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https://www.insightsforprofessionals.com/hr/recruitment-and-onboarding/company-values-employees-look-for?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxZ3gzdCE-QIVm-3tCh03VwFdEAMYASAAEgI9vPD_BwE

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With employees forced to work from home due to the ongoing pandemic, keeping them engaged is more important than ever.

So, what should you do to boost employee engagement?

The good news is that there are no trade secrets.

For a company looking to reduce the turnover rate, the need of the hour is to focus on values that employees will look for in companies.

In this article, we explore values that can help a company become a favorite among job seekers and employees.

Here are six values that employees will look for in companies in 2022:

1. A culture of corporate social responsibility

Employees prefer companies who have a corporate giving program in place. Such a program is an initiative wherein companies contribute their money, time and resources to charity and non-profit organizations.

According to research, 63% of employees prefer working in companies that contribute their time and money to nonprofit organizations. Over the years, this number has seen an increase, as younger and emerging generations place more importance in social responsibility.

This statistic means that incorporating a corporate giving program can increase your chances of hiring the top talent. Getting your company involved with a community is an excellent tactic for boosting morale and enhancing employee engagement.

However, everything boils down to the type of corporate giving platform you choose. So, focus on these tips to find a corporate giving platform that allows employees to give back to society.

Check whether the platform can manage both physical and online volunteering events

Focus on the level of customer support it offers

Verify if it allows customization

Evaluate the social or community building features it provides

Read online reviews

Check the apps you can integrate with it

Validate if it allows payroll giving

2. A workplace where employees voice gets heard

According to research, one third of employees think that their companies don't listen to their ideas for improvement. When employees feel that a company isn't listening to their ideas and concerns, it can equate to lost talent and recruitment and retraining costs.

Employees who know their concerns, ideas and pain points are heard are more productive and engaged than others. Besides conducting periodic engagement or targeted pulse surveys, listening to employees shouldn't be a one-week or one-month affair.

When managers listen to their employees, they build a cohesive team. But when they ignore the concerns and ideas given by employees, it results in churn.

Companies that want to hire the top talent should focus on baking an open-door policy where every employee can voice their concern. Another great way to teach such a culture is to ask employees for ideas or suggestions.

Managers may receive impractical and unrealistic suggestions, but listening to them helps employees develop problem-solving skills. It could lead to practical and innovative suggestions in the future. More importantly, you're creating a culture where employees' opinion matters.

Even the smallest idea that's heard, appreciated or acted upon can prompt an employee to excel in their workplace and motivate them to keep contributing.

3. A culture that showcases employee appreciation in visible ways

According to research, 66% of employees quit or resign from a company where they feel unappreciated. When employees know their company values are appreciated and recognized, they feel their work gets valued.

This motivates and encourages employees to improve their performance and excel in their job.

Appreciation improves workplace morale, and it can create a rippling effect in the workplace.

An employee who feels appreciated is more likely to show appreciation to their coworkers and other team members.

The key to creating a model of appreciation is giving ongoing positive feedback. It could be a simple thank you or a small appreciation email or note for a special effort.

Apart from increasing employee engagement, showing employees appreciation can decrease employee turnover, improve team culture, increase employee retention, decrease stress, reduce absenteeism and result in higher customer loyalty and satisfaction scores.

If your organization doesn't prioritize employee recognition, you will miss out on your bottom line. Companies that practice recognition are more likely to improve stock prices, NPS scores and employee performance. A few ways to showcase employee recognition include:

Micro recognition

Informal recognition

Formal recognition

The bottom line is that employee recognition is timely. Don't wait until the annual performance review to motivate employees. These traditional strategies no longer work. Also, when recognizing employees, tell them the reason why they're receiving appreciation. Knowing the justification can motivate them further to excel in their workplace.

4. A workplace that takes care of employee wellbeing

The psychological wellbeing of an employee is equally important as physical wellbeing. Taking care of psychological wellbeing is essential to make employees feel cared for by their companies.

It's inherent in human nature that we excel and feel more comfortable when companies care for their wellbeing.

Companies that understand this aspect can give their employees a wholesome working experience by creating a happy and engaged workplace.

Apart from increasing employee engagement, promoting the well-being of employees reduces absenteeism and healthcare cost, improves employee productivity, enhances employee morale and results in attractive employer branding.

5. A workplace that offers well-designed retreats and offsites

An organization that values team-building activities for employees is often the first choice for top talent.

Company retreats matter the most because they bring people and teams together. When employees feel like they're a part of a team, they can help drive satisfaction and employee engagement. Building a personal and friendly relationship can help team members in developing a sense of trust. This can help in nurturing a culture where employees remain loyal to the companies they work with.

