Most businesses can describe their values, but the real test is whether those values shape the way leaders lead, people are managed and decisions are made, especially as the business grows. When values are merely statements on the wall, they fail to influence daily operations. The real power of values lies in how they impact everyday leadership, communication, actions and decision making, guiding businesses toward long term success.
In this article, Kate Rigby – HR Director at Loch – explores what it really takes for SMEs to build a culture that supports growth, going beyond values as principles and incorporating them into daily operations.
The Problem: Values on the Wall vs. Values in the Work
Many businesses proudly display their core values in various forms, on websites, in recruitment materials and through internal communications, for example. The challenge is making sure these values go beyond words and truly guide how the business operates.
As Kate points out: “When values become part of the everyday language of the business – how we make decisions, give feedback and celebrate success – that’s when they start to have real power. Real lived values guide behaviour, decision making and shape the company culture. They build trust with employees as well as customers and clients.” The gap between stating values and living them is where most businesses struggle. To create meaningful change, values need to be woven into the fabric of day-to-day operations.
The Power of Living Values: Why It Matters for Growth
Living values can directly impact business growth in several key ways:
- Create consistency and alignment: Clear lived values create consistency and alignment allowing the business to grow efficiently
- Attract and Retain the Right People: A strong, values driven culture attracts and retains top talent and ensures that the right people – not just more people – join the company, fostering sustainable growth
- Employee Engagement: Teams that embrace the company’s values tend to be more engaged, collaborative and innovative, which leads to better results
- Improved Decision Making: Decisions guided by clear values reduce friction, improve efficiency and build trust among colleagues, clients and partners, resulting in long term success
When values are truly lived, they empower employees and teams to lead, communicate and make decisions aligned with the company’s vision, contributing to overall growth. Kate emphasises: “The real opportunity comes from embedding values into how work is done, how teams communicate, how leaders lead and how employees behave, rather than just showcasing them on a wall.”
The Role of the People Plan in Embedding Values
Your People Plan is critical to embedding your Company values. Your People Plan is a framework that links business goals and strategy to the people strategies required to support it.
An effective People Plan clearly defines what the organisation needs from its people, the culture required to succeed, and the capabilities that must be developed to support business growth. As Kate highlights: “If organisational values are intended to shape the business, they must be fully embedded within the People Plan. Values should be embedded into the overall business strategy and consistently reflected in day to day behaviours, decision making, leadership actions and ways of working, ensuring they are actively lived across the organisation rather than remaining as aspirational statements”.
What Does It Look Like to Put Values into Action?
To truly embed values in a workplace, companies need to integrate them into the following areas:
- Leadership: Leading in ways that consistently reflect organisational values, setting the tone through visible actions, decisions, and accountability that demonstrate those values in practice every day.
- Recruitment: Recruit individuals whose personal values align with the company’s culture. This ensures that new hires contribute to the values led atmosphere and are naturally more likely to be aligned with the Company goals.
- Performance Management: Values should be part of how success is recognised, rewarded and measured. A values driven approach to performance helps employees understand the behaviours that align with the company’s goals.
- Behaviour Management: Use values to challenge behaviours that do not align with company culture, even if it’s uncomfortable. Holding employees accountable to values creates consistency and reinforces the company’s vision.
- Culture: As the business grows, values anchor the business culture by guiding behaviours, decisions, and ways of working, ensuring consistency and alignment.
For example, if a business claims to value respect, it should be evident in how managers handle challenges and feedback. If accountability is a core value, it should show up in how objectives are set and followed up. If collaboration is emphasised, it should be reflected in how teams work together and how decisions are made. If culture is strong, your people deliver results in a way that reflects how the business expects work to be done.
Case Study: Values in Action
A powerful example shared by Kate involves a consultancy business that had experienced rapid growth. “While the sales teams were highly effective at generating new business, the company faced increasing attrition rates among both clients and employees,” explains Kate. “Loch worked with the business to introduce a more balanced approach, focusing not just on sales results but on building long term relationships that aligned with the company’s core values.”
Kate continues: “By integrating values into the way success was measured – shifting from a purely sales driven approach to one that valued relationship building – early signs showed improvements in employee and client retention.”
This example highlights that values driven practices not only support culture but directly influence performance and long term business outcomes.
The Key Role of Line Managers: Bringing Values to Life
While leadership may set the tone with the People Plan, it’s the line managers who make values come to life on the ground. Employees don’t primarily experience culture through statements, they experience it through the everyday behaviours and actions of their managers.
Culture is brought to life through everyday actions, in how expectations are set, how feedback is given, how issues are addressed and how consistently people are treated. Line managers are the key to ensuring values are applied consistently. When managers understand what the organisation’s values mean in practice and are supported in applying them, values are far more likely to be embedded across the business.
Authenticity: Bridging the Gap Between Claims and Actions
If a business promotes itself as people focused, values driven or innovative, but doesn’t live by those values in practice, it creates a credibility gap that can be harmful. From a legal perspective, if an employer’s practices are challenged, one of the first things a solicitor will look at is what the business has publicly claimed about itself. A disconnect between public statements and actual practices can undermine credibility, increasing legal and reputational risks.
Beyond legal considerations, failing to live by stated values often results in credibility being undermined, engagement declining and confidence in leadership being weakened. Over time, this can strain business relationships, impact reputation and reduce the organisation’s ability to attract and retain key talent.
Conclusion: From Values on the Wall to Values in the Work
The key message is that most SMEs don’t need more values, they need to start living the ones they already have Embedding those values into every aspect of the overall People Plan, empowering line managers, and ensuring authenticity can transform the business culture. When values are consistently applied in practice, they support business growth, foster engagement and create an environment of empowerment, trust and accountability.
To successfully integrate values into a workplace, businesses need to go beyond mere statements and ensure that their actions, decisions and behaviours reflect the values they claim. With this shift, SMEs can create a thriving, values led culture that drives growth and success.
Loch’s Support in Embedding a Values Led Culture
If you’re looking to embed a values led culture within your organisation, Loch provides expert guidance in aligning your values with your business strategy and people management practices.
Whether you’re developing your People Plan, revising your People Plan or need support in developing leadership capability, Loch offers tailored services to help you build a strong, sustainable culture for growth. Get in touch with our expert team.
