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Building Trust in the Workplace

Conversation between 3d charactersWho Will Catch You?

Remember when you would participate in the “trust falls” while spending your time at summer camp as a kid?  With great anticipation, excitement and maybe even fear you would fall back and your partner or team would catch you.  Although it all seemed like fun and games at the time, the point of the exercise was to show us the importance of finding those that you could count on.  It stressed the value of having the ability to rely on someone or a team to “catch” you when you “fall”.

Trusted Relationships

As adults in business, practicing this exercise may not be the same as when you were a child, but the lesson still holds significance.  A circle of trusted individuals is behind every successful person or business.

Who do you have a high level of trust for within your company?  What is it like working with that individual?  Hopefully, after taking a moment to think about the relationships within your own environment, you will find trust is a large part of the culture of your company.

Why should you build trust in your environment?  Building trust in the workplace has a domino effect.  Building one aspect of the work culture leads to another.   Honesty, open communication, positive attitude, strong leadership, and accountability are important aspects of the foundation of trust.  There are some simple ways to build trust in your workplace.

Feeling Connected

One of the key ideas surrounding trust between employees is feeling connected.  Employees have to feel as though they belong and are an accepted member of the team.  Accordingly, this will result in a positive impact on the team.

Appreciation

Recognize an increase in productivity and performance by employees.  Let them know you see it and appreciate it. This can increase their feeling of significance and importance.  Encourage employee opinions and ideas.  They should feel comfortable voicing their suggestions for improvement.  Not all ideas need to be put into play, but all ideas should be considered and appreciated.  Implementing suggestions offered by employees shows them their opinions matter.  Allowing them to have a say in the organization gives employees the feeling of purpose and in turn creates a more positive, engaged and productive working environment.

All of these factors lead to employees building trust within the workplace.  Employees who feel appreciated, accepted, and valued will trust their employer and will build trusting relationships within their departments in the process.  This will naturally lead to an increase in productivity and bottom-line-results.

 

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About ESC

ESC works with hundreds of clients providing strategic, compliant, and tactical human resource (HR) services. Customized seminars that focus on building trust in the workplace are just one of many seminars ESC offers to their clients through their HR University.

ESC is an Outsourced Human Resource Firm and Professional Employer Organization (PEO) headquartered in Buffalo, NY.   ESC provides strategic, compliant, and tactical HR services to hundreds of businesses locally, regionally and throughout the country, all under one roof.