Interestingly, bringing employees together in a professional way can bring them closer at a personal level, too.

However, to create a workplace that offers offsites and retreats, ensure that your team building's activities align with the company's values, culture and virtue. This is important because, according to research, one-third of employees feel uncomfortable or embarrassed when they participate in team-building activities that a company fails to align to their core values.

Also, to make retreats and offsites unique for every employee, companies can focus on redefining the meaning of these team-building activities.

Instead of playing Secret Santa or other common games, companies organize fun-team building exercises like fencing, cooking or baking classes, yoga or Zumba sessions, or even organizing inter-department sports competitions.

Such activities help in team-building because employees have to understand and adapt to the work style of their team members.

Many companies are even taking advantage of technology, and their retreat activities involve theme-based online adventure games or music competitions.

So, focus on making your retreat a fun activity for everyone regardless of their designation. Inculcating such values can help you hire and retain the top talent in your industry.

6. A workplace that offers a hybrid working environment

With the COVID-19 pandemic looming worldwide and new variants creating havoc almost every other month, many employees are still apprehensive about physically joining the workplace.

Even though workplaces are ready to accept bringing back employees, the change has to occur in people's minds.

And, unless the change takes place, it would become difficult for companies to force employees to get back to work.

So, focus on bringing the best of both worlds and focus on implementing a hybrid workplace.

A hybrid workplace encourages high productivity, nurtures happy employees, reduces operational cost, creates a safe work environment and improves employee satisfaction.

According to one survey, 87% of people want to work from home, and 68% of employees prefer working in companies offering an option to work from home and on-site.

So make sure you conduct an employee survey to understand what your existing employees want. And, based on their feedback, focus on creating a work culture that offers your employees flexibility.

Smart employee engagement strategies that employees will value

Take a critical look at your company culture and value, identify opportunities to enhance your employee engagement to attract top employees.

Regardless of the strategy you create, remember that your business is a community for your team, managers and employees, and a community thrives only when everyone associated with it feels involved, included, trusted and appreciated.

The more you focus on employee engagement that aligns with your value, the higher your chances of hiring talent will be to make a difference in your bottom line.

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6 Company Values All Employees Will Look for in 2022

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With employees forced to work from home due to the ongoing pandemic, keeping them engaged is more important than ever. So, what should you do to boost employee engagement? The good news is that there are no trade secrets.

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The Shape of Change - reference to when culture and values don't match

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The Shape of Change - reference to when culture and values don't match

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No organisations, change initiative or stakeholder is ever the same. The way business change management is shaped to work with and get the best out of every different change situation makes a vital contribution to the success of the change.

The Shape of Change is the first business change management book to focus solely on the practical challenges of how to plan, implement and embed successful business change initiatives in a wide range of organisations from the business change manager's point of view. It focuses on shaping every different change approach to take into consideration each individual situation including organisational culture, the type and impact of change the initiative, the attitudes and concerns of stakeholders and the potential for resistance within the organisation. Using a series of example change initiatives in private, public and non-profit sectors, it describes the change management journey, highlighting key points where business change management interventions are essential, and exploring how it feels to undertake business change initiatives in a wide range of situations, from communicating the initial change idea to ensuring the change is embedded and working well in business as usual.

Accessible and comprehensive, The Shape of Change is relevant to anyone working in or planning organisational change.

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No organisations, change initiative or stakeholder is ever the same. The way business change management is shaped to work with and get the best out of every different change situation makes a vital contribution to the success of the change.

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The Occupational Psychology Group (The OPG)

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Update: We have released a related white paper - Psychometric Assessment: A Valuable Business Tool - Second Annual OPG Survey.

This paper is based on the principle that today roles, responsibilities and accountabilities must be clearly defined and linked to behaviours if organisations are to succeed.

The OPG's clients have often invested significant time and resource in defining their corporate values only to find that they have been placed in the draw marked, "job done". The link between defining values and actual work practices is often missing when it comes to implementation.

The importance of linking values with corporate strategy and work behaviours is critical. Research shows that there is a strong link between all these variables and culture. The latter is a critical driver of how an organisation operates. This has been highlighted by recent corporate scandals and high-profile business failures.

Values

Academics have defined values as beliefs about all conceptualisation of behaviours wanted in the workplace. Organisational values further link these values to corporate strategy. At this point the question is how many organisations effectively make this link?

Fit with personal values and fit with organisational values are both important. Research shows that the latter is strongly linked with organisational performance. So, if the values of an individual and person fit, then performance will be higher.

The role of competencies

Those of you who have studied business psychology will have come across Richard Boyatzis and his work on competencies. He defined competencies as being, " a mixture of individuals motives, abilities, self-image, social role and knowledge."

