Keep talking about it
Backing up your words with action is an
effective way to convey a message such as
your core values. But you still need to
make a continuous effort to remind your
people about what your company stands
for.
“It has to be something that is led from
my position, and it needs to be led with a
level of passion and overall commitment to
the entire organization,” Kavanaugh says.
“For it to really work, it needs to be delivered on a daily basis by the management
team and the employees all throughout the company.”
Just when you think you’ve told your employees about your company’s core values enough, try telling them one more time.
“You have to do it to a point where people are almost like, ‘Oh,
my goodness, I’m tired of hearing him say this,’” Kavanaugh says.
“Well, you know they’ve got it. It’s like business concepts and values. It’s one thing that they understand it. It’s another thing that
they are executing it.”
Communication means nothing, even if your employees understand what you’re telling them, if they don’t put the values into
practice in their daily behaviors.
To help make this happen, WWT integrated its core values into
the employee assessment process. Employees are measured not
only on how they perform relative to their job and their specific job
requirements but also on how they measure up to the core values.
“Are you a team player?” Kavanaugh says. “Do you have the work
ethic that we expect? Do you deal with people with integrity and
respect? The five core values that we have, those individuals are
assessed on their core values just like they are assessed on their
job requirements.”
The core values are regularly communicated through corporate
updates and in meetings that are held across the organization. It’s
something that is always at the core of what the company is doing.
“We’ve tried to be very clear about what our value system is all
about,” Kavanaugh says. “We’re not about going in and if somebody makes a mistake on the job or a bid or a quote, we’re not
going to be happy about it, but we’re not going to come in and fire
somebody over that. We want to talk to them about what we
expect and how we’d like to see them improve.”
By integrating them into as many modes of communication as
possible, you keep your core values front and center in the minds
of everyone in the company.
“It has to be something that you are very aware of and committed to day in and day out,” Kavanaugh says. “Great companies all
of a sudden become mediocre companies because they take their
eye off the ball.
“You link it to the assessment process, and you link it to the goaling process,” Kavanaugh says. “It starts at the executive level, and
it needs to roll all the way up and down throughout the company
so that they are all linked and they all understand the importance
of the value system.”
