Study: A quarter of workers don’t trust their employers

Mutual trust is essential for effective organizational functioning. In the sense of teams, for example, each team member must establish trust, cultivate trust through actions, and continue to work to maintain it. Likewise, in the sense of organizations, employees must trust that their respective organizations are consistent and fair, for instance.

However, new findings from the American Psychological Association’s Work and Well-Being Survey suggest that one-in-four workers don’t trust their employers. These numbers negatively affect productivity and motivation, amongst other things.

The American Psychological Association makes the following suggestions to counter this and facilitate the building of trust:

• • Communicate employee duties and responsibilities clearly so workers know what is expected.
• • Make sure your employees have the tools, training and sufficient time to accomplish their tasks.
• • When an employee has a problem with their job, set your employee up for success by valuing their efforts to do better, not berating them for the failure.
• • An employee should never be surprised by a year-end review. All along the year, employees should receive regular, frequent, targeted feedback on their work.
• • Acknowledging employees doing something right is a far more successful path to work excellence, than continually pointing out what they are doing wrong.

For more information, please see the original APA study.