3 min read
Almost a third of employees don't trust their employer. Here are 5 tips for leaders to build trust with employees.
By Bev Attfield
According to the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer report, almost a third of employees don’t trust their employer. That’s a big chunk of the workforce, and its impact can’t be ignored. Employees with low trust are typically skeptical, disengaged, and less productive. So what can you do as a leader to build trust with your employees?
We recently examined the topic of trust in the workplace. It can take on two forms: reliability and love (or faith). The first version of trust is about accountability. It’s about knowing that you can count on others to get the job done. The second version of trust is about being much more than a well-oiled machine. It’s what makes a team more than a multiplication of individuals. It embraces the emotional components of human behavior and potential.
Good leaders can achieve the mechanical form of trust; great leaders can relate to and elevate the emotional aspects of humans at work. But this isn’t always easy in practice. There are many forces that make it hard to build trust including conflicting priorities, different personalities, and a lack of broad recognition or understanding of the importance of trust.
However, as a leader, you can choose to make trust a priority in your team and wider workplace. Understanding the form of trust you’re aiming to build, and then setting out to achieve it, starts with you. We’ve distilled five tips from Edelman’s trust report to help you get started:
Organizations that have high levels of trust have high levels of employee commitment, advocacy, and retention. They have a highly functioning culture and robust employee engagement. An organization with leaders who build trust has a strength, resilience, and quality of work that becomes a powerful competitive advantage. If you want employees who strive, who’re engaged, and who’re improving both themselves and your business, having trust is essential. As a leader, you have the power to make this happen.
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Bev Attfield
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