I was asked to be a part of a panel discussion on People, Talent & Culture for the Legacy Treatment Services organization this week. For more than 150 years Legacy Treatment Services – NJ Mental & Behavioral Health Service has been providing clinical interventions and changing the behavioral health and social service outcomes for individuals of all ages. The conversations were broken into 4 topic areas:
1. Why is culture vital to you and to your company’s success?
2. The Role of Core Values and Mission
3. How To’s/Best Practices, and finally
4. The topic of attracting the next generation through an exceptional employee experience
“Why is culture vital to you and to your company’s success?” I wrote about this in a past blog post in 2022 Core Values – Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast! – A Leap Year of Firsts – Keith Baldwin (keithbaldwinfirsts.com). The culture and Core Values of my company SAVED our company during the onslaught of the pandemic of 2020. We found a way to say YES to the opportunity presented us to pivot into saving the jobs of my staff and many others. We LEARNed with CARE, DEPENDABILITY, HUSTLE, and RESPECT to create a WIN-WIN situation. We were LEAN and efficient in doing so. We had FUN through difficult times. We made it through! Our 10 Core Values are listed and defined on our website.
The role of Core Valuers is to provide guard rails for us on how we look to conduct ourselves in the business. They provide a common language of expectations. They are our goals of how we want to and do act.
We have 10 Core Values that we hire and fire on. We promote them internally. We recognize these values by rewarding “Most Valuable Teammates.” We live them.
On the topic of “attracting the next generation through an exceptional employee experience” I chimed in that our Core Values have led to great retention of our staff over the years. This has also provided referrals of new staff from current staff members, friends and family who are aware of our good culture.
The Core Values of a company have to be genuine and come not only from the top of the organization, but from within. At least they do for us…