Articulate

‘Articulate’ covers developing, defining and clearly communicating your workplace values and culture to potential and existing staff.

Articulating your values is important because it helps you know what they are and how to communicate them to others. Start by identifying what your workplace values are. This will allow you to:

• describe your unique workplace culture, enabling you to attract staff who share your values
• be more inclusive by attracting staff who may not have experience of care work but who share your values
• focus your assessment and interview process on the values and behaviours that matter to the people who draw on your care and support
• retain great staff who feel connected to your organisation and understand how they can make a difference in their work.

Individual employers can view our 'Articulate - Knowing what your values and culture are and sharing that with new and existing personal assistants' video to find out more about communicating desired skills, behaviours and values with personal assistants. 

Understanding how to articulate your values:

How can you develop and communicate your workplace values?

1. Involve a diverse range of staff, people drawing on care and support and their families, in developing your workplace values.
2. If you have an existing set of values and behaviours, review how effective they are at describing your culture and the behaviours you want to see from staff.
3. Describe the specific behaviours staff should demonstrate in their work under each value so people know how to embody them in their day-to-day work.
4. Communicate your values internally by developing simple, accessible, visual representations of your values and behaviours for staff, people drawing on care and support and their families.
5. Communicate your values externally to potential staff on your website, on social media, in adverts, in recruitment packs and all your external marketing and information.

Resources and templates

Here are some resources to enable you to analyse how effectively you're articulating your workplace values, plan areas for improvement and know what to do to put those plans in place.

Learning from others

Here are some examples of how other employers have developed and communicated their workplace values.

Being inclusive when developing workplace values (video) - Castle Supported Living 

Communicating workplace values (video) - Manor Community

Ensuring your values-based recruitment is neuro-inclusive

Some neurodivergent individuals may have challenges understanding your values and/or behaviours and how they can demonstrate these. Give explicit examples of how others may demonstrate these values and/or behaviours in adult social care, and discuss how these can be evident in non-work settings, e.g. at home when caring for a relative.

When discussing your values, highlight how your workplace is neuro-inclusive e.g. what support do you offer to potential and existing neurodivergent staff? You can also seek input from your existing neurodivergent staff on how to best communicate your workplace values and behaviours to neurodivergent candidates.

Advice, quick tips, and visual tools to support autistic people with communication can be found at autism.org.uk.

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