Demonstrate Work Value

Demonstrating Value can help you take control of the data you collect, how it is used and to
communicate the performance and value of your organization, social enterprise or program. In this
activity guide, you will work out what your data needs are, how they can be met, and how to design
a ‘Snapshot’ that will provide an engaging summary of the performance and value of your
organization.
This process involves the following steps:
Structure of this Activity Book
The remainder of this activity book will guide you through these steps. The purpose of each step
is first described, followed by specific activities for you to do in the Activity Worksheets that
accompanies this guide. This is available on the downloadable file section to the left of this page.
We recommend working through this workbook with a cross-section of people in the organization.
You can do this in a workshop, a series of meetings or through targeted consultations.
Demonstrating Value’s philosophy about measurement and guiding framework
This guide (and all other Demonstrating Value tools) are based on the premise that the information
you gather in your organization has to be directly relevant to the decisions you make and be
compelling for others to learn about your value. To work out what information is most useful,
always keep the following simple question in mind:
'What do we want to know and show?'
In essence, you need to think about the story you want to tell and the decisions that can be better
supported by data.
The two lenses shown below can help focus the answer, and are reflected in the exercises in this
workbook. The first asks: ‘What information is useful?' and the second asks ‘How will information
be used?'
Determining what information is useful is a big task, but it can be simplified by looking at what
you do from three different perspectives.
An Organizational Sustainability Perspective - What information can help you understand
whether you are developing and maintaining resources to meet your purpose in the long run?
A Community Impact Perspective - What information can tell you about the ability of the
organization to successfully contribute towards the social, cultural and environmental objectives
set out in its mission?
A Business Performance Perspective - What information can tell you about the success of
the organization from a financial or ‘business’ perspective?
It is also useful to consider carefully how information will be used, by considering three ‘audience’
perspectives:
 An Operational Perspective - What information do you need to support day-to-day
decisions by management and staff? For instance, what can help you stay on top of costs, quality,
and delivery of your mission?
A Strategic Perspective - What information do you need to support strategic decisions
that are often made by a governance body such as a board? This information needs to educate your
audience about key trends and events that have occurred.
An Engagement & Accountability Perspective - What information do you need to foster
and maintain support of the organization? This includes support by investors, community
members, employees and beneficiaries of your mission. This audience may have very limited
knowledge of who you are and what you are trying to accomplish so your "story" needs to be very
crisp.

Step 1: Define your Audiences and their Needs

Your organization is important for many different groups of people, and in different ways. These
are your stakeholders. Understanding who these people are and what they care about is critical for
developing effective monitoring and reporting capabilities. Common stakeholders include:
Employees
Volunteers
Management
A governance body (e.g. Board of Directors)
A parent organization (for example in the case of a social enterprise that is associated with a
broader non-profit organization)
Constituent group – those in whose name you are working
Customers
Investors, funders, donors
Peers and partners
The community at large
 ACTIVITY 1: Use Worksheet 1 to identify your stakeholders and describe what information
they need to do their job effectively. Then assess how you can better engage them.
Step 2: Develop a Vision of your Performance Snapshot
A Snapshot is a communication tool that you can use to present the performance and value of your
organization, program or project to boards, investors/funders and staff. It is tailored to your needs
and the audiences you want to connect with, and can take the form of an Infographic, Dashboard
or Impact Report.
This tool will give you a clear picture of your work to help you plan and manage your day-to-day
activities, demonstrate your value to others, and ensure the long-term sustainability of your
organization. Examples of Snapshots can be found at: www.demonstratingvalue.org/snapshots
Advantages of developing a snapshot include
Saving valuable time finding and pulling together data and other information for reports.
Seeing key trends and relationships in data, so you can get the most from the data you collect.
Combining different types of information effectively to engage your audience.
The exact content and format of the Snapshot depends on who you want to reach and the issues
that are important. For example, the layout and content for a bi-monthly board presentation might
be very different from a Snapshot designed to be part of your public website to engage volunteers
and donors. The design process includes thinking about who the audience is, what decisions they
are making, the messages you want to convey, and the information you will present (which can
include numeric, narrative, pictures and other types of information).
Types of Snapshots
Snapshots vary in terms of the visual elements that they include and how they balance text and
numerical information. Typical forms are Dashboards, Infographics and Impact Reports. Any of
these can be presented as a printed/PDF document or can be web-based.
Dashboard
A Dashboard displays indicators (also termed measures, metrics and data points) for an
organization, department, team or process. It is typically an internal tool that is directed to
management, a senior executive team or an advisory/governance board. Indicators are organized
around objectives and include key performance indicators (‘results’) and key success factors
(‘what drives the results’).
Info graphic
An Info graphic is a representation of information that is graphically designed to make data easily
understandable at a glance. It is mainly used as a communication tool to external audiences, often
as a small poster that can be displayed. The information is presented in a fun and eye-catching
way.
Impact Report

