50 Company Core Values Examples (And How to Make Them Stick)

Almost every company lists values. Far fewer employees can say what those values ask of them on an ordinary Tuesday.

Company core values are the handful of behaviors a company commits to, in good times and bad. They guide how people decide, treat each other and serve customers. This guide gives you 50 company core values examples, each paired with the behavior that proves it.

Vague expectations cost engagement. Gallup’s January 2026 report on 2025 U.S. data links clarity to engagement.

Managers and individual contributors with a clear definition of exceptional performance were nearly four times as likely to be engaged. Behavioral values supply that definition.

I reviewed three of the top-ranking pages for this topic in October 2026. All three list values and tell you to recognize people who live them. None show what that recognition message looks like.

This guide does. BRAVO, an AI-powered employee recognition and engagement platform by WorkHub, supports the follow-through. BRAVO Points, BRAVO Voice, BRAVO Feats and BRAVO Focus each play a part.

What Are Company Core Values?

Company core values are the handful of behaviors a company commits to, even when they cost something. They tell employees how to decide, how to treat each other and how to serve customers when no rule applies.

Mission, vision and values answer three different questions. Confusing them is the most common reason a values page reads like a slogan.

Statement	Question it answers	What it sounds like
Mission	Why do we exist?	A sentence about who you serve and what you do for them
Vision	Where are we headed?	A picture of the company in five to ten years
Core values	How do we behave on the way?	Behaviors people can show or break at work
Goals	What do we deliver this quarter?	Measurable targets with dates

Core values also differ from a code of ethics. A code of ethics sets the lines nobody may cross, such as obeying the law.

Values describe the behavior you want to see more of. Our guide to workplace ethics covers the lines side of that split.

Integrity, accountability, teamwork, innovation and respect appear on many company lists. Those labels are only a starting point. The 50 examples in this guide attach a behavior to each value.

How Many Core Values Should a Company Have?

A company should have four to six core values. Published guidance ranges from three to ten, so the exact number matters less than whether people can recall the list.

Use three tests to decide where your list stops:

1. The recall test. Ask ten employees to name the values without looking. If fewer than half can name three, the list is too long.
2. The trade-off test. Each value should have settled at least one real decision, such as turning down a profitable client. A value that never changes a decision is decoration.
3. The people test. Ask whether you would hire, promote or part ways with someone because of it. If the answer is no, cut it.

Run all three tests on your longest draft and keep only the values that pass. Expect the list to shrink, and treat that as progress.

Fewer values get repeated more often. Each one appears in more meetings, reviews and thank-you notes, so people remember it. A list of twelve spreads the same airtime thin.

If your draft has more than six, merge values that describe the same behavior. Accountability and ownership often belong together. So do respect and inclusion.

Why Core Values Matter (and Why Most Never Change Behavior)

Core values matter because they settle decisions, guide hiring and tell employees what good looks like. They only do that work when they name an observable action and someone reinforces it. Most lists fail on one of three counts.

Values written as ideals

Values written as ideals describe who the company wants to be, not what people should do. “Excellence” and “integrity” fit on any company’s wall, and they tell an employee nothing about Monday’s decision.

Rewrite each value as an action a colleague could see. “We check our work against the standard before it leaves our hands” can be observed. “Excellence” cannot.

Observable wording also lets a manager give feedback tied to the value.

Too many values

Too many values dilute each other. When a company lists ten, employees tend to remember a few and invent the rest. People then pick the ones that suit their current task, so the list stops settling disputes.

Cap the list at six. Then rank the values, so that two in conflict have a clear answer.

Short lists have a second benefit. A new hire can recall them after the first week, which makes them usable in real conversations.

Values nobody reinforces

Values nobody reinforces fade fast. A launch email and a poster create awareness, not habit. Recognition does the repeating.

Workhuman’s 2025 study surveyed more than 2,500 employees in five countries. People with a recognition program were 17% more likely to understand their company values.

Employees recognized recently were 67% more likely. A structured employee recognition program gives managers a weekly reason to name a value out loud. Each thank-you that names a value is one more repetition in front of the whole team.

50 Company Core Values Examples

These 50 company core values examples sit in ten themes of five values each. Every row pairs the value with a behavior that proves it and a behavior that breaks it.

Pick two or three themes that match how your company works, then keep four to six values in total. Treat the behaviors as starting points and rewrite them in your own words.

