How internal communications can build trust in your organisation

Building trust is the No.1 priority for CEOs — that’s what emerged from the Edelman Trust Barometer study. And their work is cut out for them.

EY found that less than half (46%) of employees said they had ‘a great deal of trust’ towards their employers. About 4 in 10 have ‘some trust’. Not horrific but nothing to shout about either. Worse, 15% have ‘no trust at all’.

In other words, 1 in 7 employees profoundly distrust their employer.

So after doing a fair bit of research on how internal communications can build trust, I thought I would cover the three key pillars that I believe are key to achieving just that.

I encountered many concepts but I feel the three below to be kind of the ‘umbrella’ terms.

Proximity

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 64% of executives trust their companies. But as you go down the hierarchy, employees will have lower and lower organisational trust: 51% for managers and 48% for what Edelman calls ‘rank and file’ employees.

These stats are especially alarming when you consider that those at the bottom of the hierarchy tend to be the frontline employees — they’re the waiters, the receptionists, the sales assistants. If they don’t trust their employer, how on earth can they deliver a positive experience for the customer?

The other day I found an example that perfectly illustrates this. If you’re a F1 fan like me, you’ll know that the McLaren team is having an underwhelming season to say the least. To reward the hard work the shop floor employees have recently pulled off, their management have rewarded them with… chocolate bars.

Sorry, a chocolate bar. ‘Strictly one each.’ An employee said: ‘We have been working all hours of the day, sweating blood, and they give us 25p Freddo bars’. The ‘Untouchables’ is how employees refer to their leaders now.

As Groysberg and Slind argue, physical proximity between leaders and employees is not always possible — and it’s not essential either. What is essential however, is emotional proximity. Feeling that you’re in the same boat. Which is exactly what is not happening at McLaren right now.

Transparency

If your internal comms is all about sharing good news and overlooks issues that the organisation is facing, don’t expect trust to grow. Under-communicating will create a toxic atmosphere, because ‘if there is a void of information, employees will fill it and they will always fill it with negative information.’

Telling the not-so-good news is entirely part of the job and actually, employees want to hear them. In a recent survey, 90% of employees said they would rather hear bad news than no news at all. Because if they don’t, over half of them would start their own detective work to uncover hidden problems.

‘The building knows the truth’ — Richard Plepler, CEO HBO

Be open and human in your internal communications. Share as much as possible and as early as possible about what management is up to.

Clarity

‘Every employee I have managed would give up their so-called perks for one thing: clear expectations.’ These are the words of Melissa Daimler, who led Global Learning & Organisational Development at Adobe, Twitter and WeWork.

I found some staggering stats. A report for Salesforce found 86% of employees did not clearly understand their companies’ strategies, which resulted in nearly 50% of employee time being spent on work that wasn’t aligned to the organisation’s strategy and objectives.

The silver lining here is that only 13% of employees say they don’t want to be more aligned with their organisation’s goals. If employers want their staff to get behind their mission, they need to ensure that the direction of travel is well understood by everyone.

Not only that, but also be clear on how each individual’s contribution makes a tangible difference.

It’s by being clear on these two key elements that internal communications can close the alignment gap.

Over to you

We often pay lip service to organisational trust but few are those who actually do something about it. Now that it is top of the agenda for CEOs, it is high time for leaders to work with their internal communications team to ensure that management is accessible, communication is transparent and the direction is clear and understood.

And as these stats here demonstrate, there’s quite a bit to do.

Let’s chat @wakanouka

Additional references:

• De Ridder, J.A. (2004) Organisational communication and supportive employees. Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 14(3), pp.20–30.
• Huselid, M.A. (1995) The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. Academy of Management Journal, Vol.38, pp.635–672.
• Postmes, T., Tanis, M. & de Wit, B. (2001). Communication and commitment in organisations: a social identity approach. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, pp.227–246.