An Impact Report may be a section of an annual report or a stand-alone report that clearly
communicates your mission and impact. The length can range from a few pages to more than a
dozen; you can go into more detail about your impact than in an Infographic. The information is
still presented in an eye-catching way with a balance of photographs, figures, metrics and text.
Design Tools
A Snapshot can be designed with different tools depending on your budget and needs. Once you
design a Snapshot, you can easily create versions of it to suit other audiences. For instance, a
Snapshot that is developed for an Advisory Board could later be adjusted to serve as a public
Snapshot, but changed to include less detailed data more suitable to a public facing document.
You can use a professional graphic designer to create a Snapshot or design it yourself. There are
many software programs out there that feature intuitive, drag-and-drop design features, including
office programs that you may already use, graphic design programs and interactive data
visualization / business intelligence solutions. These are described in more detail below. You can
start by designing something that is fairly basic and move to a more sophisticated design later on.
Like any effective communications tool, the substance of what you present is the most important,
and it may take a few iterations to develop a succinct and effective way to convey what you do,
and why it is important.
Office Software Suites
You likely already use programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or similar programs
such as Google Docs. These programs have built-in graphic design features that have become
increasingly sophisticated over time. You can also embed data in charts or link a figure in a Word
or PowerPoint file directly to data in spreadsheets. Some things to consider about this option:
While there are some excellent design features in these programs, if you are not fully familiar with
them, they can be a little frustrating to use. Web tutorials are a good place to learn. This guide also
provides some tips.
The file size can get quite large. Sometimes this affects the performance of the program. It’s a
good idea to close anything else that you may be working on.
It is very easy to copy and paste parts of the Snapshot into other documents, presentations and e-
mails.
The image quality will not be as sharp as other options, but they are still pretty good, especially if
any photos that you include are high resolution. You can save them as PDF or as graphic files
such as JPG and PNG.
Graphic Design Software
There are many software solutions out there for designing, developing, and publishing graphical
content for web and print. While some of these are quite technical – such as solutions within
Adobe’s Creative Cloud like Adobe Illustrator – a number of them enable less skilled users to
create graphic design for infographics and reports using drag-and-drop features. Examples of the
latter include Piktochart, Venngage and Easelly. Most provide template themes. Some things to
consider about this option:These programs enable you to produce very high quality graphics.
The drag-and-drop options have many infographic and report templates that provide and excellent
starting point.Most programs are cloud-based (you do not need to install them on your computer
and are instead accessible through a website). Some programs allow you to connect with data in
Google Drive and/or Dropbox
In terms of the cost, many drag-and-drop solutions offer a ‘freemium’ payment model which
enables you do some basic creation for free, with a paid subscription for more frills. Check for
discounts for non-profits.
The drag-and-drop programs and the companies associated with them are new and the landscape
is changing. Using a smaller vendor can carry some risk that they will not stay in business.
Interactive Data Visualization / Business Intelligence Solutions
These programs produce dashboards that present data interactively: the reader can select and focus
in on specific data that are important. These programs also allow users to connect to many data
sources at the same time. Examples include Tableau, Clicdata, Zoho Analytics, Looker,
iDashboards, and Sisense. Some considerations:

