Six practical steps to building a culture of trust in your organisation
Fancy a mouse jiggler? You can pick one up for less than a tenner on Amazon.
Not sure? Well, the big jiggler selling point is that, when you’re working from home, you can skive off for a nap, while fooling HQ’s spy software into thinking you’re diligently tapping away.
And with gizmos like that just one easy click away, it’s small wonder that trust is a hot employment topic right now.
Culture of suspicion
Forbes reported this year that almost half of employees said their employer is monitoring their workload. And it looks like your mouse jiggler may no longer be enough to guarantee you escape the Big Brother-style observation: US bank Wells Fargo has recently fired more than a dozen workers for allegedly simulating keyboard activity.
A lack of trust works both ways and infects an organisation deeply, making a significant impact on engagement, productivity and employee retention. When analysing the results of its 2024 IC Index for the Institute of Internal Communications (IOIC), Ipsos Karian and Box found the issue so pervasive, it dubbed this year’s report The Trust Issue.
Communication as the key
The links between trust and business performance are well-documented. The report has plenty of juicy stats you can leverage to convince your SLT that it’s a vital metric to focus on.
But do we, as communicators, have any influence over it? According to the IC Index, yes. Employees who rate communication as excellent in their organisation rank trust in senior leaders a whopping 74 points higher than those who say communication is poor.
And if the Edelman Trust Barometer’s 2024 summary is to be believed, people still trust their own employers more than governments or the media. In a society where people across the US, UK – in fact, all G7 countries – recorded high levels of general distrust, excellent communication in the workplace could be an important stabilising force against the crossfire of information warfare.
In other words, trust is all about communication.
Putting it into practice
Building trust is simple if you can manifest this mindset in your organisation:
- Treat your people like grown ups
- Listen actively to what they say
- Consistently tell the truth.
Great in theory but what does it take to turn into reality? Here are the headlines:
1. Leaders must be human
If you can, choose and train your leaders to be approachable, friendly, understanding and enabling. Great leaders support their people when they make mistakes – and are open about their own. Likeability is important: we trust the people we like.
Of course, you may have no power to influence leader selection or training. What you can do is encourage a communication culture that refuses to let the drive for results get in the way of basic humanity. Model this behaviour yourself, listening, taking other opinions into account and being consistent.
2. Meet people where they are
The Ipsos survey found that 63% of those who spend most of their time in front of a computer rate communication as excellent – compared to only 55% of non-computer users.
Why? Probably because too many of us – particularly post-pandemic – over-rely on digital channels. This leaves frontline colleagues blind to information and deaf to conversation.
Before you can meet people where they are, you have to find out where they are. Put the work in to understand that data, then make sure you’re using all relevant channels effectively and powerfully. One of the most underused channels is the management cascade, which boosts relevance (see point 6) and gives frontline workers a voice, surfacing relevant questions you might not even have thought of (see point 3).
3. Open the conversation
Which brings us on to opportunities for dialogue. What channels are there for employees to have their say? If your idea of two-way communication is a Q&A at the end of an all-hands town hall, you’re doing it wrong.
Just as it’s vital to send out communications in a variety of formats, you need to enable feedback in a variety of ways. And you need to work hard to build a culture of psychological safety that gives everyone the confidence to get involved.
4. Start earlier and co-create
Even better than well-thought-out communications and dialogue (although admittedly, not always possible) is co-creation. What ideas and initiatives can you actively invite from workers at all levels - and openly adopt into your business? Closing the gap between leadership and frontline employees gives suspicion fewer dark shadows to lurk in – and can birth innovation you’d never considered.
It’s tempting – in fact, almost universal in large businesses – to hold back information in a nervous attempt at control.
But being authentic means trusting (yes, the business has to trust too) your people as soon as you can.
No-one’s suggesting you start blurting business-sensitive secrets all over the canteen but SLTs need to include internal communicators earlier, listening to their advice on how to communicate effectively even when events are still moving. Be brave.
5. Get your comms ducks in a row
If you’re facing transformation, stay close to your HR and external communications colleagues and plan collaboratively and positively. You can’t always control newspaper headlines, but you can grasp a grand opportunity for excellent communication.
Enticing as it is to keep schtum - don’t. Staying open and available during times of change can actually turn upheaval into engagement. It’s a truism that change is difficult but people understand that it’s necessary. As the Ipsos survey found, employees who’ve experienced change that was characterised by good communication have high trust in their leaders. So, change itself doesn’t damage trust - a lack of communication does. And by the same token, great communication gives it a shot in the arm.
6. Make it relevant – and offer more
The Ipsos survey found that strategy is a huge driver of trust – but only when three component parts come together. Colleagues need to:
- Understand the overarching business strategy
- Enjoy regular updates on progress
- Understand their place in it and the contribution they can make.
But with few managers trained in communicating change, it’s up to the communications team to lead the way here. Immediately after big strategic announcements, support SLT members to own communication in their own departments. Equip the managers in their cascade with easy-to-understand breakdowns of what the announcement means to each department, chunking down the information, providing the full picture and encouraging feedback and dialogue.
Pin-sharp relevance also helps to avoid information overload: by prioritising messages, most people will feel informed because they’re clear on the stuff that matters to them, their job role, team and location.
Plus, there’s also an opportunity to build more trust by offering layered communications – links, leaflets and conversations for those interested enough to delve deeper. Simply telling people they can easily find out more is often enough to signal authentic openness.
Inevitably, things won’t go to plan. Strategies hit snags – and even setbacks – all the time. Resist the urge to clam up and hide things. Difficulties don’t destroy trust – failing to explain them does.
Scrapping suspicion and cynicism isn’t easy for leaders or frontline workers. Some people are never going to get there. But culturally, it’s so valuable that it’s worth the effort. And it all starts with everyone agreeing to treat each other with openness and humanity. One grown up to another.
If you’d like to talk about ways to build trust in your organisation – and hear how we’ve done it for others, get in touch.
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