DEFINING VALUES ‘Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.’ – Simon Sinek, author, Start with Why NONO TION TTION T ALENT AALENT A SS _ SESSES SMENTSMENT The co-founding team at Talent.io decided to present their values “during a long company weekend with all team members outside of regular work hours so we could take the time to go through them in depth and why we cared about it.” Not everyone will have time for a weekend away, but it is worth investing considerable time when implementing something which senior members and founders have spent time and resources developing. Remember that communicating culture and values is a program, not a project. It does not have an end date. LIVE AND LEAD BY EXAMPLE Leaders are always being watched. Setting core values, and then failing to abide by them, is worse than not establishing core values at all. PERSONALLY TEACH THE VALUES THROUGH ORIENTATION/TRAINING It’s unrealistic to simply send out an email or a document listing core values, or engrave them on coasters, and think that everyone will adopt them. Formal training communicates that the values matter and shows company commitment. REINFORCE THE VALUES IN ALL COMMUNICATION Revamp the all-hands meetings formats and launch internal newsletters. Every employee touchpoint from interview to leaving day should reinforce the values. 1616