Weekly roundup: Building trust
Society is enduring a difficult time right now, with ethics seeming to take a back seat in some corporate and even government circles. Every day seems to bring new reports of layoffs, and what was once certain no longer feels like a guarantee. It is hard to know who and what to trust in anymore.
It’s little wonder that 62% of people are reportedly less trusting of businesses now than a year ago, according to a recent Edelman survey across 20 countries.
Several business blogs have examined this theme lately, discussing what exactly goes into building and maintaining trust, both internally and externally. Chris Morgan at Learn 2 Develop points to employee engagement, fueled by internal transparency and open communications.
John G. Agno at Coaching Tip points out that trust and a good reputation in the marketplace is most aided by a “strong, stable strategy.” Agno highlights his point with the example of Southwest Airlines, a company with the same business strategy for nearly four decades, and one that has managed to largely avoid the blows dealt to other airlines in recent years.
Likewise, Mary Jo Asmus at Intentional Leadership cited the example of Southwest Airlines in discussing the concepts of servant leadership and sharing of power. This is another way to build trust within an organization, which generally has an indirect effect of building trust in the marketplace.
Despite these strategies, it is a tough challenge to build trust internally when the organization is facing mass layoffs and fighting for its very survival. Believe it or not, even this ordeal can be a trust-building exercise. After all, the fact that the organization is going through this trial matters less than how the organization goes through it. As Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership put it, “Adversity doesn’t build character. It reveals it.”
Jack and Suzy Welch of The Welch Way put it even more pointedly, with a suggested memo to the HR department:
“Layoffs are your moment of truth, when your company must show departing employees the same kind of attentiveness and dignity that was showered upon them when they entered. Layoffs are when HR proves its mettle and its worth, demonstrating whether a company really cares about its people.”
Ultimately, the way an organization handles layoffs will directly affect its reputation in the industry and possibly even the entire marketplace when good times resurface. Invest the time and resources into taking care of the people who have brought so much to the table for so many years.
You don’t have to spend a fortune to hold their hand and help them cross the bridge to their next opportunity with real-time, hands-on, individualized attention. That’s the approach of RiseSmart’s Transition Concierge, because how well your laid-off employees fare is a strong indicator of how much trust will be placed in your organization in the future.
