How to Promote Company Values and Guidelines in an Employee Handbook

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know the main purpose of your employee handbook is to lay down the law — er, politely convey your company policies and procedures so everyone can work happily ever after. However, at Blissbook we believe your handbook can and should be so much more. 

By approaching your handbook with company culture in mind, you can communicate much more than typical how-not-to-get-in-trouble content. In addition to demonstrating your company’s values and guidelines in your everyday actions, your employee handbook is a great place to showcase what matters to your company and why.  

Core Values

Whether they’re documented or not, every company has core values. They define who you and your employees actually are — deep down beneath the surface. Company values often describe universally-beneficial behavior, skills, and attributes.

It’s easy to spout off desirable characteristics and call them “company values.” However, what really matters is that everyone at your company strives to embody these traits unconditionally, day in and day out. When making decisions at work, employees should always ask, “Is this in line with our values?”

Developing Your Company Values

Most core values take the form of adjectives or single nouns. It may help to consider them as virtues or moral standards. Even though your values are custom to you and your organization, they should be values you think everyone should demonstrate. Think about situations where others act in a way that’s contrary to what you believe and it gets you really fired up. Those situations are big clues to your core values.

The number of core values varies from company to company, but it’s common to have somewhere between 3 and 10. There is no perfect number as long as you communicate the must-have attributes. 

It’s helpful to describe each value in detail for better understanding. If you’re struggling to think of how to expound on your values, ask yourself some of these questions:

• What general actions demonstrate this value? These examples may begin: You do / make / think / identify / recognize / know, etc.
• Why is this a value and what is its intent?
• What are some specific examples of how a person can demonstrate this value?
• If someone asked what the value means, can you answer easily? Why is it a good answer?
• What are some other adjectives would you use to describe a person whose behaviors align with this value?
• Is this value a new idea of how to live your life? If so, what’s the old way and why is this way better?
• Are there exceptions to this value?
• Are there famous quotes that express this value?

Your core values shouldn’t sound as though they were generated at random. Instead, emphasize traits that matter to your company — qualities that your employees would hear and think, “Oh, I can definitely see that.” 

Keep in mind that it’s always good to consider many opinions when developing your values.

We recently connected with Angela Parker, certified executive coach, master workshop facilitator, and rockstar extraordinaire. Angela teaches deep-feeling leaders, founders, and entrepreneurs how to heal, lead, and scale with ease.

In this video, Angela explains a simple exercise to help your company determine 5 core values. Give it a whirl!

Guiding Principles

Guiding principles are beliefs that drive every decision and activity within the company. They can take several formats:  

• A philosophy for how to do things
• Why something happens a certain way
• A belief that all employees should hold
• An office rule or general guideline
• How employees should act
• Something that describes an aspect of your work environment

Note that some companies just have core values, while others just have guiding principles. And of course there are companies with both and companies that have forged their own path, naming them something totally different. It’s your choice!

Developing Your Guiding Principles

Make your principles action-oriented by starting off with “We are…” or “We believe…” or “Be…” or “Change…”. Similar to core values, most companies have 3 to 10 guiding principles. 

If you’re having trouble thinking of some good details, try answering some of these questions:

• What basic actions demonstrate this guiding principle? You can write these out as: You do / make / think / identify / recognize / know, etc.
• Why is this a guiding principle and what is its intent?
• What are some specific examples of how a person can demonstrate this guiding principle?
• If someone asked what the guiding principle actually means, is there an easy answer? Is it a solid answer?
• Is this guiding principle a new idea of how to work? If so, what’s the old way and why is this way better?
• Are there exceptions to this guiding principle?
• Are there famous quotes that express this guiding principle?

A well-crafted guiding principle can help ensure everyone is operating from the same foundation.

Where To Go From Here

If your company has nothing that resembles the above, that’s okay. These things may develop over time depending on how long your company’s been around and/or other recent changes. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to start identifying the values and principles that make your company stand out from the rest.

If your company already has core values and/or guiding principles, that’s wonderful! Are they communicated in your employee handbook and, if so, how? Don’t rely on a list of common character traits and hope they resonate. Dig deeper. Give examples. Provide a mental image.

Make. Them. Meaningful.

For other ways to leverage your handbook to market your company culture, check out these related posts:

• Why Mission and Vision are Employee Handbook Must-Haves
• How to Liven Up Your Employee Handbook

Check out our free eBook, too: How to Write a Culture-First Employee Handbook.