The importance of having validated competencies is sometimes overlooked by organisations which think that the bear minimum values statement is sufficient to outline behavioural expectations. The reality is that a golden opportunity to link recruitment, development, succession planning and performance management with behaviours, values and corporate strategy is often missed.

Linking organisational values with performance

The OPG's recent work with clients has focussed on helping link organisational values with candidate fit and performance. Projects have included the design of Situational Judgement Tests for one of the UK's largest car dealership chains to competency frameworks for pharmaceutical, FMCG and public sector clients. Moreover, helping clients achieve clarity and alignment with corporate strategy has been a key focus on each project. This is called 'vertical alignment'.
You might call this, living the brand
Values which work take time to develop. They are well researched and designed using techniques designed to understand future as well as current needs.

Our approach

We move discussions on from what is often perceived as abstract and `soft' values to incorporate business focussed values which link strategy with performance. You might call this, "living the brand". The corporate culture is essentially based on the model as devised by Schein (1992). This distinguishes layers labelled "values", "norms" and "artefacts", supplemented by a fourth layer defined as "behaviours".

Practical Use

1. Recruitment

Recently, we began working with an aerospace client that had invested a considerable amount of resource in developing their organisational values. It had also linked these values to behaviours although they did not use the term 'competencies' in their literature. The impressive work needed to be translated in practical application, and this was where The OPG helped to articulate individual fit with organisational values and competencies using psychometric assessment and consultant led depth feedback interviews. Psychometric feedback was translated into a fit against the values and competencies using feedback and bespoke reports. Candidate fit can then be objectively measured using techniques traditional interviews simply do not address.

Moreover, linking organisational values to recruitment process can be extended to the design of interview templates which utilise competency-based interviewing. For a major bathroom furniture retailer, The OPG designed role specific competencies linked to values. We then designed competency-based interview questions to be used in conjunction with psychometric assessment results. This meant that a consistent, fair and objective interview template was linked to expected behaviours.
Technology can be a wonderful thing
Technology can be a wonderful thing if organisations are able to see the value in extending its application beyond transactional applications. For example. The OPG designed Situational Judgement Tests linked with values and competencies for a major car retailer. This has had a significant impact on improving the quality of hires amongst experienced and graduate populations.

2. Performance management

Much has been written around the demise of the appraisal. They are often cited as being mere tick box exercises or meaningless discussions which end up in the bin. However, performance management is a not to be confused with appraisals. The danger for many organisations is that the slow death of the appraisal is replaced with something that is even less effective. For example, discussions on LinkedIn have focused on having informal chats as a performance tool. This does not work because clarity around roles, responsibilities and objectives is critical to high performance. This means that having clearly defined values to linked to strategy, brand and behaviour significantly enhances performance and reduces the cost of failed hires and underperformance.
The danger for many organisations is that the slowly dying appraisal is being replaced with something that is even less effective.
Having a robust set of values linked to the strategy and brand means that performance management can successfully be formalised and used to help inform learning & development decisions as well as succession planning and career discussions.

Informal and ongoing feedback is important but so is having an effective evaluative framework.

3. Succession Planning

Promotion based on 'craft skills' or 'time served' is still rife in many organisations. Despite the indisputable fact that fit for leadership positions rely on the right behaviours being demonstrated by managers many employers take shortcuts to hire and therefore, recruit sub-optimally.
The correlation between job satisfaction, employee discretionary behaviours, performance and leadership behaviours is proven.
Nevertheless, many organisations ignore alignment with competencies and values when promoting managers and suffer severe consequences as a result.

4. Developing a winning company culture

A lot has been made of how linking values to culture helps develop performance. This is true but only if leaders and employees live the brand. Mere corporate communication is irrelevant if stakeholders do not 'buy in'.

When designing values, it is critical to involve the widest group of stakeholders. Imposed, made up or poorly researched values lack face validity and are unlikely to get traction from others.

Glossy corporate communications do not have much impact unless leaders live and breathe the values and demonstrate the behaviours.

Do think strategically and link strategy with people, their behaviours and performance

Do prioritise behavioural change where performance needs improving. The benefits are proven

Do engage with an expert business psychologist who can gather the data, analyse and articulate it into meaningful results

Don't treat values as a meaningless document which gets buried in the top draw

Don't see the values statement as the job done. Proper competencies linked to performance and resourcing really do add value

5. Conclusion

The nature of work has changed. More and more employers realise that strategy should be linked to values, employee behaviour and the organisational culture.

Some consultancies and organisations concentrate on brand, some on communication, few on reaching strategic alignment.

