Learn why core values matter and how they can bring your culture to life in your recognition program.
Outside of specific business initiatives, a very effective addition to your recognition program is your company values. This is the heart of who you are as an organization. A study by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras found that organizations driven by their company purpose and values outperformed the market 15:1 and comparison companies 6:1.
Reinforcing behaviors that align with your unique values will elevate your differentiation and performance in the marketplace. For example, two companies may have Team Work as a value but what that means for each company will mostly likely be vastly different:
- Team Work for Company A it may mean collaboration with their corporate and field employees to drive internal effectiveness to provide superior customer service.
- Teamwork for Company B it may mean working hand-in-hand with their remote workforce to drive internal communication and processes to expedite client response times.
Bring your core values to life with a description and real life examples to reinforce the right behaviors. It's important to share stories and examples with your employees so they know what success looks like and how your core values set you apart from your competitors. These values are the heart of your organization and create your differentiation in the market.
If you decide to include your values, which we highly recommend, in addition to providing a description for each, capture specific examples and stories to share in company meetings, new hire onboarding, and recognition events to name a few. Values are a huge differentiator and one of the reasons why most of your employees were interested in working with the organization in the first place. In fact, according to Deloitte, 95% of candidates value culture over compensation. Let your culture shine and celebrate the core values that bring your workplace together!
Below are a few examples where we included fictional recognition messages. The great news is the Sparck system will captures these for you so they will be easily accessible for you to share.
Examples of Core Values
Company: Adage Technologies
Core Value: Be an ambassador
Description: We are proud to be problem solvers. We like the people we work with - coworkers, managers, clients - and genuinely enjoy helping one another succeed.
Example (fiction): Huge shoutout to April Jones who redesigned our user interface to make it more intuitive and client friendly. This slight shift has accounted for 100% renewals this month when over half were expected to churn due to the user experience. Great work April, we are so lucky to have your problem solving skills on this team!
Company: Apptio
Core Value: Develop our people
Description: Provide an environment that fosters personal development and professional growth.
Example (fiction): Congratulations to Brian for completing his MBA this month. We are so proud of you and glad we could play a small part with tuition reimbursement.
Company: Beeswax
Core Value: Flexibility
Description: We empower our employees in a work environment that is conducive to creating optimal work/life balance.
Example (fiction): Wow, Sarah did it again! Locked up a $1M dollar contract by 3pm and then was off to her son’s baseball game. Have fun celebrating with the family!
Company: CB Insights
Core Value: Hungry
Description: We want you to find your comfort zone. And then seek to challenge the hell out of it, over and over. Complacency kills.
Example (fiction): A HUGE thank you to Jim from Research who ran with a sales meeting for me when my zoom didn’t connect and scheduled a follow-up demo for next week. I know this isn’t your space but you killed it! You stayed in your strength zone and outside your comfort zone...I owe you commission when this is locked up!
Next Steps
- Learn more about Perks and Perk Levels for your recognition program.
- Learn about the power of Pulse Surveys.