Picture this: You're scrolling through job postings and stumble across a company that lists "synergy" and "excellence" as their core values. Your eyes glaze over because, really, what does that even mean? If this sounds familiar, it’s not just you.
According to Gallup, only 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work every day.
The problem? Most company values sound like they were churned out by a corporate buzzword generator. But when done right, core values can do much more than decorate your office walls or website.
Think about your personal values. They influence your behavior even when no one’s watching. The same can be said of corporate core values. They become your company's identity, shaping decisions, behaviors, and culture from the inside out.
They build trust, foster connection, and help you retain and attract the right people. They’re the foundation of something every HR leader wants: an authentic company culture.
Whether you're creating your organization's core values from scratch or giving tired ones a refresh, learning from great examples is one of the best ways to spark ideas that actually resonate.
Let’s take a look at company core values examples that will help define what truly matters to your team.
What Are Company Core Values?
Core values aren’t meant to be a company's mission statement in disguise. And they definitely shouldn’t be marketing copy dressed up for the career page, either.
Company core values represent the basic beliefs that shape how your organization operates. They describe what your company stands for. When an entire workforce is on board with them, aligned action happens every day.
Think of Amazon's "customer obsession". This customer focus drives daily decisions. It influences all parts of the business, from product development to performance reviews. And it has become a competitive advantage.
Effective core values serve three essential purposes. First, they guide decision-making when the path forward isn’t clear. Second, they help shape a culture that attracts the right talent: people who align with the way you operate. And third, they set the standard for accountability by defining how people are expected to show up.
Without strong company core values, you risk running a team where everyone makes business practices up as they go. That kind of chaos doesn’t translate into a successful business – and it certainly doesn't scale.
How to Define and Create Core Values
Ready to brainstorm values? Start by being honest bout your current company culture. Remember, this isn’t about the one you advertise, but the one that actually exists. What behaviors get rewarded? What gets people promoted? What causes someone to get shown the door?
Start by gathering input from employees at all levels. Skip the generic survey and have real conversations. Ask your team questions like: "When you're proud to work here, what made you feel that way?" or "What would you tell a friend about working here?"
Look for patterns in employee behavior. The responses will tell you a lot. Maybe everyone mentions the way the team rallies during crises. Perhaps people like that leadership actually listens to feedback. These behaviors are your values in action. Now, you just need to articulate them clearly.
Remember, you're not creating aspirational goals here. You're identifying the core beliefs behind your best moments. These beliefs should also steer you when things go sideways.
Characteristics of Effective Core Values
Great core values pass the "aunt test" – if you read them to your aunt, she should quickly understand what kind of workplace you're describing. They're specific enough to guide behavior, but flexible enough to apply across different situations.
Put the buzzwords aside and write a core values list based on words that are:
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Behavioral, not aspirational: Think, "We write code daily" vs. "We value innovation."
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Memorable: Your team can recall them without checking the website.
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Distinctive: They differentiate you from competitors.
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Actionable: They guide real decisions and trade-offs.
30 Company Core Values Examples That Actually Work
Innovation-Focused Values
1. "Take bold action." Encourages rapid trials over endless planning. Teams launch minimum viable products to gather feedback rather than spending months perfecting features nobody wants.
2. "Question everything, including this." Creates a culture where challenging the status quo is encouraged. Even established processes and core beliefs are fair game for scrutiny.
3. "Growth mindset." Promotes learning and a positive outlook on failure. Failed projects get recognized for the insights they provide, not buried in shame.
4. "Create value." Focuses effort on big solutions rather than quick wins. Teams prioritize customer value over developer convenience.
Customer-Centric Values
5. "The customer's success is our success." Aligns internal metrics with customer outcomes. Teams measure their success by how well customers achieve their goals, not just product usage.
6. "Listen like you mean it." Goes beyond collecting feedback to actually acting on it. Customer input drives product roadmaps and service improvements.
7. "Solve the problem behind the problem." Encourages deeper investigation into customer challenges. Teams dig beyond surface-level requests to address root causes.
