What personal values actually are
Values are the durable priorities a person uses to decide what's worth trading off. Unlike personality, which describes how you behave, values describe what you'll defend when two good things collide — autonomy vs. security, achievement vs. belonging, novelty vs. stability. EQIQs draws on Schwartz's ten universal values and workplace-adapted variants (Rokeach, Meglino) to build the values read.
Why value fit predicts retention more than culture fit
Autonomy vs. Structure — the single most common source of manager-report conflict.
Achievement vs. Belonging — predicts who will burn out chasing quotas vs. who will underperform in isolation.
Security vs. Novelty — predicts tenure at 18 months better than salary band.
Universalism vs. In-group loyalty — predicts fit with mission-driven vs. tribe-driven cultures.
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The difference between stated values and lived values
Almost everyone rates 'integrity' and 'excellence' highly on a survey. The signal is what someone gives up when values collide. EQIQs uses forced-choice trade-off prompts so the values read reflects revealed preference, not stated preference — which is why our values scores predict 12-month tenure meaningfully better than self-report values inventories alone.
How EQIQs uses values
Values is one of the 21 frameworks EQIQs blends. Paired with career anchors it explains what someone will refuse to compromise; paired with attachment style it explains how they'll behave when their values are threatened. This is the layer most compatibility tools miss and it's the layer that predicts whether a hire will still be engaged in year two.