Core Company Values: Creating a Culture for Growth and Success

Creating strong, authentic company values is a vital element for long-term success. Strong values can shape your employees' daily decisions and behaviors. They can influence everything from your hiring decisions to conflict resolutions. Company values create the foundation for a workplace where people thrive and want to stay. This guide walks you through creating values that stick and implementing strategies tailored to the realities of small businesses.

How Company Values Drive Business Results

Employees who view their workplace culture positively demonstrate significantly higher levels of satisfaction and commitment. That translates into better business outcomes: higher productivity, fewer safety incidents, reduced absenteeism, and lower turnover costs.

Since small businesses often compete with larger companies for talent, having strong company values can make a difference. They signal to candidates and employees that you're building something meaningful. A values-driven company culture attracts people who share your vision. They often stay longer because they feel connected to something bigger.

The challenging part is getting company values right. Too many businesses create generic lists, leaning heavily on words like "integrity" or "teamwork" that could belong to any company. In some cases, their aspirational statements sound nice, but bear no resemblance to daily operations. These approaches usually fail because they lack authenticity and clarity.

Common Pitfalls That Hurt Company Values

Before getting into the how-to of creating values, let's address what not to do. Understanding these pitfalls helps you avoid wasting time on values that won't work:

• Values Washing: Creating impressive-sounding values that leadership doesn't model. Employees who see a disconnect between stated values and executive behavior quickly lose trust.

• Laundry List: Having too many values dilutes their impact. People can remember and act on three to five guiding principles. Beyond that, values become background noise.

• Vague Terminology: Using abstract concepts without defining specific behaviors and giving examples of company values. What does "innovation" look like in a customer service call? Without concrete examples, values remain theoretical.

• Weaponizing Values: Using values as disciplinary tools or vague reasons for termination creates fear, not culture. Values should guide and inspire, not punish.

Building Core Company Values: A Step-by-Step Process

Now that you know what doesn't work, use that knowledge to develop strong company values that fit your business and team. It's not a one-person job. It takes time: defining company values is an ongoing process. But doing it the right way will pay off in the long term. Here's how to go about it:

Step 1: Start With Discovery

Brainstorming values in isolation won't work. Instead, gather input from across your organization. Run a brief employee pulse survey with three to seven focused questions about what drives success in your company. Conduct one-on-one interviews with frontline managers. Host a leadership workshop to synthesize findings and identify patterns.

This discovery process reveals the values already operating in your business. Document what works, rather than inventing something new.

Step 2: Translate Values Into Behaviors

To be effective, each value needs two to four concrete behaviors that employees can recognize and practice. For example, if "transparency" emerges as a core company value, define what that looks like in your business: We share monthly financial metrics at all-hands meetings. We explain the reasoning behind major decisions, including trade-offs. We acknowledge mistakes openly and share lessons learned.

Step 3: Create Your Values Documentation

Keep documentation usable and straightforward. For each value, create a one-page reference. A single page makes it easy to use during meetings and interviews. Here's an example:

Making Values Part of Your People Processes

Values without implementation are just words. You need your team to adopt them and model them to make them become a driving force in your workplace. Here's how to embed them into your existing HR workflows:

Hiring and Onboarding

Add a values-fit component to your interview process. Ask candidates to share examples of when they've demonstrated behaviors aligned with your values. Include value-based expectations in job descriptions and integrate them into your human resources information system (HRIS) for consistent messaging. During onboarding, walk new hires through real examples of values in action.

Performance Management

Add a values-related element to your performance reviews. It could be a specific objective tied to demonstrating a value or a rubric that evaluates how well someone embodies your culture. Modern professional employer organization (PEO) services often include continuous performance management tools that make this integration seamless.

Train managers to give behavior-specific feedback that references values. Instead of vague praise (saying "great job" or "well done"), they could say something like: "When you shared the project setback with the client immediately, you demonstrated our transparency value perfectly."

Recognition and Rewards

Create simple recognition rituals that spotlight values in action. Consider weekly shoutouts in which team members nominate colleagues who have demonstrated specific values. Offer a small bonus or perk to recognize great values-based behavior. Another option is to set up a forum where employees share company values examples and success stories.

Measuring What Matters: Values Metrics for Small Businesses

After investing time and energy in your core company values, you'll want to know how well they work. You can gain some insights by linking the following HR metrics to business outcomes, such as customer satisfaction and productivity. The goal is to advance a values-driven culture that supports business success. Here are some metrics to track:

• Engagement Scores: Use a brief pulse survey to measure values alignment.

• Turnover Rates: Compare retention for employees hired with values-fit criteria versus those without.

• Recognition Frequency: Count values-based recognition events.

• Behavioral Observations: Have managers note any value demonstrations during team interactions.

Strengthening Company Values and HR Efficiency with Justworks

Getting core company values right requires effort, but the payoff is substantial. For small businesses, authentic values and an engaging company culture become recruiting advantages and retention tools that don't require Fortune 500 budgets. The key is authenticity and follow-through. Justworks' modern HR platform simplifies HR tasks and provides powerful people analytics. With our PEO services, we offer easy access to top-tier benefits, payroll, HR tools, and compliance support, all in one integrated solution. Get started with Justworks today.