Trust and integrity values

Trust values describe how a company handles truth, promises and fairness. They matter most where customers and employees can’t check your work themselves.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Integrity	Admitting a missed target before the client finds out	Reporting a number you know is rounded up
Transparency	Sharing the reason behind a decision, including the trade-offs	Announcing outcomes with no explanation
Honesty	Giving a colleague hard feedback privately and early	Praising work in the meeting, criticizing it afterward
Fairness	Applying the same rules to a top performer and a new hire	Bending a policy for the people you like
Reliability	Doing what you said by the date you said, or saying early that you can’t	Going quiet when a deadline slips

Customer values

Customer values describe how employees treat the people who pay for the work. They turn “the customer comes first” into specific habits.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Customer focus	Asking what the customer is trying to achieve before proposing a fix	Defending your process when a customer complains
Service	Solving a request fully instead of passing it along	Transferring a customer between three teams
Responsiveness	Replying within the promised window, even if only to say you’re working on it	Letting messages sit until someone escalates
Partnership	Telling a client when a cheaper option fits them better	Upselling a plan the customer won’t use
Customer success	Tracking whether customers reach their goal, not only whether they renew	Counting a closed ticket as a solved problem

Teamwork values

Teamwork values describe how colleagues share work, credit and effort. They matter most when teams depend on each other’s deadlines.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Teamwork	Offering help when your own tasks are done	Finishing your part and ignoring the delay next door
Collaboration	Sharing a draft early so others can shape it	Presenting finished work no one saw coming
Support	Covering for a teammate during a hard week without being asked	Keeping count of favors
Humility	Saying “I was wrong” in a team meeting	Defending a decision after the data changed
Generosity	Crediting the whole team in the announcement	Presenting shared work as your own

Growth values

Growth values describe how people learn from mistakes and from each other. They suit companies that hire for potential and expect roles to change.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Continuous learning	Sharing one lesson from a project in the team channel	Repeating a mistake nobody wrote down
Growth mindset	Asking “what can I try next” after a miss	Treating one setback as proof of a limit
Curiosity	Asking why a process exists before changing it	Accepting “we’ve always done it this way”
Feedback	Asking for feedback on a specific piece of work	Waiting for the annual review to hear how you’re doing
Mentorship	Spending an hour a month teaching someone newer	Hoarding know-how as job security

Ownership values

Ownership values describe who acts when something needs fixing. They separate teams that wait for permission from teams that move.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Accountability	Owning a miss in writing and naming the fix	Blaming another team in the postmortem
Ownership	Fixing an issue you noticed, even outside your role	Saying “not my department”
Initiative	Proposing the solution along with the problem	Waiting for instructions on a known gap
Follow-through	Closing the loop on every action item from a meeting	Leaving action items without an owner
Autonomy	Making a call within your remit and reporting the result	Asking for approval on every small decision

Innovation values

Innovation values describe how a company tests new ideas and handles risk. Behaviors matter here because the word “innovation” alone invites endless brainstorming.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Innovation	Testing a small idea this week instead of debating it this quarter	Pitching a big idea with no first step
Creativity	Offering three options instead of one	Copying last year’s approach by default
Experimentation	Running a time-boxed trial with a clear stop date	Launching changes with no way to measure them
Courage	Raising a risk with a senior leader in the meeting	Staying quiet and sending a concern by email later
Simplicity	Removing a step from a process nobody likes	Adding a form to solve a one-time issue

Excellence values

Excellence values describe the standard of the work and the habits that protect it. They suit companies where quality is the product.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Excellence	Checking work against the standard before handing it over	Shipping and hoping the reviewer catches mistakes
Quality	Fixing the root cause of a defect	Patching the symptom each time
Craftsmanship	Polishing the details the customer will touch	Leaving rough edges because “it works”
Efficiency	Automating a task you repeat weekly	Doing manual work out of habit
Continuous improvement	Running a short retro after each project	Moving to the next project without a review

People values

People values describe how colleagues treat each other as humans. They show up most clearly in peer recognition and in how managers respond when life gets hard.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Respect	Letting a colleague finish before responding	Dismissing ideas because of the speaker’s seniority
Empathy	Asking how a teammate is before asking for a deliverable	Treating a late reply as laziness
Compassion	Offering flexibility when someone faces a family emergency	Requiring proof for every request
Wellbeing	Closing laptops on time and protecting leave	Praising people who answer email at midnight
Gratitude	Thanking someone specifically within a day of their work	Saving thanks for the annual awards

Inclusion values

Inclusion values describe whose voice counts and whose work gets seen. They need regular checks, because exclusion is rarely intentional.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Inclusion	Inviting the quietest person to weigh in	Letting the same three voices decide
Diversity	Interviewing candidates from more than one pool	Hiring only through personal networks
Belonging	Giving remote staff the same information as in-office staff	Sharing key news in hallway chats
Equity	Reviewing pay and promotion gaps on a schedule	Assuming the process is fair without checking
Open-mindedness	Changing your view when the evidence changes	Defending a position just to win

Purpose and agility values

Purpose and agility values connect daily work to a larger aim and to change. They suit companies that grow fast or work in shifting markets.

