A company’s mission can be a very powerful tool for building employee engagement and fostering a winning culture. But that can’t be accomplished simply with a mission statement posted on a wall.
“It’s not so much about creating a statement. A company mission lives and breathes, whether it’s documented or not,” says Greg Stobbe, SPHR, J.D., Chief HR Officer at Benefitdecisions, Inc. “The mission is what drives the culture, which is what drives the organization.”
Smart Business spoke with Stobbe about the importance of having a mission and the impact it can have throughout your organization.
What is a company mission?
There’s a unique answer for every organization, but the mission is the what, why, who and how of the company; it’s the reason it exists. The mission isn’t developed — it’s already there, you just need to uncover it.
The mission is the organization’s ultimate goal, if you don’t have one you can’t truly define success or failure. It’s like a ship without a navigational system, you’re not going to know your course or if you’ve reached your destination because you don’t have one.
What are the benefits of having a mission?
The benefits are directly proportionate to the effort and thought that went into designing, implementing and maintaining focus on tracking the mission. There will not be any benefits if it’s just a statement, whether oral or written, and nobody pays attention to it.
Time spent on devising, developing and articulating a mission is a savvy investment in human capital that will pay dividends in the financial success of the organization. Employees who feel invested, who understand their roles, become engaged and emotionally attached. It would be very difficult for someone to be emotionally attached to an organization unless the person knew the mission and it resonated with him or her.
With the economy improving, employees might be apt to look at a position elsewhere for more pay. But when you have employees who are emotionally invested, their first motivation is not compensation. You can do more with a smaller group of employees who are passionate about the cause than with a larger group who show up for the paycheck. A passionate, engaged workforce can accomplish great things and that all goes back to the power of a company mission and how that affects employee engagement.
How is the mission articulated?
You need to work with employees on establishing the mission. It’s not like the secret recipe of Coca-Cola that’s kept in a vault in Atlanta and only three people know it. The mission drives the culture, and you should know what it is when you walk into a company’s headquarters. Once you know the company mission, everyone should know it and live it. If you approach any employee, he or she should be able to articulate what the organization’s overall mission is and how his or her contributions are aligned with it.
What are the challenges faced in the process of developing the mission?
First and foremost, the mission has to come from the top — the CEO and/or the board of directors. They need to be stewards of the process. Companies can hire a consultant to put together a mission statement, but if that’s just because the CEO wants to check a box, it’s not going to produce any benefits. Companies with winning cultures are the ones where senior managers embody the mission. Through their example, it cascades down to all levels so that everyone, from the person at the front desk to the clerk in accounting, up through the C-suite knows the mission, and it’s something people live every day.
How is the mission accomplished?
Theoretically, if a company achieved its mission, the reason for the company ‘to be’ would no longer exist. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider your mission and thoughtfully craft it. The difference between the missions of ‘to feed hungry people’ versus ‘to eliminate hunger’ is evident. The former being an event, and the latter a true mission. An engaged workforce will ‘reboot’ each and every day and strive to achieve the mission.
Greg Stobbe, SPHR, J.D., is Chief HR Officer at Benefitdecisions, Inc. Reach him at (312) 376-0456 or [email protected].
Insights Employee Benefits is brought to you by Benefitdecisions, Inc.
