5 Important Values of Business

by Ryan Simon Smith

Business values are very important for a company and most companies don’t realize their importance till much later in their development process. It often happens that a company decides to focus on other more important things than setting company values but it only seems like they are more important at the time only to realize later that they weren’t.

Company values play an important role in the development of the company and how people view it. Employees and clients will have a much better grasp and understanding of your company if your values are set and clear for everyone. Whether one of our company values is determination, patience or endurance it doesn’t really matter as long as it’s clear what your company is all about. Having some strong values like courage to try new things or balance that presents stability and fortitude will come a long way in many aspects and help your company establish better connection with potential customers and employees as well.

Here are the five reasons why business values are important and need to be clear and understandable from the get go.

Help your Employees Become Better at Their Job
For a businessman, one of the most important assets is his employees and businessmen know that in order for their company to thrive and advance they need to show patience toward their employees while also guiding them through the process so they can do their job much better and help you by becoming more efficient when they work.

Many people approach this the wrong way and it often results in many top employees leaving the company because the boss abused his position of power instead of coming from a place that shows balance and understanding.

Furthermore, it’s advantageous when you can break down the values of your company and the entire purpose of it to your employees because many struggle with the fact that they aren’t sure about where they are headed and lack the fortitude and courage to keep moving forward when they are uncertain. This is where explaining your company values comes into play, because it’ll be able to provide your employees by giving them the endurance they need in difficult situations because they’ll know what they, and their company stands for.

Basically, your company values would come to the surface once you answer the question:

“Why does my company exist?”

Improve Your Work Environment
As employees are one of your most important assets you should nurture them properly and create pleasant working environment where they are satisfied, motivated and engaged all at the same time.

When it comes to workers being satisfied everyone assumes it’s mainly about their salary and while it plays a huge part, it’s not the only thing that matters. Aside from the proper pay, employees want to be treated well when they are working, with respect to what they contribute to the company and it’s not always good to point out the negative parts of what someone is doing. It’s often important to give credit to the positive things an employee has done right to boost their confidence and determination. On the other hand if someone is slacking too much you should be firm with him and show that your patience is running out via a simple conversation that can come in the form of an evaluation. An evaluation shouldn’t be about you, showing you have power over your employees and you’re able to fire them at any time, instead it should be about asking questions and trying to understand the position of the employee and afterwards finding a solution that you’re both happy with which is often addressed as common ground.

Once your employees are satisfied the motivation will come on its own because people who are happy with their job tend to be much more productive.

Increase Employee Engagement
Once you’ve set the values of your company and it’s clear what they are to your employees and you’ve managed to create a working environment that your workers find satisfying it’s time to work on employee engagement which can be achieved by following these steps:

1. Work hard and be engaged yourself so you can lead by example.
2. Accentuate collaboration so that the productivity of the entire team will be elevated.
3. Openly communicate with your employees and let them know they can do the same with you and among each other.
4. Use the same networking technology to improve the way you communicate and increase your network
5. Gather feedback from your employees so you show them that their opinion matters and they have a say in what’s going on.
6. Make sure you’re as transparent as possible because this is probably the most important thing that engages employees.
7. Try to implement different types of games into your company’s culture that will make everything more fun.
8. When someone does something well, recognize it by giving a reward to make sure he’ll be properly motivated to do it again and others will be motivated to follow in his footsteps.

Employees who are maximally engaged are actually ones that have clear goals ahead of them and know exactly what they need to do to get to them and aligning their goals with the company’s goals is what every businessman should strive for.

Make Sure Your Clients Know What Your Company Is All About
The values you have of your company should be clear to everyone, not just your employees so you’ll have to make sure that your clients know and understand them as well. The values you present will help your clients and many potential clients become educated about what your company is all about and make the identity of your company clear as day. When your company values are set and clear to both your employees and clients it can be a great advantage over other companies in the same niche who don’t have any clear values.

An example of this would be easiest to understand if we take accountability to be one of the values of your company which will attract customers and clients that value companies who can be held accountable if one of their products or services isn’t as advertised.

Make Your Company Desirable to New Talent and Customers
Broadcasting and being clear of the values of your company will surely attract new talent who likes and respects what your company is all about. Many successful companies that have clear values are able to get many talented applicants but they are also able to keep the talent in the company instead of constantly turnover employees.

The same goes for clients too. Once the client sees your values and he identifies with them realizing that it’s something that he wants from a company, he’ll pick your company over others who don’t have clearly defined values. You’ll be able to get many clients by setting clear and strong values from the start too.

Famous Companies and Their Values

Google
Google as a giant company has very good and strong values that set them apart from many others and their values are clearly broadcasted to the world:

• Focus on the best user experience
• Fast over slow
• Web democracy works
• Do one thing extremely well
• Honesty and Integrity
• You can be serious and efficient without wearing a suit

Starbucks
This coffee shop chain that has hundreds of shops open all over the world also has some strong values that they share publicly and stand by them:

• Creating a culture where everyone can feel warm, belong and feel welcome
• Courageous acts, confronting the status quo and figuring out new ways to grow our company and each other
• Presence, respect, dignity and transparent connecting
• Giving in our absolute best in everything we make, being accountable for our actions
• We are motivated by performance, through the medium of humanity

Spotify
A recent addition that stood out from the bunch and set up strong values for their company is Spotify and their values are:

• We are innovative
• We are collaborative
• We are sincere
• We are passionate
• We are playful

Their values are quite simple but crystal clear and many people can relate to them.

Intercom
Another company with a great set of predetermined values that other companies can learn from is Intercom. Their values are:

• We start small and simple with anything we take on as a task
• We’re try to be extremely pragmatic
• We ship good work as soon as it’s done, learning and improving as we go
• We like to attempt experiments and play while taking calculated and advised risks
• We are prepared that we’ll often fall when we do

Conclusion
Even though it might seem like something that isn’t important, setting business values is one of the first things a company needs to do to show the world what it’s about and attract talented workers and potential customers.

Your employees are very important assets that need to know the values of your company so they can set their goals and easily identify themselves with your company to become better, more productive, and more creative and engaged when they are in the workplace.

Potential clients will have an easier time picking you over your competition if you have clear values set for your business.

There are a lot of values that you can pick for your company but it’s very important to live by them and let the world know what your company is all about.