Rooftop gardens, game rooms, in-house dry cleaning and best in class gyms. These may steal the “cool workplaces” headlines, but workplaces that make employees feel trusted are winning the hearts of employees – and making employees more engaged, too.
One unexpected example came from Robert Kennedy while leading the U.S. Justice Department. Ahead of his time, Kennedy implemented a number of measures to increase morale, including a gym on the roof, picnic tables in the courtyard and the staff’s dogs in the office, which were hugely successful, according to his biographer, Larry Tye. In fact, almost 50 years later, Tye reports that “nearly all of his surviving band of brothers say working for Bobby was the high point of their professional lives.”
Kennedy not only boosted morale, but he captured the trust and enthusiasm of his employees and was rewarded for it with their loyalty. In 2014, President Barack Obama wanted federal workers to have more family time saying, “it was time for business leaders and lawmakers to create work environments that respect employees’ lives outside the office. Twenty-first century families deserve 21st-century workplaces.” Obama gave federal employees the right to request more flexible work options in June 2014. Later, Richard Branson’s progressive philosophy about work made waves: “Take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your business. We like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they work at their desk or in their kitchen.”
So who’s right and who’s wrong? What are the rules around trust at work? What is the lesson for us today, amidst all the progress that’s been made in creating an engaging, modern workplace? It is not only the employees who regularly lace up their running shoes that benefit from the running track. It is not just what the running track allows employees to do, but what it represents: a trust in staff that they will spend their time at work responsibly and that they are not chained to their desks. The leaders of today’s new economies need to understand that the workforce they have surrounding them are looking for something very different in “work”.
Building trust is the most effective way for employers to increase employee engagement, according to our research,”Workplace — powered by Human Experience,” which is based on a survey over 7,300 employees across 12 countries shows. Boosting feelings of trust, according to nearly 40 percent of respondents, would have a very positive effect on their engagement level. Kindness by management (32 percent) and letting staff take initiatives without fear of being judged (31 percent) come next.