Disclaimer: These communications are intended for the employees of HB Global. We recognize that the general public will have access. The views expressed in these communications represent Bob Whalen in the context of HB Global and may not apply to broader audiences.
We talk a lot about our mission and core values, but what about our vision? It’s just as important in making HB Global a great place to work and in creating and sharing value with our employee owners.
We’ve mentioned our vision before in the context of other culture-related topics, but this month, we’re going back to the basics of what our vision is, why it matters, and how it relates to our mission.
Our vision is unique because we are an ESOP. It demonstrates the unity of purpose in our organization and how we can gain momentum when we buy into our shared purpose. We didn’t just create it to check a box as it relates to our culture. When we truly live by our vision, we create more opportunities for the success of each individual employee owner within our company.
What Is Our Vision?
Our vision is a cycle that shows that engaged employees create raving fans which generates financial success that further engages our employees and starts the cycle all over again. Let’s talk about each segment of the cycle.
At HB Global, we recognize that engaged employees create raving fans. The more employees are motivated by and engaged in their work, the better customer service they’ll provide. This turns normal customers into raving fans when they see the Grit our employee owners show in delivering the best work possible.
These raving fans then generate financial success for our company. Raving fans become more than just a customer. They repeat business with us, refer us to other customers, and choose us for additional services. This leads to superior financial results.
Our financial success is then shared back to our employee owners. We pride ourselves in recognizing and rewarding the contributions and growth of our employee owners. Because our employee owners see this, they become further engaged in their work. The cycle then starts over again.
Why Does It Matter?
Our vision is important because it shows the value we place on all aspects of the business – our team, our customers, and our profits. More than that, it demonstrates that if we put our people first, we create long-term success as a result of satisfied customers and strong financial results.
One of the benefits of being an ESOP is that our structure creates a unity of purpose. This means that we don’t have to choose between taking care of our employees or focusing on making our shareholders happy. In most companies, shareholders are outside the business, so choices sometimes need to be made between investing in employees and providing a greater return to shareholders. At HB Global, our employees are our shareholders. The ESOP allows the focus on our employees and our shareholders to be one in the same.
Our vision clearly shows this. When we focus on our employees first, we ultimately end up with financial success. This financial success is then shared back with our employees in a variety of ways, which generates additional financial returns.
Our vision is a clear and simple reminder that, when our employees are our top priority, success will follow. It helps guide employee owners throughout the organization with decision-making because it can provide helpful context for those decisions to be made within. In other words, it allows us to see if certain decisions will align with our vision and ultimate success.
How Our Vision Relates to Our Mission
Our mission is to empower employee owners to make HB Global a great place to work and create value. Our vision ties directly into our mission. This is no accident. It helps us to maintain consistent priorities and have clarity in potentially challenging situations.
Our vision cycle starts with engaging employees. This goes hand-in-hand with making HB Global a great place to work. It’s difficult to have engaged employees in a stagnant workplace, and it’s challenging to create a great place to work if a team is filled with unmotivated employees. These parts of our mission and vision ultimately help us to create value through our financial success.
The financial success that is created in our vision can be thought of as the value we create in our mission. As an ESOP, we share the value that is created with employee owners. We do this in direct ways such as contributions to ESOP accounts and bonuses, but we also do this through investing in growth opportunities and resources for our employee owners. Sharing this value further engages employee owners and reinforces HB Global as a great place to work.
Our mission and vision set the foundation for both our day-to-day work as well as our strategic planning and decision-making. These establish clear priorities for our company that allow us to both take care of our employees and create the financial success necessary for the longevity of our company. Both our mission and our vision help us to think about the long-term rather than making decisions that may make sense in the short-term but then create long-term challenges.
Our mission and our vision are intentionally simple. Our goal is that these are top of mind for all employee owners. Taking actions that align with our mission and vision ultimately helps us to fulfill them. Because we are an ESOP, the success of our company leads to the success of our employee owners.
Have your own thoughts or questions about our vision at HB Global? Send them to [email protected].