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    • Action plan

    Creating a set of company values

    Medium effort

    Medium impact

    Company values act as a motivator for staff, by giving them a strong sense of purpose, and set expectations. Whether you’re creating new values or refining existing ones, it’s useful to take a collaborative approach. Getting employees involved in the process gives you access to a wider pool of opinions and will provide them with a better understanding of how the values shape the work they do.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline
    What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact
    1

    Define your vision for the business by thinking about what success looks like to you

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    Having an idea of what you want the company to look like in the future will give you a steer when creating values.

    Writing a statement that defines your vision for success

    Defining your vision for success gives you a clear destination to work towards when you’re making decisions and setting goals.
    2

    Communicate your vision of success to employees and explain why you want to develop or update values

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    Sharing your vision with staff will provide context and get them thinking about potential values ahead of time.

    3

    Run a values workshop with employees to brainstorm and discuss ideas

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Handing out a list of values set by other people won’t engage staff – the best way to motivate them to live the company values is to get them involved in the process.

    Running a values workshop

    Values workshops are an effective way to gather insights from your team and define your company values. Use these guidelines to structure your workshop then test what you’ve created.

    How to work with staff to create and codify company values

    Extract Coffee explains how they worked with the team to codify company values.
    4

    Meet with the management team to categorise the suggestions and create a shortlist, and display it in the office

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    Managers can use the context and experience they have to synthesize the team's ideas. Giving suggested values time to breathe will help your team decide what feels most natural.

    5

    Ask employees to vote on the list, choosing five to eight that will become your set of company values

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Getting employees involved in the final decision should make sure they ring true to the way you operate and what you believe in as an organisation.

    What can I do with this Action Plan?

    Start this Action Plan

    Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

    Download and print

    Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

    Get the printable Action Plan

    Learning Groups

    We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

    Find a Learning Group

    How will I know if my action plan is working?

    Staff satisfaction survey results

    Staff satisfaction surveys help gauge sentiment at regular intervals

    Why this metric?

    Whether gathered anonymously or not, staff satisfaction surveys help gauge the sentiment of your people as changes are made and impacts felt.

    How do I start tracking?

    Use an online survey to get feedback from members of staff three and six months after making changes to see what impact it has had.