If you'd like to learn more about our work please email me medavis@theopg.co.uk

Matthew Davis
Director

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Update: We have released a related white paper - Psychometric Assessment: A Valuable Business Tool - Second Annual OPG Survey. This paper is based on the principle that today roles, responsibilities and accountabilities must be clearly defined and linked to behaviours if organisations are to succeed.

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QUESTION 3- Illustrate your answers with examples, explain how HR and L&D activity in an organisation can help to promote its values

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QUESTION 3- Illustrate your answers with examples, explain how HR and L&D activity in an organisation can help to promote its values

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Core company values can add tremendous value for both employees and the bottom line. When created and implemented thoughtfully, core values can become defining elements of an organization; a code that details what behaviors are acceptable, expected and celebrated. You can use them as a tool to guide decision making and help navigate conflict. They can instill a sense of pride and create a foundation for both business and cultural growth.

To reap these benefits, companies must go beyond documenting their values and truly live their values every day. This may sound like an abstract concept, however, the key to helping employees live the values is to fully embed them in the organization. This ensures they are present at every touchpoint of the employee experience.

We recommend weaving the values into eight facets of the employee experience: Hiring, Onboarding, Development, Goals & Reviews, Recognition, Connection, Modeling, and Offboarding. Ensuring the values are present in each provides opportunities to reinforce and engage employees in meaningful conversations about the values.

1. Hiring

Use values as a recruiting tool to help differentiate from other companies. Importantly, values can also be used as a lens to evaluate fit. Rather than screening for "cultural fit" which can often reinforce biases, design questions that evaluate whether the candidate's priorities align with the company's and what drives the candidate's behavior at work.

2. Onboarding

Onboarding can set the tone for the employee's tenure at the organization. Carve out time to engage with the values during these first days and weeks. Provide the new hire with a personal set of "Values Cards" or other collateral that details the company's values. Have managers go through the values with the new hire and tell stories of the values in action. If you have a big group of new hires, host a values deep dive. If your organization is smaller, ask team members to share stories of the values in action at a welcome lunch.

3. Development

Providing opportunities to learn and grow keeps employees motivated. Extending beyond skills-based learning to behavioral learning opportunities that are rooted in your core values reinforces their importance. If for example, you value "Thinking Outside the Box" and want to encourage employees to focus on innovative solutions, you could offer design thinking training or host a design-athon to encourage rapid prototyping.

4. Goals and reviews

Evaluating employees against the values and behaviors is critical to ensuring adoption. It also highlights the importance of "how" the work gets done, in addition to the impact on the business. In manager and peer reviews, ask if there is a specific value or behavior that the individual has consistently exemplified over the last review period and any behaviors that the reviewer would like to see more of in the future.

5. Recognition

While recognition may come in the form of big awards or bonuses, often simple, private recognition from a manager goes a long way towards motivating and instilling a sense of appreciation for one's work. Recognizing individuals or teams whose actions are in line with your values naturally reinforces positive, values-based behaviors. Distributing public "Values Awards" or even "Values Kudos" on slack channels and telling the story (e.g. the person/team, situation, value or specific behavior displayed and the outcome) of the values-based behavior that you are recognizing, sets an example for others to follow.

6. Connection

Building connections between colleagues and the work itself promotes a sense of belonging, trust, and respect. Highlighting your core values during moments of informal and formal connection helps establish them as hallmarks of your company culture. If "One Team" is a value, bring members of separate teams together to share the details of a project or challenge they are facing and ask for input from the rest of the group.

7. Modeling

Modeling is perhaps the most critical aspect of the long term success of a company's core values. When leaders live the values in all their interactions, employees understand that the values are a code which applies to everyone. If "Committed to Growth" is a value, ask leaders to share their own learning and development focus areas. Additionally, when leaders stand in front of the organization and explain how a tough business decision was made with the values in mind, it helps to further reinforce the company's commitment to values.

8. Offboarding

By bringing the values to life throughout the employee experience, employees will naturally feel more engaged. However, when attrition does occur, be sure to keep your companies values at the forefront of the offboarding process. Remember that, if handled well, former employees can continue to be employer brand ambassadors, staying connected and sending great talent your way.

For more help codifying and institutionalizing your company's core values, please reach out to Anne Foreman and Steph Mann at At Your Core. anne@atyourcore.co; steph@atyourcore.co.

Anne and Steph will also be leading a session at this year's Culture First conference. In their interactive workshop, "Living Your Values: Tools to Enhance the Employee Experience," attendees will begin building their own values implementation strategies.

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How to live your company values across the employee experience | Culture Amp

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Core company values can add tremendous value for both employees and the bottom line. When created and implemented thoughtfully, core values can become defining elements of an organization; a code that details what behaviors are acceptable, expected and celebrated. You can use them as a tool to guide decision making and help navigate conflict.

