Behaviour Frameworks

Support with defining and embedding behaviour frameworks

If only they were just a little bit nicer to each other…

Managers are often very happy to have the difficult conversations with people when they make mistakes or there is an easily measurable area of their work where improvement is needed.

When the difficult conversation is around the far less measurable area of behaviour, it can be very uncomfortable for all. Equally, as your team grows you can find the culture that had developed starts to dilute, and you lose some of the things you really valued.

This is where a behaviour framework can be invaluable.

A behaviour framework is the document that makes it much much easier to have those difficult conversations with people where you need to tell them “You’re brilliant at what you do BUT no one wants to work with you!”

A behaviour framework sets what behaviours you value in your employees and what you’ll see when people demonstrate those behaviours.

Behaviour Framework - Service Options - Lighter HR

Support Options for Behaviour Frameworks

Guidance on the Essentials

You’ll have guidance on behaviour framework best practice and be given ideas and templates that you can develop and implement yourself.

Full Support

We take care of everything, including creating the behaviour framework (in collaboration with you), structure an assessment process, training sessions for employees and managers, and support embedding into your business culture and practices.

Key Service Features
for Behaviour Frameworks

Clearly defines the behaviour expectations from your employees

Effective tool for recruitment and assessment of employees

Protect and develop the culture you want in your business

Support in embedding the behaviour framework into your business

See our Behaviour Framework FAQ for more details

What our clients say…
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Behaviour Frameworks FAQ

What is a behaviour framework?

A typical behaviour framework contains a few statements or descriptions giving examples of the type of behaviours a business expects from its employees. Further details are then given for each individual grade within the company to demonstrate desired expectations of employees.

The document underpins the culture you want to protect and develop and can be linked with your performance appraisal system (if you use one).

Beyond helping in the creation and implementation of your behaviour framework, we can also develop and deliver training for your managers and employees on effective use of the framework.

Does my business need to have a behaviour framework?

If you’ve clicked around our website a bit before landing here then you’ll hopefully know that we’re pretty honest about what businesses do and don’t need. We really do recommend that every business, no matter how big or small (well, not if you’ve got less than 10 people) should have a behaviour framework.

The complexity of a behaviour framework can vary (and for smaller businesses we’d suggest a very simple approach), but managing behaviour in the workplace can be extremely challenging and a behaviour framework makes it so much easier.

You can view a behaviour framework as the equivalent of a job description. In the job description you set out to people the tasks that you want them to perform and that forms the basis of how you decide whether they are good or bad at their job. With a behaviour framework you’re setting out how you want people to behave and what you will and won’t accept.

One of the key uses of the behaviour framework is to support managers in having the more challenging conversations where the employee is great at what they do but a total nightmare to manage or work with. By having a behaviour framework you can point to it and say “Here, this is where you aren’t performing in line with expectation”. It makes it less personal and more factual and can play a key role in achieving behaviour change.

What’s the process for creating a behaviour framework?

The first thing we’ll do is work to understand what you value in your employees. This can be achieved in a number of ways. We can do workshops with your employees and managers to understand from them what they would see as being the key traits they value in their colleagues. Or, there are plenty of times when we just sit with a business owner and hear what’s important to them and the behaviours they want to see in their employees. However we do it, we’ll start by getting some insight into the business and what behaviours are important.

From there, we’ll come up with some key traits. They could be things like “taking responsibility”, “openness and honesty” or “innovative thinking”. When we have the overall list, we’ll give you some suggestions as to what good could look like against each of the traits as that’s what’s important. You need to define exactly what you mean when you’re talking about “taking responsibility” so that everyone is clear.

After which, we’ll help you decide whether “good” looks different if you’re a team member, manager, senior manager and director – and there’s your framework.

If you’re still struggling to picture exactly what the outcome will be, give us a call and can talk you through some examples both of behaviour frameworks themselves and of situations where they’ve been put to use. Then you can decide whether you think it would be helpful for your business.

If you have further questions, call us on 0203 319 1649 and we can go through the options available to you.