Building a Strong Community with Sports-Focused Company Values

If you grew up play­ing sports as a kid, you know how mean­ing­ful youth sports can be in a child’s life. Bri­an Lit­vack, CEO and Co-Founder of LeagueApps, a soft­ware to make sports more acces­si­ble to young peo­ple in local com­mu­ni­ties, knows first­hand what a dif­fer­ence being part of a team can make. 

Team sports can help to instill val­ues such as inclu­sion, dis­ci­pline, fair­ness and team­work. Bri­an was inspired by these prin­ci­ples when cre­at­ing LeagueApps’ com­pa­ny cul­ture. Con­nect­ing employ­ees around these tenets has result­ed in a brag-wor­thy cul­ture that’s worth tak­ing a clos­er look at.

It All Starts By Aligning With Company Values: Being Intentional

Com­pa­ny val­ues, some­times called core val­ues or cor­po­rate val­ues, are a set of beliefs that help employ­ees and employ­ers work togeth­er as a team. They can make deci­sion-mak­ing eas­i­er as all deci­sions must align with these values. 

If your goal is to cre­ate a com­pa­ny that is focused on spe­cif­ic core val­ues, you need to make sure that every­thing that you do works towards push­ing your mis­sion. Yes, it’s impor­tant to make mon­ey — but those finan­cial wins won’t mean any­thing if your com­pa­ny’s core val­ues aren’t front and cen­ter at all times. This requires inten­tion­al­i­ty from the get-go. 

From the hir­ing fun­nel to day-to-day tasks, keep those com­pa­ny core val­ues in mind and you’ll see the ben­e­fits almost imme­di­ate­ly. You’ll attract folks who have the same val­ues and goals, all of which can work to advance your organization.

Connecting With Colleagues Who Share Your Career Passion

When every­one in your orga­ni­za­tion is focused on the same val­ues, you’ll be bet­ter equipped for suc­cess. It’s only nat­ur­al that com­pa­ny lead­ers and the exec­u­tive team are all on the same page. If you were able to come togeth­er around a com­mon idea in order to cre­ate a com­pa­ny, it’s easy to assume that you all have a sim­i­lar mindset.

Keep this trend going with your employ­ees. Again, when hir­ing, put your val­ues and mis­sion first. Make it your aim to bring on team mem­bers with sim­i­lar goals. You want your core prin­ci­ples to mat­ter to your employ­ees just as much as they mat­ter to you!

Think of your orga­ni­za­tion as a com­mu­ni­ty. If you want your com­mu­ni­ty to work togeth­er as a group, you need to have a shared vision to work towards. 

Types of Digital and Physical Experiences for Employees

There are many ways to make sure that your company’s core val­ues are clear, con­cise and well-under­stood by the entire team. One way is to hold meet­ings with the entire com­pa­ny inside and out­side of the office. They can be dig­i­tal or in person. 

Don’t feel tempt­ed to make these all-hands meet­ings only about busi­ness deci­sions. Cre­ate team-build­ing activ­i­ties, ice­break­er games and sim­ple get-to-know-you exer­cis­es. It doesn’t have to be cheesy, either. Use this time as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to talk about your company’s DNA — the company’s mis­sion should always be front and center. 

You can also have con­ver­sa­tions about whether or not your team feels those core val­ues on a day-to-day basis and what you and your part­ners can do to improve cohe­sion. Have the courage to take crit­i­cism and be will­ing to adjust if necessary!

How Driving Corporate Values and Culture Affects Employees 

No mat­ter what size your com­pa­ny is and how many employ­ees you have, your cor­po­rate val­ues and cul­ture will affect your team. This is why it’s so impor­tant to have these core prin­ci­ples front and cen­ter from your hir­ing fun­nel and beyond. It will ensure that you bring in the right people.

