Success and knowing the importance of company culture and values 

Stakeholders, whether that’s customers, investors or the media, expect organisations to live their company values, clearly demonstrating that the values in a company, including its practices and employee benefits, are fitting with the face that is presented to the outside world.

REBA’s exclusive Aligning corporate culture with human values breakfast event, in association with Mercer Marsh Benefits, brought senior reward professionals from an array of sectors together to discuss how rising values – such as having a purpose, being sustainable, aiming for environmental targets, and promoting diversity, equality & inclusion (DEI) and wellbeing – link with organisational culture, and responsible reward and benefits in today’s corporations.

Employers cannot afford to ignore the expectations put on them by their customers, shareholders and employees. As the attendees of our breakfast event noted, organisations have to take action to protect their business’s reputation, support employees’ wellbeing – be it their mental health, physical health – and to become inclusive.

Challenging and changing reward strategy to better align with purpose and values, particularly for executives, is a “fundamental challenge”, as one of our breakfast attendees noted.

Although there is an obvious need to do more within the reward space, many organisations have made good progress with their benefits offering. Nearly everything from pensions through to healthcare can be related back to human values, whether it’s offering ESG or climate-friendly pension investment funds, through to taking a fairer approach with healthcare benefits.

Of all the organisations that partook in our breakfast session, not one had completed their journey to alignment. In fact, many were still grappling with how to connect their organisation internally to ensure that HR was not siloed in its efforts to align values and culture. In some organisations that meant creating a new strategy role to oversee sustainability and ESG, and ensure a cohesive approach.

As external pressures continue to mount, the need for organisations to walk the talk when it comes to human values and corporate culture is only going to increase.

For more on the issues raised in this article, read the second report in our Transforming Engagement Series: Aligning corporate culture and human values.