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https://hbr.org/2002/07/make-your-values-mean-something

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Take a look at this list of corporate values: Communication. Respect. Integrity. Excellence. They sound pretty good, don't they? Maybe they even resemble your own company's values. If so, you should be nervous. These are the corporate values of Enron, as claimed in its 2000 annual report. And they're absolutely meaningless.

Indeed, most values statements, says the author, are bland, toothless, or just plain dishonest. And far from being harmless, as some executives assume, they're often highly destructive. Empty values statements create cynical and dispirited employees and undermine managerial credibility. But coming up with strong values - and sticking to them - isn't easy. Organizations that want their values statements to really mean something should follow four imperatives.

First, understand the different types of values: core, aspirational, permission-to-play, and accidental. Confusing them with one another can bewilder employees and make management seem out of touch.

Second, be aggressively authentic. Too many companies view a values initiative in the same way they view a marketing launch: a onetime event measured by the initial attention it receives, not by its content.

Third, own the process. Values initiatives are about imposing a set of fundamental, strategically sound beliefs on a broad group of people. That's why the best values efforts are driven by small teams.

Finally, weave core values into everything. It's not enough to hang your values statement on the wall; it must be integrated into every employee-related process - hiring methods, performance management systems, even dismissal policies.

Living by stated corporate values is difficult. But the benefits of doing so can be profound; so can the damage from adopting a hollow set of corporate values.

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Take a look at this list of corporate values: Communication. Respect. Integrity. Excellence. They sound pretty good, don't they? Maybe they even resemble your own company's values. If so, you should be nervous. These are the corporate values of Enron, as claimed in its 2000 annual report. And they're absolutely meaningless.

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At the heart of our ethos are five key words:

POTENTIAL – RESPONSIBILITY – INTEGRITY – DIVERSITY – EMPATHY

By putting our ethos into practice, our aim is to ensure that for the people we support and their loved ones, and for the people we work alongside – our colleagues, we can make THE difference so that ‘Every Moment Does Matter’.

The Swanton Ethos underpins everything we do

The right words and values can help drive the right actions and behaviours.

The Swanton Ethos is a way of identifying and sharing best practice and is a way for us to know when we are doing a great job.

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4

Organization Values

EXPERTISE

Organization Value

WE HAVE... EXPERTISE - We have a proven track record and a strong client base as a fast growing retail specialist.

INTEGRITY

Organization Value

WE HAVE... INTEGRITY - We are straight-talking, pragmatic and knowledgeable.

Sophie Hallsworth recently posted.

RESPONSIVE

Organization Value

WE ARE... RESPONSIVE - We are always finding ways to be entrepreneurial, inventive, collaborative and tenacious.

RELIABLE

Organization Value

WE ARE... RELIABLE - Our customer-centric approach ensures we focus on our partnerships and always deliver with flexibility.

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Company culture is an organization's expression of its core values and identity into social customs and norms, business practices, and vibe. Organizations, like religious or ethnic groups, naturally develop their own work cultures and distinct characteristics.

A healthy work culture includes these essential components:

Why should HR leaders care about company culture?

As guardians of the work culture, HR leaders play a crucial role in influencing employees and managers and shaping the company culture. A healthy culture drives success and can directly promote:

In a Hibob survey, 77% responded that culture was an essential aspect to consider when looking for a new job. Similarly, in an SHRM report, 20% of employees reported leaving their jobs due to dissatisfaction with the culture.

What can HR leaders do to improve company culture?

HR leaders can nurture their company culture and navigate it in a positive direction. Incorporating these elements can help HR keep the culture on track:

Give employees a voice. HR leaders can foster an environment in which management and leadership value employees and encourage them to feel comfortable. When employees feel valued, they are more motivated to perform high-quality work and achieve goals. HR leaders can facilitate a method for receiving, evaluating, and implementing relevant employee feedback.

Strengthen the good vibes. Positive energy is contagious. HR leaders can cultivate a happier workplace by recognizing employee achievements, directly thanking individuals for specific contributions, and demonstrating empathy towards colleagues.

Align culture with company identity. HR leaders can collaborate with executives to identify the ethos they want to convey and the type of culture they want to thrive. If, for instance, an organization seeks to promote employee autonomy, they can offer flexible work hours, implement employee-manager collaboration for establishing goals, and include employee feedback into processes and decision making. HR leaders can further increase employee autonomy by surveying employees to discover how they'd like to take greater ownership of their work.

What types of HR programs and activities determine a good company culture?

