Trust is the bedrock of your company’s success. Customers must trust you and your products or services. Employees and leaders must trust each other for your business to move forward. They are more likely to remain motivated, engaged, and reaching goals when trust is strong throughout the organization. Because it is critical to your company’s future, here are three ways to build trust with your employees.

Make Connections

Form a personal connection with each of your employees. Actively listen and ask questions to find out what is most important to your staff. Learn about their family, friends, hobbies and interests. Look for commonalities, such as a shared alma mater, interest in yoga, or love of travel. Ask how they prefer to communicate, receive feedback, and be recognized so you can respond accordingly. Regularly invite your team members to lunch for casual talks. Have regular 10-15-minute meetings with each to see what they are working on and how you can help. Celebrate victories. Offer support when they go through challenging times. Show that you all are working together toward a common goal.

Be Transparent

Make it a point to be as transparent as possible about business issues. Share what you can about the health and future goals of the company. Include financial results and performance metrics. Be open about changes that may impact the team, department or organization and willing to discuss them in a professional manner. Keeping employees informed cuts down on anxiety, negativity and rumors. Stay honest about everything, even if it may adversely impact your team or the organization. Provide regular, constructive feedback so employees know which areas they excel in, which need improvement, and steps they can take to do better. Ask for new ideas and solutions to streamline business processes and improve the team, department or organization. Promote open communication to answer questions, develop ideas, implement solutions, learn from mistakes, and resolve conflicts.

Show Competence

Demonstrate competence in everything you do. Regularly update your skills and knowledge. Follow through on commitments. If you do not have an answer to something, set a time to gather information and follow up. Ask questions to find out things and clarify your understanding. Model the behavior you want to see in your employees. Be willing to do anything you ask them to do. When you make a mistake, own up to it. Share what you learned and how you will do better next time. Focus on completing one task before starting another to avoid making careless errors. Ask for employee feedback so you can improve your performance.

Cultivate Trust with Mercer Bradley

Cultivate trust with Mercer Bradley, a leading recruiting firm in Western Canada, for your accounting and finance staffing needs. We customize the placement process to fit your unique needs and follow up throughout the first year of placement and beyond. Talk with us today!