The labor market is crazy!!!

Not news, I know. However, I’ve never seen my corner of the universe, brand and marketing agencies, this upended. People that “would never work there” now do and it’s fundamentally shifted agency talent as we know it.

However, the broader business world is even crazier with all the volatility we are seeing across once-stable industries. Major layoffs in big tech. Uncertainty everywhere. A hiring push that ends in a hiring freeze…and so on.

Despite the chaos, one constant is an ever-louder narrative around people wanting to work for companies that align with their values. It makes sense that people want to decide who signs their paycheck based on what they believe is right. And it remains very important. 

Unfortunately, many companies’ values exist as an artifact on their About Us page or painted on a wall in the corporate headquarters people now infrequently visit. Worse, many read something like, “integrity, loyalty, trust, innovation and collaboration.” While I’m certain those are things we can all get behind, I doubt they are truly inspiring to anyone. 

I believe the barometer for values is that if they could apply equally well to, say, a plastics manufacturer, a bank, a professional association and a CPG company, they need to be reconsidered, immediately.

Inauthentic values are a huge missed opportunity to engage people inside and out of your organization with what it actually feels like to be part of it. Ultimately, your values should reflect your culture. It’s about more than just what you believe in—it’s how people within your company act when others aren’t looking. The sort of currency that guides the feeling of the places where we work.

Values are your opportunity to capture the awesome uniqueness of your company and say something real. Something that resonates with your people so much that when they see them for the first time, they are like “yep, that’s us, they nailed it.”

And strong values lead to a few clear and powerful outcomes which add vitality to your culture and worth to your company…

Self-selection

Helping people self-select into the culture that fits them best saves everyone a lot of time and energy, so let your values be the best possible guide. If people can see themselves, or better yet, what they aspire to be in your values, they will find you and pursue the deep match they have found, creating alignment and advocacy from the very start.

Storytelling

Clear, specific values provide a powerful platform for telling genuine stories about your people. Stories that not only engage your broader employee base but inspire behaviors that build on each other. Stories that create a sort of virtuous cycle where everyone is positively challenging and rewarding each other to get better for the good of everyone.

Stickiness

Might be a weird way to describe it, but give me a sec. Articulating values that directly reflect your culture at its best gives you a chance to let your hair down a little. To let people in. Not just employees and recruits but clients and prospects too. Is this the type of place or partner we’d want to stick with long term? Are they someone we’d spend time with off Zoom?

Time to get to work

So how do you start? How does an organization identify and codify unmistakably-you values?

Finding your values—those that you and only you can own—is a process of organizational self-discovery. It means hearing from everyone in a multitude of ways, but, perhaps more importantly, observing them as a fly on the wall.

What types of magic happen when your people aren’t doing it for show, but for real? What shared behaviors does everyone identify with and view as what makes your culture simply…different?

Once you can answer that, you’re ready to start defining values that make people look again—and want in.