8. "Be in service" Ensures every customer interaction adds value. No one gets transferred endlessly or left with unresolved issues.
Team-Oriented Values
9. "Assume positive intent." Creates psychological safety by default. When conflicts arise, teams start from the assumption that everyone means well.
10. "Share the stage." Promotes collaborative leadership where credit is distributed and different voices are amplified in meetings and presentations.
11. "Embrace diverse perspectives." Encourages passionate advocacy for ideas while maintaining openness to different perspectives.
12. "Leave things better than you found them." Applies to everything from code quality to office cleanliness. Everyone takes ownership of incremental improvements.
Growth-Minded Values
13. "Comfortable with uncomfortable" Embraces the uncertainty that comes with rapid growth and change. Teams expect and adapt to shifting priorities.
14. "Learn out loud" Makes learning visible and collaborative. Mistakes become teaching moments shared across the organization.
15. "Own your growth" Places responsibility for personal development on individuals while providing the resources and support they need.
16. "Today's expertise is tomorrow's baseline" Prevents complacency by constantly raising standards. What counts as expert-level work evolves as the team grows.
Integrity-Based Values
17. "Say what you mean, mean what you say" Promotes direct, honest communication. Teams avoid corporate speak and address issues head-on.
18. "Lead by example" Guides decision-making when policies don't cover specific situations. The right choice for stakeholders takes precedence.
19. "Transparency is the default." Makes information sharing the norm rather than the exception. Teams need a specific reason to keep something private.
20. "Stand by your actions." Maintains commitment reliability while allowing for necessary adjustments. When circumstances change, communicate the change clearly.
Action-Oriented Values
21. "Done is better than perfect." Prevents perfectionism paralysis. Teams focus on delivering value quickly rather than polishing endlessly.
22. "Start before you're ready." Encourages proactive behavior over extensive preparation. Teams begin work with imperfect information rather than waiting for certainty.
23. "Take bold action" Promotes immediate problem-solving over delayed solutions. Issues get addressed as soon as they're identified.
24. "Move with urgency" Values outcomes over adherence to procedures. Teams adapt workflows when they impede results.
Quality-Focused Values
25. "Good enough isn't." Maintains high standards without falling into perfectionism. Work meets a high bar before it goes out the door.
26. "Act with precision." Emphasizes attention to small elements that create big impressions. Every touchpoint reflects the company's standards.
27. "Pursue excellence." Distributes responsibility for excellence across all roles. Everyone has the authority and obligation to maintain standards.
28. "Measure twice, cut once." Values careful planning and preparation. Teams invest time upfront to avoid costly mistakes later.
Purpose-Driven Values
29. "Work with purpose." Connects daily tasks to larger impact. Teams understand how their contributions serve the organization's mission.
30. "Leave a mark." Encourages work that creates lasting positive impact. Projects should be memorable and meaningful to all stakeholders.
Implementing Company Values in Your Organization
Once you've defined core company values, it's time to turn them into action. Leaders have to model desired behaviours consistently.
If "transparency is the default" is a core value, executives need to share both good and bad news openly. If "debate like you're right, listen like you're wrong" matters, leaders must demonstrate changing their minds when presented with better information.
Also, build values into your hiring process. Design interview questions that reveal how people naturally behave. For "assume positive intent," ask about a time they had a conflict with a colleague and how they approached it.
Integration into performance reviews shouldn't feel like checking boxes. Instead of rating someone on "teamwork" from 1-5, discuss specific examples ofe company values in their work. A culture of commitment requires accountability, not just aspiration.
How Core Values Shape Organizational Culture
Company core values build culture through repetition and reinforcement. When "personal responsibility" consistently informs how conflicts get resolved, it becomes the default approach to disagreements.
The most powerful cultures emerge when values align with actual business needs.
But, culture change happens slowly.
Teams might initially resist new values. However, consistent efforts eventually shift behavior. The key is patience combined with persistence. Also, the willingness to make hard decisions when someone's actions contradict stated values.
