What a mission statement is
A mission statement (بيان المهمة) is a short sentence that describes what an organisation does today, for whom it does it, and to what end. It states the reason the organisation exists in its present form, not in the form it hopes to reach.
The definition has three parts, and each answers a separate question. Its first part names the activity, which is what the organisation does. Its second names the people the activity is for, which is whom the organisation serves, and its third names the purpose, which is what the activity is meant to achieve. Taken together, the three parts give the reason for the organisation’s existence as things stand.
The closing clause of the definition fixes the time frame. A mission statement is written about the organisation as it is now, not about its ambition. What the organisation hopes to become is the subject of a different statement, and the line between the two is drawn below.
How a mission statement differs from a vision statement
A vision statement (بيان الرؤية) describes the future state that an organisation is working towards. A mission statement describes the present: what the organisation does now, and for whom it does it. The vision answers the question “where are we going?”, while the mission answers the question “what are we?”.
The two statements therefore differ in tense. One is written about a destination, and the other is written about the organisation at the point where it stands. An organisation that publishes both has two sentences with two separate jobs: one to say where it is heading, and one to say what it is.
Confusing the two produces two sentences that say the same thing in different words. When a vision statement and a mission statement repeat each other in this way, that is a sign that one of them may have been written to fill a space rather than to say something. The organisation is then left with a single statement under two headings.
What makes a mission statement useful
Four qualities separate a mission statement that can guide a decision from one that cannot.
- It names whom the organisation serves, and it names them specifically. A statement with no audience in it guides no decision. The audience is the part of the sentence that tells the reader whom the organisation’s work is for.
- It names what the organisation does, using a clear verb rather than a general adjective. A verb states an activity. An adjective states a quality the organisation claims for itself, and a quality on its own does not say what the organisation does.
- It can be wrong. A sentence that would fit every organisation in the world describes none of them. For a mission statement to say something about one organisation, there has to be another organisation of which the same sentence would be untrue. An employee value proposition, a statement of what an organisation offers its employees in return for what it asks of them, is put to a test of the same kind: whether it can be broken.
- It is short enough to be remembered. What an employee cannot say from memory does not guide what that employee does. A statement that has to be looked up before it can be quoted is not in the employee’s mind at the moment a decision is being made.
Where a mission statement matters to HR
A mission statement can be written mainly for readers outside the organisation, but its practical effect is internal. Three places where that effect falls within HR are set out below.
Consistency between decisions. A mission statement is the reference against which the consistency of decisions is measured when those decisions compete with one another. Where two courses of action cannot both be taken, the statement is the measure of which of them is consistent with what the organisation says it does.
The new employee’s introduction. The statement is what is explained to a new employee during employee onboarding, the organised process that carries a new hire from accepting the offer to working at full productivity. It is the account of what the organisation does and for whom, given to someone who has just joined it.
Recruitment. The statement is also what a candidacy is tested against in hiring. That test sits among the selection criteria on which a candidate is assessed, a category that includes culture add, which asks what a candidate would bring to what the team already has.
An organisation whose statement says one thing while its daily practice says another can pay for the gap in its credibility with its employees before it pays for it with anyone outside.
How a mission statement is tested
Three questions can expose a weak mission statement.
- Could a competitor use it as it stands? If another organisation could adopt the sentence without changing a word, the statement lacks the quality, described above, of being able to be wrong.
- Could an employee say that a particular decision went against it? The question asks whether the statement is precise enough for a specific decision to be measured against it and found to depart from it.
- Is it mentioned in real meetings, or in presentations alone? The question asks whether the statement is in use where work is decided, or whether it appears only where the organisation describes itself.
The second question is the decisive one, because a statement that cannot be departed from cannot be followed either. Following a statement means choosing one course over another in line with it. A statement that rules no course out leaves nothing to follow.
When a mission statement is reviewed
A mission statement is reviewed when what the organisation actually does changes, not on a periodic schedule. Examples of such a change are entering a new activity, leaving an existing one, and a shift in the audience the organisation serves.
The timing follows from the definition. A mission statement describes the present, so the moment to revisit it is when the present it describes has changed. A date in the calendar on its own is not a change in what the organisation does, whom it serves or why.
Reviewing the statement when nothing in practice has changed can produce a rewording and nothing more. The sentence is rephrased, time is spent on the rephrasing, and no decision comes out differently as a result.
This is an explanation of the concept, not legal advice.
A standalone Saudi HR system
One employee file holding the contract, the documents and their expiry dates, the attendance record, leave, salary and end-of-service entitlements. End-of-service, overtime and leave-balance calculations are built into the system.
A standalone system on its own subscription. The connection to Qoyod Accounting is now available.