How important is trust in your organization?  Research suggests it is critical.  The Interaction Associates Building Workplace Trust Report found that more than half of employees surveyed indicated they didn’t trust their boss. But is trusting the boss important?  In a forum leadership pulse survey , 91% of employees reported that trust in their leaders was highly important. But do leaders underestimate the importance of trust? Apparently yes; only 48% of leaders reported trust to be highly important.

Additionally, StaffBay.com conducted an online survey and found 87% of respondents planning to look for a new job in 2014, over half claiming because they “didn’t trust their boss.”   Trust is important to organizations and lack of trust can impact business results.

These data should become a wake-up call for leaders and organizations.  Trust plays a significant role in the workplace by affecting employee performance and well being, which ultimately affects business results.  Employees don’t give their best to people they don’t trust.  According toInteraction Associates, organizations with high levels of trust are 2.5 times more likely to be high performing organizations with better profit growth, better customer loyalty and retention, better competitive market position and better demonstration of company values. 

How do you know if you have a high trust environment?  According to psychology today, the following are 10 signs that trust is lacking.  If you find these in your culture it could be a sign that trust is low and it might be time to decide to do something about it:

1. Employees are only doing the minimum
2. Cooperation and collaboration across units is limited
3. Decision-making is risk averse
4. Lack of ownership for mistakes; finger pointing, blaming and complaining is the norm
5. Internal competition is prevalent and aggressive, which may result in blocking other ideas to “win”
6. Information important to decisions is withheld
7. Mixed messages are prevalent; company values not visibly practiced
8. Transparency is limited and rumors commonly are truth
9. Policies, systems and procedures are in place because employees can’t be trusted and need to be controlled by them
10. Command and control is the preferred method of leading; titles drive influence.

How can leaders increase trust?  The first thing managers and supervisors can do is to get to know their employees as people.  What do they care about?  What is important to them?   According to Interaction Associates, employees want transparency most; in fact they crave it. The following were the top five things employees said their managers could to do increase trust. They would like their leaders to:

• Ask for their input and ideas on decisions that affect them
• Give background information so they can understand why decisions are made  
• Provide learning and resources so they can be successful
• Admit mistakes; don’t blame
• Don’t punish people for raising issues (don’t shoot the messenger)

Sources: interactionassociations.com; apa.org;  prnewswire.com; psychologytoday.com; forum.com

ASE can help your managers start to build trust. ASE’s popular Principles and Practices of Supervision classes teach supervisors and managers how to build relationships and trust with employees as well as what engages and motivates them at work.   These classes are held in Livonia and Saginaw by schedule and other regions by request.  Below are the next available dates:

• December 2, 9, 16 in Livonia MI
• January  13, 20, 27 in Livonia MI
• February 4, 11, 18 in Livonia MI
• March 17, 24, 31 in Saginaw, MI