SMEs : Opportunities for Competitive Advantage: Maximizing Your VVM for Employee Engagement

To ensure the effectiveness of your VVM (Vision, Values, and Mission) within your organization, it is crucial to promote and reinforce it through various channels. These may include blogs, lunch and learns, posters, social media, staff days, and quizzes. Many successful businesses even display their VVM on office walls as a symbol of confidence in their purpose and a constant reminder of the value of their work.

Regularly revisiting and updating your VVM becomes essential as your business grows. However, unless there is significant growth, updating the VVM should not be required more than once every three years. While updating the VVM is a time-consuming process, it is necessary for maintaining alignment and clarity. Involving employees in this process can be an effective engagement tool, but it's important to balance their involvement with productive frontline activities that directly contribute to the bottom line.

Employee Values: A Powerful Addition to Your VVM

While many businesses focus solely on the company values, it is a mistake not to include employee values in the VVM. Incorporating employee values completes the VVM process by starting with the organization's values and ending with the values of its people, creating a powerful alignment.

Drafting and agreeing on employee values should involve employees from the early stages. Encouraging their active participation and ownership can lead to a set of values that everyone agrees to, understands, and believes in. Displaying these values alongside the company's values serves as a reference point for both potential and existing employees, highlighting the expected benchmark for appropriate behaviour.

At our company we have experienced the effectiveness of employee values firsthand. It allows us to address any deviations from the agreed-upon values in a constructive and impactful manner, ensuring a positive work culture where everyone feels valued and respected.

Putting it All Together: Key Information in One Place

At the beginning of each financial year, condensing important information into easily accessible formats becomes crucial. Creating "One Sheets" is an effective way to summarize lengthy documents and save time for readers. These sheets can include:

• Vision/Mission Statement
• Strategy for the Year
• Key Themes for the Year
• Our Values
• Our Resources
• Our Quality Standards

Sharing this consolidated information with employees, whether as a physical handout or a digital reference, helps keep everyone aligned with the company's vision, goals, and values. By highlighting the resources available and emphasizing the commitment to quality work, employees are reminded of their collective role in achieving success.

The above content is from "Mastering Small Business Employee Engagement: 30 Quick Wins & HR Hacks from an IIP Platinum Employer" by Barry Phillips and Jayne Gallagher which is available from Amazon:

https://bit.ly/3rm4CGV