How well does your team know the company’s values?

Last time, we covered how to bring your business back to its origins, which included spending time carefully considering your values and entrenching them into the business so that other people within your organisation can align with them.

But, half of UK employees can’t even recite their organisation’s values, let alone work in a way that reinforces them, new research shows.

In a survey by workplace help platform Rungway, more than half (52%) of the 2,000 British employees quizzed said they were unable to declaim their company’s vision.

Interestingly, two in five (29%) said they wish they had a greater involvement in the creation of their company’s vision and values.

Disengagement also seems to stem from how the values are delivered – more than a quarter (27%) of employees felt their organisation’s vision or values have too much corporate jargon and almost one in five (18%) say they don’t reflect what the company is actually like.

The findings also suggested that it’s easier to get younger employees to buy into your company’s values than it is older workers. An impressive 64% of 25 to 34-years-olds said they could recite their organisation’s vision and values, while those aged between 45 and 54-years-old and 55 and 64-years-old were the least likely age groups to be able to reel off what their company stands for (both 63%).

“Company visions and values need to represent an organisation’s purpose and inspire employees to contribute to that mission, so it’s worrying that so many employees don’t know what these are,” said Julie Chakraverty, founder of Rungway.

However, she quite rightly highlights that the more companies involve workers in the creation of their values and vision, the more likely they are to resonate with them.

“Boards are really focusing on employer branding, and in the fight for talent, companies must collaborate with their people to create compelling narratives that motivate the talent they have to stay on-side. Unengaged employees will walk away if nothing changes,” Chakraverty added.

Go away and ask some members of your team whether they can tell you what the company’s purpose is. If they stutter over the response, you know you have to do more to get them engaged.