In our latest guide covering business operations we focus on organisational values – why are they important? What are they exactly? And what impact do they have on your staff, clients and suppliers?
Let’s start with the first question. To answer this one, Gallup research is a very useful starting point – specifically its data for Are Your Company Values More Than Just Words?
- If your business has 8 out of 10 employees strongly agreeing that the company purpose makes them feel like their job is important, the results are remarkable.
- It could lower absenteeism by 41% and improve quality by 33%.
However, this is easier said than done. When organisation values are just paying lip service, they can be ineffective.
That’s why it’s important to get company values right. They need to be values that key people can get behind and really buy into – your staff, clients and key suppliers.
But let’s take a step back! What is the definition of organisational values?
What are organisational values?
Values are principles and standards, your judgement of qualities that are important in an aspect of life.
Therefore organisational values are principles and standards for the company – its outputs, ways of working, staff mindset, everything. They are the beliefs and sense of purpose that employees throughout the company are expected to embody.
Company values are a way of expressing the business’ identity. This is particularly important as a way of differentiating a business from its competitors, in particular for companies offering similar products or services at similar prices.
These values can provide a guide for employees, informing their ways of working. Values can help set the blueprint for how staff communicate with clients, for example.
Businesses often analyse candidates they are considering hiring against their own company values, to assess whether these individuals are likely to be a good fit.
Organisational values are not quite the same thing as company culture:
- Company culture is more about ideas, personality, behaviour, communication and so on
- Company culture is more intangible, subjective. In enterprises especially, the culture can vary between different departments
Company values often appear on their website, letting prospective customers know what they should expect and the standards employees should meet.
They provide a symbolic image of the company. One of the many ways to maintain and improve this image in offices is by keeping them looking sparkling!
Here’s how to improve an office image with professional cleaning services.
Let’s take a look at some examples of company values. We’ll also explain one of our core values that our cleaners and senior management team at Think FM wholeheartedly embrace!
We’ve done some research and found several popular values in common among successful companies.
Organisational values examples
Here are just a few:
- Integrity: Companies with integrity as a value strive to exhibit strong moral principles and honesty in their decisions. Ethical behaviour and decision-making should extend to their supply chain and interactions with customers and stakeholders.
- Accountability: Employees take responsibility for their actions and must be able to justify their choices. Companies with accountability as a value also encourage their employees to aim high and embrace responsibility.
- Adaptability: Companies with adaptability as a value accept in advance that plans change. During a project, staff should show flexibility where relevant to keep things on track. More broadly, the company could change direction entirely if market conditions change or the management team sees a new opportunity to capitalise on.
- Innovation: An innovative company expects staff not to rest on their laurels or accept the traditional option as a default choice. Not content to stand still, an innovative company wants its employees to continuously look for new ideas and methods, with a view to achieving something creative.
- Making a difference: Companies that aim to make a difference are focussed on the end results, also known as the – so what? Work for the sake of it is not enough, it should lead to tangible results or meaningful change.
Let’s look at a well-known company’s values – Ben & Jerry’s. Their progressive values include ‘making a difference’, ‘shared success’ and ‘thoughtful ingredients’ too.
Here at Think FM, one of our favourite values is – We do what we say we are going to do.
It encapsulates our passion for providing an exceptional cleaning service and believe this is a big part of the reason why we have received many 5-star reviews. By doing what we say we are going to do, we are a commercial cleaning company London businesses trust.
Final thoughts: Organisational values and Think FM
This is not an article with arguments for and against a specific concept. Arguably, there are no downsides to having strong organisational values but as mentioned at the outset, the only real issue to watch out for is perceptions of falling short.
How do you ensure this? Well, for example, let us explain one of the ways we uphold our value of doing what we say we are going to do.
We have over 200 commercial cleaners working daily on our office cleaning London service and that means, even if one of our employees is unwell, another will be ready to step in.
So in other words, if a cleaner becomes unavailable at short notice, we’ll still clean your office professionally and on time!
It’s important to live and breathe company values and encourage employees to get on board with them.
For businesses that don’t yet have them, the senior management team can define them by working out what they see as the most important attributes for staff to have. Also – what are competitors’ values, is there scope to differentiate from these?
We really hope you have found this article useful and informative. For similar guides, we encourage you to browse our blog.
For example, here are some suggestion box ideas. If you’re looking to revise your organisational values, suggestion boxes are a great way to brainstorm some potential changes!
Also, here is our guide to supplier management. Where possible, look for providers with similar values to yours.
If you’re looking for an experienced commercial cleaning company in London with strong organisational values, you’ve come to the right place. For more information about our office or retail cleaning services – and our other offerings – please get in touch with us.
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