Recently, several companies have had major overhauls in the executive suite—including Boeing, Uber, Wells Fargo, and luggage maker Away—related to the company culture. In many of those cases, a poor company culture led to fraudulent behavior by employees or put customers at risk.
A poor company culture may cause a huge turnover, loss of customers and reputation, or the failure of the entire company. All of these outcomes affect the career of every employee.
What do employees look for in a company culture? The company culture consists of the values that are shared by employees and management alike. A study by the Culture Company found that employees ranked respect and fairness and then trust and integrity as the most important attributes of a strong culture, which is even more important than teamwork. A value like “integrity” should prevent the company from punishing or ignoring employees who point out unethical or unsafe behavior.
What do companies look for in a company culture? When MIT Sloan analyzed corporate value statements, they found that companies stress agility, collaboration, customer-centricity, diversity, execution, innovation, integrity, performance, and respect. The list of values is much longer but does contain some overlap with the values that employees emphasize.
How does the corporate value statement help your resume? When you know the corporate values, you are closer to answering three important questions:
- Is this a company where you would like to work?
- Is this a company where you can build a career?
- Do you have the qualities that the company is looking for?
If the corporate value statement aligns with your own values, you are in a good position to thrive at that organization. However, you might also check with online reviews such as Glassdoor to see whether employees feel that the company adheres to the values it publicizes.
If you believe you have the qualities that the company is looking for, you need to stress those qualities in your resume. Simply using the word “agility” or “collaboration” is not enough. The achievements on your resume should illustrate your ability to make quick adjustments and to work with others.
If you need help in deciding what you are looking for in a company culture or in highlighting appropriate values in your resume, please contact Robin’s Resumes® for both coaching and writing help.