Considering the safety of their employees, many organizations worldwide have quickly switched to a temporary remote working model. While employee monitoring at this moment could be a difficult task, maintaining trust and support between teams becomes more important than ever.

When people trust each other in remote working culture, it minimizes the chances of poor communication and disagreements. With a sense of trust, not only do they feel safe to voice out their concerns, but they also feel heard and more connected to the organization. Eventually, this practice helps build an environment of engagement and collaboration while raising the commitment levels of employees towards attaining the organization’s common goal.

On the flip side, a trust deficit between employees often leads to cynicism, low morale and low productivity levels. This can be harmful for an organization’s overall culture and could also lead to a slowdown in the profitability and employee retention ratios. Especially, at a time when businesses are already struggling for revival, these additional bummers would only act as an extra burden.

The transition from physical to remote working culture can be quite challenging, causing teams to underperform or fail. So, how can organizations ensure that their remote workforce has a solid foundation built on trust?

Set clear goals and boundaries

While following a remote working model, leaders must give adequate clarity to each team member on the deliverables. They need to communicate the deadlines and make sure that everyone understands its importance during this hour. Failing to do so often leads to misunderstandings and becomes a root cause of conflicts within the teams and those on leadership levels.

Foster inclusivity

To keep up with the new work culture, leaders must ensure that all employees are being ‘in the know’ of all the communication that takes place between an organization and its employees. A nice way of doing this is sending out a daily or weekly voice/video note highlighting quick updates on internal meetings that executives often don’t attend. This form of communication from a team leader to the subordinates can keep the communication transparent and make everyone feel part of the team.

Ensure Flexibility

Given the current situation, not everyone would feel comfortable with their new style of work. Employees may get engaged in other household tasks too. Hence, it is crucial to redefine productivity at the moment and give employees the flexibility to complete their tasks as per their convenience. However, in doing so, team leaders and managers should also ensure that no team member misses their deadlines. This will strengthen and maintain long-standing relationships and trust between the organization and its clients.

Remove financial concerns

During these times when most employees are scared of losing their jobs, organizations must ensure that they are financially secure, no matter how and what. Leaders should continue providing salaries on time, as far as possible. In case any situation arises, where the employer is forced to deduct salaries for the sake of the organization’s survival, the implementation of such measures should start from the top and not the other way around. In such times, employers should make sure that juniors get their full salaries.

Engage and inspire

Remote working can be sometimes very stressful as employees work in complete isolation without face-to-face discussions, hugs and hi-fives. This is why leaders must engage their employees in other fun activities, apart from focusing on their deadlines. For instance, they can host interesting webinars or educational workshops online to drive engagement and motivation among the workforce, instead of making work a monotonous practice. Doing so also helps employees unwind stress and makes them upbeat to handle any challenging situation.

If building trust within team members in an offline workplace setting could be difficult, doing the same within teams working remotely could be even more challenging. Of course, it is possible but only over time, when people are more patient, they are ready to address challenges as a team, and when they know each other better. The future will see more organizations adopting remote working culture as a new normal. When it happens, it will be fundamental for leaders to put in that sense of trust among employees and strive to make them feel more connected and attached to the very core of the organization’s culture.

Trust And Reliance: The Ultimate Key To Employee Productivity