Victor Bierman - Employee Trust

Helping HR gain employee trust

Human Resources (HR) is often in a difficult position. They need to be supportive of both the privacy and discretion of employees while also supporting leadership and enforcing company policies. This middle ground often renders HR as a distrusted and sometimes ineffective group. Management of daily stress and moral obligation can easily take its toll, especially when being blamed for a problem you are trying to solve.

If this sounds harsh, don’t take it too personally. For the first time, the Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual trust analysis survey, examined the state of trust between employers and employees. Not surprising, the level of trust in employers decreased as the hierarchy decreased. With the HR system privy access to an employee’s personal information and conversations, as well as their close work with leadership, HR is considered part of the company’s leadership.

If they exist, perceptions of distrust are more a result of job function and not the result of the work HR puts into their job. However, there are ways to improve employee perspective, and garner the confidence of leadership at the same time.

Building trust is the one uniform standard expected by both employees and company executives when working with HR. In fact, Jim Dougherty, a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and veteran software CEO, identifies one important key to trust, “Any time there is favoritism, people will see it.” Having the ability to show objectivity and fairness, regardless of whom you are dealing with is important. High performing employees should be just as susceptible to negative consequence, as a poor performing employee should be regarded in recognition. By showing employees you can be both fair and balanced, you will garner their respect. When employees come into your office, for good or bad, and already know what to expect, then you are likely doing a good job at balancing trust. However, if you see a trend in employees who are legitimately surprised at the outcome of events, you may need to focus more on building trust.

One of the fastest ways to lose trust is to share confidential information with others. Even if you share information with other leaders, make sure that the leader is privy to the information. Simply being a leader does not necessarily make them privy to all employee information. In fact, a lot of personal information cycles down the chain of hierarchy. As you can imagine, when employees share confidential information that eventually reaches their ear, you have essentially lost all faith from their perspective.

However, one way to legitimize trust in breach of confidentiality is transparency with your intentions. Dougherty notes, “If there is a void of information, employees will fill it and they will always fill it with negative information.” You don’t want an employee ever leaving your office confused, or with different expectations than you have.

For example, if an employee reports another employee for a policy violation, you can respond with: “Thank you for contacting me. Your name will remain anonymous; however, I need to document our conversation. We will begin an investigation that will likely include... And, I will need to notify...” By informing the employee what is going to happen next, and notifying them who will be involved in the investigation you are sharing the process, as well as instilling trust.

Lastly, you can never underestimate the importance of engaging with both employees and leadership. Seeking out engagement such as going to an employee’s office to simply say hello and sincerely ask how they are doing, calling employees by their name, or, learning more about their personal life are all great ways to engage and view an employee’s work experience through their perspective.

Trust, transparency, and engagement are the keys to balancing a friendly HR environment where employees have confidence in your abilities and genuine concern, while employers have faith in your role as the trust-cushion between leadership and employees.

Originally published by Victor J. Bierman III here.