Company values are not just words. They can impact a company’s financial success. The way a company operates, treats its employees, and interacts with customers can directly affect its profitability.

In this article, we will explore how company values can impact profitability. Understanding this connection is important for businesses in today’s competitive market.

What Are Company Values?

Understanding Core Values

Core values are timeless guiding principles that direct behavior and define a company’s culture. They are an integral part of the company’s DNA. Aligning with them ensures the organization remains competitive and maintains its vision.

To define core values, individuals or teams can start by identifying people who share these values and then defining them based on these characteristics.

Core values impact decision-making and behavior within an organization by guiding leaders in hiring, firing, reviewing, rewarding, and recognizing based on these values. This embeds them into day-to-day operations.

As a result, core values drive employee satisfaction, retention, customer and vendor loyalty, organizational performance, and overall business growth. This ultimately positions the company at the forefront of business.

Listing Company Values Examples

Teamwork

Teamwork is important for a company’s success. It fosters collaboration, open communication, and trust among employees. Effective teamwork allows team members to support one another, share ideas, and work towards common goals. This creates a positive work environment where employees feel valued, respected, and empowered.

Examples of how teamwork can lead to honesty and innovation include employees sharing feedback openly, addressing challenges collectively, and seeking innovative solutions together. By working as a team, employees can hold each other accountable to the company’s values, encourage transparency, and promote creativity and continuous improvement.

Additionally, teamwork allows employees to bring diverse perspectives to the table, fostering innovation and positive change within the company.

Companies can integrate their core values with everyday actions through teamwork by creating opportunities for employees to demonstrate those values in their interactions and decision-making processes. When employees collaborate, problem-solve, and communicate effectively as a team, they embody the core values of the company in their day-to-day activities. Teamwork allows employees to align their actions with the company’s values, leading to a consistent and cohesive integration of core values into the company’s culture and operations.

Honesty

Honesty in a company’s core values means acting with integrity, transparency, and truthfulness in all business operations and decision-making. It involves open and honest communication with employees, customers, and stakeholders, as well as ethical behavior in all interactions.

Honesty can be integrated into daily operations through clear communication of expectations, transparency in decision-making, and accountability for actions. This includes setting clear standards for ethical behavior, encouraging open dialogue, and recognizing and rewarding honesty and integrity.

Examples of companies that embody honesty as a core value include 3M, Bayhealth, and Google. These companies have demonstrated a commitment to honesty by fostering a culture of transparency, open communication, and ethical behavior.

Innovation

Innovation is important for a company’s core values. It encourages creative thinking, problem-solving, and adaptability. Companies like 3M prioritize innovation and have integrated values like authenticity, persistence, and continuous learning into their operations.

Companies can merge innovative values with everyday actions by reinforcing them in hiring, firing, rewards, and recognition. Living and leading with innovative values creates a unique and unified culture, positioning companies at the forefront of business.

Combining innovation with core values drives employee satisfaction, retention, customer loyalty, and organizational performance. Recognizing and rewarding employees who uphold these values reinforces their significance and leads to a more engaged workforce.

Creating and Following Value Statements

Steps to Define Core Values

To clearly define its core values, a company can start by identifying the key principles that shape its culture and behavior. These values should then be communicated to all employees, making sure they are understood and embraced at every level. Recognition programs that celebrate employees who embody these values can also reinforce core values.

To integrate core values into everyday practices and decision-making processes, a company can embed them into its operations by hiring, firing, reviewing, rewarding, and recognizing based on these values. Using core values as a guide for making decisions and setting goals can help ensure that they actively guide the organization’s actions and strategies.

Several companies, such as 3M, Bayhealth, and Google, have successfully merged their core values with their everyday actions. For example, 3M’s core value of innovation drives its commitment to research and development, while Google’s value of “Do the right thing” influences its decision-making processes and ethical practices.

Putting Values into Practice

Individuals in an organization can align their actions with the company’s core values by embodying those values in their daily work. This includes making decisions that reflect the company’s values, treating colleagues and customers with respect, and finding ways to live out the values in tangible ways.

Organizations can uphold company values by implementing strategies like hiring, firing, and reviewing employees based on core values. Leaders can embed core values into the company culture through constant reinforcement and setting clear expectations for behavior.

Employees can contribute to fostering a values-aligned culture by demonstrating those values in their work, integrating values into their daily tasks, and holding themselves and others accountable. This can create an environment where employees are aligned with the company’s values, leading to increased satisfaction, retention, and performance.

Companies Known for Great Values

Tech Innovators

Tech innovators have core values like innovation, collaboration, and adaptability. These values influence their decisions when creating new technologies and solutions. They also integrate these values into daily actions by promoting creativity, open communication, and continuous learning. Tech innovators challenge the status quo, push boundaries, and adapt to new trends in the industry. These values shape the work environment and drive the forward-thinking mindset of tech innovators.

Healthcare Leaders

Healthcare leaders are expected to uphold core values. These include equity, authentic relationships, persistence, exceptional results, and continuous learning. By examining and internal system to realize equity, leaders can put their value into practice. They can develop impactful relationships with their patients, employees, and partner organizations.

Additionally, leaders should be relentless in pursuit of positive patient outcomes. They should be committed to continuous learning in order to keep up with advancements in medical technology and patient care.

Examples of healthcare leaders known for their strong company values include:

• Mayo Clinic
• Cleveland Clinic
• Johns Hopkins Hospital

These organizations have built a reputation for delivering exceptional patient care and being sources of innovative medical research. They also maintain strong and meaningful relationships with their employees and surrounding communities.

Consumer Giants

Consumer giants have core values that guide their behavior and define their culture. These guiding principles are timeless and essential to the companies’ DNA. To put these core values into practice, consumer giants embed them into their everyday operations through constant reinforcement. They hire, fire, review, reward, and recognize based on these core values, linking them to business operations at every opportunity.

Some examples of consumer giants known for their strong company values include 3M, Bayhealth, and Google. These companies have effectively integrated their core values into their culture and operations, increasing employee satisfaction, retention, customer and vendor loyalty, organizational performance, and business growth. Their success in aligning employee behavior with these core values serves as a testament to the importance of defining clear expectations and recognizing employees who embody the company values.

Merging Values with Everyday Actions

Individuals can easily incorporate company values into their everyday actions. They can do this by actively demonstrating values like teamwork, honesty, and innovation in interactions with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders.

For example, fostering open communication and collaboration among team members represents the value of teamwork. Being transparent and truthful in all business dealings reflects the value of honesty. Embracing creativity, problem-solving, and continuous improvement showcases the value of innovation.

Companies can use strategies such as aligning hiring, evaluation, and recognition processes with core values to ensure that value statements are followed in everyday work and decision-making. This involves hiring individuals who embody the core values, evaluating performance based on adherence to these values, and recognizing and rewarding employees who consistently uphold the values in their work.

Some companies, like 3M, Bayhealth, and Google, have successfully merged their core values with everyday actions. They have integrated their values into their employee engagement programs, recognition initiatives, and decision-making processes, ultimately aligning employee behavior with core values and creating a positive organizational culture.