Do You Walk the Walk

Laura Sue D'Annunzio
Jenine Krause
Jessica Bailey

Most companies have a process for defining their values: They write a mission statement, craft a list of principles to achieve the mission, and distribute the list to all employees—sometimes on wallet-size plastic cards. Yet few companies follow up to find out if their employees actually live up to these principles. The reason is simple: Until now there was no easy way to gauge intangibles. How do you evaluate someone on their uncompromising ethics? What actions signify that employees are delighting your customers?

This article describes how to use standard human resource tools to assess employees against the company’s cultural values. The tools are modified to concentrate more on behaviors than business results. In other words, instead of looking exclusively at “what” is done, you also look at “how” it is done. For example, a manager who meets a costcutting target of 10 percent is also measured by how the target was met.

The authors also discuss how to interview prospective employees to ensure a good culture match; they outline ways to compensate people for their behavior and explain why hands-on training is better than classroom training when it comes to teaching cultural values.

People talk about their support of the company’s cultural values, but unless they are truly embracing them, the values will never be part of the company’s success story.