Seven ways to build trust with your employees

Building a culture of trust within the workplace can be challenging. The current models of remote or hybrid working make trust and teambuilding more important than ever. As an employer, you need to build trust between everyone to bring together a cohesive team.

Getting the right team, working together, is vital for increasing the productivity and efficiencies within your business. Ultimately this will lead to an increase in profitability for you as the business owner.

Detailed below are seven ways to build and improve trust in the workplace.

1. Lead by example. Model the behavior you expect from your employees. Be honest, engage with them, listen, respond to feedback. Be consistent, set clear expectations and boundaries. Show vulnerability, admit your mistakes, and demonstrate how you learned from them. You act like a responsible adult your employees will follow.

2. Communicate the company’s goals. Give employees a sense of belonging by being part of the bigger picture and open up the opportunity for people to work together.

3. Reduce uncertainty. Change can be unsettling for everyone. Show consistency and communicate the things that aren’t changing. Reduce the uncertainty and stress felt by your employees.

4. Set attainable tasks with co-workers. Provide situations to develop a sense of achievement and belonging. Build competence and integrity between people by having them work together.

5. Recognize achievements. Give praise to your staff when they meet their targets. This positive reinforcement will bring out the best in your employees.

6. Intentionally build social ties. Develop situations where co-workers need to interact on a social level, not just work. Build reciprocity into relationships.

7. Aid personal growth. Don’t just provide work-related training. Have programs that develop personal skills. Show an interest in the growth of the person as a whole.

Trust is bi-directional and reciprocal. Demonstrate through small steps that you can be open, honest, and trustworthy. Your employees will start to see the evidence that you are. The more you can show you trust them, the more likely they are to trust you. Keep reinforcing that you are.

Believe in your team, and they will believe you are doing the best you can for them.

Please note the information presented on this website is provided as a general guide and is not a substitute for legal or tax advice. For specific advice, be sure to consult with a qualified professional.