The starting point for using a values-based approach is to make sure you know what values and behaviours are important to your organisation. You need to identify and agree what is expected of workers in your organisation, so you can be sure you are able to recruit people who have these values.

You can use the Common Core of skills, knowledge and values framework tool to think about what values are important and how these relate to the Common Core. This could enable you to develop a values and behaviour framework for your organisation.

If you already have a values and behaviours framework, you can use the values mapping tool to link your framework to the overarching values in the Common Core.

It might also be helpful to watch these videos from the Skills for Care about investing in workplace values where you can learn from the experiences of two organisations, based in England, who adopted values-based approaches.

The next step in using a values-based approach is to ensure you embed the agreed organisational values and behaviours into all aspects of the service you provide. It is important that everyone working for your organisation takes ownership of the values and behaviours and integrates these into their practice. This helps ensure your organisation can work in a values-based way.

You can use the example of behaviours tool to help workers identify behaviours that meet the standards expected for each of the skills in the Common Core.

Another resource to help workers to make links between your organisational values and their practice is ‘Making better decisions’.  This resource explores common challenging situations that can arise when providing care and support and enables workers to make decisions and choose what to do. You could ask workers to complete scenarios relevant to their roles then compare their decisions against the feedback which contains the appropriate actions and behaviours to meet the SSSC Codes of Practice, National Care Standards and National Occupational Standards.

This is a good point to reflect and make sure your organisation is ready to adopt and deliver values-based recruitment. When you attract workers with values that fit with your organisation, it is important they find these values embedded into the way you deliver services so they are happy to stay. You may find it helpful to look at the checklist provided by Skills for Care.

Once you have confirmed you are ready to adopt and deliver values-based recruitment, you may need to consider where you are going to find potential workers.

This video about careers ambassadors will give you ideas about how to attract people with the same values as your organisation.

Ambassadors for Careers in Care, a network supported by the SSSC

In the video, ambassadors for careers in care talk about their experiences of engaging with young people, who often have great values and bring a new energy to workplaces. They encourage employers to work with schools and colleges to change perceptions from an early age so more young people see social services as a rewarding career choice. Registering with the SSSC is seen as positively helping young employees see they are joining a profession where they can gain qualifications and enjoy a varied career path.

You can also get tips on how to attract people to work for you in the ‘Other suggestions for attracting workers’ tool. If you are looking to recruit from specific groups read ‘Effective ways of communicating to target demographic groups’ and ‘Attracting and engaging women returning to the workforce’. You can use this guide to show how you can embed values in your job descriptions.

After receiving applications, you will need to work out if the applicants have the right values to work for your organisation. You could use A Question of Care: A career for you to help. This online resource uses video scenarios that enable people to show their values and behaviours. You can get written feedback based on their responses which identifies strengths and areas that need development and you could use this to explore an applicant’s values and suitability for the role applied for. You can find out more about how to use it by reading How to use ‘A Question of Care: A career for you’ as part of your recruitment process from Skills for Care.

Employers wanted this toolkit to include example interview questions. The questions link the skills in the Common Core with National Occupational Standards. They are examples only and you should adapt them to suit your own organisation and recruitment requirements.

An effective way of establishing if an applicant has the right values for the role is to involve people who use services in the recruitment process.

This video case study shows how one organisation, ELCAP, does this in a way that makes people who use their services a vital part of how they recruit. The video also shows how ELCAP has been innovative in their recruitment  and helped reduce staff turnover.

ELCAP Case Study

All recruitment must comply with equalities legislation to make sure it is fair and does not discriminate. Your organisation may have human resource specialists who are able to guide you. However, if you don’t, you might find it helpful to read The Equality Act 2010 – guidance for employers,  or visit the Equality Act Guidance page on the Equalities and Human Rights Commission website. Also for most roles, you will need to ensure that anyone who is going to work with people using services does not have anything in their history that would make them unsuitable or may pose a risk. You can find out more information about this by visiting Disclosure Scotland on the mygov.scot website. You will find more information about how to recruit the right people at the Safer Recruitment Through Better Recruitment page in the Care Inspectorate resource hub.

