The Value of Values - How Good People Make Good Business
We spend roughly one third of our lives working. That is between 25 and 30 years that we all dedicate to our careers, our employers and our colleagues.
With such a large proportion of our lives spent working, it’s important to take the time to understand what aspects of working life are important to you.
Unfortunately, many people can’t pursue the career they truly desire and find themselves in a situation where they are forced to choose whatever job pays the bills.
However, there is also a large portion of people who find themselves following a career path which doesn’t align with their ambitions or values, simply because they don’t know what career/job they want, or where to find an employer who aligns with their values.
So, how do you know what values are important to you and how do you find an employer who shares your values? In this feature, we explore these points and how SPORTFIVE uses value-based recruiting to find the right fit?
Dominic Mills
Published on March 30th, 2023
In this Insight:
Personal values
Before diving into how to find an employer who aligns with your values, it’s important to understand what ‘values’ actually are and how both individuals and organisations depend on values in everyday life.
On a personal level, values are the core principles which determine how we think and act in life. They can be described as the lenses through which a person sees the world and are the deep-rooted beliefs that motivate our behaviours.
Famously hard to pinpoint, personal values can vary greatly from person to person, but some examples of personal values include compassion, communication, enthusiasm, fairness, openness and results.
Organisational values
In addition to personal values, organisations typically also have a set of core values. Organisational values are the beliefs and principles which drive the business forward and guide the way that people within the organisation think and act.
Organisational values shape company culture and provide a framework for employees’ decision-making. Although on the face of it, many values may appear quite abstract, most businesses choose to focus on a few critical values which incorporate a wider way of thinking, and can be understood by employees at a deeper level instead of having a wide array of values.
Some examples of organisational values include, collaboration, development, innovation, quality and respect.
How values should shape your career
There is a common misconception in recruitment, that the prospective employee is the one being interviewed. Although this is partially true, the prospective employee is also interviewing the prospective employer.
Once you have an understanding of your own values and what is important to you, you can start to learn more about an organisation’s values and determine whether they align with yours.
Assessing the values of an organisation can give you an insight into what business and cultural aspects truly matter to the company, and can help you determine if you can work towards similar goals.
SPORTFIVE’s values and how we recruit
Everyone is different. It may be a cliché, but it still rings true. Some people are numbers-driven, some people thrive in social settings and some people are naturally drawn to creative positions.
While attributes and skill sets vary greatly and can continue to be developed throughout a career, values tend to remain constant.
With this in mind, SPORTFIVE employs a values and competency-based form of recruitment which assesses a prospective candidate’s behaviours in relation to the organisational values, as well as looking at their experience and skillset.
In practice, this means that it’s a candidate’s competences (skills, knowledge and experience) which will decide if they are considered for a job and their values (values, behaviour and attitude) which will determine if they get the job.
OUR FIVE CORE VALUES
OPENNESS
Openness is about the trust, transparency and authenticity that we expect from all our people across the business, from top to bottom, across every continent. With this, comes a willingness to collaborate, and empathise with colleagues as well as clients.
UNITY
Unity means promoting and encouraging a sense of belonging. It means bringing together the rich diversity across our organization, respecting and embracing what makes us different as individuals, to make us stronger as a whole.
FREEDOM
We believe our people have the freedom to succeed, the freedom to fail. We trust our people and always encourage them to voice their opinions, champion causes, question decisions, challenge leadership, and push for change – and will never judge them for doing so.
RESILIENCE
Anything worth doing is never easy. We know that all jobs have difficult days and life outside of work can be unpredictable. In these moments, more than ever, we want you to feel supported and know that as one, we will persevere.
FEARLESSNESS
We want our people to make great things happen in our industry. Great things take time and a willingness to question the ordinary and doubt the norms. Changing the tide and trying new paths to success takes a fearlessness which we strive to cement in our everyday life.
Careers in sports marketing
Finding a job which brings you joy and an employer which aligns with your values can be hard, but if you take the time to understand both your own values and organisations’ values, you can find a recipe for success that lasts.
Values can also teach us a lot about an industry. You don’t have to love sport to work in sport - you might find that you resonate with some of sport’s key values, such as fairness, respect, perseverance and friendship, and through these want to explore jobs in the sport industry.
If you’re considering a career in sports marketing, check out some of our vacancies on the SPORTFIVE careers page and learn more about who we are, what we do and why we do it.