Each organization may define its desired culture differently, yet by implementing essential programs, HR leaders can enhance the culture and guide it in the desired direction. These systems, among others, can provide a solid framework for a flourishing culture:

Core processes and systems can create a unified, stable, community, and growing culture, which directly nurtures employee engagement, retention, and motivation.

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Company culture is an organization's expression of its core values and identity into social customs and norms, business practices, and vibe. Organizations, like religious or ethnic groups, naturally develop their own work cultures and distinct characteristics.

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Having a strong company culture is vital for every successful organisation. Culture influences everything from your daily processes to your top-level strategic decisions, leaving its mark on your brand identity, employee engagement, retention rates, and more.

However, no company culture is fixed. It's constantly evolving in response to changes in the industry, new leadership, shifting demographics, and other internal and external factors - and it's HR's responsibility to guide that evolution.

Here are six of the ways HR professionals can influence organisational culture, making it successful, adaptable, and sustainable over the long term.

1. Taking the Lead on Culture

The simplest way HR can influence company culture is by taking an active approach. HR leaders should work with the executive team and stakeholders across the business to evaluate their current company culture, assess potential gaps or opportunities, and create a strategic plan to align the organisation's culture with its values and goals.

Once a clear vision for the company culture is established, HR must work with leaders across all areas of the business to implement their plan. Open, transparent communication is vital here: everyone at every level should have a clear understanding of the part they play in bringing the company culture to life.

2. Align Recruitment With Your Goals

The people you hire and how you hire them will have an enormous impact on your company's culture, and HR should align their recruitment practices with the organisation's core values.

For example, if your company culture champions diversity and inclusion, your hiring processes could include:

* Writing inclusive job descriptions

* Using 'blind hiring' techniques when shortlisting candidates

* Implementing unconscious bias training

* Allowing for reasonable adjustments at interviews

* Tracking diversity hiring metrics

* Offering targeted internships

It may also make sense to adapt your company culture to make it easier to attract qualified staff, particularly if you're recruiting in an in-demand niche or a particularly competitive region.

For example, you might push to introduce flexible working as an added bonus for potential hires, or make your teams permanently remote to give your company access to the widest possible pool of talent.

3. Use Strategic Compensation and Reward

A competitive compensation scheme is vital for creating a culture where employees feel valued for the work they do.

However, compensation is about more than salary, and strategic reward programmes can play a part in encouraging the behaviours that are important to your company's culture. For example:

* If you want to develop a culture of innovation and learning, you could give each employee an annual bursary to spend on their own projects, or create a book-buying fund to make it easy for them to access new ideas.

* If your company culture is fast-paced and demanding, you could provide catered lunches and other useful amenities, freeing up your employees to focus on work.

* If you're a sustainable and environmentally conscious company, you could invest in a cycle-to-work or car-sharing scheme.

Google is a great example of this in action. Their culture is built around high performance, so they offer a variety of on-the-spot rewards for a job well done - from peer-nominated cash bonuses to trips to Hawaii. The results are impressive: 86% of Google employees are happy with their jobs.

With so much on their plate, it can be easy for senior leaders to lose sight of how business decisions are perceived by the wider organisation.

HR professionals are responsible for bringing the company culture to the fore by reminding executives of the impact their choices have on employee morale and engagement, and how important it is for the company to act in accordance with its values.

5. Champion Learning & Development

With the rise of new technologies and an ever-increasing rate of change, it's never been more important to have a workforce that's adaptable, forward-thinking, and willing to learn.

HR leaders can encourage this by championing professional learning across every area of the organisation. This could include:

* Investing in professional qualifications and accreditation for your employees

* Setting up coaching and mentoring programmes

* Encouraging social and collaborative learning between teams

* Making digital learning available on-demand to allow employees to take charge of their own education

By building a culture that promotes continuous professional development, HR can ensure their teams are always one step ahead.

6. Practice What You Preach

The HR department should act as a role model within a company, embodying the behaviours and values that the organisation wants to promote.

Few things negatively impact a company culture so quickly as leaders going against their own purported values; likewise, a good example set by leadership can be transformative in gaining buy-in from the rest of the organisation.

HR leaders are therefore uniquely positioned to shape their company's culture in ways both deliberate and unintentional. In doing so, they play a major role not only in the success of the company, but in the happiness and fulfilment of their colleagues.

That makes it vital to build trust and close connection with your teams. By keeping your word, listening to others, and acting in accordance with your values every day, you can be the champion of your company's culture - and help it flourish.

ICS Learn is a leading online learning provider with 30 years of experience delivering CIPD qualifications in more than 100 countries worldwide.

