Every company should have a mission statement. Mission statements outline why a company was formed, who it seeks to serve, and the quality of service to be provided. Every employee should know the mission statement. Not just casually know it, but be able to say it word-for-word. Employees who know the mission statement understand how each task they perform serves the mission, finding greater satisfaction in their jobs. Employees who know the mission statement are better equipped to hold each other accountable.
Let’s examine the top 4 reasons preventing 100% of your employees from knowing your company’s mission statement:
Your mission statement is too long. Mission statements should be short and concise. Many times, companies have beautifully written, multi-paragraph mission statements. But mission statements that are lengthy are nearly impossible to memorize.
You gloss over your mission statement while onboarding new employees. The mission statement is generally housed in the employee handbook. The page where it’s written might be pointed to, but that is the last the employee will hear it referenced. Memorizing the mission statement should be part of the onboarding process.
Tasks are not aligned with the mission and employees are not trained on those tasks with the mission in mind. If managers have not aligned every task with the mission, employees will be confused as to why they are performing their assigned tasks. And if while training employees, the direct link to the mission is not made, then the employee might not understand why they are performing that task and why their task is integral to the company’s success.
The mission is not part of the daily verbiage. Posters with the mission statement posted where only employees can see serve as a reminder during shifts as to why their work matters. However, if it’s not part of pre-shift employee meetings or daily communications, the linkage between tasks and the mission will diminish. Employees can lose sight of why they are there beyond earning a paycheck.
Your mission statement is why you do what you do, and every employee should know it by heart. The impetus is on you to remove the barriers to ensure it’s accessible from the beginning and connected to everything every employee does. When your employees know the mission statement, and are able to connect every task to it, then you’ll see errors decrease and repeat business increase.