Building Trust and Transparency: How to Encourage Honest Feedback
Getting honest feedback from employees can be a real challenge. Employees might be wary of repercussions, or of being made to feel stupid, or just feel like there's no point because no-one is really interested in their opinions.
As a manager or leader, it's your job to overcome this reluctance; to create an environment where employees feel safe to voice their ideas and concerns. Getting this right can make a real difference to your business and unlock a wealth of valuable employee insights.
Employees want a voice in their organization, and though creating a culture of trust and transparency isn't easy and takes time, it can be done.
Building trust between leadership and employees starts with giving employees a platform to share their thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. It could be town hall meetings, skip-level meetings, or an online suggestion box. Providing a way for employees to provide feedback is a simple and effective way to learn what’s really going on across the business, but it's only the start. Acting on the feedback you get is the next step in building trust.
Where possible, sharing the feedback with your team and working with them to figure out what actions you can take gives them a stake in the change, demonstrates transparency, and helps ensure that employees feel that feedback is valued.
This can't be a one-off exercise, however, as that will never create the sense of trust you need to drive success. It needs to become a process You need to be consistent. Your team needs to know that they can rely on you to listen and take action.
Lastly, do what you say you'll do. If you say you'll make a change, make it.
It can seem easier to tell your employees what they want to hear, but if you don't follow through, if the changes aren't made, it will damage the relationship, trust will be lost, and your employees will lose confidence in you. Change can be difficult, and while you need to be sensitive to your employees' feelings, you also need to be honest if you want your employees to trust you.
Leveraging technology, such as SavvyIdeas' employee feedback boxes, can really help with this, especially in the early days when employees are most nervous about putting forward their ideas and conerns. An anonymous employee feedback tool can provide employees with a way to give you feedback any time, any place, enable two-way discussions, and provide a way share feedback and progress on suggestions, all whilst giving them confidence that their privacy will be protected.
The Bottom Line
Building a culture of trust and transparency takes time and effort. It requires consistent commitment from leadership and a willingness to embrace change. But the rewards are well worth it. By encouraging honest feedback, you can unlock a wealth of valuable insights, improve employee engagement, and drive innovation within your organization.
