River
Y CombinatorBacked by Y Combinator
Log InStart Free
FREE TEMPLATE

Company Values Document Template

Two documents and two sheets that check each value against real recognition data and your actual hiring and review rubrics.

Edit with AIDownload Word and CSV

Free download  ·  No account needed

What you get

Pack of 4 files: 2 documents, 2 spreadsheets

Company Values Document Template
  • Values DocumentDocument
  • Hiring and Review Integration NoteDocument
  • Behaviour Examples RegisterSpreadsheet
  • Values-to-Process MapSpreadsheet
RiverCompany Values Document Template

Values-to-Process Map

One of five draft values has no real evidence and no scored criterion

Marloe Logistics, fictional 240-person warehouse software company. Checked against 600 real peer kudos and two scored rubrics.

ValueKudos citing itHiring rubricReview rubric
Customer Obsession36.0%2 of 103 of 16
Speak Up0.7%0 of 100 of 16

Speak Up is cited in just 4 of 600 real kudos and named in zero of the 26 combined hiring and review criteria. Nobody informally recognizes it, and nobody formally checks it either.

A company values document template usually gives each value three fields, the why, the what, and what it doesn't mean, then leaves the examples to memory in a single drafting workshop. Nothing checks those examples against anything real. Only 23 percent of U.S. employees strongly agree they can apply their company's values daily, and 27 percent say they believe in them (Gallup). 45 percent have worked somewhere whose stated values were not actually lived (iHire's survey of 933 job seekers).

At Marloe Logistics, five draft values were tagged against the same 600 real peer kudos already logged in the recognition programme. Customer Obsession led at 36.0 percent, followed by Ownership at 29.0 percent, One Team at 16.0 percent and Move Fast at 15.0 percent. Speak Up trailed badly: just 0.7 percent, four kudos out of 600. The other four values each had a real, specific, quotable instance behind them; Speak Up did not.

The Values-to-Process Map checked the same five values against the company's hiring rubric (10 competencies) and review rubric (16 criteria). Customer Obsession scores in 2 hiring competencies and 3 review criteria; Speak Up scores in zero of either. Negligible evidence plus zero process presence is an orphan value, and the Integration Note proposes the exact rubric line to close the gap. The same tagging pass runs on survey comments and exit-interview notes once kudos run out, and a later performance-review criterion can move a value off the orphan list.

Real evidence per value, then the same values checked against hiring and review

Each value's real behavioural evidence, then whether hiring and review actually score it.

Company Values Document Template
RiverBehaviour Examples Register

Behaviour Examples Register

Illustrative. Marloe Logistics, fictional warehouse software company. 600 peer kudos tagged over 12 months.

Draft valueMatching kudos% of 600
Customer Obsession21636.0%
Ownership17429.0%
One Team9616.0%
Move Fast9015.0%
Speak Up40.7%

20 of 600 kudos (3.3%) matched none of the five draft values clearly and were left untagged.

RiverValues-to-Process Map

Values-to-Process Map

Checked against a 10-competency hiring rubric and a 16-criterion review rubric.

ValueEvidenceHiringReviewVerdict
Customer Obsession36.0%2 of 103 of 16Backed
Ownership29.0%2 of 103 of 16Backed
Speak Up0.7%0 of 100 of 16Orphan value

Speak Up has neither informal recognition nor a formal scored criterion, the combination the map flags as an orphan value.

Build my behaviour examples register

What is in the pack

01

Values Document

Each value's definition next to a real, named example pulled from the register, never an invented anecdote. A value with no real example is marked aspirational, not dressed up as already lived.

02

Hiring and Review Integration Note

The exact rubric line to add or reword for any value with no scored process home yet, so it becomes something a panel or a manager actually checks rather than something people are told.

03

Behaviour Examples Register

Every draft value's real evidence count and percentage, tagged from recognition kudos, engagement comments and exit-interview notes, the same underlying records rather than a fresh workshop guess.

