who align with these fundamental company beliefs.
If one of your values is “We take responsibility for our actions and mistakes,” you can ask candidates about times they have acknowledged their errors in the past to assess their commitment to this principle.
#3. Regularly highlight and embody the values from a leadership viewpoint
In my workplace, I often feel quite disconnected from certain members of our executive leadership. Impressing leaders can feel challenging, particularly when there’s a sense of disconnect in daily experiences.
Leaders can demonstrate that company values are for everyone by consistently explaining and providing examples, regardless of one’s title.
This can help close gaps in hierarchy and encourage employees to be more enthusiastic about adhering to the same guidelines set by their executives.
#4. Encourage employees to think about these values as they evaluate their performance.
You can motivate employees at your company to reflect on the company values while preparing their performance reviews.
This operates in two ways — it gives employees a framework for writing their reviews and assists them in understanding how they already align with company values.
#5. Add new activities and programs that align with your values.
Certain company values extend beyond just deskwork and meetings. So you will need to explore creative approaches to encourage employees to engage with your core values, both in the workplace and beyond.
The important thing is to demonstrate to employees, through various means, that these values are not merely nice-sounding words on paper. These are guiding principles and actions to incorporate into all aspects of your company.
World-leading Examples of Company Values
| Company | Description |
| Starbucks | Starbucks’ company culture and values not only celebrate coffee but also nurture the limitless possibilities of human connections. The company’s focus on the human aspect of its operations has allowed Starbucks to effectively engage with its employees, customers, and communities, helping them build strong communities, sustainable coffee, and a greener retail business. |
| As one of the world’s biggest tech giants, Google’s values of innovation, user focus, simplicity and ease of use, and accessibility have allowed the company to consistently stand out from the competition. Google’s freedom for its employees to work on their own projects has resulted in countless successful products, contributing to a culture of collaboration, innovation, and success. | |
| Zappos | Zappos’ core values revolve around the 4 Cs: commerce, customer service, company culture, and community. As a result, Zappos has been able to provide its customers with an exceptional user experience while creating value for its employees and building an ever-growing community around the globe. |
| Microsoft | Respect, integrity, accountability, innovation, and accessibility are some of the core values of Microsoft that have empowered the company to achieve more. Thriving on diverse voices, Microsoft has been able to build trustworthy computing and AI tools while working with surrounding communities to build a sustainable future. |
| Apple | With the goal of “Leave the planet better than we found it”, Apple’s values of innovation, design, and privacy have allowed the company to build groundbreaking technologies and products that have revolutionized the consumer electronics world. This, combined with focusing on a safe and respectful workplace and creating a greener future, has given Apple a competitive edge. |
| Nike | The core company values of Nike include innovation, integrity, diversity and inclusion, sustainability, inspiration, authenticity, and connectedness. Nike uses a simple slogan to embody this: “Just do it.” As a result, they thrive on a loyal customer base that connects with its innovative and distinct products. |
| Airbnb | Community, safety, trust, innovation, inclusivity, and respect are some of the core business values of Airbnb, allowing the company to create an environment where travelers feel safe and comfortable. This has allowed the company to become the platform of choice when it comes to booking holiday rentals. |
Conclusion
So, there we have it! The most common company values. They’re all excellent. Who wouldn’t want integrity, teamwork, or innovation as part of their core identity? I don’t think so. This guide will serve you for a long time into building one for your company as well.
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