Your values are on the wall. Are they also in the work?

Walk into almost any office in Western Canada and you'll find them. Integrity. Teamwork. Excellence. Framed, laminated, maybe stencilled across the boardroom wall.

Now ask five employees what "integrity" looks like on a Tuesday afternoon when a deadline is slipping and a client is unhappy. You'll get five different answers, or a polite blank stare. That gap is the whole problem. A value nobody can describe isn't a standard. It's a slogan.

The good news: closing that gap doesn't require a culture overhaul or a consultant-sized binder. It requires turning each value into something people can see, use and be held to.

Why values stall between the wall and the work

The research isn't flattering. Gallup found that only 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree they can apply their organisation's values to their work every day (Gallup). A 2025 Resume Now survey, covered by Canadian HR Reporter, found that 86% of workers say their company's values are clearly communicated, but only 44% believe leadership consistently demonstrates them (Canadian HR Reporter).

In other words, people have heard the values. They just haven't seen them.

Values usually fail for a handful of predictable reasons:

• They're too vague. "Excellence" means something different to your controller than it does to your site supervisor.

• Leaders don't model them. Preaching punctuality while strolling in 20 minutes late sends a louder message than any poster.

• They aren't tied to decisions. Claiming fiscal discipline, then buying equipment nobody needed, teaches people what you actually value.

• Your systems contradict them. If hiring, recognition, promotions and pay reward something else, that something else wins.

The business cost is real. Leaders apply values inconsistently, employees see favouritism where there may be none, and trust erodes quietly until it shows up in turnover.

Are you serious about turning your values in to behaviours that really have impact? Let's get real...there are 3 steps to making this happen but they aren't easy. Commitment and consistency are critical to Operationalizing Your Company Values...if your up for the task then read on!

First, get specific before you get serious!

The first job is clarity. Three steps do the heavy lifting.

Define each value in plain language. Don't use a single word to describe your Company's value...use a concrete, behaviour based definition. Not "We believe in teamwork" but "Teamwork: we help each other and win together". Not "Integrity" but "Integrity: we do the right thing, even when it's hard" .

Translate each value into three to five observable behaviours. These are behaviours you can see every day at work: showing up on time, contributing, treating others with respect for example. For "teamwork", that might be: we share information freely, we offer help without being asked, we show up prepared, and we resolve issues directly with the people involved (no gossip). If a peer couldn't point at it and say "there it is," it's not observable enough.

Define success and failure. This is where values stop being posters and start being standards. Write three to five examples of each. Failure for teamwork might include withholding information, blaming others when results disappoint, or saying the right thing in the meeting and doing something else after it.

Then pressure test it: could two managers look at the same situation and reach the same conclusion? If not, tighten the language. Watch for behaviours that collide, too. "Share information freely" and "protect confidentiality" can coexist, but only if you're specific about which information is which.

Next, make values part of how decisions get made!

These are the steps most organisations skip, and they are the ones that have the biggest impact.

Build a decision filter: a short, repeatable set of questions leaders run before approving anything meaningful:

1.     Does this align with our purpose?

2.     Does it move us toward our vision?

3.     Which value does it reinforce, or violate?

4.     What behaviours will this decision reward?

5.     What trade-offs are we accepting (cost, speed, quality, people)?

6.     Could we explain this decision to employees in one paragraph?

Picture a top performer up for a team lead role with documented behaviour issues. Run the promotion through the filter and the answer often isn't an easy "yes" or "no". It is likely: "not yet, here's a 60-day plan".

The same six questions work for hiring, pay, vendor selection, budgeting and policy decisions.

Hardwire the behaviours into your systems. Hiring is your biggest leverage point. Make sure you screen for values-aligned behaviour or you'll spend months managing the misalignment. Build the behaviour/value expectations into 30-, 60- and 90-day onboarding. Make performance reviews assess both results and how they were achieved. When you recognise someone, name the behaviour and the value it reflects. And require evidence of both performance and values before anyone gets promoted or a raise.

Finally, make it stick!

Definitions don't change culture. Reinforcement does.

Coach, correct and reward in real time. Address behaviour while it's fresh: same day where possible, within 24 to 72 hours at the latest, and based on what you observed, not what you heard. One rule is non-negotiable: high performance never overrides values. The technically brilliant colleague who leaves damage in their wake is costing you more than their output is worth.

Measure adoption. You don't need a complex dashboard, just a few honest signals:

• Are leaders actually using the behaviours and decision filter in coaching and decisions?

• Is recognition tied to behaviours, or only to results?

• What's happening with regrettable turnover, engagement and repeat employee relations issues?

• Are quality of hire and time to productivity improving?

Build a rythm to keep it moving forward: tools and training live at 30 days, check-ins and recognition running at 60, data reviewed and adjusted at 90. Revisit your purpose, vision and values with your leadership team annually if not more often (it takes about two hours for a solid review but you can touch them every time you meet). Intentionally do a deep dive on your values at least every three years. Values should evolve as your business scales, the. market shifts and your priorities change.

Where to start this week

You don't need to tackle every value at once. Try two things:

1.     Pick one value and write three observable behaviours, three signs of success and three signs of failure. What does it look like every day?

2.     Draft three questions for your own decision filter and test them on your next real decision.

Bring your leadership team into the process early. People champion what they help build.

If your values sound great and do very little, that's useful information, not a verdict. It's fixable.

Not sure were to start? That is exactly why we are here! Reach us at engage@synergyhrconsulting.net or SynergyHRC.net.

#companyculture #leadership #hrcanada #albertabusiness #smallbusinesscanada #companyvalues #fractionalhr #synergyhrconsulting

Source content: Synergy HR webinar (YouTube: https://youtu.be/K9d8LzM1mko)