Value	Looks like	Doesn’t look like
Purpose	Linking a task to the customer outcome it serves	Treating work as a list of tickets
Sustainability	Choosing the option that holds up for years, not just this quarter	Cutting a corner that creates next year’s problem
Community	Giving paid time to a local cause	Treating volunteering as unpaid overtime
Adaptability	Updating a plan within a week of new information	Defending an outdated plan
Resilience	Running a calm review after a setback, then resetting	Letting one failed launch freeze the team

Company Core Values Examples From Real Companies

These five company core values examples come from each company’s own published pages, so the wording is theirs. Read them for structure, not just content. Each one shows a different way to make a value usable.

HubSpot: four commitments with plain explanations

HubSpot’s culture page lists four commitments. They cover serving the customer, being bold while learning fast, and aligning and adapting quickly. The fourth is HEART, an acronym for humble, empathetic, adaptable, remarkable and transparent.

Each commitment carries a short explanation of the behavior behind it. Copy that habit: a memorable name earns attention, and a two-sentence description makes it usable. The page also says HubSpot’s culture code guides how it builds, hires and leads.

Atlassian: values that decide who gets hired

Atlassian publishes five values and says they guide what it does, why it creates and who it hires. One says information is open internally by default. Another puts the customer’s perspective first.

A third borrows “measure twice, cut once” to describe careful building. Borrow the hiring link. When values help decide who gets an offer, employees take them seriously.

Each value on the page comes with a short explanation, so employees can see the intent behind the name.

Costco: a code that names who the company answers to

Costco calls its list a Code of Ethics. It has five lines: obey the law, take care of members, take care of employees, respect suppliers and reward shareholders.

Four of the five lines name a group the company answers to: members, employees, suppliers and shareholders. Use that structure when your values need to show who benefits from each promise. It also shows that a values list and an ethics code can live in one short statement.

Southwest Airlines: values written as personal pledges

Southwest Airlines uses three values: Warrior Spirit, Servant’s Heart and a Fun-LUVing Attitude. Its philosophy page frames each as a first-person pledge with an action attached. Examples include striving to be your best and treating others with respect.

The same page quotes founder Herb Kelleher on hiring for attitude over skills. Copy the pledge format: wording that starts with “I will” makes a value personal and checkable.

A pledge also gives managers an easy feedback frame. They can ask which pledge an action supported.

Salesforce: a ranked list with a tiebreaker

Salesforce names five values: trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability. It calls trust its number one value, which gives employees a tiebreaker when two values collide.

Salesforce’s code of conduct is built on the same five values. That ties the list to the rules employees follow every day.

Copy the ranking. Say which value wins when two conflict, and decisions get faster. Test the order against your last hard decision before you publish it.

How to Define Your Company Core Values

You define core values by starting from behavior you already see and writing it in plain words. Five steps take most teams from a blank page to a tested list.

Step 1: Collect evidence of how work really gets done

Start with what people already do, not what you wish they did. Ask ten employees from different teams and tenures three questions:

• Which decision are you proudest of?
• Who do you copy, and why?
• What behavior gets someone promoted here?

Look for patterns across the answers. When three people describe the same behavior, you have found a candidate value.

Write down the verbs, not the adjectives, because verbs become behaviors.

Step 2: Draft four to six values in plain words

Draft each value as a short name plus one sentence. Use words a new hire would understand without a glossary.

A good draft reads like this: Own the outcome. We fix problems we notice, whatever the job title.

Merge values that describe the same action, and cut any you wouldn’t enforce. If a name could sit on any company’s wall, replace it with the behavior itself.

Step 3: Write the behavior and the counter-behavior

Write one behavior that proves each value and one that breaks it. The pair removes guesswork for managers giving feedback. Use the rewrite pattern in this table.

Vague value	Behavioral rewrite
Excellence	We check our work against the standard before it leaves our hands.
Teamwork	We share drafts early and credit everyone who shaped the result.
Innovation	We test small ideas within a week and keep the results public.
Integrity	We report bad news early and in our own words.
Customer focus	We ask what the customer is trying to achieve before we propose a fix.

Then finish this sentence for each value: “We live this value when we…” If you can’t finish it, the value is still too vague.

Step 4: Stress-test each value against a hard decision

Test every value against a decision that cost something. Would you turn down a profitable client who broke it? Would you pass over a strong performer who undermines it?

Run the test on real history. Review the last three to five hard calls and check whether the draft values explain them.

If your honest answer is “it depends,” the value is not core yet. Revise it or cut it.

Step 5: Test with employees, then launch with stories

Share the draft with a mixed group of employees and ask where the wording confuses or overpromises. Ask each reviewer one question per value: would you know what to do on Monday? Then revise once and launch with real stories of the values in action instead of a slide of definitions.

Plan the reinforcement before the announcement. Our guide to building a recognition program covers the structure that keeps values visible after launch week.