When an employ­ee has been with you for some time and is doing well, rec­og­nize their hard work. If you’re in a lead­er­ship posi­tion, month­ly check-in meet­ings with each employ­ee are def­i­nite­ly worth your time. Ensur­ing that they are hap­py, sup­port­ed, and have the same set of val­ues as the com­pa­ny is essential.

Company Culture Evolves in a Post-Covid World 

The glob­al pan­dem­ic has affect­ed so much of our lives, espe­cial­ly how we work. Work-life bal­ance, men­tal health and well-being, and employ­ee sat­is­fac­tion have become para­mount in these dif­fi­cult times.

While your core com­pa­ny val­ues should serve as the bedrock for your orga­ni­za­tion, it’s impor­tant to be aware that as your com­pa­ny and the world change, your cul­ture will shift as well. Since the debut of the pan­dem­ic, val­ues such as inclu­siv­i­ty, safe­ty and the oppor­tu­ni­ty for hybrid work­places have become more important. 

Give your employ­ees the flex­i­bil­i­ty to work from home a few days a week or entire­ly remote­ly if need­ed. As long as they are able to com­plete their tasks it shouldn’t mat­ter where they work. This type of under­stand­ing will let your peo­ple know that they are appre­ci­at­ed — again, this recog­ni­tion and flex­i­bil­i­ty will only con­tribute to a healthy work environment.

The Biggest Investment of Any Business Is Its People: Leverage That and Make Everyone (Including Alumni) the Star

It’s easy to want to put the spot­light on your cus­tomers and clients no mat­ter what indus­try you’re in. While this is of course a key area to focus on, you’ll only be able to pro­vide the best ser­vice if your team mem­bers are con­tent and pas­sion­ate about what they do. The most suc­cess­ful com­pa­nies appre­ci­ate the per­son­al growth of their employees. 

Bring­ing on the right peo­ple and giv­ing them the room to grow, even if that means out­side of your orga­ni­za­tion, is essen­tial. Cre­at­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties so they aren’t afraid to advance could mean a greater com­mit­ment to your orga­ni­za­tion and its clear com­pa­ny values.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a Sports Workplace Environment 

Your list of spe­cif­ic core val­ues is a cru­cial part of cre­at­ing your company’s cul­ture, but there are some val­ues that should live in every orga­ni­za­tion. Diver­si­ty, equi­ty and inclu­sion are just a few. When there is a focus on these, you’ll be able to cre­ate a bet­ter place to work.

It means embrac­ing dif­fer­ences like race, gen­der, iden­ti­ty, and eth­nic­i­ty. This could be con­sid­ered even more impor­tant in a sports work­place envi­ron­ment, a place typ­i­cal­ly reserved for men in the past. Open up your com­pa­ny to peo­ple of all gen­ders and the like — it adds a larg­er per­spec­tive which can be help­ful for major busi­ness decisions. 

The Future of Work for Startups 

While the tips and tools above can apply to orga­ni­za­tions of all sizes, you may be won­der­ing what all of this means for star­tups. The direct impact of core com­pa­ny val­ues can play an essen­tial role in growth.

Star­tups can use soft­ware com­pa­nies like LeagueApps as an exam­ple. They run on a mix of mis­sion-dri­ven and val­ues-dri­ven con­cepts and they have been able to grow as a result. If you’re a start­up founder, build up your list of core val­ues and make sure that every­one on your team (even if it’s just a few peo­ple) knows the val­ues of your com­mu­ni­ty. You’ll be pleas­ant­ly sur­prised by how effec­tive a brag-wor­thy com­pa­ny cul­ture can be toward grow­ing your business.

Look­ing to build your own Brag­Wor­thy Cul­ture? Fringe can help. Fringe is the num­ber one lifestyle ben­e­fits plat­form. Give your peo­ple the pow­er of choice and save a ton of admin­is­tra­tive headaches by con­sol­i­dat­ing exist­ing ven­dors and pro­grams into a sim­ple, auto­mat­ed plat­form. Con­tact us at Fringe​.us.