Many solutions are cloud-based and licensed monthly or annually. Some are targetted to corporate
clients, and as such, are pricey. Others are directed at smaller-scale users. Many companies offer
significant discounts to non-profits organizations for basic versions of their product. A great place
to check for discounts is with TechSoup which connects charitable non-profits with donated and
discounted technologies.
A user can ‘slice and dice’ data, and test different assumption by manipulating input parameters.
This is useful when you have large datasets. Visualizing the data helps users gain insights that
they might not gain in other ways.
Data connections can often be established in ‘real-time’, a helpful feature if you need to see updates
frequently.
The learning curve can be significant, but a user comfortable with databases or more advanced
features in spreadsheets can adapt to these programs easily. No programming is required and
design is simplified with a drag-and-drop interface.
Many companies that offer these programs are start-ups and the landscape is changing. Using a
smaller vendor can carry some risk that they will not stay in business.
ACTIVITY 2: Create a Vision of Your Snapshot.
What kind of Snapshot would you like to develop? To get ideas, look at Snapshot template designs
and examples as a starting point. You can see a number of snapshot templates and examples on
the DV website: www.demonstratingvalue.org/snapshots There are also many templates and
examples available on the websites associated with the drag-and-drop software solutions described
above, such as Piktochart, Easelly and Tableau. You may also want to explore Dashboards,
Infographic and Impact Reports on-line in your field through an internet search. Once you have
researched Snapshot Designs, fill in Worksheet 2.
Step 3: Define the Content of Your Snapshot
In this step you will work out the content of your Snapshot. This focuses on identifying what you
want to convey in your snapshot, and then how you will convey it. All the information in the
Snapshot needs to support either a point you are making about your value (if the Snapshot’s
purpose is to engage a stakeholder), or an operational/ strategic decision. Let’s say you run a
recycling program, something that you may want to convey is:
We have been successful in increasing community participation in recycling.
You can then show this with some or all of the following content:
Tonnes of waste diverted
Change in recycling participation rates (% of households that use program/ households with access
to program)
Testimonials from those who never recycled before, but who are now recycling because of the
program.
Information can be numerical (quantitative indicators, measures and metrics). It can also be
excerpts from research, testimonials, narrative, images, short diagrams and other forms of
information that can be useful in supporting what you want to know and show. At this point, you
don’t need to identify the best information / indicators, just brainstorm ways that you can show
this. Include both what you currently collect and what you could in the future. You will have
opportunity to refine this later.
Look at for suggestions about specific content for different aspects of community impact (by
mission areas), business performance and organizational sustainability in Appendix A: Snapshot
Content Ideas by Category. At this time, the following categories are included:
Community Impact
Cross Cutting
Supportive Employment
Transforming the Lives of Individuals
Culture
Health
Affordable Housing
Local Food
Land and Resource Stewardship
Green Economy
Re-use and Recycling
Business Performance
Financial Performance
Operations
Sales and Marketing
Organizational Sustainability
Human Capital
Other Organizational Sustainability
1. Strong Work Ethic
Employers value employees who understand and possess a willingness to work hard. In addition
to working hard it is also important to work smart. This means learning the most efficient way to
complete tasks and finding ways to save time while completing daily assignments. It’s also
important to care about your job and complete all projects while maintaining a positive attitude.
Doing more than is expected on the job is a good way to show management that you utilize good
time management skills and don’t waste valuable company time attending to personal issues not
related to the job. Downsizing in today’s job market is quite common so it’s important to recognize
the personal values and attributes employers want to improve your chances of job security should
a layoff occur.
2. Dependability and Responsibility
Employers value employees who come to work on time, are there when they are supposed to be,
and are responsible for their actions and behavior. It’s important to keep supervisors abreast of
changes in your schedule or if you are going to be late for any reason. This also means keeping
your supervisor informed on where you are on all projects you have been assigned. Being
dependable and responsible as an employee shows your employer that you value your job and that
you are responsible in keeping up with projects and keeping them informed of the things that they
should know about.
3. Possessing a Positive Attitude.
Employers seek employees who take the initiative and have the motivation to get the job done in
a reasonable period of time. A positive attitude gets the work done and motivates others to do the
same without dwelling on the challenges that inevitably come up in any job. It is the enthusiastic
employee who creates an environment of good will and who provides a postive role model for
others. A positive attitude is something that is most valued by supervisors and co-workers and that
also makes the job more pleasant and fun to go to each day.
4. Adaptability
Employers seek employees who are adaptable and maintain flexibility in completing tasks in an
ever changing workplace. Being open to change and improvements provides an opportunity to
complete work assignments in a more efficient manner while offering additional benefits to the
corporation, the customer, and even the employee. While oftentimes employees complain that
changes in the workplace don’t make sense or makes their work harder, oftentimes these
complaints are due to a lack of flexibility.

