Dive Brief:
- Harvard Business Review (HBR) reports that only 37% of the respondents in a recent survey rated their CEOs as "sufficiently credible." Trust in organizational leaders can determine whether employees stick around and perform well, HBR says.
- The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer global study shows that employees trust their direct mangers more than organizational leaders, says HBR. Direct managers are viewed as more trustworthy and unbiased, and more likely to listen to workers' concerns.
- HBR says the study is based on the idea of "trust transfer," which it says occurs when people use their trust in familiar situations to weigh their trust in unfamiliar circumstances. According to HBR, documentation shows that trust transfer occurs between people, organizations and brands.
Dive Insight:
Helping managers earn their direct reports' trust can be an important first step in efforts to improve engagement, retention and more.
Beyond that, being an employer that demonstrates empathy can help as well. Employers that rate high on empathy benefit from greater employee satisfaction, according to the Workplace Empathy Monitor study. That report found that 80% of employees surveyed would work longer hours and 60% would accept a pay cut to work for a more empathetic employer. Employers who show workers that they care about their well-being and development are more likely to gain workers' trust, support and collaboration, whether it involves a major company-wide change or a new department procedure.
And HR can do what it does better than anyone else to build trust: make humanity the first order of business. For example, ethics reporting has risen since 2010. Reports of violations and infractions are up, which means workers' complaints are getting resolved faster, while HR earns more of their trust.
