In an earlier article, we introduced readers to our quarterly Values Survey. Our “People First” culture is incredibly important to all of our team members, and we work hard to maintain and continuously improve it. That means staying true to our core values, which are based on a deep-seated desire to foster a happy, productive team that delivers the best results possible for our clients. Our values survey helps hold us accountable for living our values every day and truly “walking the walk” when it comes to our People First culture.
If you read the first article on our values survey, you know that we ask team members to rate the company’s performance on a range of values using a 1-5 scale (with 5 being the best score). Detailed comments are not required, but they’re highly encouraged. The 1-5 ratings are as follows:
| 5 | Really well: Keep It Up! |
| 4 | Well: We Can Still Improve! |
| 3 | OK: Definite Room for Improvement |
| 2 | Poorly: It is Hurting Us |
| 1 | Really Poorly: Immediate Action is Necessary |
We’ve been conducting this global survey regularly since Q4 of 2018, using the results to stay accountable and make sure we stay on track. Below, you can see the average score for each and every question on our latest survey. We’ve also included some of the comments that were returned. It’s important to note that the survey got a 79% response rate!
| Value | Avg. Score | Sample Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Delivering high-quality work that exceeds our clients’ expectations | 4.6 | “I think we have always been good about delivering exceptional work but…that…stands out even more because our clients are impressed by the fact that COVID has not reduced the quality of work at all." |
| Fostering a happy team | 4.2 | "Despite the difficulties associated with the Coronavirus, many measures have been put into place (and are being put into place) to ensure that the Blue Matter culture still pervades and is helping team members feel happy with their contributions." |
| Fostering a motivated team | 4.1 | "Great initiatives to keep everyone motivated and connected during COVID times." |
| Fostering a highly capable team | 4.2 | "The willingness of everyone to jump in, the skills of the people who work within the company, the ability to connect with the entire global team as support, and the platforms and tools we provide all help to create a highly-capable team.” |
| Celebrating when we exceed our high standards | 4.1 | "Even with Coronavirus, I feel as though people are being recognized and teams are speaking and congratulating each other for doing a good job." |
| Driving new ideas to create better results for Blue Matter and our clients | 4.2 | "YES! This has been an incredible time of new ideas and we had to change how we worked and transition…to…virtual work." |
| Making it OK to fail but learning from our setbacks | 4.0 | "While we don't experience too many setbacks, I think our system of feedback and learning helps to enable everyone to learn in a productive fashion." |
| Communicating transparently with each other | 4.1 | "Despite new ways of communication, mainly virtual, we did well in communicating transparently." |
| Valuing diversity of people and experiences and fostering a culture of inclusivity | 4.5 | "The D&I initiative speaks to the concerted effort being made to go the extra mile. I had felt that prior to that, BM naturally was incredibly diverse and inclusive. But can appreciate the intention behind building a formal initiative around it." |
| Underpinning our actions with mutual trust and respect | 4.5 | "Absolutely! I think this is reflected in everything that is done at Blue Matter!" |
| Empowering ourselves to make Blue Matter a great place to work | 4.4 | "I've had mangers this half who really empowered me to take charge of my professional experience at BM. They accepted and leveraged my working style, played to my strengths, helped me address my areas of improvement by creating a safe and supportive environment to learn and it has helped me become a more motivated, effective employee overall..." |
So, there you have it…The results of our latest values survey. As you can see, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the way we all live and work, as was mentioned in a number of the comments. However, we’re proud of how our team has continued to push forward while staying true to our core values.
In our next People First article, we’ll talk about Blue Matter Academy. That’s our in-house training and professional development organization.