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6 Ways HR Can Influence Organisational Culture News | CIPD

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Having a strong company culture is vital for every successful organisation. Culture influences everything from your daily processes to your top-level strategic decisions, leaving its mark on your brand identity, employee engagement, retention rates, and more. However, no company culture is fixed.

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In order to add any value of significance to an organisation, a HR department must be allowed to facilitate the greater strategic vision of a business – one which comes from people with close knowledge of the business, and cannot be outsourced or automated.

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In order to add any value of significance to an organisation, a HR department must be allowed to facilitate the greater strategic vision of a business – one which comes from people with close knowledge of the business, and cannot be outsourced or automated.

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Culture Purpose & Values in SME | Reports | CIPD

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Understand how you can retain your SME's culture, purpose and value over time, with the help of a number of case studies from SMEs and consultants.

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HR is not about HR. This is the first sentence of our latest bookVictory Through Organization, and it captures in 12 words the focus of our last 20 years of work since Human Resource Champions was published in 1997.

In those 20 years, we have surveyed, observed, coached, facilitated, and consulted with 10s of thousands of HR professionals and thousands of organisations to discover how HR can deliver business success by creating more value. We have helped coin and define many terms that shape HR's impact: business partner, organisation capability, HR transformation, strategic HR, HR strategy, HR governance (three-pillar model), HR deliverables, HR outside-in, leadership capital index, employee contribution, HR competencies, and so forth.

We continue to focus on business impact through value creation, and we seek to learn how to deliver business success through HR. Recently I had the privilege of speaking to the HR Congress, a gathering of over 600 HR professionals. I was challenged by Mihaly Nagy, the organiser, to deliver a closing keynote that would capture the themes of dozens of remarkable speakers and (hopefully) inspire attendees to reimagine their careers.

So, I organised my remarks around a simple question: "On a score of 0 to 10, how much value do I create?" This open-ended, intentionally vague question focused on the value of HR for the business more than the activities of HR. Then I asked: "How can I create more?" With a show of hands, the answer to the first question ranged from three to seven. The answers to the second question varied by person; in addition, I offered eight tips for how I believe HR professionals can create more value for the business.
1. Recognise that value is defined by the receiver more than the giver
A thoughtful participant in our HR Learning Partnership (HRLP, a consortium of six to eight companies sending five participants to an 11-day experience) returned home excited to implement the ideas we taught. He called a few weeks later discouraged and said that our programme had not worked. I was very worried and wanted to know what we had done wrong, so I asked him what he did as a result of his experience with us. He had surveyed his business leaders, asking which of about 20 HR innovations they felt were most relevant to their work. But they did not answer with verve and seemed disinterested. It hit me that he had taken the wrong directive away from the consortium, and that we had not delivered our message clearly enough. Business leaders generally do not care much about which of 20 HR practices matter most; they care about the business. His survey should have been about which of 10 business priorities (eg cost, innovation, customer share, quality, revenue growth, etc) mattered most to them. His HR job was then to make HR innovations and practices relevant to these business problems. HR is not about HR but the business!
2. Serve internal and external stakeholders
I like to ask HR professionals: "Who are your customers?" Inevitably a large percentage of any HR audience will say employees or line managers. Right and wrong. When HR focuses on the business more than on HR, its customers are the stakeholders of the business; this does include employees and managers inside the company, but it also encompasses customers, investors, and communities outside. The value of HR is not just what happens inside the company but outside as well.
3. Appreciate and anticipate the business context
The world of business is changing dramatically. For HR professionals to deliver value in the future to all stakeholders, they have to be aware of the context in which they operate. This requires examining the social, technological, economic, political, environmental, and demographic (STEPED) trends that shape a country or industry. HR professionals should do external sensing to bring this contextual information inside the firm, anticipate how those changes will affect the firm, and successfully navigate them.
4. Deliver key outcomes of individual talent and organisation capability
I like to use the following analogy. I have participants hold up their left hand with five fingers. These fingers represent 'talent' and the people in their organisations. Next, I have them hold up their right hand with a fist. The fist represents the 'organisation' or systems that comprise the organisation. I then ask the question: "To deliver business results, which matters most? Hold up either the right or left hand." Generally, about 70 percent hold up the left hand with five fingers representing talent. Wrong. We have found in our work that having the right organisation (right hand in a fist-the systems within an organisation which create capabilities) has four times the impact on business results than that of talent (left hand open with five fingers). HR professionals deliver business impact through talent (competencies of people), organisation (capabilities of the organisation), and leadership (the bridge between the two). Capabilities represent what the organisation is known for and good at doing (eg innovation, collaboration, customer anticipation, change, information sensing). These capabilities are created and sustained by the systems around people and performance. In each and any business dialogue, HR professionals can ask how and offer to improve talent, leadership, and organisation to deliver value to all stakeholders.
5. Use digital HR
I have been around HR for many years (ahem, decades). We are a field (as are others) enamoured with shiny new objects, which might include work on high-performing teams, analytics, demographics (eg millennials), service centres, etc. Now digital HR is the topic du jour. To deliver value, HR professionals have to understand that managing in a digital age will require both efficiency and innovation through technology, but it will also require the ability to choose the right digital solutions and to source information and build connection-the emerging steps of the digital age.
6. Design the right HR department
For HR to deliver business value, the HR department needs to be organised for both efficiency and effectiveness. To be so, HR departments should match the structure of the business where they work. If the business is centralised (about 20% of large businesses), HR should be centralised (eg a common set of HR policies and practices throughout the organisation). If the business is decentralised (about 10%), HR should be decentralised. If the business is a matrix (diversified/allied, multi-divisional firm-about 70%), HR should be organised to be simultaneously efficient and effective. We have also learned that to operate in a multi-divisions firm, HR has to focus less on roles (who does what) and more on relationships (how we work together).
7. Build the right HR competencies
Over the past 30 years, we have empirically studied the competencies that HR professionals must demonstrate. We have found that HR professionals overall have made enormous progress in their competencies. But we have also discovered that it is not just about having competencies that matters but the impact of those competencies on key outcomes, including personal effectiveness, stakeholder value, and business results. Different outcomes require different competencies (eg delivering business results requires the competency of navigating paradoxes).
8. Make line managers owners
Finally, if HR is not about HR but the business, then line managers are ultimately accountable and responsible for HR work around talent, leadership, and organisation. HR's job is to be the architect and anthropologist to facilitate, coach, design, and deliver innovative solutions to business problems.

