What’s the ROI on trust in your workplace?
Sara Wilson, CPCC, ACC |
ROI and a blend of California woo-woo about trust in working relationships is a winning combination in my world and in could be in your world, too.
Seriously, some of you who think “employees just need to do their jobs” … that is so 1970s. If you are a command-and-control leader, read on. If your gut tells you trust is important in your team, and for teamwork, read on. Read On!
What you’ve hopefully discovered from implementing my suggestions from my last blog on trust is what helps keep the trust among team members, and what breaks trust.
Now that your team has a general understanding about what trust means for each individual, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
Trust is often considered an abstract concept and organizations may not prioritize its importance next to other organizational cultural values. What if trust was seen as a strategic and critical value to your organization and you managed it like other performance indicators? Before I tell you more about the ROI of trust, let’s lay the groundwork with …
A little neuroscience
Paul J. Zak, author of Trust Factor: The Science of High-Performance Companies, spent almost 20 years studying the connection between successful work cultures and the brain science behind positive work behaviors.
What he found is pretty cool! When you trust your coworkers, your brain produces more oxytocin. This is a chemical that helps us understand other people’s feelings. It also makes people in teams work harder to reach their goals, and sometimes even make sacrifices for the good of the team.
Luckily, you don’t need to be a neuroscientist to harness the benefits that increased trust can provide to your bottom line.
The ROI of trust in the workplace
Research published over the last decade shows:
- Trusted companies outperform their peers by up to 400%
- 79% of employees who trust their employer are more motivated to work
- 71% of highly trusting employees aren’t actively seeking new jobs
- Workers at high-trust companies report 74% less stress and 40% less burnout
If your “gut” has been telling you that trust in the workplace is important, consider the ROI and use these tools to begin building more trust within your team. Send me an email about your successes or challenges!
My next blog will cover how your leadership can help build trust.