4 steps to increase employee engagement & demonstrate your core values
“Our leaders demonstrate our core values?”
This is an important question in the Employee Engagement Survey as employee engagement decreases when leaders do not model the values and behaviour of the organisation.
Organisational values are important as they shape culture and define how you go about doing things. They provide a framework around how decisions are made. In an Engagement Survey, there are usually a couple of questions around values, one being that the leaders demonstrate the core values and the other question which determines whether the employees know what the company values are.
Employees want to feel like they work for something bigger and want to work with people that have shared beliefs. More importantly, they want their leaders to model these behaviours, and often this disconnect can lead to low employee engagement. The maxim, ‘People don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses’, comes to mind.
You can increase your employee engagement by;
Clearly articulating your values
Company core values and the associated behaviours that indicate what good looks like are not always well articulated. For example, often organisations have values that focus on Integrity, Respect, Collaboration. These values sound great, but they lack real meaning if they are not clearly defined by the organisation. Everyone has their own understanding of what ‘respect’ means to them, so by clearly defining what respect means to the company and identifying the behaviours that demonstrate the value, the organisation is able to more effectively drive the alignment.
More importantly, your organisation should be able to effectively articulate what the particular value looks like across the business from both a top-down and bottom-up approach. An example of leaders not modelling the values could be a manager walking into an open-plan office and berating an employee in front of their peers. This could come across as disrespectful, undermining the company core value of respect.
The first step is to ask the question, and identify whether company core values are known to all the employees. Determine further, whether everyone understands which behaviours demonstrate the particular value and whether there are currently observable behaviours that undermine the core values. Ask the leaders to identify ways that they can demonstrate core values of the company that will result in them being seen to be aligned to the organisation. Find ways to publicise the company values and keep them front-of-mind for all employees.
Build the values into your competency standards
Most organisation have defined what their core values (beliefs) are and have developed competency frameworks (the skills, motivations and personal qualities), that broadly describe what the gold standard of excellent performance is within the organisation. Sometimes when these two frameworks are not developed hand-in-hand, they can be combative. By aligning the core values and the competency standards, there is greater definition, more effective communication and thus greater clarity for action. Leaders are able to make decisions that align to the values and therefore influence the way that the team members and employees behave.
Well defined value-based competency frameworks will be a guide that will help leaders manage performance more effectively as they will be able to articulate the expected performance aligned to the value aligned to the behaviour. So too, the leader themselves, will be held to account regarding their style and effectiveness.
Relook at your competency model, and ensure that job-specific competencies are aligned to the values. This can be used effectively during all talent management activities.
Create open feedback channels that give employees a voice to call out poor behaviour
In some organisation’s managers behave badly, negatively affecting employees and the workplace. Common ways that managers can behave badly are micromanaging, being disrespectful and embarrassing employees publicly, highly critical, creating unrealistic targets and lack of empathy. These behaviours often undermine the core company values and this is when employees rate their management team as low when it comes to demonstrating core values.
In fact, in these cases often the management team rate themselves much higher and there is real disconnect when comparing the results of the different groups. So the managers think that their behaviour is acceptable. The impact of this behaviour can be very destructive. It can result in high turnover, poor motivation and stress amongst employees. They can feel disempowered and trapped.
How can you create more visible feedback mechanisms in your organisation? An Employee Engagement Survey is a great place to start, but employee feedback in general is key. This needs to be offered in a ‘safe’ form where the employee is confident that there will be no retribution. Feedback can also be sought through 360 reviews, implementing a whistle-blower service, and exit interviews.
Appropriate support and/or consequences should be provided to the leader/manager so that they are able to rehabilitate effectively
So, by;
- Clearly articulating your values,
- Building the values into your competency framework
- Creating feedback channels within the organisation
These deliberate steps can increase employee engagement in your organisation around the question of ?Our leaders demonstrate our core values?
How can we help you?
Peopleconnexion can facilitate an Employee Engagement Survey, which can help you collect insights as well as you give your employees a voice. We then take this actionable feedback to build a real and attractive EVP. Contact us today to book in a free consultation with our engagement experts.