In this article, five seasoned HR professionals share their personal experiences and strategies for building trust within their teams. From prioritizing learning and development to asking for regular feedback, these insights from HR Directors and Chief People Officers offer a wealth of knowledge on fostering trust in an organization.
 

• Prioritize Learning and Development
• Have Candid Conversations
• Focus on Empathy
• Create a Safe Space
• Ask for Regular Feedback

Prioritize Learning and Development

Learning and development offer teams a chance to pause from their routine tasks, expanding their knowledge. In one instance, an employee displayed unfriendly behavior, impacting team morale and negatively influencing others.

The team leader addressed this issue, recognizing the need to reinforce respectful, positive, and listening-focused communication. To address the wider concerns of the team about this behavior, we designed a brief online course with videos, reflective questions, and feedback opportunities.

This approach successfully built trust among team members affected by the negative behavior. It demonstrated our commitment to addressing the issue by investing time and energy in enhancing the workplace culture.

William Sipling, SHRM-PMQ, Director of Workforce Transformation, Hubstaff

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Have Candid Conversations

I speak candidly about challenges and mistakes—it's the only way to earn real, genuine trust. When leaders try to pretend that everything is perfect despite the challenges they're facing, it can be the kiss of death for employee relationships. Your team knows more than you think, and they can sense when something is wrong, so let them in on challenges and hurdles whenever you can.

Not only will you build deeper trust with employees who feel like they're valued members of the work community, but you'll also allow them to brainstorm and share their best ideas on how to work through the challenges—and those solutions might be the very best way forward!

Robert Kaskel, Chief People Officer, Checkr

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Focus on Empathy

Coming in as the first-ever HR Director at what was essentially a start-up, there were some understandable hesitations about the newbie (new-me!).

To reduce the amount of concern about me being a fun-hating, joy-squashing newcomer, we arranged an informal company lunch so I could get to know the team. Furthermore, I ensured that everyone knew that I had years of experience doing the same or similar job to what I was supervising, and I established I was there to support and offer real-life guidance from my exposure to what they go through daily.

By offering empathy and assuring that my management style would meld with their current, well-functioning culture, I could gain the trust and confidence of the team.

Stacy Jensen, HR Director, InTandem Human Resources, LLC

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Create a Safe Space

Building trust within a team and organization is not a "one-and-done" situation; it takes intention, empathy, time, and reciprocation.

The first, and most essential, step is to create a safe place to be human. Many times, leaders want to present the highest-functioning version of themselves as a way to build trust, and that can damage relationship building. I always provide recommendations to leaders to find an aspect of their personal lives they are comfortable sharing with their teams to act as a bridge toward connection.

Once teams feel comfortable sharing their connection points, leaders can learn what is important to the individuals and the teams. This then informs how leaders can respond to the myriad of situations they face. When team members feel seen, understood, and appreciated, they can experience the trust required to establish cohesion, a collaborative relationship, and healthy discourse.

Brittany Brazell, Human Resources Manager, Our Children's Trust

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Ask for Regular Feedback

My top tip for organizations that want to build greater trust is to actively seek out opportunities for team members at all levels to both give and receive feedback. When you make feedback a normal part of the workday, it creates a culture of transparency and open dialogue. Employees feel safe sharing their thoughts and know this feedback will be heard and valued. At the same time, being able to provide feedback tends to lessen the defensive reaction when they receive it—they understand this is just part of us all working to be better together.

We’ve always had a fairly open and close-knit team, but when we implemented more frequent feedback, I saw a noticeable boost to organizational trust. Employees started coming to leadership with their ideas unprompted because they knew we’d be receptive to them. I also observed more learning and engagement between employees, who were both more willing to share tips and constructive criticism and more receptive to receiving it.
 

Archie Payne, President, CalTek Staffing

Author Bio

Brett Farmiloe is the Founder/CEO and currently the CHRO of Featured. Brett is a former SHRM Influencer and has also been a keynote speaker at several state SHRM conferences around the topic of employee engagement.

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