The Power of Purpose, Values, and Culture: Attracting High-Quality Employees Through Storytelling

In 2010, I shifted my staffing business from providing primarily administrative staffing to placing financial professionals on a project basis to investment banks. I had to transition to selling from Human Resources to senior professionals in investment banks.?Let me tell you, it wasn't easy.?Those investment bankers didn't want to take my calls (and were a pretty cranky lot.)?A couple Of years later I joined a small team of people who founded the NYC chapter of Conscious Capitalism. Suddenly the picky and cranky investment bankers started taking my calls. When they checked me out on LinkedIn and saw my involvement in Conscious Capitalism they realized that I shared some of the values that they had aspired to and wanted to talk to me. (At least more of them did.) Having a demonstrable and visible display of what I believed made my sales efforts much easier: People could clearly see that I shared their beliefs and they were willing to talk to me because of it. It was an important lesson that I will never forget.

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Companies with great cultures have huge advantages and an easier time recruiting. Just look at any of Fortune Magazine's Best Companies to Work For - Costco and The Container Store, for example. They have no problem finding people; when they open a new store, their challenge lies in sifting through the mountains of qualified candidates dying to work for them.?Over the years, Costco, The Container Store, and countless other companies known for having a great culture have cultivated powerful stories about how great it is to work there.?

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These examples show that if companies use storytelling about their purpose and values, they can attract top talent who may not be actively looking for a new job. But most companies aren't so lucky to be listed on fortunes best place to work List. Unfortunately most companies can't define their culture, they don't have a defined purpose or the values needed to achieve that purpose. There are a few companies who have a dusty mission statement listed on their boardroom but outside of the C-Suite it's not a document that is alive and well. Next time you're walking the floor randomly ask someone if they can recite your mission statement I'm pretty sure that you'll be hard pressed to find somebody who can. But your purpose, or your why, that's something different mission speaks to where you're going and how you're going to get there: Mission isn't easily relatable to most people. Purpose describes why you're on the journey and is the anchor for a strong culture.?creating a great culture starts with defining your company's purpose statement and values. What's more, having a clear purpose is an anchor behind important decisions, and it makes your culture visible and tangible to those inside and outside the organization.

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Having a tangible and inspiring culture allows your employees to experience your culture firsthand, they can speak about it more genuinely. If they share their experiences on social media, their words will carry more weight than any corporate marketing effort. People trust the firsthand experiences of their colleagues over traditional marketing efforts.?When highly qualified potential employees, Who are already working and not looking for work, see and interact with those stories, you can create relationships that can lead to consistently hiring great employees who value your unique environment.?

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Understanding the importance of storytelling is key to propagating your organizational culture. When we align our purpose and values, we can tell stories that resonate with people who share our beliefs. These stories can then reinforce our culture, creating a strong and vibrant environment.

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Most companies who talk about their culture use glossy and sophisticated material from their marketing department. This is all very well and good, but as a society we've become increasingly more and more resistant to corporate marketing. Or overwhelmed by it and even if we notice it (which we don't) highly skeptical of it. Employee generated content on the other hand, that's hard to fake and is highly believable. To use culture, purpose, and values as a recruiting tool, try encouraging your employees to create employee-generated content on social media that tells stories about your organization's purpose and values. This will attract potential employees who share these beliefs, leading to a more engaged and productive workforce.

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A recent Gallup study found that when employees are highly engaged with a company's culture, the organization is 21% more profitable than its peers, with employees 17% more productive and customers 10% more satisfied. Additionally, the Society of Human Resources Management found that 31% of people leave their jobs due to culture-related reasons. A strong culture will reduce turnover and lead to higher job satisfaction.?The truth is, investing in your culture has huge dividends an addition to being able to transform you're broken recruitment operations

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A storytelling approach to attract employees that resonate with your company's culture and values will improve overall productivity. Rockstar employees are searching for meaning and agency, a great culture and defined purpose and values provide employees with the meaning they seek.?Additionally, purpose and values can provide framework to make decisions that align with your organization's values.

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So recruiting is broken, perhaps storytelling about culture is the cure.??

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About the author -?Peter Laughter?– I walked away from a 25 year entrepreneurial career in the recruiting and staffing industry because recruiting is Screwed. I founded?True Bearing?to reinventing recruiting using purpose, values, and culture as the currency companies can use to supercharge referrals and cultivate pipelines of rockstar talent.??

#CompanyCulture #Storytelling #Recruitment