How to build trust in the workplace

Building trust in the workplace is one of the most essential aspects of finding success in business. Healthy salaries, good benefits and personal progression are all important, but if your employees don’t trust one another and their managers, they won’t be able to give 100 per cent while at work. 

In this blog we’ll explain why trust in the workplace is so important, give examples of how to build this trust, and take you through what can happen if trust within the workplace is lost. 

Why building trust is important 

We often refer to the people we work closely with as our ‘team’. And like any team, colleagues work better in collaboration than as a group of individuals working alone. But to be a functioning team who are honest and able to rely on one another, there needs to be a high level of trust. 

This is why building trust in the workplace is so important. Your team needs to feel confident that their colleagues are completing the work assigned to them to prevent any potential blockers, while also trusting that the people they work with are rooting for them rather than working against them. 

Only when this trust is achieved, and colleagues feel both at ease and connected to those they work with (including their managers and subordinates), will a business be able to achieve its highest objectives. 

What happens when trust in lost in the workplace? 

When trust is lost in the workplace it will become immediately obvious why it is such an important aspect of a successful business.

A breakdown of trust will lead to a number of negative effects in your organisations in a very short timeframe. These include: 

• Collaboration all but ceasing as team members will no longer feel comfortable experimenting or communicating with one another.  

• Morale plummeting as the office environment becomes less welcoming and more hostile.  

• Personal development and growth of your team grinding to a halt as staff lose motivation to learn new skills or challenge themselves. 

• Higher turnover as staff start to look for opportunities in happier, more trusting environments. 

• Presenteeism (also known as ‘quiet-quitting’) becoming more regular, as staff turn up and do the bare minimum to not get fired, never trying to over-achieve or connect with their work. 

As you can see, this all creates a recipe for a failing business, which is why it’s crucial to make building and maintaining trust within the workplace one of your key leadership and HR priorities.

3 examples of how to build trust in the workplace 

Building trust within an organisation takes time and effort. Every workforce is unique and will require different tactics in order to create a trusting rapport between colleagues, and between managers and their team. However, there are a few tactics which have been proven to work well when implemented in almost any organisation. 

Regular and open communication 

Companies that keep employees in the dark and work to a ‘need-to-know’ communication strategy are never going to foster a trusting environment. While it’s true that not all employees should be told every single bit of information that, for example, the CEO knows, employees do need to feel like they have a general understanding of what is happening in the company they work for.

This is why regular and open communication is key to developing trust in the workplace. Townhall meetings for company updates, or even regular company news emails can all serve to keep your staff informed and maintain a good level of trust between employees and managers. 

If you really want to demonstrate a commitment to open communication you can also bring in a dedicated internal communications platform to build the strongest possible connections between your staff. 

Consistency 

Consistency and stability are vital components of building trust. These are attributes your business and your senior managers must demonstrate to help staff feel secure and trusting.  

So, when promises are made, follow through on them. When new ways of working are enacted, stick with them. Continual flip-flopping and back-tracking will leave staff feeling lost and confused, and less able to trust anything their managers tell them. By remaining consistent you’re establishing your business as a trustworthy organisation, where staff can be left to focus on their tasks rather than being expected to keep up with constant change or wondering what the future holds for them. 

Empower and value your team 

Showing your team that you value their contributions and recognise their hard work is a fast and easy way to build trust with them. 

Make sure you regularly recognise and reward achievements, whether it was done by an individual or a group. Maybe a project was delivered ahead of schedule, or a campaign exceeded targets? You could announce this in a weekly business update and reward the person or team who achieved it. 

By publicly recognising and rewarding good work you will empower your team. This is not only good for office morale, but also creates an environment where staff trust that their efforts will be noticed by their colleagues and manager. 

Building trust in the workplace: Frequently asked questions 

What is a good tool for building trust? 

As we mentioned above, good communication is one of the best ways to build trust in the workplace. But you can’t rely on word of mouth and lunch break chats to make sure your staff stay informed!  

Instead you need a proven communications tool to effectively reach all your employees and to implement your employee communication strategy. Our internal communications platform has helped thousands of companies connect with their staff, ensuring their mission, values and objectives are communicated properly.  

Staff feeling disconnected from their workplace is a real problem when it comes to building trust, and a strong internal communications platform can alleviate this by ensuring relevant information is shared while giving staff a sense of connection with their colleagues and the organisation they work for. 

You can book a free demo to see how our internal communications platform can help you reach a new level of trust within your organisation. 

How do you demonstrate trust to prospective employees? 

This is a tough one, as it’s difficult to prove that your business has built good levels of trust through a job advert or convey this authentically when conducting an interview.

Instead you need to focus on the tangible impact that this trusting work environment has had on your business, and highlight this in interviews and job descriptions.

Does the high level of trust you’ve fostered manifest itself in good two-way communication between staff and C-suite executives? Then be sure to mention this. Prospective employees will take note and immediately understand that they are applying to an organisation with a trusting work atmosphere. 

What is the root cause of lack of trust in the workplace? 

Trust (or a lack of trust) is a core part of your workplace culture, and as a result your employees will be looking to your senior leadership and imitating what they see. That’s why a distrustful attitude within your senior managers can often be the root cause of a lack of trust throughout the wider organisation. 

If your management team withhold key information or change strategy without good reason, this will create an overarching sense of distrust that your employees will quickly pick up on and even mirror. This is known as a communication gap, and it’s essential you close it quickly if one appears in your workplace. That’s why the senior members of your business need to be fully invested in your objective to build trust and are willing to lead by example.  

How do I rebuild trust at work? 

As we’ve explained above, it can be worryingly easy to destroy trust within your workplace. If this does happen however, there are still some options available to you that will help rebuild trust between your team. While it can be a long and difficult process to rebuild this trust, here are some of the key strategy points you should aim for. 

• Acknowledge the mistake. If trust has been eroded in your business, that means something has gone wrong. Rather than try to ignore or make excuses, it’s better to acknowledge the issue that has caused the lack of trust. This demonstrates that you’re aware of the problem and are working to resolve it. 

• Reassess policies and culture. You don’t have to tear down your business and start again, but you should have a serious look at any policies or cultures in your organisation that contributed to the lack of trust. Are your executives really listening to the staff? Did you promise benefits that didn’t come to fruition? These kinds of issues need to be rectified to rebuild trust. 

• Reinforce a culture of trust. As mentioned above, a culture of trust often comes from the C-suite level, so in order to rebuild any lost trust it needs to be reinforced by your executives. Cultural change is possible when staff see the senior managers practicing what they preach, and you’ll soon see this trusting attitude filter through to the rest of your employees.