Adaptability also means adapting to the personality and work habits of co-workers and supervisors.
Each person possesses their own set or strengths and adapting personal behaviors to accommodate
others is part of what it takes to work effectively as a team. By viewing change as an opportunity
to complete work assignments in a more efficient manner, adapting to change can be a positive
experience. New strategies, ideas, priorities, and work habits can foster a belief among workers
that management and staff are both committed to making the workplace a better place to work.
5. Honesty and Integrity
Employers value employees who maintain a sense of honesty and integrity above all else. Good
relationships are built on trust. When working for an employer they want to know that they can
trust what you say and what you do. Successful businesses work to gain the trust of customers and
maintain the attitude that “the customer is always right”. It is the responsibility of each person to
use their own individual sense of moral and ethical behavior when working with and serving others
within the scope of their job.
6. Self – Motivated
Employers look for employees who require little supervision and direction to get the work done in
a timely and professional manner. Supervisors who hire self-motivated employees do themselves
an immense favor. For self-motivated employees require very little direction from their
supervisors. Once a self-motivated employee understands his/her responsibility on the job, they
will do it without any prodding from others. Employers can do their part by offering a safe,
supportive, work environment that offers employees an opportunity to learn and grow. Working
in a supportive work environment and taking the initiative to be self-directive will provide
employees with a better sense of accomplishment and increased self-esteem.
7. Motivated to Grow & Learn
In an ever-changing workplace, employers seek employees who are interested in keeping up with
new developments and knowledge in the field. It has been noted that one of the top reasons
employees leave their employers is the lack of opportunity for career development within the
organization. Learning new skills, techniques, methods, and/or theories through professional
development helps keep the organization at the top of its field and makes the employee’s job more
interesting and exciting. Keeping up with current changes in the field is vital for success and
increased job security.
8. Strong Self – Confidence
Self-confidence has been recognized as the key ingredient between someone who is successful and
someone who is not. A self – confident person is someone who inspires others. A self-confident
person is not afraid to ask questions on topics where they feel they need more knowledge. They
feel little need to have to impress others with what they know since they feel comfortable with
themselves and don’t feel they need to know everything.

