Trust is a cornerstone in any human relation, professional or not, and the corrupt world is no exception. Trust always ranks high in the ingredients of a strong organization. In a study done by PwC, more than 50% of CEOs globally consider lack of trust to be a major threat to their organizational growth.

But the bigger question is how to create such a culture, and what are the general dos and don’ts of it?

•     Alter the hiring process:

Make the process less about hard skills and more about personality and passion. By making the recruitment process less cold and more human you’ll have a good starting point to create your culture of trust. A good place to view candidates with such merits is AIESEC’s partners portal.

•     Show trust from the get-go:

As cliché is it may be, trust is a two-way road. You can not demand trust from employees without showing it yourself. Furthermore, you should be initiating regarding this. Be proactive, not reactive.

•     Give more creative freedom:

By allowing your employees to work freely to some extent, you’ll show them that you trust their decision-making and that they are part of the system, not just a gear.

•     Recognize excellence:

Recognition for good work is an important step in gaining the employees’ trust, as studies have shown that immediate celebration of good performances leads to more trust between the two parties.

•     Build relationships:

While personalizing the workspace too much could have negative consequences, doing it isn’t inherently bad. Show interest in the human aspect of your employees, start a conversation about non-work topics and generally try to connect on a higher than corporate level.

•     Be vulnerable:

As mentioned, a key aspect to trust is humanizing the workplace enough. That goes to you as a manager too. Coldness in management always affects the level of trust in an organization. Be gentle, show humility and recognize when you made a mistake. In general, be self-aware as much as you can.

It’s always hard to manage emotions, and there’ll never be a 100% guaranteed method to get you the trust of your employees. It’s going to always be a trial and error situation that takes time to build. As Arthur Ashe said: “Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.”

Make sure to visit our partners portal where you can search for and interact with talented youth from all around the world.

What are your thoughts on this? What do you think should do to gain the trust of the employees? Tell us in the comments below.