Use Values to Build Loyalty in Your Small Business
If you and your small business are suffering because of a higher than desired employee turnover, then yes, it’s time to do something about it fast.
Employee turnover will cost your small business exponentially more than it would a big business. That’s because big businesses have the ability to absorb vacancies far better than smaller businesses, where losing employees can have a serious impact on the capacity, and often even core functioning of your organisation. But, you already know that.
Often, having defined business values are viewed as an obligation, but they don’t have a significant impact on business activities or direction. They may live in the employee induction handbook and across company policy documents, but are rarely considered outside of these.
But values have use as a way of aligning employer with employee and can be a key way in which you can build loyalty from the outset.
That isn’t to say it’s easy. Defining values is just the beginning. Ingraining them into the culture for driving objectives is a whole other story. So, here’s a few strategies to ensure your values are alive across your business, enabling you to consistently find and retain loyal, satisfied employees.
1: Hire on Values
Values should be brought into the conversion early. During the first interview, ideally.
But sharing business values isn’t irrefutable evidence that the business is guided by them. You may wish to disclose information about how your business values can be:
Seen in action across day to day activities.
Influence process and decision making.
Relate to the overall vision of the company.
Then, explore how these values may align with the candidate’s own. What do they value in life? How closely does it link to your team values and to the environment to which you may be inviting them to join?
Establishing whether an alignment exists from the outset provides the foundation on which you can bring a hire onto the team that is likely to stick around.
2: Lead with Values
Secondly, lead with values. Your job as a leader isn’t done once your new hire passes the induction period.
As a business founder, you need to be constantly delivering leadership moments that keep the values of the company high up in a way that is authentic to you. This is one of the ways in which you can live and breathe your business values day-to-day.
Elvis Presley once said, “Values are like fingerprints. Nobody's are the same, but you leave 'em all over everything you do.”
If your employees can see that business values guide your leadership style, then you have credibility and invite greater trust.
3: Build with Values
To restate: your business values should be treated as living. They inform the functioning and direction of the business. They underpin strategy; they aren’t tucked away in your business plan never to be considered again.
Empty values that don’t influence business direction or daily process create sceptical and disheartened employees, and undermine managerial credibility. I’d say good luck keeping your team around for the long run if your values are just words in a document.
In order to build with values:
Use them as a foundation for business planning.
Seek periodic feedback from your team on whether they think values are playing an active role in the business.
Ensure they are integrated into every employee-related process—hiring, performance review, rewards, and even dismissal policies.
Takeaway
Living business values that inform process and direction are a key factor for bridging the gap between employer and employee and creating loyalty.
In order to effectively use values to reduce staff turnover, bring values into the conversation early during the first interview, lead by example and build with business values at the forefront of your planning and decision making.
Has something in this article resonated with you? Let’s take this discussion a step further. I welcome you to book a free 45 minute call with me to discover how I can fit into your business needs.