It seems pretty obvious that supervisors who are able to build a culture of trust within their group end up benefiting in numerous ways. I have written nearly a hundred ways that trust helps the organization work better. This brief article focuses on employee acquisition and retention and how these measures are impacted by trust.
Trust impacts employee loyalty
If you work in a culture of low fear and high trust, it stands to reason that you would prefer to keep working in that group. In these times where finding qualified workers is getting more difficult with time, having a stable workforce is a significant competitive advantage. Let me cite a couple examples from my hometown of Rochester, NY.
1. Wegmans
The home of Wegmans is Rochester, and I have been studying the unique culture of this world class grocery chain for years. Their culture is one where they make continual investments in the training of their people. Someone once asked Colleen Wegman, the current CEO, how she could possibly afford to invest so much money in training their personnel in a low margin business like groceries. Her reply was classic. She said (not a direct quote, since I was not in the room), “Don’t you realize that because of our culture we have an average turnover rate well below 10% in an industry that typically averages around 40%. How much do you think that advantage translates to the bottom line?”
2. Dixon Schwabl
Like Wegmans, Dixon Schwabl Advertising has been on the Great Place To Work list for many years…13 to be exact. They’ve been recognized as the #1 Best Place To Work two different times. And their Trust Index scores on surveys hover in the 98% range. They invest in their culture every day with a program they call “Companies Are People, Too.” It’s an organizational assessment based on the psychology of Myers Briggs. Their turnover rate is extremely low. Reason: their employees simply love working there.
These are just two examples of companies that have figured out that if they build a culture of low fear and high trust, it translates into a more profitable company without the headaches of continually trying to find qualified workers to staff their positions. Ask yourself how much it would be worth to increase the level of trust within your organization.
This is a part in a series of articles on “The Successful Supervisor.”