Trust in HR in UK Organisations is Something That Can Still be Improved

Employees and HR departments in the UK have somewhat different levels of trust, as revealed by a trust in HR study. 32.1% of individuals trust HR teams more now than before COVID-19, with 54.1% trusting them the same and 13.8% trusting them less.

Only 55% of the respondents of the study can recognise any member of the HR team if they met them in person. This might be because HR teams might not have regularly communicated with their employees and potentially because of remote working because of the pandemic, which could lead to employee relationships with others being affected. 

43% of the study’s respondents believe that HR will favour senior staff more than other employees, while 12% think that junior staff get preferential treatment from their HR department. Additionally, it also appears that receiving help from HR departments isn’t so easy too since nearly one-third of respondents stated that getting help would be very hard or near impossible, while less than one-third declared it would be very easy.  

Diversity is an important aspect of businesses, but when the human resources department doesn’t champion diversity, only 33% trust HR to help manage conflict with other staff members, only 32% trust HR teams to be impartial and not favour senior staff over juniors, and only 34% of employees would trust their HR teams to tell them about internal promotion opportunities. 

HR teams must be reactive to this data and be busy implementing strategic measures to ensure transparency with their staff. Here are some measures organisations can take to help employees:

Use technology to maintain regular communication between all parties

Modern HRIS software can significantly foster trust in companies by allowing regular communication between both parties for all matters concerning performance management, absence management, recruitment, and career development planning through their many modules.

It lowers administrative costs, improves compliance, and allows HR teams to make better-informed decisions quickly, especially since human resources information software removes the need to have unnecessary paperwork and ensures that employees can view all the important information they need on one online portal.

Concentrate on the team’s best interests

Managers should always be encouraged to highlight their team positively, even if they are free to offer constructive feedback to the staff behind the scenes.

HR professionals should speak with managers and advise them not to criticise or denigrate their teams publicly. Rather than singling out mistakes and criticising individuals, look at them as opportunities for learning and progress. Keeping criticism behind closed doors will make employees feel like the boss is looking out for their best interests.

Conclusion

Although 32.1% of individuals say they trust their HR teams more now than before COVID-19, there is still work to be done to improve these numbers. In order to improve trust levels, organisations should focus on regular communication with employees and ensure that their actions are always in the best interests of the team.

With these measures in place, hopefully, we will see an increase in trust levels across UK organisations.