We continue to talk about employee engagement. And that’s fine. Employee engagement is an important topic. With increased competition in the labor market and the skills gap, employee engagement is more important than ever.
But figuring out if you have an engaged or disengaged workforce takes one simple question:
Do you trust your employees?
Before answering the question, people should consider what the question really means. Let’s examine a few examples:
“Yes, I trust my employees to take care of customers while I’m out of the office.”
“I trust employees will represent the company well on social media.”
“I tell employees what’s happening in the company because I trust they will keep confidential info, well, confidential.”
Now, I’m not saying that employee trust doesn’t come without proper training. And I didn’t say trust exists without the clear communication of expectations. It only seems logical that, when we do those things, we should trust our employees. And if an employee doesn’t perform to standard, then they would be coached or possibly counseled. Even then, we’re not talking about a lack of trust – good people we trust can make honest mistakes every once in a while.
[Tweet “Test for Employee Engagement With Just One Question”]
Trust is about having confidence in someone or something. Engagement is employees trusting that their manager and the company always has their best interest in mind. And it’s leaders trusting the team will do what’s in the best interest of the company. When a manager doesn’t trust the team to do the work, there’s no way engagement exists. And if the team doesn’t trust the manager, the same applies. Co-workers who don’t trust each other will negatively impact the engagement of the entire team.
Employee engagement is built on trust. The question is whether or not trust exists.
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Davin Shellshear says
Trust and employee engagement are two sides of the same coin. The are both part of the behavioural set we call Purple. Purple is about safety and identification with a group or organisation. Both trust and employee engagement come from the same set of conditions. You don’t do one in order to get the other. If you are interested in a deeper understanding of both, check out http://www.managementdrives.com.au
Julien David says
I particularly like this statement: “trust exists without the clear communication of expectations”. I believe that expectations on both sides should be clear at the outset to avoid breaking the psychological contract.
Sharlyn, in your HR career, do you think this is a major factor in poor employee engagement?
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the comments. I believe that setting expectations is so important. In my career, I’ve seen many breakdowns in communication because someone made the assumption that everyone understood expectations. Or thought they explained the expectation clearly when questions still existed.
Julien David says
Thank you Sharlyn
Mari says
I encourage both the leader and employee to sit and have an expectations meeting as part of the on-boarding process. It’s a two-way conversation.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Setting expectations is essential. Thanks for sharing!