Building Trust: Being a true HR leader

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We recently discussed some of the key focus areas to ensure best practice influencing and coaching your leadership team. Due to a high response from our readers to dive into more insights on 'building trust', a key facet of influencing, we have kindly pulled together some top tips for building trust.

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As a HR leader, building trust can be one of the strongest weapons you have to drive & deliver a successful people & culture strategy. Trust, can lead to more autonomy by business leaders and board members which will enable you to be more creative with driving best practice culture, performance & engagement across your workforce (which I think we can all agree by now is far beyond big salaries and promotions ??) Trust can also lead to a positive work culture and can enhance productivity, employee engagement, and retention. But #trust does not and should not end there, your workforce, your team along with your wider leadership team should trust you.... the best kind of trust should be both ways too. Do you trust your team, leaders and colleagues? What could they do to become more trusted or are you giving them that opportunity?

Here are the top 5 ways to build trust as an HR leader (or is you are reading this as an upcoming leader ??):

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Transparency is key to building trust. You should communicate openly with your stakeholders about any plans, goals, and performance focus areas. Share updates on changes to policies, procedures, and organisational structures (and try do this as soon as you can to avoid someone at the water cooler complaining "nobody tells us anything here" ??) People want to feel informed and involved in decision-making processes that affect them or their role and work environment. Be honest about the challenges and issues the organisation is facing, and communicate what is being done to address them. ????

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The 'open door policy' approach works in so many ways but sometimes being approachable can also depend on the individual and their 'comfortness' in situations like this. Are they introverted or extraverted? ??are there any language barriers or communication barriers? HR leaders should be approachable and accessible to all employees, regardless of their position or rank. This means listening actively to their concerns, feedback, and ideas. Encourage an open-door policy and ensure that employees feel comfortable coming to you with any issue they might have. Show empathy, respect, and understanding towards their perspectives and concerns. Be front and centre when sharing the good stuff and again when you need to deliver tough messages to the business. This could be an open chat to an individual, group or entire workforce (which may be tough but you can share with a wider team of HR leaders). Try avoid the 'classic' company-wide emails to all staff (use this as a follow up tool)????

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We spoke in a previous article on the importance of driving and fostering a positive work culture. Building trust is no easy task, especially in a work environment which can be best described as 'toxic' ??. You need to ensure you are driving a truly crafted #culture strategy in the business to promote and develop a type of environment which is #positive , #inclusive , #collaborative and #innovative . Celebrate the wins and achievements of your leaders, your teams and the wider business. Promote inclusiveness and really drive this home with leaders. To read more on this check out our previous article on how influencing can be HR's greatest asset:

Encouraging employees to celebrate successes and create opportunities for team-building and socialisation will help employees feel valued and respected and promote a culture of recognition and appreciation.????♀?

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Too often, I have been at a dinner party and heard the infamous, "Oh! You are in HR...better be on my best behaviour.." ?? Building trust through removing the 'police-like' tag HR may have in the organisation comes with far deeper leadership and influencing than we will go into in this article, however, leading by example is just one of the many ways you can continue to build trust. In the last few years, employees have loved the fact employers offer more flexibility than any other work generation in #history. Leading by example can, in some instances, mirror this approach. For example, coming to the office and working from home, encouraging school pick-up and drop-off or driving performance through outcomes rather than time & attendance measures. Embodying the values and behaviors you want to see in your employees or leaders. Lead with integrity, honesty, and fairness. Set clear expectations for yourself, your leaders and your team and hold yourself accountable for your actions. Demonstrate your commitment to your employees' growth and development by investing in training and development programs and coaching your management team to support this in their teams.??

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You have probably heard the phrase, "data is king" or "queen". ????

We spoke previously in our serious of "Inside our World of HR" about data and how HR has such an important role to play in its successful executives in the workplace. HR leaders should leverage data and analytics to make informed decisions that benefit the organisation and its employees. Use data to measure employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention, and take action to address any issues that arise. Furthermore, use data to identify areas for improvement and set goals for the organisation's future success. You can 100% change a persons mindset or view on culture and getting them to trust you is a huge part of that belief.

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Building trust takes time, it takes commitment and it takes a particular motivation. Having a self-check on how trustworthy you are, may help guide you to develop some of the areas we discussed above. Maybe you ask a friend, a colleague a team member or a leader. A trusted HR Leader can do wonders with an organisation and wider workforce. A complete leadership group and CEO who are trustworthy is something unstoppable when we talk performance, satisfaction, engagement and retention.

Thinking about a further investment in building trust? Feel free to share your comments & what research or education you have started to upskill in this area? There are many books, webinars, expertsin the space.