Corporate values (values) express what a company values. By integrating their values into the process of conducting business, companies realize actions that benefit internal and external communities, and ultimately, society as a whole. This leads to the strengthening and enhancement of corporate value itself. We have already discussed the importance of visual marketing to customers before, but this time we will look at how important it is to market your company’s values to employees.
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Ensure that both customers and employees understand the value of the company
Many companies try to link their social contribution to their value through concepts such as vision, mission, and values. Unfortunately, some employees are unaware of the value of the company they work for or think that they are only raising value for PR purposes. Employees are the closest consumers of the company’s activities and are empowered by a solid understanding of the company’s values. They are empowered by a solid understanding of the company’s values. In other words, they improve their own capabilities, competencies, and skills, and become equipped with the power necessary for the company’s development and reform. It is very important for employees to know the value of the company, because employees who truly understand the value of the company bring strong profit capability, return on investment, and sustainability to the company.
Therefore, companies need to tell the story and make sure that their employees understand the company’s values as well as their customers. It is difficult to preach and convince employees of the brand, mission, and values because customers will see through an inauthentic brand mission, but employees inside the organization will see through its authenticity even more easily. Employees will only be convinced of and embody the values of the company when they realize an employee experience that is consistent with the values of the company.
Types of Corporate Values, What are Core Values?
What are the different types of corporate values? According to Lencioni, corporate values can be categorized as follows: Understanding and distinguishing between the four types of values will help companies better identify and foster their core values.
Value Types
| Value Types | Value Description |
|---|---|
| Participation Approval Value permission-to-play | Basic standards of conduct that employees should have in place when they join the company |
| Aspirational value aspirational values | What is currently missing but management would like to see take root |
| Contingent Value accidental values | What you get as a result of common employee personality traits |
| Core Value core values | A true corporate culture that guides employee behavior |
Let’s look at the characteristics of each value.
Participation approval values are very basic, and other firms have the same criteria. Values such as professionalism and integrity, for example, are usually the obvious ones to have. Aspirational values are those that management wants to instill and that employees have not yet acquired, so they do not shape the culture of the company. Contingent values also cannot be core values because they may exclude future employees with different personality traits.
Core values are the true corporate culture that guides employee behavior. Unlike other values, these values are not something that employees are equipped with; they are the culture of the company to which they belong, and they do not take shape overnight.
The core values are a guide for employees to realize the brand mission. These are called “Shared Values”. The corporate culture is formed by these “Shared Values” and the “Common Behaviors” of employees. Building a corporate culture means aligning shared values with common behaviors. By demonstrating the values through daily actions within the organization, the corporate culture will grow, and when employees embody the corporate values, they will be persuasive to customers.
Let’s look at some examples of core values. We see that they are aligned to build a corporate culture.
Examples of “Core Values”
| Company | Shared Values | Common Behaviors |
|---|---|---|
| 3M | cooperative curiosity | Employees can use part of their working time to collaborate on their own projects. Failure is accepted as a process of innovation. |
| Cisco | Collaboration of human networks | The office is a laboratory for the product. Employees are allowed to telecommute. Decision-making authority is distributed among hundreds of executives. |
| Enterprise Rent-A-Car | Entrepreneurship | All executives, including the chairman and CEO, start as trainees in the administration department. Employees who perform well are given the chance to manage a branch office. |
| S. C. Johnson | Family Values | No meetings are held on Fridays. If both spouses are employees, they can be posted abroad together. |
| Whole Foods | Democracy | Decisions are made based on employee votes. Stores are self-governing. |
The values and actions of employees must reflect the company’s brand mission. Marketing the company’s brand mission to customers requires that employees themselves embody the company’s values. While vision marketing to customers is important, marketing the company’s values to employees is critical to embodying the true nature of the brand.