A lot has been written about the role of the Human Resources function in developing trust within the workplace.
Increasingly questions are being asked about whether employees trust their HR function, which then seems to question the role of HR within an organisation. Then we see responses on ways HR can build trust with employees as a solution.
But what about the development of trust within the Human Resources function? Is this where it starts?
HR teams serve multiple stakeholders. Management, Employees, External Parties such as unions and governmental compliance bodies. At the same time hold an overarching responsibility to ensure that the organisation reaches its full potential. Sometimes stakeholders objectives, such as management and employees, can be in conflict and HR is required to navigate through those situations and find positive outcomes.
High levels of trust within a HR team can result in more reliable, supportive and timely communication amongst the team. Constructive discussions can occur more openly potentially leading to better responses to situations which eventually leads to better advice to stakeholders. Mixed messages or unintended contradictions are minimised.
Even at the most basic level where trust of a HR department can be quickly lost when there are continuous payroll or administrative errors, these errors can be minimised as administrators have the right information available at the right time. Employees can start to trust they will at least be paid correctly.
So the HR function can benefit by building higher levels of trust within their own function then using this as a basis to start building trust across the organisation. It starts with proper screening and selection of the right HR staff, together with supportive HR leadership.
