Rome couldn’t be built in a day, and the same thing applies when it comes to building trust among employees. Especially when remote working is commonplace and is now accepted as a norm, it has become challenging to a much greater extent to engage the employees that are working across geographies.
And with the question becoming more and more relevant as to how to build trust with employees, especially the ones who have just stepped in, the managers and organizational think tanks feel the need to seriously ponder upon the issue.
As much as we can feel thankful about the modern technology that has made the information transfer super convenient, it is also a question that while modes like Instant Messaging Apps could be of great help, are they the only factors that will be capable to support a whole new and changed work setting?
In this article, we are trying to give a holistic view of what the leaders should do, and what they have as tools and mechanisms to drive employee engagement in remote working, plus what are the pinpoints where the managers need to tweak their leadership approach.
How to build trust with employees: the new and the old
Engage
No organization can progress and prosper without its workforce. And having magnificent office setups and all the desired amenities means nothing if you cannot enable your employees with a passion to work towards a common goal. Effective engagement has always been the core ingredient for building a great team and a great organization. And as vital as it is while handling a team at the workplace, the need and significance of effectively engaging with remote teams become even more crucial.
Effective engagement doesn’t just help in maintaining the spirit of the team and promoting camaraderie, it helps to integrate the efforts of individuals and channelize their energy towards a common objective. Factors like clear communication of goals, accurate expectation-setting, watertight communication funnels, and prompt redressal of grievances become the building blocks of extremely successful remote teams.
Low levels of trust, indifference, and lack of enthusiasm (common among new employees) are some of the primary psychological indicators of employees’ distrust in the organization, and these are also among the most alarming situations that the organizations seek to address. According to research from Gartner, the trust of the employees’ remains intact in the organization, if it has appropriate mechanisms to engage, encourage and bolster affinity across teams. And the employee engagement was higher in such organizations by a whopping 76%, compared to those organizations that were less efficient at engaging and communicating.
Educate
Another extremely efficient way to build trust among new employees in a remote setup is to educate them. The ‘education’ may comprise making the employees familiar with the company culture, and helping them to understand their future responsibilities. The renowned consultancy conglomerate, Deloitte, brought in an excellent innovation of “the buddy system”, wherein, an existing employee is assigned to a new joinee as a buddy, who belongs to the same function or department, and guides the new employee, during his/her initial days in the organization, helping them to make the transition easy and also equips them the understanding of company culture and standard practices.
Such practices have been proved extremely successful as a breaking-the-ice mechanism, and towards instilling a sense of being valued among the employees.
Another dimension of education should consist of constant upskilling of employees, which helps them to be at par with most recent developments and trends of the trade. The knowledge enhancement also instills a significant amount of faith into the employees, while imparting a sense that the organization is concerned about their intellectual needs, and encourages them to perform well.
Encourage
The most significant element that helps in maintaining the spirit and sense of belonging within a team is encouragement. Employees often feel isolated and sidelined, and even the new joiners can be prone to feel neglected. Which often affects the overall productivity.
Especially with a team that works across remote locations, it becomes very difficult to identify and address the psychological and emotional well being of the employees and to quickly nip the issue in the bud. But the question always stays with the team manager about how to ensure the maximum output and keep the employee motivated despite not having the luxury to work under the same roof.
Interestingly, there are a number of implicit ways that the managers can use as a tool of encouragement despite the distance. One of the most powerful ways to encourage an employee is to involve him/her in the tasks that are more challenging, as a mark of recognition and respect of their caliber.
Another mechanism is to let the employee lead and engage in prestigious and crucial assignments and let them actively participate in the process of decision making. Many organizations have adopted an innovative “shadow board arrangement” where mid-level employees are part of a parallel shadow board with the actual board of directors of the organization and they get a direct channel to voice their opinions and ensure its impact on the organization’s planning and policy.
Finally, if an employee feels a lack of affiliation, the best way to keep him/her engaged to get them on board for a project where his/her expertise of the domain could be helpful, this will have a two-way advantage, first, the engagement of a new resource will bring a fresh perspective, and a new approach may help to reduce the tension and conflicts among the existing people on the project.
Inspire
It is said that a team builds a leader and a leader builds the team, and hence, the onus of the success of a team lies on the team leader or manager. It is the manager’s ability to lead and inspire that paves the way for the team to succeed. And while all the other factors mentioned above are based on external tools or working methods, the ability to inspire is something that the leaders should cultivate within themselves. As It’s not just a practice but it’s a virtue that is attained. And when it is combined with years of experience and a strong professional ethic, there’s virtually nothing that could stop the team from being a success.
It is imperative that the leaders should inspire with their own example. It’s the integrity of the leader that keeps the passion and dedication in place.
Final words…
Remote working could be a challenging phenomenon for leaders. And it could require the leaders to alter their ways upside down to meet and exceed the expectations of the team. Right from building the team, to ensuring output, to employees’ satisfaction and effective engagement in remote working, the managers have to wear too many hats at the same time.
But it’s also true that there are some pretty effective mechanisms as described in this article, that could make a leader’s journey less bumpy and more comfortable. if the leaders are prompt enough to switch to the smarter options, some new age leading tactics, and some old school hard work!
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