5 Simple Steps to Gaining Your Employees Trust

How do you gain the respect of your employees? Have you ever heard the saying "respect is earned"? Many companies today are trying to attract and maintain the best talent in the marketplace, and it is my belief that respect should be your foundation for achieving this. All the additional perks of a gym or cafeteria, or even a competitive compensation plan are great, but without respect you will never maintain your top talent. A company is only as good as it's employees, and keeping employees motivated is crucial to your success.

The 23 Million small business in America are in an excellent position to create and maintain an environment built on respect. Below are five easy to follow steps to start gaining your employees trust.

1.) Treat everyone the same: No matter the title or the tenure of the employee, it is so important to treat everyone equally. If you start to treat one class of employees different than others, you will begin to lose respect of all employees working for the company.  

2.) When hiring internal employees you must hire the most qualified and not the most popular: A company needs to reward their top producing employees by giving them opportunity for growth. If you are not able to accomplish this, you run the risk of losing these top producers to your competitors.

3.) Take all HR reports seriously: This is a big one! No matter what the report is you need to have a process in place to address these in a timely manner. Employees need to know their concerns are taken seriously. If you have created a fair and safe environment, and if employees know certain types of behavior are not tolerated, then you will limit the number of complaints your HR department receives.

4.) Live by the values you put in place: As executives in your own company, or as senior managers, it is very important for you to lead by example. Employees will follow your lead, and for the most part will put in the same amount of passion as they see in you. 

5.) Be as transparent as possible with your vision: Having a team of people who believe in your same vision will not only help strengthen your brand, it will also help strengthen your team.

Having a strong reputation in your industry will lead to hiring best-in-class employees, which in turn will lead to being an industry leader.