Employees working in administration and operations will receive a link to an overview of 26 values by email. From fairness and flexibility to goal orientation – which values are essential in everyday life? From September 9 to 20, everyone can decide for themselves and select twelve values that are particularly close to their heart when working in a team in an anonymous survey. The second part deals with working with superiors. Here too, the twelve most important values are sought. To avoid misunderstandings, a brief definition is included with each value. Staff must simply hit “submit” and the voting is complete. That’s it. But how did the survey come about in the first place? How will it be evaluated and how will the Core Values Compass be applied in the future?

New Work, New Values

The Core Values Compass was initiated by the Director of Finance and Administration, Frauke Meyer. For her, the key motivation was the many changes to working life in recent years that have also affected the university. “A few years ago, mobile working and hybrid meetings were the exception, but now they are firmly established,” she explains. Such changes, often summarized under “New Work,” place new demands on employees and superiors alike. Perceptions of what values are important in everyday working life can also shift.

“It is not about creating an ideal of a team leader, but about considering what everyone can contribute to good cooperation” Alexandra Baumkötter

In any case, the last survey on values conducted at the university at the end of the 1990s is probably no longer up to date. Back then, the focus was on cooperation with superiors. Teamwork was not addressed at all. This is different this time. “It is not about creating an ideal of a team leader, but about considering what everyone can contribute to good cooperation,” Alexandra Baumkötter emphasizes. She works in Human Resource Development and coordinates the Core Values Compass project. Since May 2024, she has been working on the project in a team together with Frauke Meyer as the head of project, six staff in leading positions within the faculties, units, and administration, the Women’s Representative, and the head of the Staff Council.

The make-up of the project group already indicates that the survey is initially only aimed at administrative and operational staff. Nevertheless, the project group is already considering how the survey and the application of the Core Values Compass can be extended to the academic sector with its specific environment in the future.

Defining Core Values – Identifying the Golden Mean

When deciding on the 26 values, the project group was guided by the university’s Mission Statement, among other things. “We’ve already had many discussions in the group on how important we think commitment, error-friendliness, and loyalty should be, for example,” reports Alexandra Baumkötter. “Now we are curious to see what the other employees have to say about this – and, above all, whether different values emerge for collaboration between colleagues in comparison to working with superiors.”

“It is essential to us that the values remain realistic” Frauke Meyer

However, the evaluation is not limited to simple statistics on which values received the most approval. Rather, the survey is intended to provide the project group with an initial picture of the prevailing attitudes. “We will then select ten to 15 values and work with them in terms of working together at the university,” says Frauke Meyer. The focus will be on the relationship between the values and the way these are expressed. For instance, most people probably want to work with reliable team members. Conversely, too much reliability can also lead to problems, for example if a perfectionist team member puts themselves and others under pressure. Here, the project group will try to identify the golden mean for the respective values. “It is essential to us that the values remain realistic,” emphasizes Frauke Meyer. “We don’t want to create a model of an employee or superior that no one can live up to.”

A first version of the Core Values Compass will be created based on the chosen values and the respective explanations. Subsequently, some employees and staff in leading positions will check these for comprehensibility and user-friendliness. It is planned that the new Core Values Compass is published for all employees at the end of 2024.

A Core Values Compass for Every Day

It is then up to the individual teams to incorporate the Core Values Compass in their everyday work. “You could, for example, hold a meeting to discuss which values from the Core Values Compass are already practiced in your own team and which could be given greater attention,” Alexandra Baumkötter states. New employees and superiors could use the Core Values Compass to gain an idea of what is important when working for their new employer. The Core Values Compass might also help staff to identify their own strengths and weaknesses in the annual appraisal and perhaps look for suitable further training opportunities. It should also serve as a basis for human resource development in order to develop new offers. “The Core Values Compass is not supposed to be a document made for the drawer, but it should be brought to life in everyday work at the university,” summarizes Alexandra Baumkötter.

Find Out More

If you would like to find out more about the Core Values Compass, join the online information event on September 4 from 9 to 10 a.m. Director of Finance and Administration Frauke Meyer, Alexandra Baumkötter (Human Resource Development), and Holger Ruge (Staff Council) will present the project and answer questions. Staff in administration and operations have already received an invitation email with the link to the event. Event participation is regarded as working time.