04

Values-to-Process Map

Each value checked against the hiring and review rubrics by name, with any value lacking both real evidence and a scored criterion flagged plainly as an orphan value.

05

The evidence-and-process rule

The standing rule the space runs on: a value counts only with a real behavioural instance and a scored process criterion behind it, never one alone, so nobody quietly ships a value on hope. It governs every prompt in the space.

How it works

  1. 1

    Send real behavioural evidence

    A recognition or kudos export, engagement-survey comments, exit-interview notes, or your current hiring and review rubrics.

  2. 2

    Get the Behaviour Examples Register

    Each draft value tagged against that evidence, with a real count and percentage, not a workshop impression of how common it is.

  3. 3

    Get the Values-to-Process Map

    The same values checked against your hiring and review rubrics by name, with any orphan value, no evidence and no process home, named directly.

  4. 4

    Get the Values Document and Integration Note

    A publishable document built only from values with real backing, plus the exact rubric change to close any process gap.

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

Yes. The whole pack, the Values Document and Hiring and Review Integration Note, plus both sheets, downloads as real files with no signup. Edit with AI is a separate, optional path that creates a free account and installs the same pack as a private workspace.

How is this different from a normal company values document template?

A normal one gives you fields to fill in per value and leaves the examples to memory. This pack tags real recognition data, survey comments and exit-interview notes against each draft value, then checks the same values against your actual hiring and review rubrics. A value with no real backing surfaces before it ships, not after employees notice.

What counts as a real behavioural example?

Something specific that actually happened and was recorded somewhere: a named kudos entry, a quoted engagement-survey comment, a specific exit-interview note. A general compliment with no described action does not count and gets left untagged rather than forced onto a value.

What is an orphan value?

A value with negligible real evidence behind it and no named, scored criterion in either the hiring or review rubric. The worked example's Speak Up value is cited in 4 of 600 kudos and appears in zero of 26 combined rubric criteria, the exact combination the map flags.

What if a value has evidence but no process home, or the reverse?

The map treats them as different problems. Evidence without a rubric line is a process gap the Integration Note can close directly. A rubric line with weak real evidence is a communication gap, since the behavior may be checked but nobody is recognizing or talking about it day to day.

What format are the downloaded files?

Word documents for the Values Document and Hiring and Review Integration Note, and CSV spreadsheets for the Behaviour Examples Register and Values-to-Process Map. All open natively in Word, Google Docs, Excel or Sheets, and the CSVs re-import cleanly once a fresher kudos export replaces the last one.

Sources

  1. GallupAre Your Company Values More Than Just Words? (opens in a new tab)
  2. prnewswire.comiHire Survey: 81% of Candidates Are More Likely to Apply If a Job Ad Mentions the Employer's Core Values (opens in a new tab)

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

LinkedInGitHubX

Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

LinkedInX

Related

Employee recognition program template

Is the source of the real kudos data the Behaviour Examples Register tags against each draft value, rather than a fresh workshop guess.

Employee engagement survey template

Supplies the free-text comments the register can also tag once kudos data alone leaves a value's evidence thin.

More free templates

Employee Engagement Survey Template

Free engagement survey template. Every question names the decision it changes and its owner, and the segment map is computed before you promise a team report.

Employee Recognition Program Template

Free employee recognition program template. Checks recognition against headcount share and performance before concentration becomes a morale problem.

Engagement Survey Action Plan Template

Free engagement survey action plan template. Checks whether the exact item a commitment targeted moved at the next survey, not just whether the task got done.

Hybrid Work Policy Template

Free hybrid work policy template. Sets each department's office-day target from measured attendance, so the policy is one teams can actually reach.

Find out which of your values nobody can back up

Send whatever real recognition, survey or exit-interview data you already have. The Behaviour Examples Register comes back with a real count per value, not a guess.

Build my behaviour examples register