These are eight of my ideas for how HR can focus on the business and thus add more value. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 how well you feel you are doing in delivering value to your business. Can my suggestions help you? What are your experiences and insights that can aid you in your efforts to improve?

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HR is not about HR: Eight ways HR can create more value for the business

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HR is not about HR. This is the first sentence of our latest bookVictory Through Organization , and it captures in 12 words the focus of our last 20 years of work since Human Resource Champions was published in 1997.

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Learning & Development Strategy and Policy | Factsheets | CIPD

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A learning and development strategy and policy outlines how an organisation develops its workforce’s capabilities, skills and competencies to remain successful.

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Explores the way by which organisations create value through their business model and the extent to which their stakeholders benefit from this value.

It investigates the contrasting perspectives on value in organisations, the concepts of value creation and value capture, and the different models businesses can adopt to deliver value to their stakeholders.

Questions of value cut to the heart of the purpose and outcomes of businesses and their relationships with individuals and society. The research shows that evidence on how stakeholders, such as shareholders, influence value-capture, and gain from the adoption of business models that emphasise value creation is inconclusive. There are a number of different models that may be adopted that can drive value creation and capture more effectively, however in some instances this can lead to the destruction of value.

Investigating the issues surrounding creating and capturing value work is a central issue for HR and its major stakeholders both inside and outside of organisations. There are however a number of questions regarding the tension between value creation and capture, and how management practices can be designed to reduce the impact of value-destructive practices. By locating human capital as a central driver and recipient of value in business models this report argues that good measurement and engagement with multiple stakeholders can help to inform more inclusive distribution of value, and pushes for more debate around how value creation and capture happens in practice.

By highlighting these issues this report contributes important thought leadership on the role of organisations in generating and distributing value, and who the major beneficiaries of business value should be.

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Explores and reviews the academic literature and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the existing measures of job quality.

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Creating and capturing value at work: who benefits? | CIPD

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Explores the way by which organisations create value through their business model and the extent to which their stakeholders benefit from this value. It investigates the contrasting perspectives on value in organisations, the concepts of value creation and value capture, and the different models businesses can adopt to deliver value to their stakeholders.

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DO HR AND L&D PROVIDE A KEY ROLE? WORKING IN CONJUNCTION WITH SENIOR MANAGEMENT.  FROM TOP DOWN

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DO HR AND L&D PROVIDE A KEY ROLE? WORKING IN CONJUNCTION WITH SENIOR MANAGEMENT.  FROM TOP DOWN

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ANALYSE BARRIERS- SUSTAINING MANAGEMENT BUY-IN

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ANALYSE BARRIERS- SUSTAINING MANAGEMENT BUY-IN

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2. Invest in those who will create most value
3. Use technology for greater insight

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-Focus groups
-Employee survey
-Team building activities
-Recognition programmes
-Charity work
-Clear channels of communication
-Alignment between HR and L&D
-Recruitment and onboarding