A strong set of shared company and personal values is important to millennials.
Company values are often confused with company culture, but the idea that they’re the same thing is a common misconception. While a company's culture is fluid and shifts over time, its values do not. Company values are often renamed and tweaked over the years but they tend to define the principles and beliefs outlined by the founders and early crew. This is also true of a person’s values: the beliefs and ideals may change form but the substance remains the same.
As a millennial I value technology, flexibility, and my right to voice anything I like on social media whilst still lying in bed… just kidding.
In reality as a millennial, I’m aligned with values of being given trust, purpose and the chance to make a real impact in what I do.
Over the past six years in Australia I’ve worked with a number of tech start-ups that have had a “strong set of values”. I’m fairly confident that some of these were created after reading a Ben Horowitz book and under the notion that it was something they “should do”.
The importance of value alignment and growth challenges
This is something really important and certainly something I assess people on during every interview I attend in my current role as Head of Talent at finder.com.au. We have a great culture but I’m a big believer in culture being fluid and people adding to it over time, not necessarily conforming to what already exists.
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Ensuring that company values and candidates or employees’ personal values share alignment really helps when interviewing and assessing opportunities.
Millennials really want new challenges over time, and it's important for businesses to create a new purpose and support these new challenges for your staff as the business grows and scales. This allows employees to engage with the business more. Over time, an individual's actual role or challenge within the business may shift (at finder.com.au we’ve had someone move from the PR team to the publishing team, and is now a developer!) but the alignment of shared values is consistent throughout.
Millennials don’t just want a company that ensures maximum profit, the promise of a job for life, and a mention of “if you hang around for long enough you’ll get a promotion”. Times have changed. Technology means that we’ll have several careers at various companies in our lifetime. In many cases, even within one company.
These days people and companies operate in a totally different context from days gone by, but people still want to feel aligned to their company’s values, no matter the decade or era.
Shared values at finder.com.au
I’m proud to be a millennial and to be able to work in a place that I feel strongly aligns with my personal values. I’m proud to be able to promote these shared values which, at finder.com.au, promote and embody proactivity, collaboration, empowerment, honesty and curiosity.
Miss the first part of this series? Find out why millennials aren't all beanbags and free lunches.