How employee recognition can bring your company values to life
Cultivating and nurturing positive sentiment among your employees in this way creates a culture of appreciation where success is openly celebrated in recognition of both the small wins and the big ones.
A well-designed recognition and reward programme that reinforces company values and behaviours is therefore essential for any business that cares about happy, motivated and productive employees.
The importance of company values
Regardless of size or turnover, setting the company’s core values is one of the most important identity initiatives a leadership team can carry out when launching and managing a business.
Along with the company’s mission and vision, they define what a company believes, stands for and values, where the company is going and why it exists.
Without these identity elements the company will remain in a reactive state and, worst of all, its employees will lack clarity on its purpose and direction.
However, setting the values is only half the battle. Once they are set, it’s essential that they are integrated fully into the company’s operations and that they are consistently and constructively reinforced on a day to day basis in order to be effective.
There are many ways in which you can integrate your values into the fabric of your business.
Lead by example
Managers and leaders should always be visible. Setting corporate values and then failing to live and breathe them is worse than not establishing any values at all.
This applies especially in more challenging times, when it’s even more important to stand by what you believe and support your workforce by demonstrating resilience and consistency in your leadership.
Teach your values through training
Words on a document pinned up on a notice board won’t cut it. Branded coasters with buzz words and catchphrases aren’t enough. It’s unrealistic to send your people an email from management and expect them to respond and adapt accordingly.
Consider leading induction and training programmes on core values for all new employees, which convey the company’s commitment to them and their significance to the success of the business.
Align your internal and external messaging
When thinking about your internal ‘employer brand’, make sure it aligns to how those attributes are being communicated externally. Does your marketing collateral, website and social media profile accurately reflect the internal messages around core values?
If your company has customers, does their experience of your brand align with your employees’ experience of it? Are there gaps and inconsistencies that need addressing?
Incorporate the values into your performance reviews and appraisals
If you’ve done a good job of recruiting employees who identify with and represent your core values through a training programme and consistent reinforcement, you can then integrate those values into your employee appraisal process.
Every employee is an ambassador for the company and as such accountable to its values, mission and vision. If an employee regularly contradicts the required behaviours of an organisation, this impacts both their personal performance and the performance of the company.
Appraisals that have the company values at their core provide a good opportunity to review those behaviours and the reasons behind them in a positive and constructive way.
Shape your recognition programme to align with your company values
There are many great ways to recognise and reward values-centric behaviours, including instant spot rewards, written praise in newsletters or on the company intranet, or social recognition from peer to peer that acknowledges a colleague’s efforts to live the values of the business.
Whichever way you choose, a good employee recognition programme will help you to align your employee behaviours to your organisational values and let them shine through.
The author is Andy Philpott, sales and marketing director at Edenred UK.
This article was provided by Edenred UK.
In partnership with Edenred
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