At Zircon, Dr Amanda Potter and her team of Occupational Psychologists have been researching the importance of values on personal and business success. The Zircon team acknowledge that there is a need for mutual values between the organisation and its employees in order to achieve Cultural Fit. Values often reflect a person’s sense of what is “right or wrong”, and can impact upon their attitude and behaviour, including how a person interacts with others in their environment.
A press release of particular interest to the Zircon team was published by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) in which they state the importance of values on the perspectives of organisations and their employees.
The CIPD stated that over half (52% of 2000 employees) agree that the values of the organisation positively influence their behaviour at work. However, it appears employees believe different rules exist depending upon the sector of the company, and they believe this can result in negativity among employees. Therefore, the CIPD purports that consistency and accountability must be acknowledged between all levels of any organisation in order to maintain a positive view for employees.
In addition, it is been reported that only 6 out of 10 (58%) employees feel their personal values are matched to the organisation they are working for. This suggests that recruitment stages within businesses are failing to match personal and organisational values, resulting in a disconnected workforce.
Peter Cheese, CEO of CIPD, states that “Now more than ever, organisational values should be at the forefront of leaders minds. At the heart of an organisations culture has to be a set of agreed values that resonate with employees at all levels from the board to the front line in order to provide a template for the behaviours and standards expected”
Claire McCartney, Research adviser at the CIPD, also supports this, stating “HR Professionals have a key role to play in ensuring that values personally resonate with employees… integrating values into people management processes and the way people do their jobs will also help to ensure values matter. Our evidence shows that there is currently a disconnect between business values and the personal values of employees. This imbalance needs to be urgently addressed if we are to really see a new era of improved business culture.”
In Zircon we believe that in order for a business to be successful they need to match personal values to the values of the organisation. In other words there needs to be Cultural Fit. This should be implemented across all levels in the company to ensure a cohesive and consistent work environment.
Our research concurs with this and we have found that values are an important aspect of any work environment and can drastically influence behaviour, motivation and performance. This is particularly the case if employees personal values are not comparable to the core values of their organisation.
Zircon are currently creating a new talent product “ZinergyTM” that provides a library of Values, Capabilities and Strengths for assessment and development. ZinergyTM takes a blended approach to talent assessment, development, succession planning and engagement. For more information, please contact Dr Amanda Potter amanda.potter@zircon-mc.co.uk
References
Askew, K. Blevin, R. Garrett, K. (2012, November). Cipd. cipd.co.uk. Retrived March 28 2013, from http://www.cipd.co.uk/pressoffice/press-releases/default.aspx.
