Situation

A business unit spinning-off from a large global company needed to establish a culture distinct from its parent organization.

Leaders of the spin-off company saw a unique opportunity to define their new company’s values, as well as behaviors to support the desired values.

Rather than imposing a set of values on the company, they wanted to start a discussion with employees about the kind of company they wanted to be and give employees a voice in determining the new company’s values and culture.

Communication Approach

Over a nine month period, starting in January 2013, internal communications supported the creation and launch of the new values by:

• Announcing the starter values with an all-employee email
• Engaging employees and fostering a dialog about the new company’s desired culture through:
  • “Values Walls” in each location and at company events (sales meetings, etc.)
  • Creating direct feedback channels to the Values Working Group through email and online content
• Positioning company leaders as advocates for the values and promoting online discussions with leaders and employees
• Reinforcing the conversation with periodic articles on the intranet
• Modifying the starter values based on employee feedback
• Launching the values globally with a multilingual all-employee email, multilingual downloadable copies of the values and a leader panel at a global town hall meeting
• Reinforcing the values with an unscripted video featuring employees speaking honestly about the values and hardcopy distributions of the values

Implementation

Starter Values

An initial set of “starter values” were announced in mid-February 2013 with a message from the Chief Human Resources Officer.  An intranet site accompanied the launch and offered employees a resource for learning about the values and participating in activities to develop the values, including an online discussion forum.

Values Walls

To drive engagement with the starter values, internal communications, Human Resources and the global Values Working Group partnered to create and distribute “Values Walls” where employees could see the starter values and share their perspectives.  Employee comments from the walls, many of which came from outside the U.S., had to be translated into English and helped shape the final values.

Executive Discussions

Over a three month period, senior executives held WebEx meetings where they discussed the starter values and how they would translate into daily work.  More than 1,200 colleagues participated in these discussions.

Values Launch

The final values launch in August 2013 consisted of:

• Multilingual CEO Message – This all-employee email appeared in 8 languages and linked to downloadable, multilingual copies of the values.
   
• Global Town Hall Panel – A week after the letter, three executives participated on a panel at a global town hall meeting where they discussed the values; this meeting was available globally via videoconference, webcast and phone to employees around the world.
   
• Desk Posters – Professionally printed “desk size posters” featuring the new values were distributed to all U.S. employees.  The reverse side of this desk poster included a set of desired “behaviors” associated with each value to help employees “live that value.”
   
• Full Size Posters – All U.S. locations received full-size posters showing the values.  Communicators and HR personnel outside the U.S. were provided with digital artwork of the full size and desk size posters for local printing and distribution.
   

Values Video

Several weeks after the launch, a video debuted featuring employees from various levels of the organization.  In the unscripted video, the employees spoke honestly about the values and shared their perspectives on what the values meant to them personally and what they thought the values would mean to the new company.  This video was posted on the intranet and subtitled versions were made available globally for showings at scheduled internal events.

Results

• The Values Walls generated more than 2,100 comments from employees worldwide.
• Employees gave the global town hall meeting that featured the values a very high level of satisfaction in the post-meeting evaluation:
  • 87 percent said they were either Satisfied or Very Satisfied with the meeting
  • 79 percent agreed that the meeting improved their understanding of the company
  • 85 percent said they were proud to be a part of the company

• In a September 2013 employee survey (90% response rate), colleagues were asked to use one or two words to describe the company’s culture.  They most often opted for words related to either the starter or final values including:
  • Customer-Focused
  • Innovative
  • Integrity
  • One (i.e. one unified company across business and regional groups)

• The video was viewed at a November 2013 town hall, providing thousands of impressions, and run on an eSign network providing thousands of additional impressions.  More than 100 copies were distributed internationally for showings at various large audience meetings.

 

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ADDENDUM:

Peer-to-Peer Recognition Program Aligned with the Values

Situation
In May 2014, the company launched a peer-to-peer recognition program aligned with the values.  This intranet-based tool allowed employees to send a recognition message to a colleague whose work had exemplified the values. The simple to use tool enabled an employee to recognize a colleague or a team by:

1. Selecting a value (or values)
2. Entering the names of the person (or persons, if a team) to be recognized
3. Adding a short message of appreciation.

The recipient would receive an email with the recognition and have the option of printing a certificate showing their name and the values they exemplified.  The recognition tool was available in 8 languages.

Communication Approach
Communications for this program included a pre-launch article on the intranet, an all-employee email from the CEO (in 8 languages), posters and high visibility on the intranet.

Result
Employees quickly embraced the tool. Within the first two business days of operation, employees had …

• Sent 200 recognitions
• Viewed the tool 1,600 times

By the end of the first month, employees had …

• Sent more than 1,700 individual recognitions
• Visited the tool more than 4,900 times