How Defining Corporate Values Can Generate Engagement

According to a study carried by Wellcom & Opinion Way, 50 per cent of all organisations have defined a set of corporate values. Amongst them, more than a third of these companies have defined these values over 20 years ago. The results of this study allow us to see how corporate values are expressed within corporations. It’s also an opportunity to verify if these values create more engagement.

Defining Corporate Values Has Become Common Practise

For 40 per cent of CEOs interrogated, the practise of defining corporate values is not widespread. However, this is far from being a reality as research shows quite the opposite. In fact, 46 per cent of respondents admit having adopted values while half (48 per cent) confirm having defined between three to five values. Amongst those who admitted having defined values:

• 35 per cent declare that their values are over 20 years old,
• 97 per cent think they still correspond to today’s corporate life.

The vast majority of business leaders are deeply convinced of the benefits of this practise, especially when it comes to PR and communication related activities. They are:

• 96 per cent to consider that corporate values can be used as a tool to guide internal communication,
• 91 per cent judge that that they allow to orientate their PR initiatives.

How to Create Awareness Over Corporate Values?

Beyond the benefits for corporate communications, CEOs interrogated identified another practise that employees can adopt to help defined their own values: workshops. But leading by example remains the most effective way to broadcast those values across the organisation. For 88 per cent of respondents, mentioning those values on a regular basis constitute a practical demonstration of leading by example.

When it comes to promotion, communication activities constitute the preferred method to market an organisation’s values which includes:

• Presenting the organisation for 97 per cent of respondents,
• Compiling a “welcome” guide to those values for 94 per cent of them,
• Distributing dedicated printed brochures and documents or linking back to the company website of 93 per cent of them.

Other methods that were mentioned includes:

• PR activities for 84 per cent of respondents.,
• Company intranet for 83 per cent of respondents,
• An annual report for 77 per cent of them.

The study also highlights that corporate values make a lot of sense for employees. Corporate culture is in return strengthened. Corporate values are not only a source of motivation but also a way to make employees’ actions stand out. They bring an actual sense of purpose to their work. In addition, managers can refer to them and used them as a source of inspiration to make decisions, lead and align their human capital.

To summarise, the Wellcom & Opinion Way study reveals three major takeaways:

• Communication is a foundational pillar of the organisational life. In a world that is increasingly digitalisation and competitive, it constitutes an absolute priority. Brand identity, its transformation and relationships with external stakeholders constitute major challenges.
• The spirit of transmission, experience sharing and collaboration are more and more integrated.
•  The digitalisation of jobs, processes, strategies and relations are increasingly integrated in the vision of corporations in the coming years. Digital communication has become a priority for these organisations which must improve their ability to communicate with the public.