The average worker spends 40.7 hours a week at work. That’s a significant amount of your time and the reason it is so important to get along with your colleagues and enjoy your work. But, it can be difficult to build trust with co-workers when your interactions are limited during the day.
In some businesses parts of the team will not even see each other throughout the day. This is why everyone needs to take steps to build trust with your co-workers.
Break Times
A good company will provide a cafeteria or rest room area. This gives every employee somewhere to go when they are having a break. By creating the right schedules these employees can use this time to get to know each other a little better.
Knowing people is the first step in building trust. The more these employees meet the more they will share and the better they will start to understand each other.
Tem Building
This phrase is dreaded by many employees but it doesn’t have to be. The secret is to find activities that will appeal to everyone in the team.
You can check out some great examples of corporate events here. The idea is to create something that is fun but encourages people to interact with each other and solve issues using everyone’s skills. This interaction creates a bond between your team and allows co-workers to feel safe with each other.
This safeness is the beginning of real trust. But, it will also offer the benefit of making it easier for colleagues to talk at work and ask for each other’s help; improving the productivity and morale of the work force.
Communication
By getting to know each other co-workers will be happier communicating in the workplace. However, for this to really turn into trust you need to allow this communication; even when it is not always work related.
Daily interactions through established communication channels will help to build trust within your workforce.
Trust Exercises
You can also try to introduce short games or even trust exercises such as catching a colleague. These need to be kept lighthearted but can be done on a daily basis; providing all the staff feel comfortable doing it.
It is best to move through the other steps to allow colleagues to get to know each other before you start asking them to do trust exercises.
Caring
Don’t underestimate the power of empathy and caring for others. You need to adopt a consistent approach to all co-workers. This will ensure that everyone feels free to talk and air any issues. Alongside this it is important that if you are talking in a confidential capacity that you keep the confidence of your co-workers. This is a sign that they trust you and it can easily be damaged by talking out of turn.
Don’t forget that like most things trust can be difficult to earn but very easy to lose; you need to keep applying these principles on a daily basis to ensure that the trust doesn’t just stay; it improves.
