It is a common practice for organizations to focus on creating sustainable environments. With marketplace uncertainty and the competitive nature of talent, it is becoming more and more important for both potential hires and for current employees that the company’s culture supports loyalty, inclusion, respect and TRUST.
I would like to focus this discussion on TRUST and how this value is a business imperative if companies are going to be successful with real engagement at every level of the organization.
DMBA 2015 ILI shows that the pulse survey is the most popular method of measuring engagement and inclusion in the culture. So we know there is a valid effort to understand how much employees trust their companies and the people they work with. We know people put their trust not in the company brand, per se, but in other people. We also know the biggest barrier – managers and supervisors at the mid management level – also present the greatest development opportunities.
Let’s just briefly talk about trust in organizations. People typically want to work with people they feel safe with and are much like themselves. The reality is that resistance to change naturally occurs when a managers’ safety net feels threatened. According to the Great Workplace Institute, “Trust between employees and managers are the critical factor that drives profitability and performance.”
The institute has identified the top three factors that build a great place to work – when employees:
1) trust the people they work for;
2) take pride in what they do;
3) enjoy the people they work with.
As long as people are working in cultures where they do not trust their managers, the struggle will continue to be real and inclusion will not occur…..ever.
Below are some of the key activities companies are doing to support awareness and development effort of the managers.
• 63 percent companies provide cultural competency training to all employees;
• 26 percent of companies provide unconscious bias training; and
• 74 percent of companies use the pulse survey to measure bias.
So, what are the answers? Well there is no wrong way to approach engagement and inclusion; organizations just need to be honest with themselves and allow leaders to create an open environment for managers to share their fears.
If you want me to Trust YOU….trust ME.
