The true value of company values

I try to catch up with our EMEA head of Accounting, Carl Reader, on a regular basis to help keep our finger on the pulse of what’s happening on the front lines of an accountancy firm. In addition to being the Head of Accounting for Practice Ignition, he’s also Joint Chairman / Owner of d&t Chartered Accountants, to chat about the importance of implementing strong values within your accounting firm. 

Management nonsense?

The vast majority of modern companies have a series of well-defined values that they espouse. They might even have these written on the walls of their office or printed on employees’ ID lanyards. As McKinsey states, “What is your company’s core reason for being, and where can you have a unique, positive impact on society? Now more than ever, you need good answers to these questions.”

However, there are still those who view organisational values as “management nonsense”. Personally, I believe the key lies in how you implement and promote your values on a daily, consistent basis — it’s not just enough to espouse values if you don’t truly live by them. Carl told me that he first noted the need for organisation values when he began to feel a slight disconnect between himself and certain newer members of the staff during d&t’s rapid growth. This dilution was further exacerbated by the multiple layers of management within the firm.

Then it hit him.

“That dilution also meant that there was a dilution in expectation, not just around what you do day-to-day, but also how you do it. So that's where we identified the need for being absolutely clear on our stakeholders, our vision, and values.”

It’s easy to create a strong culture within a small team where you all know each other incredibly well. When you’re a larger company, however, it’s a lot harder — and that can leave certain employees unsure of what’s expected of them.

The thought process

How do you come up with values that accurately reflect your firm? Where should you even start?

Carl decided to set up a meeting with the entire management team. They blocked out a meeting room for a day and got to work, scribbling down every value that they thought would be desirable within an accounting firm before sticking them up on the wall using Post-it notes.

Then came the tricky part. No company can have 500 values, so they sifted through every one of them before settling on four: professional, caring, passionate, and innovative.

 Integration

I’ve always thought that values have to be “living and breathing” if they’re going to have an effect. As such, they need to be front and centre of anything that your organisation does. One way of doing this is by embodying the language of these values on a regular basis, such as during team meetings. For example, if I praise someone or call someone out for doing something really good, I will then say what value that relates to.

Before you know it, the company culture is forming a life of its own. Everyone begins to use these words and this own language within the business that's actually really reflective of how your culture is developing, as well as being reflective of how you want others externally to think of your business. It almost develops into a self-fulfilling prophecy — the more you use the language of your values, and the more you tie this back into what you’re doing on a daily basis, then the more front-of-mind your values will become.

A valuable approach

Values help align individual employees with the firm’s overarching purpose and mission. When done well, they’re specific, well-chosen epithets that guide how your company should operate. Implementing strong values is critical if you’re going to create a strong company culture and ensure that everyone is on the same page going forward.