Why Mission and Vision are Employee Handbook Must-Haves

It’s common to think of an employee handbook as a guide of dos and don’ts — but it can be so much more. 

Your employee handbook can be your most valuable tool in making a good first impression of your organization in its entirety. What better time to induce the feels than when new employees come on board? 

Though it may sound complicated, it’s actually quite simple. 

Tell them why — why you exist, and why they should care.  

If your employees understand why you do what you do, they’re more likely to want to be part of it. And that means they’re also more inclined to adhere to your policies and procedures. 

By using your employee handbook to highlight your organization’s mission and vision, you can make Day 1 more impactful than ever. 

Explain Your Mission

It’s important to communicate your organization’s mission in your employee handbook. In short, your mission statement explains why your business exists. In other words, what does your company want to accomplish? 

Mission statements tend to be tactical — they tie an employee’s day-to-day tasks back to a greater meaning or goal. Mission statements shouldn’t be completely pie-in-the-sky (e.g. world peace forever and ever), but should instead be action oriented and clear (e.g. to build community in areas with high rates of crime). 

Here are some examples of mission statements:

• Apple: To bring the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software, and services.
• Microsoft: Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
• Spotify: Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity—by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.

Each of these mission statements uses pragmatic language to explain what the organization aims to do. Keep in mind that, as organizations evolve, their mission might change. 

There are many ways to communicate what you’re all about, so it’s important to break it down piece by piece. When working to create a mission statement — and vision, which we’ll get to next — you might start by answering these questions:

• Why does your organization exist? 
• What’s your purpose? 
• What’s your vision for a better world? 
• What’s special about your company that would make the world want to see and actually engage in helping your company succeed? 
• Why do you get out of bed in the morning — and why should anyone care?

It’s important to fully understand your “why” so you can sell it to others. A solid mission statement reminds your employees what your company is all about. 

Share Your Vision

Whereas mission statements are relatively practical and measurable, vision statements can be more imaginative and idealistic. If your company fulfills its mission statement, how will the world be better? 

A vision statement gets down to the true “why” behind your company so your employees can envision what this is all working towards. 

Vision statements often take one of two approaches: 

1. Describe a future that’s inherently and obviously better than today’s world. This works best if the problem is obvious, or if your solution solves any number of problems and you’d like your audience to decide what the solution means to them.
2. Describe today’s world in a way where a better future seems obvious. This works best if your solution is any number of different things all related to solving one main problem. 

Here are some examples of company visions:

• Apple: We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products, and that’s not changing.
• Microsoft: To help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.
• Spotify: Spotify is a cultural platform where professional creators can break free of their medium’s constraints and where everyone can enjoy an immersive artistic experience that enables us to empathize with each other and to feel part of a greater whole.

Essentially, the organizations took their mission statements (described previously) and made them dreamier, loftier, overflowing with optimism. By highlighting your vision in your employee handbook, you can help make your employees feel like part of something bigger than themselves. 

Your vision statement may take one of these general formats: 

• We want to… change / transform / help / give / ensure / etc. … or; 
• We envision a world where… 

Note: Your vision doesn’t have to be original or a big change-the-world vision. 

This is your chance to inspire — to say something that resonates with your employees on an emotional level. 

The Ultimate Why: Your Noble Cause

So you’ve laid out your mission and your employees can envision how your company helps bring about a future world they want to be a part of. Go above and beyond to tell them one final “why” — why they should care about your mission and why they should care about this future world you describe. 

About 70 percent of employees believe their sense of purpose is defined by their work, according to a study by McKinsey and Company. Consider the following questions, and try to answer them in your employee handbook.

• Why should they feel good about how their work contributes to the greater good — to a noble cause? 
• When their friends ask about their new job, how can they answer in a way that makes them feel proud to be a part of your organization?

Let your employee handbook sell what your organization is all about and why employees can feel good about what they’re doing. If you’ve explained your “why” in a way that enables your employees to feel fulfilled when they lay their head down at night, getting buy-in for policies and procedures should be a piece of cake.

Additional Resources

To add even more pizazz to your handbook, check out this post:

• How to Liven Up Your Employee Handbook

For more tips on how to make your handbook a marketing piece, check out our free eBook: How to Write a Culture-First Employee Handbook.