HR Staple

Culture and Values

The best companies don't just have great people - they have a culture that brings out the best in them.

Your culture is happening whether you're actively shaping it or not. The question is whether it's working for you or against you.

Core values are the foundation of everything, they define how your people behave, how decisions get made, and what kind of organisation you're building. When your values are clearly defined, genuinely lived, and embedded into the everyday rhythm of your business, they become one of your most powerful competitive advantages, helping you attract the right people, retain them, and build a high-performing culture that lasts.

At HR Staple, we work with businesses across Edinburgh, the Lothians, and Central Scotland to help them define, articulate, and crucially, embed their culture and values in a way that's authentic to who they are.

How We Help

1. Define Your Values We work with you to identify the values that truly reflect your organisation's identity and ambitions - not generic statements lifted from a template, but meaningful principles that resonate with your people and set the standard for how your business operates.

2. Bring Them to Life Values only have power when they're translated into behaviours. We help you define exactly what each value looks like in practice - so your people know not just what you stand for, but what's expected of them day to day.

3. Embed Them Into Your Business This is where most organisations struggle - and where we add the most value. We help you weave your values into the activities that matter most: recruitment and onboarding, performance management, learning and development, recognition, and leadership. When your values are connected to these touchpoints, they stop being words on a wall and start shaping how your business actually operates.

The Result

A culture where people are clear on expectations, motivated to perform, and proud to be part of something that stands for something. A business that attracts the right people - and keeps them.

Thinking about your culture and values but not sure where to start? Let's have a conversation.

Strategic HR Services

Organisational Development & Strategic HREmployee EngagementCulture and ValuesManagement Development TrainingHR Director Service

Operational HR Services

HR AuditNew StartersPolicies, Procedures and ContractsPerformance ManagementHR ProjectsEmployee RelationsWorkplace MediationHR Software

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What's the difference between company culture and company values?+
Your values are the principles you stand for, the things that guide how decisions get made and how people are expected to behave. Your culture is what actually happens day to day, the lived reality of working in your business. Values are the intention, culture is the result. When the two line up, your business feels consistent and authentic. When they drift apart, people notice the gap between what you say and what you do, and that's usually where problems start.
Q: Our culture seems fine. Why would we need help with it?+
Culture is happening whether you actively shape it or not, so the real question is whether it's working for you or against you. Plenty of businesses have a culture that's good in parts but inconsistent, or one that worked well when they were smaller but is starting to strain as they grow. Bringing in an outside perspective helps you see it clearly, protect what's already working, and address the things that are quietly holding you back before they become bigger issues.
Q: How do you define values that don't just sound like every other company?+
The key is starting from who you actually are rather than reaching for generic statements. We work with you to identify values that genuinely reflect your organisation's identity and ambitions, then define exactly what each one looks like in practice. Values like integrity or teamwork mean nothing until you spell out the behaviours behind them. That's what makes them specific to you and useful to your people, rather than words that could belong to any business.
Q: We already have values written down, but no one really uses them. Can you help with that?+
Yes, and this is where most businesses get stuck. Defining values is the easy part. The difficulty is embedding them so they actually shape how the business runs. We help you connect your values to the things that matter most, like recruitment, onboarding, performance management, recognition, and leadership. When values are built into these everyday touchpoints, they stop being words on a wall and start influencing real decisions and behaviours.
Q: How long does it take to change a company culture?+
Meaningful cultural change happens gradually, usually over months rather than weeks, because it involves shifting habits and expectations across the business. That said, you can see early momentum quite quickly when leadership visibly commits and people start to see values reflected in real decisions. The pace depends on the size of the business, the starting point, and how consistently the change is reinforced. It's best thought of as an ongoing commitment rather than a one off project.
Q: How important is leadership in shaping culture?+
It's central. People take their cues from how leaders behave, far more than from anything written down. If leaders live the values, others follow. If they don't, no statement of values will hold up. This is why we focus on connecting values to leadership and everyday decision making rather than treating culture as a communications exercise. Culture is ultimately shaped by what leaders consistently model, reward, and accept.