Drive, Positivity, Innovation – Our Values & Why.

There is not one single more important factor to the success of a business than the values that underpin it. Products, business plans and strategies are important, but the values are the glue that hold the rest in place.

Prior to the holiday break, the Engtal elite came together to complete our first ever Vision Day and top of the agenda was to define the values we will exude for years to come. As someone who has witnessed firsthand the powerful impact values can have, both positive and negative, I was acutely aware of the importance of the topic we were about to tackle.

As we began this culture-defining task, I asked each person to ponder three simple questions:

What defines us?

What will make us proud?

What will make us great?

What defines us?

I have personally interviewed over 100 people since launching Engtal six months ago; ninety-six of whom were not who I was looking for. Why the four I hired? It was what defined them. It was not their GPA; not their resume; not even their experience. It was their attributes; their innate strengths and values that shone through and aligned with my vision. In short it was their values that made them special, not the piece of paper they brought with them to the interview.

What will make us proud?

When I initially connected with my now-business-partner and we planned this venture, one of the core things that drew us together was our desire to build a company we were proud of. Money is important; success is important; but creating an environment and culture that we could both proudly call our own, was top of both our agendas. My business partner put it more eloquently than I ever could:

I want to help create a company that I’m proud of. A company that everyone who works for, is also proud of. When you speak of Engtal to your friends and family, I want you to speak with passion, positivity and excitement. I want this to be a company that doesn’t need to have its own rigid set of rules but rather a company that has a culture and set of values underpinning it that everyone unshakably believes in. – Chairman & Co-Founder Mark Znowski

What will make us great?

The question on every CEO’s mind and the one that’s been plaguing my dreams since taking this “entrepreneurial plunge”. What will make Engtal great? What will separate Engtal from the plethora of recruitment startups sprouting up throughout the nation? What unique component will elevate Engtal above our competitors and drive us to success? Define this effectively and success will come. Fail to do so and we’ll be another nameless company in the immeasurable startup-graveyard.

After hours of contemplating these three questions, we settled on the values that will be the foundation of our company for years to come. Values that perfectly incapsulate what defines us, what make us proud & what will make us great:

DRIVE – what defines us.

POSITIVITY – what will make us proud.

INNOVATION – what will make us great.

Culture is a beautiful yet terrifying thing – it can be both uncontrollably triumphant and destructive in equal measure. Defining and managing culture is also the most complex and subtle skill a business leader can master.

The values we set in December are strong, personal and meaningful. Setting values, however, is the first step on a long road to achieving cultural greatness. Implementing, embedding and living those values every day is the only way to truly fuse them to the culture of your company. The hard work starts now…

Christopher Atiyah

Chief Executive Officer - Engtal