1- Identify at least 5 relevant values in your firm
For a company to function and be considered a safe bet, it must have a unique corporate culture that is based on strong values and goes beyond the company’s sole project.
An ethical or ecological commitment, values such as justice, honesty, transparency, customer respect or customer satisfaction can represent research directions to establish the behavioral charter of the company.
To find these basic values, the personality and history of the founder are often looked into in detail to reveal the singularity of the company and of its project. These singularities are the basis of the particular culture of the company: it is therefore a question of asking a lot of questions so as to give a proper position to the company in its environment and to formalize these values.
The values have to be inspiring and motivating for staff members and associates: they have to understand them and to be able to identify themselves in them so as to be willing to be involved in your project.
2- From the values to the management
Values are all the more important so as they are the bedrock of your firm and so as they are going to influence your managers in their decision and way to act. Your values are also the guide for the human resources policy in the company. indeed, they have an influence on how new candidates are recruited, trained and evaluated. Within the company, the evolution and promotion of employees will also be driven by these strong values.
Being coherent and realistic is then a priority for the redaction of the charter because it will stand as a guideline for everyone, from staffs to collaborators. Values are critical to frame the behaviour of everyone. They have to be reassuring and crystal clear so as to ease the support of people.
3- Communicate and keep the course
Once these strong values have been clearly established and a charter is written to make them explicit, these values must be known and approved by all.
Several methods are available to communicate around these values: a slogan or baseline under your logo, placarded posters, workshops, seminars or brainstorming sessions are all effective solutions to spread the company’s message of appreciation.
These values will also guide the company’s marketing strategy and enable effective communication. The more precise and clear your message is, the more value it will put on your culture, the less energy (and money) you will need to spend on communication.Companies that have a strong corporate culture are very often based on a simple slogan that quickly and effectively conveys the corporate culture inside and out: think of the “think different” Apple for example, short and highly effective.