How to Bring Core Values to Life

Core values come to life in five places employees touch every month. Those are hiring, leadership habits, performance reviews, recognition and goals. Skip one and the list quietly goes back to being a poster.

Hire and onboard against the values

Ask one behavioral interview question per value, such as “Tell me about a time you raised bad news early.” Score the answer against the behavior you wrote for that value. Agree on that behavior before the interview, so each interviewer scores the same thing and candidates get consistent questions.

On day one, share two real stories of the values at work. New hires then see how the words show up in decisions.

Have leaders model one value at a time

Leaders model values best when they pick one value a quarter and make it visible. A leader who values transparency can share the reasoning behind a hard decision at the next all-hands.

Pair this with the habits in our guide to leadership qualities. Employees copy what leaders do, not what slides say. Ask each leader to report back at quarter’s end with one story, so the habit is tracked.

Put values into performance reviews

Add one open question per value to self and manager reviews: “Where did you show this value this year?” Open questions beat 1-to-5 ratings because they pull real examples that managers can confirm.

Share the questions before review season, so employees can collect examples throughout the year. Managers then add their own example, so the conversation compares two views.

Review the answers for patterns. A value that nobody can give an example for is a value to rewrite.

Tie recognition to a named value

Recognition ties to a value when the thank-you names the value and the behavior in its first line. “Priya, thank you for raising the vendor risk early. That took courage, and it changed the plan” tells everyone what the value looks like.

BRAVO’s social recognition feed lets any employee send that kind of public thank-you in Slack or Microsoft Teams. BRAVO Points can attach a reward when the moment calls for one.

These sample messages show the pattern. Swap in your own names and details.

Value	Sample message
Integrity	“Sam, you told the client about the delay before they asked. That’s integrity, and it kept their trust.”
Customer focus	“Maya, you asked what the customer was trying to achieve before offering a fix. That’s customer focus.”
Ownership	“Luis, you fixed the broken handoff nobody owned. That’s ownership, and the next team will feel it.”
Courage	“Priya, thank you for raising the vendor risk in the meeting. That took courage, and it changed the plan.”
Humility	“Dan, you said you were wrong and changed course in front of the team. That’s humility worth copying.”
Collaboration	“Aisha, you shared the draft early and three people improved it. That’s collaboration.”
Continuous learning	“Tom, your project lessons post helped two other teams avoid the same issue. That’s continuous learning.”
Gratitude	“Nina, thank you for covering my shift during a hard week. That’s the support and gratitude we mean.”

For general-purpose notes, use our recognition message examples.

Thanking people for honest behavior also builds safety. In Workhuman’s 2025 study, being thanked in the past month was associated with a 21% higher psychological safety score. Teams with high psychological safety were 78% more likely to feel aligned to company values.

Connect values to goals

Values connect to goals when you write one objective per quarter that expresses a value in measurable terms. A responsiveness value, for example, becomes an objective to answer every customer ticket within the promised window.

BRAVO Focus tracks objectives and key results, so progress on that objective sits next to the team’s other goals. BRAVO Feats can then turn the value into a team challenge, such as sharing early drafts for a month.

How to Tell If Your Core Values Are Working

Core values are working when four signals move together. People name the values, say they can apply them, stay and refer friends, and use them to settle decisions. Track all four each quarter.

Signal	How to calculate	Where the data lives
Values named in recognition	Recognition messages that name a value, divided by all recognition messages	Recognition feed or platform report
Values applied	Share of employees who agree with “I can give an example of our values from this week”	Quarterly pulse survey, such as BRAVO Voice
Referrals and exit themes	Referred hires as a share of all hires, plus exit interviews that mention a values gap	HR system and exit interview notes
Decisions settled by a value	Count of logged decisions where a value decided the outcome	A one-line decision log kept by leadership

Set a baseline in the first quarter. Then review the four signals every quarter and the full list once a year. Managers can watch weekly recognition activity through BRAVO’s Manager Enablement reports.

Read the numbers together. Recognition that names a value may rise while survey agreement stays flat. That suggests the language has spread but the behavior hasn’t.

Read a sample of messages to see whether people describe the behavior or only repeat the label. If a value never appears in recognition, rewrite it or retire it. A shorter list that people use beats a longer list that people ignore.

Bottom Line: From Company Core Values Examples to Daily Habits

The 50 company core values examples in this guide are raw material. The work is choosing four to six, writing the behavior behind each, and repeating them where people will hear them.

Hire against them, model them, review against them, thank people for them and measure them. A value that survives that cycle for a year is core. One that doesn’t was a slogan, and cutting it is a sign of a healthy list.

Start small. Pick one value this week and name it in your next thank-you.

To put recognition behind your values, book a free BRAVO demo and see how your team can start.

Frequently Asked Questions