How to Build Trust With a Remote Workforce?

The cornerstone of the remote workforce’s productive operation is trust. It is obviously difficult to completely trust your staff when they are not working under your observation since leaders are concerned about work not being done as required or not being completed at all. It is natural to be more scrutinizing of whether work is still being done when employees enjoy their comfort zones while working. On the other hand, it becomes easier to trust them while they work in the same location as you, entirely engaged to work. One of the primary reasons undermining the leader’s trust in the remote workforce is the difficulty in believing that employees put in the same amount of effort working from home. However, there are many things for leaders to get used to so that they can completely trust their remote workforce just as much as they would if they were under their watch. As a result, in this YouTube video on the Simon Sinek channel, Simon himself provides some useful strategies for building trust with your remote workforce.

Simon notes at the beginning of the video that building trust with a remote workforce requires a lot of effort, intention, and work because it is far more difficult to do so virtually than when people operate from an office. He believes that it is simpler to establish trust when you see someone every day at work or just see them on a regular basis since you tend to form a positive interpersonal bond with them. This, however, is absent in the remote workforce scenario. Because of the remote work environment, employees have little time or chance to socialize with their coworkers. This is especially true for people who join the organization solely online. This is simply because they have only recently been introduced to their mentor or a team of 2-3 people. As a result, his first recommendation for building trust with a remote workforce is to provide opportunities for virtual interaction with your staff. One easy approach to accomplish this is to organize a day when people may interact and connect with one another in order to get to know each other better. Second, he proposes that leaders invite all of their team members to attend a virtual meeting and continue working in order to simulate an in-office working atmosphere. They may also enable them to take small breaks and talk about things throughout the session. Finally, he proposes that leaders make their team feel comfortable calling them whenever a problem arises, rather than contacting each other via email and waiting for a response. This not only aids in the quick resolution of the issue but also in the formation of an interpersonal bond.

Having trust in your remote workforce is critical for not just your mental well-being, but also for them to continue working smoothly and peacefully. If you are having difficulty establishing trust with your remote workforce, the aforementioned guidelines from Simon Sinek will aid you in successfully doing so.