Trust is a two-way street. If you show your employees that you trust them, they’ll be more likely to reciprocate.
When trust becomes a natural part of your day-to-day working environment, you’ll soon realize you’ve built a healthy, employee-friendly culture based on this solid foundation.
Mutual trust between all team members is vital to business success. In a Harvard Business Review study, workers at high-trust companies reported 94 percent less stress, showed 50 percent higher productivity, and experienced 40 percent less burnout.
Clearly, trust matters.
The positive results of trust in the workplace are many, including employees feeling more pride in their work and a greater likelihood of going above and beyond to achieve goals, meet deadlines, and deliver expected results.
Trust builds engagement. In another study, 80 percent of HR professionals linked engagement to employees’ trust in their leaders.
Take the right steps to build trust.
Here are some tips for making sure trust is woven into the fiber of your company and its culture:
Actively listen. Ask your employees to share their ideas and viewpoints, and when they do, genuinely listen. To improve team members’ skills, it can be very beneficial to offer active listening training. Active listening is based on letting the other person speak in a way that a listener can truly understand what they’re trying to communicate – and letting them know it.
Seek – and act on – employee feedback. Employees want a voice in their organization. Solicit feedback continuously, but don’t let the data gather dust on a shelf or waste away in a database. Analyze the results and act on them accordingly. And most importantly, follow through in a timely fashion.
Show appreciation. Authentic recognition for jobs well done helps build a sense of community – which is fertile ground for trust. Appreciation helps employees feel emotionally secure, so when you recognize your team often, they’ll be more likely to trust you.
Don’t micromanage. Most employees don’t want you constantly looking over their shoulder. Be there as a resource and support person, but then walk away and let your employees know you believe in their knowledge, skills, and experience. Be supportive without hovering.
Be honest and transparent. Even if the truth is difficult to hear, be honest with your employees while remaining sensitive to their feelings. And be as transparent as possible when discussing business changes and updates, even if the news isn’t good. Your team won’t trust you if you catch them by surprise or neglect to inform them of significant changes.
Practice what you preach. Actions really do speak louder than words. In addition to being consistent and emulating the performance, you want to see from your team, ensure consistency in your mood. Try to stay cool and collected, even when the going gets tough, to preserve those trust levels you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
As you build trust, engagement, productivity – and your industry-leading team – consider partnering with the PrideStaff Fresno team. Our staffing and workforce development experts can deliver the results you need, and our track record of success in the Central Valley speaks for itself. Read our related posts or contact us today to learn more.
