At a glance
The Problem: Organisational values are often generic and top-down. Even in progressive companies, employees have never been given the opportunity to identify their own core personal values at work.
The ROI:
33% reduction in turnover when onboarding focuses on personal identity rather than corporate indoctrination (Cable, Gino, & Staats, 2013).
14% increase in customer satisfaction and significantly fewer service errors when employees align work with their personal values (Harvard Business School / Wipro study).
Lower burnout & higher psychological safety by reducing cognitive dissonance and internal strain (Forbes Business Council, 2024).
The HR Action Plan: Embed personal values discovery into career planning, revamp onboarding to celebrate personal identity, and equip managers to hold authentic 1-on-1 values conversations.
Organisational values are important but don’t stop there
We are fully on board with organisational values. They play an essential role in defining the culture you want to create and can serve as a powerful tool to differentiate your employee experience. But only if they are truly differentiating! How many times have you seen "One Team” or “One [Insert Organisation Name]" on a breakout space poster or intranet banner?
The trick most organisations are missing is failing to uncover what their employees value—and how those individuals can live their core values at work.
What caused me to think about this was reaching a milestone of 1,000 participants on our career planning programmes. It felt like the right time to reflect on some of the trends we’ve seen from this work.
We have the privilege of working with progressive organisations who are investing in growing their employees and supporting them to develop clarity and options for their career development and yet, only a handful of those 1,000 people had ever defined their core values before they experienced our programme.
The Missing DNA in Career Development
Our core values are our career DNA. They guide decisions, drive engagement, and dictate how we operate under pressure. Because of this, integrating personal values discovery into career development is crucial.
In practice, we know most development planning focuses on skills, roles, learning or experiences to be gained. It does not start first with what individuals care about.
Put simply, individual values are not valued.
So what?? Why should you care whether an employee knows their personal values, as long as their behaviour aligns with the company’s?
What the Research Tells Us
Exploring personal values isn't just a "nice-to-have" engagement exercise. It has a direct impact on retention, performance, and well-being.
1. Retention: A 33% Drop in Turnover
In a landmark 2013 study published in Administrative Science Quarterly, researchers Cable, Gino, and Staats evaluated companies that restructured onboarding around "personal-identity socialisation” that is, helping new hires identify their personal values and signature strengths rather than simply indoctrinating them into the corporate way.
The result? Framing work around personal authenticity led to a 33% reduction in employee turnover over a six-month period compared to traditional corporate-focused onboarding.
2. Performance: Better customer experience and fewer service errors
A Harvard Business School randomised field experiment conducted at Wipro (an offshore business process operations firm) evaluated employees who underwent personal values and identity onboarding versus traditional onboarding.
The employees who focused on personal values achieved a 14% increase in customer satisfaction performance and significantly fewer service errors over a six-month period compared to the control groups.
3. Well-Being: Reducing burnout and boosting psychological safety
More recently, a 2024 Forbes Business Council analysis revealed that persistent value misalignment causes ongoing cognitive dissonance and internal strain, leading directly to premature burnout.
Conversely, when organisations actively support and validate employee values, stress levels drop and psychological safety rises—directly boosting workplace well-being and productivity.
Organisational values and employee values
If we want to build cultures where people actually thrive and stay, we need to shift our focus from focussing only on corporate values and balancing this with helping employees align their personal values with their day-to-day work.
Here is how HR leaders can start bridging the gap:
Reinvent onboarding: Move away from purely corporate-focused orientation. Dedicate time during a new hire's first week to help them identify their core values and map how those values align with their new role.
Integrate values into career planning: Make values discovery a required starting point for all internal career development. You cannot help employees plan their future if they don't know what drives them.
Equip managers for values conversations: Train line managers to ask simple, value-centred questions in 1-on-1s, such as: "Which aspects of your work this week felt most aligned with what matters to you personally?"
When we stop treating values as a top-down broadcast and start valuing the individual DNA of our people, the culture starts feeling personal and may drive real organisational growth.