The self-confident person does what he/she feels is right and is willing to take risks. Self- confident
people can also admit their mistakes. They recognize their strengths as well as their weaknesses
and are willing to work on the latter. Self-confident people have faith in themselves and their
abilities which is manifested in their positive attitude and outlook on life.
9. Professionalism
Employers value employees who exhibit professional behavior at all times. Professional behavior
includes learning every aspect of a job and doing it to the best of one’s ability. Professionals look,
speak, and dress accordingly to maintain an image of someone who takes pride in their behavior
and appearance. Professionals complete projects as soon as possible and avoid letting uncompleted
projects pile up. Professionals complete high quality work and are detail oriented. Professional
behavior includes all of the behavior above in addition to providing a positive role model for
others. Professionals are enthusiastic about their work and optimistic about the organization and
its future. To become a professional you must feel like a professional and following these tips is a
great start to getting to where you want to go.
10. Loyalty
Employers value employees they can trust and who exhibit their loyalty to the company. Loyalty
in the workforce has taken on a new meaning. Gone are the days when employees plan on starting
out and retiring with the same company. It is said that most people will hold between 8 – 12 jobs
throughout their career. What does this mean in terms of loyalty in today’s workforce?
Companies offering employee growth and opportunity will ultimately gain a sense of loyalty from
their employees. Employees today want to feel a sense of satisfaction in their jobs and will do a
good job when they feel that the employer is fair and wants to see them succeed. Although this
may mean only staying for five or ten years in a position, employees can offer loyalty and make
an important contribution during their time with the company.
More companies today encourage employee feedback and offer employees an opportunity to lead
in their area of expertise. This gives employees a greater sense of satisfaction and a sense of control
over their job. Empowerment encourages employees to do their best work since companies are
displaying a trust and expectation that they believe in their employees to do a good job.
Offering jobs that encourage learning and the development of new skills also gives employees a
sense of empowerment in the workplace. Aligning an employees values with the goals of the
organization will foster loyalty and a bond between employer and employee. Fostering good
relationships within an organization and offering constructive ways to handle conflict provides a
win – win situation for both employer and employee. Creating an organization that values loyalty
within the organization can also work to its benefit by using the same techniques and strategies to
establish loyalty with customers; and loyalty from customers ultimately makes for a successful
business.
What is Work Ethic, and its Purpose?
In its simplest definition, a system of moral principles is called ethics. They affect how people
lead their lives, for life is an unbroken stream of decision-making and ethics are concerned with
what is the right moral choice, for individuals and for society. This is also known as a moral
philosophy. The etymology of ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, meaning habit,
custom, disposition or character.

Ethics are therefore concerned with these sorts of moral decision: how to live an ethical life,
rights and responsibilities, right and wrong language, what is good and bad and so on.
Contemporary notions of ethics have been handed on from philosophy, religions, and global
cultures. Ethics are debated in topics such as human rights, right to life, and professional
behavior.

In a business, an ethical code is a defined set of principles which guide an organization in its
activities and decisions and the firm’s philosophy may affect its productivity, reputation, and
bottom line.
Among staff ethical behavior ensures work is completed with integrity and honesty and staff that
are ethical adhere to policies and rules while working to meet the aims of the enterprise. An
ethically positive, healthy work culture enhances morale among employees.

Work Ethic Definition and Meaning

Traditionally, work ethic has been understood as a value based on hard work and diligence.
Capitalists, for example, believe in the necessity of working hard and in consequential ability of
enhancing one’s character. Socialists suggest that a concept of “hard work” is deluding the
working class into being loyal workers of the elite; and working hard, in itself, is not necessarily
an honorable thing, but simply a way to create greater wealth for those at the summit of the
economic pyramid.

These values have been challenged and characterized as submissive to social convention and
authority, and not meaningful in and of itself, but only if a positive result accrues. An alternative
perception suggests that the work ethic is now subverted in a broader, and readily marketed-to
society. This perspective has given us the phrase “work smart”.

In recent times, many say that a work ethic is now obsolete and that it is no true any longer that
working more means producing more, or even that more production leads to a better life… this
is, of course, not to be confused with quality productivity.

Here is one of the views about work ethic from Will Smith and how important it is where Will
says (about 2:00 during the interview):

Integrity has become a business buzzword. Almost every company talks about it as a core value.
Despite this common use, integrity is a fluid concept that means different things to different
people.

Most of us put honesty at the foundation of any personal or business relationship. At the same
time, we may rationalize less honest behavior in certain circumstances. If the future of your
business depends on a critical sales pitch, you may be tempted to overstate the value of your
product.

