I’ve waged a decade-long boycott against Amazon. Can’t remember exactly how it started, but it was connected to news articles about worker mistreatment. Jeff Bezos has (so far) failed to notice. But I’m not alone in making this type of call.

Increasingly, we’re seeing Aussies make values-based decisions about where to spend their money and time. And this applies, of course, to where they choose to work. Younger candidates especially are willing to move, reskill and even change career paths to work for organisations whose values they align with. *

Which brings us to you and your organisation’s values.

We know that values are more important than ever for job candidates. So, if you haven't thought about your values lately, or want new ideas, this blog is for you.

Here, we chat with EBA legends, CEO Mark Puncher and Head of Employer Brand Strategy Marci Powell, about why organisational values are key to attracting, engaging and retaining the talent you need now and in the future.

Q. Why are organisational values so important internally, and what should they focus on?

Mark - Your values absolutely drive, inspire and guide the behaviours you need from your people to succeed as an organisation. At their heart, your values should answer questions like:

• How do we succeed as an organisation?
• How do we achieve together?
• What makes us tick?
• What holds us back?
• What behaviours help us to be an organisation we’re proud to be part of?

Q. What role do values play externally?

Marci - Increasingly, people want to work for companies that have a purpose they feel aligned with. And your values and your purpose are inextricably linked.

• Your purpose is: why you exist and what you stand for.
• Your values drive the behaviours and actions of your people to help realise your purpose.

It’s one of the first things candidates do when considering applying for a role. They scroll a company careers page and look at organisational values, right? Because it helps them answer questions like: what is this company trying to achieve? Is it purpose-driven? Is it about something more than profit? Is this somewhere that aligns with my personal values? These things matter to candidates, and this is especially true for younger generations.

Q. So, you’ve got values. Job done, right?

Marci - Not quite yet! More often than not, you go to a company values page and read things like “We value teamwork, integrity, safety, innovation, respect”. And in your head, as a candidate, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, this could be literally any organisation!’

It makes you wonder if the organisation is genuine or just saying what they think we expect to hear. If your values are generic, they become stripped of meaning. Your values need to go above and beyond platitudes. They need to show what sets you apart as an organisation candidates can connect with.

Mark - Values are so important and so powerful, yet often, they are so badly done. They have been reduced, in many cases, to words on a wall. If they’re not authentic, then they become almost pointless. And they can even become damaging if they’re not well articulated and embedded.

When you have values and they're engaging and authentic and different and specific, that's when people start to think, “Oh, this is interesting.” When you use these values in your job ads or in recruitment marketing or social media, they catch attention and they start conversations.

Q. OK, so maybe your organisational values need some work. Where are many organisations going wrong?

Mark - I see time and again three classic mistakes organisations make:

1. Doing your values on an executive ‘away day’, then sending them to staff in an email and saying, “Good news, we’ve got new values! These are the ones you have to live now.”

   Even if the values are great, employees aren’t going to respond well to that because they weren’t part of the process.

2. Coming up with, or finalising your values via an all-staff survey, and leaving it at that. It’s not a popularity contest or a word lottery, folks! You’re trying to uncover and unpack the key behaviours and principles that drive connection and success in your organisation. That takes deep listening, understanding and collaboration.
3. Getting a single staff working group to do it. I get it: you don’t want to disrupt your whole workforce and you want to empower a group of staff to take ownership. That’s great in principle but again, this is complex stuff. And we need to capture the perspectives and experiences of people across your organisation, not just a select few.

Q. How should you start to uncover and articulate your values?

Mark - We can’t tell you what your values should be. What we can do is help you to uncover and articulate them, using a co-design process that will give you the results you need.

Firstly, organisations should engage in structured listening to understand how your people strive and achieve together, as well as what matters most to each of us.

Once you’ve honed in on these answers, you’ve got your values. But now, it’s a question of how do you articulate these values? Your values must be much more than buzzwords that people see and hear everywhere. They need to actually drive behaviour. For example, take a look at the values we created for Lives Lived Well. They feature signature behaviours which allows them to be operationalised into conversations and actions - the good, the bad, the easy and the hard.

Marci - Uncovering your values involves asking your people about what these values actually mean in their day-to-day roles. Their role is to remind people of behaviours; but they need to be written in a way that actually excites people and resonates with them. They need to feel applicable to your people and the work that they do.

At EBA, we have a unique process for articulating your values which starts with you and your employees. It’s about asking the right questions to unpack what truly matters. Then expressing it in a way that aligns with your business’s purpose, goals and needs.

Want support to articulate your organisation’s values? We’d love to help. Chat to us

* Resource Randstad Australia Employer Brand Research 2025