Building Trust in the Workplace

Employee trust is the foundation of any healthy workplace. Employees need to believe their jobs are secure, their well-being matters, and their work is valued. Employers, in turn, must trust that their teams will act with integrity.

When trust is strong, people are engaged and productive. When it’s missing, anxiety creeps in and turnover rises. Here’s how to tell if your employees trust you, and what you can do to build and protect that trust over time.

Why Trust Matters at Work

Trust in the workplace is hard to earn and easy to lose. In many traditional work environments, competition and hierarchy can make it difficult for employees to feel safe, seen, or supported.

Creating a culture of trust leads to better performance and stronger retention. Here’s why:

• It boosts morale. When employees feel seen and supported, they engage more deeply and stay longer.
  
• It increases efficiency. Trust gives employees autonomy to make decisions and move quickly without unnecessary approvals.
  
• It strengthens collaboration. In a trusting culture, information flows freely and people work together, not against each other.
  

How Structure Supports Trust

Clear, transparent organizational structures give employees confidence in company decisions and policies. One important area is Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB). When DEIB metrics are measured and prioritized, employees are more likely to feel respected and included.

Research shows that strong DEIB practices lead to higher performance, stronger employee trust, and greater organizational alignment.

Effective, transparent leadership reinforces trust by making processes visible and ensuring decisions are fair and consistent across the organization.

Signs Your Employees Don’t Trust You

Even in workplaces without obvious conflict, mistrust can run beneath the surface. Leaders must learn how to tell if your employees trust you by recognizing these early signs:

1. Lack of Accountability

When people hide mistakes or avoid responsibility, it signals fear of consequences. Managers should model openness and create space for learning from failure.

“Don’t hide mistakes,” Arman advised in the video. “Use them as learning lessons… not to pick on the person, but to ask, ‘How can we prevent this from happening again?’”

2. No Healthy Debate

If no one questions decisions, employees may feel it’s unsafe to speak up. They may resort to complaining privately instead of raising concerns openly.

3. All Talk, No Action

When meetings go nowhere and key decisions happen behind closed doors, employees lose faith that their voices matter.

4. Withholding Information

When coworkers hoard knowledge or compete over information, it’s often a sign of mistrust and fear.

5. Micromanagement

Overbearing oversight signals a lack of confidence in people’s abilities. It also lowers morale and increases turnover.

“In low-trust companies, you’ll see gossip, redundancy, bureaucracy, and poor results,” said Arman. “And usually, low profits.”

All of these are warning signs of a breakdown in employee trust and signals that it’s time to act.

How to Build (or Rebuild) Trust

Building trust in the workplace doesn’t happen overnight. It takes intentional effort, consistency, and the right leadership approach. Here’s how to build trust with employees day by day:

1. Protect Employee Privacy

If you use software to track hours, manage staff data, or automate org charts, be clear about how information is stored and who can access it.‍

2. Pay Fairly & and On Time

Late or inaccurate paychecks are a quick way to erode trust. Automating payroll can help eliminate costly errors.‍

3. Prioritize Well-Being

Wellness programs and genuine care for employee health go a long way in building trust and loyalty.

‍4. Be Transparent

Make policies and data easily accessible. Be open about monitoring tools and how they’re used. “Don’t spin the truth,” Laflamme said in the video. “Be real, be genuine, and don’t have hidden agendas.”‍

5. Hold Everyone Accountable

Leaders should model accountability by owning mistakes and encouraging open discussion. “If you say you’re going to do something, do it,” said Arman. “That’s how people learn to trust you.”‍

6. Ask for (and Act on) Feedback

Use surveys and one-on-ones to gather input, then follow through on changes based on what employees say.‍

7. Connect on a Human Level

Team leaders should build relationships through team-building, regular check-ins, and authentic one-on-one conversations. “Be on time. Don’t overpromise and underdeliver. Don’t make excuses,” Laflamme added. “That’s how trust gets built every day.”

Each of these actions contributes to creating a culture of trust and helps improve employee retention by making people feel valued and respected.

Technology Can Support a Trust-First Culture

While trust is built through human behavior, the right tools can support and reinforce your efforts. Here are a few ways technology can help you build a trust-first culture:

• Secure employee data: Tools that protect personal information and limit access to sensitive data demonstrate respect for employee privacy, one of the most basic elements of trust.
• Automate and error-proof payroll: Payroll delays and miscalculations are a leading cause of employee dissatisfaction. Automating this process reduces errors, ensures timely payment, and helps reinforce financial trust between employees and leadership.
• Improve workplace communication: With centralized messaging, automated updates, and mobile-friendly platforms, employees stay informed without having to chase down information. This is especially important for teams that aren’t sitting at desks.
• Increase transparency with real-time access: Platforms that allow employees to view their schedules, update their information, and submit feedback put power in their hands and signal transparency and fairness.
• Drive engagement through feedback loops: Survey tools and performance-tracking dashboards help you regularly check the pulse of your team and act on what you learn, showing employees their voices matter.

In short, technology can help you practice more transparent leadership, maintain better workplace communication, and create more equitable systems, which are all critical ingredients in any effort aimed at building trust in the workplace.

Trust Is the Multiplier

Employee trust isn’t a soft metric; it’s a powerful multiplier that impacts speed, cost, innovation, and morale. When trust is high, teams move faster, collaborate better, and deliver stronger results. When it’s low, you see turnover, inefficiency, and stalled progress.

As Ed Laflamme and Bill Arman emphasized in the video at the top, “With trust, there is speed.” That speed is what allows companies to adapt, grow, and stay competitive, especially in field service industries where agility is everything.

Start small: be consistent, communicate clearly, own your mistakes, and create structures that make fairness visible. Support your efforts with the right tools that protect privacy, ensure accuracy, and keep your people informed.

Trust isn’t given; it’s earned. But when you invest in it, it pays dividends across your entire organization.

_{This article was originally published on January 18, 2024. It was last updated on May 19, 2025.}