Are you communicating your business direction?

A few days ago I posted about the employee engagement survey conducted by AIM. And how poor many rank communications within their workplace.

One tool to improve employee engagement is to clearly communicate your mission and value to your employees – this same survey showed that is significant. Presumably because people can feel where the business is heading and thus find ways to contribute to that direction.

A mission and vlaues statement is about answering basic questions on the business direction and aspirations.

Value of a mission and vision

64% of the AIM respondents said their organisation gets a positive return from having a mission and value statement.

I admit that I am one of those who think a mission and values can be a waste of time. But apparently they can be done well enough to inspire many employees.

I like the fact that, of those aware of their employer’s mission, 64% believe those values are reflected in their operations. Part of my cynicism is that a mission is just words on a page unless taken seriously – it appears many businesses are taking them seriously.

The survey summary states that employees being aware of a business’s missions and values…

• more than doubles the belief in management cultivating a good organisational culture
• increases employee loyalty (by a factor of 1.5)
• makes it less likely they will change employers
• makes it more likely to care about the future of the business

Use of a vision and mission statement

Further break down of the survey results shows that micro-businesses (ie have 20 or fewer employees) are less likely to have given employees a clear mission or values.

Of course, micro-businesses may have closer relationships within the business (the owner of CEO is more likely to be involved with all staff if there are only a dozen or so of them!) so a written statement may seem less necessary.

However, it if has benefits and makes it clear for new employees, and reminds existing employees, maybe a written statement is worthwhile for micro-businesses, too.

Does your business have a written mission and values statement? If so, how public is it – who knows about it?