Do your employees trust your company? This article will explore trust in employees, or if it even matters for the success of your organization.
Trust in one’s employer is often cited as the biggest criteria for an employee that remains with an organization. And while 75% of employees say they trust their employers to do what is right and fair, quantifying these numbers is obviously down to speculation.
Of course, a lack of trust in one’s employer can lead to negative effects, such as high turnover, lack of quality work and productivity, increased overheads, and a shortened business lifespan. This begs the question: Do your employees trust your question? Or, does it even matter?
In this article, we’ll look at a number of trust-based aspects related to your employees.
Looking for the Warning Signs
There’s a lot to be considered when determining whether you, as an employer, have employees that you can count on. Being observant of manifesting dissent is a valuable skill to have as an employer, as it enables you to address these issues and course-correct as needed. You’ll need to look out for negative feelings and actions, like:
- Cynicism and excessive sarcasm
- Tardiness and unexplained sick days
- Running the clock and logging excessive overtime for tasks
- Shoddy work and incomplete tasks
- Comparing with competitors
These warning signs can be a powerful reminder of what you’re doing wrong or how competitors are attracting similar talent.
Do You Look Out for Your Employee’s Best Interests?
One way of gaining or losing trust with a company is whether the employee believes that their employer is making their life easier, both at work and at home. In other words, are you looking out for their best interests?
First, look at the situation from your employee’s perspective. Do they have a positive work-life balance, or are you pushing them for maximum productivity at their expense of what matters most to them? For instance, your organization may use virtual phone numbers extensively in its daily operations to route calls directly to their personal devices. However, if you don’t train employees to use a service like “time of day routing” to block calls during their off-hours, your employees will be contacted during meal times, family events, and so forth. This can lead to resentment and a lack of confidence in your company.
That’s why you may want to reassess which service provider you choose to facilitate an easier workflow. As an example, the service provider United World Telecom has offered not only top-level service for the last two decades, but also designed an intuitive dashboard. This interface works with any audio-equipped device (no additional hardware needed) and was built with users in mind. There’s no significant learning curve or time spent bogged down in endless meetings and training sessions to use it successfully.
Healthy Mistrust
Be honest: Does it matter if your employees and staff members trust your company? For instance, a seasonal company that hires workers based on demand is less likely to engender trust than a long-established business that has employees on long-term payroll.
Being skeptical is actually a good thing for your company. It forces you to look objectively at how your operations work and whether trust is even possible. For instance, you may work as an intermediary for an advertising company that delegates its work to employees. Based on your demand, you assign workers what’s currently available. When work isn’t available – whether assignments haven’t materialized at the present moment – your employees may lose trust in you. However, you may have a large base of subcontractors at your disposal; if there are negative feelings, you can simply choose another motivated freelancer.
As long as the work is completed on time and up to your standards, it doesn’t matter that much if employees don’t believe every word you say. Also, don’t feel bad if you can’t gain your employees’ trust for your organization. Some employees don’t have any ambitions beyond earning a paycheck and living their life in the off-hours. And even if your business does everything it can to make them comfortable, at the end of the day, does it really even matter
Author Name: Tom Senkus
Author Biography – In addition to his work as a writer, Tom Senkus is an international entrepreneur and business owner that shares hard-won knowledge with his audience. For more information, visit www.tomsenkuswriter.com