Company Core Values and Employee Engagement
Strong core values create what psychologists call "psychological safety." This is when you can be yourself at work without fear of negative consequences.
When employees understand and connect with organizational values, they spend less energy figuring out how to behave and more energy doing their best work. Employee satisfaction increases.
That clarity and sense of belonging? It’s a game-changer for engagement. When employees feel connected to company values, they’re more motivated, more focused, and more likely to stick around.
And here’s where it comes full circle: recognition reinforces those same values. Engagement and recognition programs work best when they celebrate real behaviors – not vague traits. So skip the generic “employee of the month” awards. Instead, spotlight the moments when people actually live your values.
With Applauz, it’s easy to tie recognition to core values. Highlight desired behaviors with personalized badges, meaningful rewards, and shoutouts that actually reflect what your culture stands for.
But recognition is just one part of the puzzle. To make your values stick, you need to communicate them clearly, consistently, and often.
Communicating Core Values Effectively
Forget the laminated posters and wallet cards. Effective values communication happens through storytelling, not slogans.
The most important tip is simple. Share specific examples of values in action. For example, the time someone took "do right by people" seriously enough to refund a customer.when they didn't have to.
Use multiple channels but keep the message consistent. Company core values should appear in:
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Job descriptions
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Performance reviews
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Team meetings
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Collaborative, casual conversations
The goal is intentional integration, not mindless repetition.
Measuring Success with Core Values
You can't improve what you don't measure.
Still, measuring values requires more than tracking sales numbers. So, what does that mean? For example, start with behavioral indicators rather than survey scores.
Look at decision-making patterns. Do teams consistently choose options that align with stated values? What about when faced with trade-offs?
If "quality is everyone's job" is a value, does every team speak up about issues?
Let’s focus on retention as a metric. Employee referrals often reveal cultural health. People recommend friends to workplaces where they feel values alignment. High referral rates suggest your values create an experience worth sharing.
Exit interview data also reveals value gaps. When people leave, what do they say? Do they cite conflicts that represent core values? Did they seem to show less alignment with your values? Answers like these offer clarity.
Aligning Business Strategy with Core Values
Values shouldn't exist separately from business strategy. Instead, they should reinforce and enable business.
What if your strategy requires rapid scaling? Values like "comfortable with uncomfortable" and "start before you're ready" support that growth. Focusing on premium quality? Think "sweat the details" and "good enough isn't" to align with strategic priorities.
Important decisions become easier when filtered through clear values. Should you enter a new market quickly or research more first? Your values guide your choices consistently.
Values also help navigate conflicts between short and long-term goals. For example, when financial pressure conflicts with customer-first values. Backed by values, teams can make decisions that serve strategic goals.
Finally, budget allocation reflects priorities. Priorities and values should have a very close relationship.
If you value innovation, invest in R&D and training. If you prioritize customer success, invest in support and success teams. Your spending should align with your stated beliefs.
Why Values-Driven Companies Win
When your team actually lives your values, the benefits ripple across the business.
Retention goes up. One Deloitte study found that companies with a strong sense of purpose and values saw 40% higher levels of workforce retention (Deloitte). That means lower hiring costs, better institutional knowledge, and fewer culture-wrecking mistakes.
We’ve talked about making the team you have happy enough to stay. Now, what about bringing new people on board?
Well, a strong workplace culture attracts top talent. In today’s job market, candidates want more than perks. They want alignment. Clear corporate values help people self-select into environments where they’ll thrive.
And the data backs it up: McKinsey found that employees who say their organization has a clear purpose are 5X more likely to be excited to work there. When that kind of employee commitment happens, everybody wins.
Decision-making improves, too. When values are clear, teams know what a good choice looks like. They don’t need to escalate every issue or wait for approval. Less second-guessing, more momentum.
Innovation gets a boost. In values-driven cultures, people feel safe taking smart risks. When “learn out loud” is a real value – not just lip service – failures become opportunities for continuous learning.
And yes, customers notice. Customer experience improves when employees act with integrity. Why? Because people do business with companies they trust. And trust is built through consistent, values-driven actions at every touchpoint.
