Mission statements aren’t just for nonprofits anymore, especially in an age where developing an influential and palpable company culture is crucial to a company’s success.
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What Is an Organizational Mission?
Entrepreneur defines a company’s mission statement as “A sentence describing a company’s function, markets and competitive advantages; a short-written statement of your business goals and philosophies [or company culture].”
Below is more information about how, as an L&D professional, you can help link your employees to your organization’s mission statement.
Encourage Executives to Lead by Example
Typically, mission statements are developed and promoted by a company’s executives in tandem with HR. So, if you’re training employees about your company’s culture and mission, encourage the executives working for your company to lead by example to set the pace for all employees.
For instance, if their mission is to foster a more inclusive organization from within and externally, make sure that they’re being inclusive in their everyday practices, too. Otherwise, don’t expect employees to abide by the mission.
Work Teams and Department Structures Must Support Your Mission
As you’re recruiting new team members and training and developing teams, keep in mind that each department and the tasks that it carries out must support the mission, too, and what individuals will need to do to carry out the mission every day.
An organization’s structure will dictate who communicates with whom, how often, and what topics they talk about. Processes and structure also affect how your customers and employees see and experience the company, and you’ll want to ensure that they support your company’s mission as you’re developing your teams and programs that support them.
Values and Rituals Must Be Consistent and Routine
Consistent and important social interactions (i.e., rituals) offer a relaxed and consistent way to communicate your mission and desired company culture or identity and create occasions that strengthen it. For instance, the routine of weekly team meetings or happy hours will help employees strengthen their similar values and organizational goals and allows them to stay focused on the organization’s mission.
Employees Must Be Continually Developed and Engaged
To keep employees linked to your organization’s mission, be sure to continually develop them and keep them engaged. For example, you could offer microlearning courses where employees are quizzed about your organization’s mission in a fun way every few weeks.
Or, you could offer opportunities for them to share their experiences with their fellow colleagues regarding how they have individually supported your organization’s mission in online forums and social platforms; they can share best practices and tips for others, too.
Captured Performance Metrics Must Reflect the Mission
You’ll need to continually evaluate performance metrics and other analytics and data to ensure that your employees are fully embodying what your organization’s mission represents.
For instance, if your organization has the mission to be the most customer-centric organization out there, do your customer satisfaction ratings reflect that it is? Or, if your organization’s mission is to be paperless, has the amount of paper being used continued to decrease over the last several months?
Bottom line, if you want your organization’s mission to come to life, make sure it’s linked to your employees and their development and experiences with your organization by following the tips outlined above.