Creating organisational values of two combined businesses

Situation

This organisation started out as a non-operational oil and gas investment business and acquired an oil & gas operational business in 2018. Over the past few years, the business has attempted to amalgamate two very different organisations with two explicit cultures.

Challenge

To create organisational values that represented each organisation and its history and success in the past, as well as capture the values of the whole organisation now and into the future.

Solution

People Solutions liaised organisation’s CEO and HR Manager to understand what information has been gathered to date (from current perceptions and previous surveys or initiatives), the current organisational structure, the current culture (what is aligned, not as aligned), and the dynamics and demographics of the organisation.

This aided in ensuring the data gathered is interpreted in relation to the company’s business values, systems, processes, and desired culture, but also ensuring the data collected was authentic and true to the organisational values.

This process involved People Solutions facilitating workshops with a cross-section of the workforce to engage employees in conversations and decisions regarding values. From each workshop there was a representative spokesperson, who came together with other ‘spokespeople’ and discussed their findings to amalgamate and develop core values. The final stage is then management agreement, finalisation, and values communication across the business.

The sessions were two hours in length and involve the following agenda:

1. Introduction & icebreaker

2. Values definition (Personal vs. Organisational)

3. The values development process

4. Group values brainstorm session

From the employee values workshops, each group nominated a ‘spokesperson’. From here, People Solutions facilitated another two-hour workshop with all the spokespeople to discuss their findings and to further define and consolidate potential values.
Post Spokesperson Collaboration, People Solutions drew out from thematic analysis 5- 6 themes or values and presented these to Senior Management for finalisation. People Solutions recommended that once finalised, the established values are then communicated to employees by senior management.

Result

Throughout the process, employees identified with the need to develop organisational values and understood the benefit values would have in terms of expected organisational behaviours and performance outcomes.
Employees appreciated being a part of the process and advised that they felt empowered by the organisation to brainstorm and develop organisational values.

People Solutions met with Senior Management and HR post-values workshops. Senior Management was grateful for People Solutions’ support and provided positive feedback regarding the output.

Since the workshop, the values have been communicated to the business and implemented in performance and feedback discussions. The values were advised to provide greater clarity and shared expectations regarding organisational behaviour and performance. Employees advised that the values helped them to feel more connected to the business.

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