Research shows that people are more likely to stay working for their employers if they feel valued and supported. One way of doing this is to make sure you reinforce your organisation’s values during induction so new workers are clear about the organisation’s expectations or can get support if they are not sure. If you are using a values-based approach some of the people you recruit will show they have the right values but may not have a lot of experience in similar roles and may need more support at first to understand how your organisation’s values fit with your policies and procedures.

The SSSC Learning Zone has resources you can use as part of induction to support workers to explore values. These include

- Making better decisions - Practice simulator - Principles of care - Understanding dementia.

Another way you can support new workers to explore how their values fit with your organisation’s values is to use the Continuous Learning Framework (CLF). All workers can use the personal capabilities to identify strengths and aspects that need development and can use this to agree a development plan with their managers. New workers may find this particularly helpful as they can use the personal capabilities to explore how their current behaviours support the organisation’s values.

The National Occupational Standards (NOS) underpin about 80% of the qualifications in social care, childcare and early years in Scotland. They can also be an excellent resource during induction as they provide standardised frameworks of the knowledge and behaviour workers are expected to show. Linking the NOS to your organisation’s values, as well as their own, should enable new workers and managers to develop a shared understanding of the expectations in their roles, which could help the workers feel valued and supported. You can find out more about the NOS on the National Occupational Standards (NOS) Navigator page of the SSSC Learning Zone.

Managers and workers often regard induction as a separate thing that only happens when the worker is new to their role. However, it is important to remember it is part of an ongoing development process that includes recruitment and continuing professional development.

Supervision is a key part of this process as it provides opportunities for your workers to identify strengths and aspects for development with their managers. It also provides good opportunities to discuss your organisation’s values and how your workers are able to apply them in their practice. It is important to remember that your organisation’s values may change over time to reflect new legislation and changes in cultures, attitudes and expectations in wider society. So adopting a values-based approach means you must keep reviewing your organisation’s values to make sure they continue to be appropriate, current and delivering the best possible outcomes for people using your service.

This is also important in appraisals when your workers and their managers are formally reviewing the workers’ development and agreeing the objectives for the next appraisal period.

You can find out more about how to embed values into supervision by reading this guidance.

‘Scotland’s social services need effective leadership at all levels of the workforce, as well as citizen leadership from people who access support and their carers.’ Lorraine Gray, Chief Executive, Scottish Social Services Council

We all have leadership roles in our work, like modelling good practice, or managing services. A fundamental aspect of this is making sure that everyone in your organisation and the people who use your services are aware of the values of your organisation. As a leader, you have a responsibility to make sure you and anyone you supervise or manage embed these values into their practice.

We know that organisational values evolve and change over time, so an important part of your leadership role is to make sure the people you work with keep up to date with the values and behaviours that your organisation and people who use services expect. This needs ‘buy-in’ from everyone, so another vital part of your role is to listen to people you work with and who are supported by your service about how the values are applied in practice and make sure that their views are heard by policy makers in your organisation.

The Step into leadership website has information and guidance to help you understand more about your leadership role.

If you are a manager, you might find the How managers can adopt a values-based approach tool and guidance helpful, particularly if you are involved in recruitment and selection.

Throughout this toolkit, you have seen that your organisation must have a continuing commitment to embed its values in all the services and activities it provides. So it is important the organisation has policies and processes to enable an ongoing review of its values and how you implement them. Whatever your role in your organisation, you should make sure you know what these are, your organisation’s expectations and your responsibilities in relation to the policies.

While this is important for all functions of your organisation, it is crucial for ensuring you continue to attract and keep workers whose professional values fit with those of your organisation. A good way of doing this is to regularly match your organisational values against the Common Core of skills, knowledge and values. Using this framework should help you to identify if any changes are needed.

We know that good communication is at the core of positive relationships. It is also very important that everyone who is involved with your service, particularly people who use services, are able to contribute to the ongoing review of values  and know how to do this.

Another way of checking the values of your organisation is to ask people who leave your organisation why they left. This could help you find out if you need to update organisation’s values to reflect changes in day-to-day practice, or the needs and expectations of people using services. You might find this article from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) website helpful for this.