Summary: Are your values posted on a wall where no one pays attention? Some ideas to work them into your organization and how to live them.

When working with companies on setting up their HR department/policies, one of the questions I ask is “Does your company have Values?”  I am not talking about the personal values each person possesses, they are corporate values on how to run the business and what kind of people you want in your business. A set of values which will transcend every position and every part of the organization. Values are the personal characteristics each person has and exhibits. Values are typically describe in one word or in a short phrase.

Here are some examples:

Integrity.  Continuous Learning. Customer Service. Innovation. Accountability.

You will notice that these examples do not get into religious beliefs – this is about the people in your organization. If you are a religous organization they can be included. Depending on your company you will most likely have between five and ten values. Typically what happens after the values are determine, written and posted; they are forgotten. If you really want the values to be lived everyday, simply putting them on a poster will not suffice.

How do you incorporate the values into your company?

• Interview candidates against your values.
• Create your performance review system based on your values.
• Hand out awards based on the values.
• Incorporate at least value in each piece of employee communication.
• Part of the training program

I’m sure if you sat down and took a look at your company, you could come up with more ways to incorporate the values.

How else do you incorporate values into your organization?