I worked for several years in a human resources role for a small marketing company of about 20 employees. All of the employees worked remotely and coved a large portion of the United States – from New York to California to Florida and many places in between.

One of the company’s mottos was “trust is our biggest asset”. To them, this meant that the owners placed their trust in employees to act with integrity and honesty, and they trusted that the employee’s intentions were good. Therefore, employees trusted one another, as well. 

At the time, I listened, but I did not fully comprehend the importance that “trust” played in the workplace. I thought it was a good concept, but I didn’t really think too deeply about it. 

Fast forward to now, I work at a healthcare company with more than 300 employees, where the trust can be low. I often hear the directors from various departments discuss how they do not trust that employees are doing their work when they work at home, how they need to keep an eye on employees constantly, and they spend a lot of their time and energy worrying about what someone else is or is not doing. This really got me thinking, “why is there such a lack of trust here?”

I am not naive. I know that not every employee is always going to do the right thing, but as human resources and as leaders, we need to hire employees that we can place trust into, ones that we know will have the company, their co-workers, and their customers best interest in mind when making decisions and working on projects. The true color of the employees who are not trustworthy will come out sooner or later. Directors and managers need to show that they trust their employees, because feeling like you are always being babysat can have a negative impact on productivity, a negative impact on feeling valued in the workplace, and ultimately, at times, it has me feeling like I am not worthy.

Our customers put their trust into our company each and every day. In my current position, it is patients putting their trust into their surgeon. This trust is the foundation of the company. If patients did not trust their doctor, then they would be going elsewhere. We need to put that same trust in our employees, or they will also be going elsewhere. Trust needs to be one of our biggest assets.