The Importance of Trust

By AMY SCHABACKER DUFRANE

percent higher employee productivity and 13 percent fewer sick days. Companies with high trust levels outperform companies with low trust levels by 186 percent.

What can HR do to advance trust within the organization? First, be part of defining a definition of trust. Whether expressed as archetypes, keywords, or common themes, determining a north star for what trust looks like for your culture helps guide the journey. Once trust has been defined, determine how to garner buy-in from employees, managers, and leaders. This aspect of trust-building is complex, especially in situations where the workforce is hybrid or remote. Having a means by which trust is measured and managed using digital tools with robust reporting gives HR the meaningful insights that inform trustbuilding initiatives.

According to 2022 Deloitte research, “55 percent of organizations have no current way to measure trust, but nearly half of them plan to start measuring trust in the next 12 months.” Like you, I can attest to what a dizzying ride 2023 has been so far. Knowing no one organization is perfect, it will be interesting to learn what trust measurements have been put in place this year to elevate trust.

The research by Orlovic, Memmen, and Miller reinforced that HR already has an effective method of measuring trust: employee surveys. Providing valuable insights into employee perceptions of the company, the culture and leadership, surveys can be annual (for example, degree of employee engagement), 360-degree feedback (identifying areas for improvement) and pulse (to ensure quick response time to ethics or similar concerns.)

Published in 1894, Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” was the inspiration for the popular Disney film of the same title. Almost all of us can recall the lyrics of the snake’s song “Trust in me.” It’s never as simple as telling the workforce to trust you and, in fact, by saying so, you will repel more than engage. Building trust takes hard work and it needs to happen consistently, every day. Listen more than you speak, build a diverse and inclusive culture, solicit and act on feedback. Most of all, empower your employees by trusting them first.

Certificate In Diversity And Inclusion In Hr Management

The three courses comprising our certificate were developed in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization’s guidance on diversity and inclusion for organizations (ISO 30415:2021).

• Fostering an Inclusive Culture

• Assessing Diversity and Inclusion

• and Retaining including