Forum Discussion

FredHodgeJr's avatar
FredHodgeJr
Jobber Ambassador
28 days ago

How do growing service businesses keep teams aligned with company values while scaling?

How do you keep your team aligned with company values when you’re scaling and adding new people quickly?

Curious what habits or rituals have worked well.

9 Replies

  • Oh man, this is the age old question! Actually one question I myself have, and I will be looking for guidance at the Jobber Summit. I want to know how the values I have built my company on will be reinforced by any potential employee I take on.

    I think passionately engaging, team meetings or outings, showing them your dedication and leading by example is the best foundation to start with.

  • I plan on bringing on 5 employees this year. I'll be having meetings with them once a week discussing any field problems, things they're doing well, motivating them, ETC. Read the book Extreme Ownership, it talks all about this topic and will transform your mindset as a leader. You have yo be the one reminding the team of the mission, having the broader view.

    • rebecca's avatar
      rebecca
      Jobber Community Team

      Really exciting growth and we'll be cheering you on! I really enjoyed Extreme Ownership as well. So many compelling stories! 

  • All of our conversations go back to our core values.  We had an issue with a team and we broke trust and respect with the client.   Our conversation with the team was on how hard we work at gaining Trust and Respect and it takes a second to lose it, and you might never be able to get it back. 
    We use Slack to communicate with the team.  I post a lot about us as a company and how we show up.  At our annual planning meeting coming up I want to focus on what does being a professional cleaner mean.   This is everything from our core values and how we do the work.  

  • I agree with many of the above comments.

    Core Values are important!

    I had issues with some of the guys I brought on last year and I realized it was my fault. I just got them to work. Never spoke about the core values. Who we are. What we want the customers to see and feel. What we stand for.

    Started this year with a new hire and from day one held an orientation that honed in on our values.

    The value statement is catchy, easy to remember and will be apart of every meeting.

    I also work hard to reflect it by example. Still learning but so far this has been working well.

  • To echo comments above, certainly taking the time to develop core values which truly matter to you/your brand/your company is key. Having values which you yourself believe in makes it so much easier to implement as part of every day culture, routine and regular communication. Otherwise it becomes more like a school setting with your leadership team acting as teachers to students. If you haven't already, engaging with a good marketing consultant can help substantially with developing this. Certainly leading by example top down and actually doing what you preach will help everyone on the team take notice and start to do the same. It can take time, months/several years, especially if you're trying to shift an existing organization, yet staying on course every day will ultimately shift the culture in the direction you want it to go.

    • judithvirag's avatar
      judithvirag
      Builder 1

      Harris1948​ I would have never thought about engaging with a marketing consultant.  I had a coach helping me but love the idea of a marketing consultant or would it be maybe an HR consultant?

      Working on values and building culture is every day - never stops.  I believe in healthy relationships and those take hard work.  

      • Harris1948's avatar
        Harris1948
        Contributor 3

        judithvirag​ It was an eye opener for us. We acquired a long-standing business in the community, over 75 years old, so people knew the name yet we needed to update/refresh the brand to match with the new ownership and leadership team. Engaging with our consultant, Smarder Marketing (who I can't give enough praise to), really taught us the path forward for first identifying what values we hold true, then our target client, then building the brand to bridge those two together. Taking the time at the beginning to build it right makes it easy now to keep the whole team on the same page for our values and direction the business is headed.