All companies, regardless of size or industry want their business to operate in an efficient and effective manner that will grow their bottom line. Critical to achieving this objective involves having a workforce who trust each other.
As we all know, trust is not automatically established and so creating an environment conducive to building strong, trusting relationships is important.
Here are my Top 3 Tips to Support Trusting Relationships at Work
- Create and Implement Effective Communications Systems
An open and honest work environment will go a long way towards building a environment where people can forge strong, trusting relationships. Being honest and upfont with people is key to building trust as people can always tell when you’re not and that just kick starts rumour and suspicion which can lead to lack of trust not to mention the drama. All communication either helps or harms trust. Even a simple message can have a harmful impact if it’s not delivered to the right person, at the right time, in the right manner.
Can you relate to the following scenario:
John tells Mary to tell Tom that the customer wants their order two days earlier but for whatever reason, Mary doesn’t tell Tom so he doesn’t get the information. John gets upset with Tom for not having the order ready and when they discover what happened, they trust Mary less than they did before. This could have been avoided if John gave the information directly to Tom himself either in person, via email, voicemail or some other in-company method.
So to encourage trust in the workplace, make sure you have agreed methods of communication.
2. Create and enforce Guidelines, Rules and Standards
All organisations need some level of guidelines, rules and standards. Otherwise nobody knows what to expect from one day to the next and this undermines trust as well as having a negative impact on productivity.
Don’t be too rigid, use common sense and keep these as simple as possible so people can still enjoy coming to work. Here are some basics you could include:
- Employees are expected to be ready to start work at their scheduled start times
- Employees are expected to consistently show up for work
- Stealing from the company or other employees will be considered gross misconduct and may result in immediate dismissal
- Gossiping about co-workers will not be tolerated
3. Give Employees a Voice
If you’re serious about creating a work environment that fosters trusting relationships then give employees a voice at work and give them the opportunity to have a say in how they do their work and to suggest improvements.
Always acknowledge valid suggestions and input and provide regular, positive feedback for accomplishments and contributions.
Employees will be more productive when they have a voice at work and feel appreciated.
