How changing hiring policy to focus on values has helped me grow my Yorkshire business: Jag Panesar

“You could feel how we were all in it together. When business was tough, everyone got stuck in to make it work,” she said.

To me, this was evidence of one of our core values at work. “In it together” means we collaborate; we work together; and we help each other out. It’s really important and it has helped us achieve team success.

When we originally hired her, we did so based on how well she demonstrated our values. We didn’t directly ask her to outline how she’d demonstrate one of our four key beliefs; we read between the lines of what she was saying. She was a great hire.

Rewind circa 10 years ago and my hiring process wasn’t quite the same. I focused primarily on experience and skills.

These are both important, of course, but I got it wrong and it showed in the company’s performance and culture.

Today, we bring our values into our Monday morning meetings and have done for some time.

Each week, everyone outlines how they and one of their colleagues has demonstrated one of our values. Doing this has brought our values to life.

The four statements representing our values are now part of our daily language; and they work to shape a positive, cohesive and growth-focused culture.

I’m seeing success in team members over the past few years that I’ve never seen before and I strongly believe that’s down to our focus on hiring on values.

There’s an old-school mentality that still hires on skills. I’m comfortable enough to say that’s an outdated approach.

You can teach the right people the necessary skills but you can’t teach beliefs or attitudes. Values are connected to a person’s character.

I’ve lost track of the number of businesses I’ve come across that have values written on their walls as a few buzzwords that staff don’t really have any connection with, that are not reflected in the everyday culture of the organisation, or that should just be taken for granted in any decent organisation.

Having “honesty”, “integrity” or “trust” painted on your office walls in bright colours, for example, is doing nothing more than paying lip service to a vague idea and it simply doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. Your values need to mean something.

When we think about “integrity” a little more, for example, and shift it to “do the right thing,” it starts to have more life and depth and it becomes easier for team members to illustrate how they’re living up to it.

If your values are relatable — more alive — your team is more likely to be able to live them, every day.

And if they truly believe in and live your company values, you’ll find yourself with a happier and more productive team.

Jag Panesar is Director of Xpand