Every business wants their employees to be more productive, more motivated and have their best employees stay in the business longer. Unfortunately, most businesses struggle to achieve this. I have commented a number of times on the low employee engagement scores here in Australia and recent research from ELMO indicates that lack of employee engagement is the biggest issue in improving productivity. One of the issues with low engagement is that employees will leave you without too much hesitation, particularly the higher performers as they are not getting what they want and need.
Research shows that employees in high trust organisations have more energy, collaborate better with their colleagues and stay with the business longer. All of this will lead to an improvement in productivity.
So how do you build trust with your employees? Unfortunately, like happiness you can’t buy it!! It has to be earnt, so here are some tips to better lead to build trust:
1) Recognition has the largest effect on trust when it occurs immediately after a goal has been met, when it comes from peers and when it’s tangible, unexpected, personal and public. This reinforces our constant focus on catching people doing things right, and not focusing on what they are doing wrong.
2) Set challenging yet achievable goals for individuals and teams. The key is goals need to be a stretch but still attainable so employees don’t give up too quickly.
3) Give people discretion in how they do their work. This is also a massive motivator for the younger generation who want more control over how they run their day.
4) Share information regularly. Organisations that share their plans with employees reduce uncertainty about where they are headed and why.
5) High trust workplaces help people develop personally as well as professionally. It’s not just about acquiring new work skills, its helping employees grow as human beings.
6) Leaders in high trust workplaces ask for help from colleagues instead of just telling them what to do. Asking for help is a sign of a secure leader, one who engages everyone to reach goals.
Trust is cultivated by setting a clear direction, communicating this clearly, giving people what they need to be successful and getting out of their way! It’s not about going easy on your employees or expecting less, high trust organisations hold people accountable without micromanaging. They treat their people like responsible adults.
Roger Simpson – CEO, The Retail Solution and Author of “The Ultimate Retail Sales Experience” With over 35 years’ industry experience, Roger Simpson is recognized as Australia’s #1 Authority on customer ROI in the retail industry and as a global expert on staff coaching, customer service, and selling skills.
