As you’ll probably be aware, a business’ core values are the collective beliefs which underpin both the company’s external activity, and the culture that employees become a part of – from how the brand communicates with its clients, to how team members interact with one another, the core values should be ruling large.
At My Accountancy Place, we decided on three very particular values which we feel sum up our beliefs:
- Progressive Growth – both for our clients and our team
- Innovation – embracing new ideas, new technology and new ways of thinking
- Working Without Limitations – giving our client managers the freedom to collaborate with clients
But not only do these values help us to keep a positive company culture inside and out, they also ensure that our recruitment process is guided by the organisation itself – the success of which shows in our wonderful team!
Finding the Right People
Having a set of core values at the heart of your business allows you to narrow down exactly what type of person you’re looking to hire with laser-like accuracy – for example, we want somebody who can take on and suggest new ideas, who are willing to develop, and who we’re confident we can trust to work with more freedom than their current role might offer.
We apply these values to every stage of our recruitment process to ensure that immediately we’re engaging with the right people from the initial recruitment drive, all the way up until we hand over an employment contract to be signed.
Your core values aren’t just useful during the initial stage of recruitment, however: they can also be used to measure performance as your new recruit progresses through the organisation. Core values shouldn’t simply be exciting words displayed on the walls, but benchmarks against which each individual can be held accountable. To facilitate this method of managing performance, everybody in your team – both current and potential new employees – needs to know the bearing your core values have on their roles, and how they can deliver work which embodies these values every day.
Keeping the Team on Track
Of course, it isn’t just rigorous benchmarking and performance management that keeps your team on track – in fact, that doesn’t sound like a positive workplace at all! A balance is most definitely needed between values being actively referred to and your team organically embracing them.
To ensure this balance – and to avoid values being enforced, rather than embraced – be sure to involve the team in every stage of the values creation process, and stick to concise, catchy words and phrases. The result will be a set of core values which can be confidently recited, and which people will apply to their work without management looming over them. With your whole team – new and old – on side, you’ll be amazed at what can be achieved.
Staying True to Yourself
When it comes to attracting talent, creating (and promoting) a genuinely positive company culture is a huge advantage in the struggle to find people who connect with your organisation in the best way. Your core values will always be at the heart of your company culture, and can help to ensure that you’re remaining true to yourself and your agency during the recruitment process.
If interviewees are visiting your offices, they should be able to see the values in action by simply taking a look around the room and observing the atmosphere and how everybody is working. Attempting to portray a company culture which simply doesn’t exist (e.g. a fun, lively workplace when actually everybody is expected to work in silence) is going to damage trust with your candidates almost immediately. Alternatively, you could be trying too hard to attract a certain type of individual, when in reality your culture is totally unsuitable.
Every member of our team has taken the values on board, and the result is a culture which is very evident when anyone is visiting: we’re friendly and approachable – but everybody knows when to get their heads down. Once a candidate sees that the MAP culture is genuinely as positive as Paul and Amanda make out when promoting a role, recruits are often far more engaging, enthusiastic and trusting – which is exactly what we want to see!
Pinning down your company’s core values in time for your next recruitment drive doesn’t have to be an impossible task – get in touch and let’s talk about cementing the beliefs at the heart of your business!