No matter how powerful your need, it’s vital for entrepreneurs to retain integrity at all times.
Running a startup involves taking risks and fresh approaches. Everyone who follows you on this
path, from investors to employees, needs to be sure that you’re always leading them with the best
intentions.
Here are five practical ways to ensure you’re always acting with honor in the workplace and
make integrity more than just a buzzword.

1. Bring your values to work

Tony Hsieh – founder and CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos – is not afraid of “a little
weirdness”. Though worth nearly a billion dollars, he lives in a Las Vegas trailer park. In a
position of command, he believes in the power of people to self-organize.

Hsieh brings these values to his company. In an effort to reduce hierarchy, he introduced a
management-free structure called holacracy. Zappos’ renowned customer service team can do
whatever it takes – including sending flowers – to keep customers happy.

As a leader, your business should be a reflection of your personal values. Bring your values to
work and whenever you make a decision, people will know you mean it.

2. Be transparent

Rand Fishkin nearly tore his family apart when his startup ran into financial trouble. He had co-
founded the business with his mother and the pair colluded to keep the bad news from his father,
who was furious when he eventually found out.

The experience taught Fishkin the value of transparency and the entrepreneur always aims for
full disclosure in his business dealing. He has published blog posts about fundraising failures and
other problems that most businesspeople prefer not to discuss.

When your team is aware of what’s happening, they’re more accepting when you need to make
tough decisions. Customers also love openness: 73% say they would pay more for a product they
feel is transparent.

3. Encourage teams to speak freely

According to a Google study, the number one characteristic of the most effective teams is trust.
If you want people to push the envelope and come up with fresh creative approaches to business
challenges, they can’t be afraid to share their ideas.

This doesn’t mean that every idea should be simply accepted so as not to offend anyone.
Creative discussions should be honest and critical, yet open-minded and respectful of other
perspectives. Telling someone their bad idea is great then ditching it on the quiet is hardly a sign
of integrity.Create a culture where people are encouraged to speak freely and share ideas. At the
same time, teach them how to give and receive constructive criticism in a way that will develop
and improve more ideas.

4. Pay fairly

When the UK government asked more than 10,000 large companies to share their gender pay
gap, 78% reported paying men more money for similar work. It’s easy to imagine that results in
the US would be similar.

A gender pay gap or any other form of salary inequality demonstrates a lack of integrity. Why
should any woman or minority believe in you and your business if you don’t treat them as
equals? In fact, 67% of US employees won’t not apply for a job if they think there is a gender
pay gap at the company:

To assume its employees that they are being paid fairly, social media service Buffer operates
an open salary policy that allows anyone to find out who earns what. You don’t have to go this
far to do away with salary-related suspicion. Simply paying people fairly, no matter who they
are, will demonstrate your integrity.

5. Don't compromise your mission

One of the founding principles of my business was that I didn’t want to use sweeteners or
preservatives in our beverages. However, most major retailers require certain products to have a
long shelf life and every industry expert told me that preservatives were the only solution.

Though I risked missing out on critical sales opportunities, I refused to compromise my original
mission. Instead, I kept pushing suppliers to find a way until we eventually hit on a perfect
solution. Today the products of our mission to make America healthier can be found the shelves
of hundreds of big supermarkets.

Your mission should be the ultimate guide for every decision you make about your business.
Never forget this purpose and you’ll always retain your integrity.

Bring your integrity home with you

Just as you should bring your values to work, integrity matters outside the workplace. Being
transparent, speaking freely, treating people equally and not compromising on your beliefs
remain important after your 9-5 ends. The key to integrity is remaining the same person
wherever you are.

The Importance of Workplace Values

Your workplace values are the guiding principles that are most important to you about the way
that you work. You use these deeply held principles to choose between right and wrong ways of
working, and they help you make important decisions and career choices.

Some (possibly conflicting) examples of workplace values include:

Being accountable.
Making a difference.
Focusing on detail.
Delivering quality.
Being completely honest.
Keeping promises.
Being reliable.
Being positive.
Meeting deadlines.
Helping others.
Being a great team member.
Respecting company policy and rules, and respecting others.
Showing tolerance.