Create a company presentation

As many people today are committed to sustainability issues, it is a good idea to weave the company's sustainability work and ambitions into the company presentation. Depending on the company and sector, this could fit under mission, vision, goals or values. Here are some elements that are useful to include.

Mission

Make the mission and purpose of the business clear to all employees to create a stronger sense of community and professional pride. It also helps employees feel a sense of purpose about their part in the work as part of a larger whole.

The mission should describe why you exist, what you do, how you do it and for whom you do it.

Vision

Formulate a challenging and clear yet concise vision for the company (preferably just one sentence). Make it easy for everyone in the company to remember and be motivated by and appealing to customers, partners and potential employees.

The vision should describe a desired state towards which the company is striving. Something really appealing but that you never expect to get all the way to. For example, it could be worded as “We will become the world leader in innovative sustainable X manufacturing”. It is the unattainability of the desired state that separates a vision from a goal.

Goals

Set clear goals – things you need to achieve in both the short (1 year) and longer (2-5 years) term to move towards your vision. For complex goals, it may be useful to also formulate milestones, which will make it easier to monitor and evaluate progress.

Values

Formulate your company's values – behaviours that describe how you as an employee need to be in order to achieve your goals and move towards your vision. These can be qualities such as “Knowledgeable, Innovative and Humble”.

Do not underestimate these soft values, which become a clear framework and support for how you as leaders and employees should act, prioritise and make decisions in each situation.

Culture

How will it feel to walk in your door, how will it be to work here, how will you treat each other as colleagues and how will I be treated as a customer or partner? Your values shape your company culture and guide these experiences, which can be key factors in areas such as sales and recruitment.

Unique benefits

Make clear what advantages you have that set you apart from your competitors and make you stand out from the crowd, both from a business and employee perspective. These could be things like a unique product, active validation work, a strong positive culture or special benefits.

Highlight these unique benefits in your communications to make the positive image clear to customers and potential employees.

Organisation

A well thought-out organisational structure will allow you to optimise workflows and use resources more efficiently. It creates clarity for employees about their belonging and contribution to the whole, and better enables managers to plan for backup and support functions.

Build an organisation that best supports work processes and production by thinking through and deciding how paths to decision-making will be structured, where different skill sets belong, how teams will be composed and how they will interact.

Roles

Make a plan for the roles that will be needed in the company to do what is required and achieve the goals set. A well thought-out need for roles will also help you plan your recruitment. When in time will you need a particular skill set? At what critical mass will you need more workers?

Make the content and responsibilities of the roles clear. This will help you spend time on the right things, relieve the load on managers, reduce the risk of things falling through the cracks and make your work more efficient.

Written role descriptions are a good basis for ensuring that you have a unified view of the division of tasks and responsibilities. They also provide a useful basis for requirements profiles and advertisements when you are ready to recruit.