From words on the wall to the way we do business: Activating your company values to deliver commercial impact

Creative company values may look nice adorning your office walls. But unless they are integrated as guiding principles that shape your culture, driving the behaviours that inform how you do business, they’ll never be more than decoration. Too often, organisations treat their values as a one-off exercise, committing time to insight and creation, but omitting to dedicate resource for a solid launch and embedding strategy.

Our latest article offers an action plan to ensure your company values are much more than words on a wall, but are in fact drivers of the culture you need to increase productivity, build better client relationships, and fuel innovative thinking.  

Launch with impact

Launching new or refreshed values is a great opportunity to bring your people together. Your values are likely to fall short should they not be role-modelled by your leadership team so thinking about the part they play in your launch communications is really important. Perhaps leadership could share their commitment to the values and how they’ll use them to help inform the way they do business.

Top tip: why not create some user-generated video from each of your leaders as they describe why one of your new values is so important to them. 

Equally important as your leader commitments is helping your people understand what your values mean to them at team level and how it can impact their daily work.

An interactive team workshop can be a great opportunity for colleagues to take some time out to explore what the values mean to them, considering various business scenarios and how this thinking could support their decision making.

Explore how we helped Kerr Office Group refresh and launch the Kerr Promises here.

Connect your company values to your employee experience

Once the excitement of your values launch is over, it’s time to demonstrate how your people will see and feel your values throughout your employee experience.

By integrating your values across important milestones, from recruitment to personal development, to performance management etc. you’re demonstrating how the values work in practice across your business in the way you behave towards your people.

Recruiting with values in mind

Here, your values are an opportunity to ensure new recruits are a strong cultural fit. Prospective employees should encounter your values in job descriptions, hear about them during interviews, and experience them in all your recruitment comms and interactions.

From onboard to embed   

Onboarding is one of the most powerful touchpoints when it comes to demonstrating your values in action. Consider introducing a “values buddy” — an experienced team member who can exemplify how to live the values on a day-to-day basis. Think about dedicating part of your onboarding programme to workshops or activities around values, helping new recruits explore what it looks and feels like to align with the company ethos right from the start.

Reinforce through your learning and development approach

Your values should be the cornerstone of your learning and development offer. Integrating them into skills training, leadership development, and learning opportunities can help employees see how these values come to life in their growth and performance.

Deliver values-led performance management

Performance reviews are another ideal touchpoint to keep values top of mind. Encourage managers to assess not only achievements but also the behaviours aligned with the values. This will help reinforce the importance of living the values in tandem with meeting targets. When employees see that values-based behaviours are recognised, they’re more likely to continue demonstrating these actions in their daily work.

Offboarding is just as important as onboarding

Delivering a values-led offboarding or exit experience shows commitment to your principles at every stage of the employee journey. And is an area often neglected by employers. By celebrating contributions, offering transition support, and gathering values-focused insights in exit interviews, companies can build goodwill and lasting positive perceptions, turning former employees into lifelong advocates.

Embedding values in the employee experience isn’t a one-time initiative — it’s a continuous commitment that shapes every phase of the employee lifecycle. When values are present at every touchpoint, employees can consistently connect their work to a shared purpose, ultimately enhancing motivation, reducing turnover, and creating stronger alignment toward the company’s goals.

Looking to refresh your values but unsure where to start?

Book a values springboard with our resident employee experience expert, Lucy McKerron.