If you’ve ever worked in an organisation with a ‘them-and-us’ atmosphere that makes managers and staff feel like rivals, you’ll know the draining effect this can have on employee morale . Where people pour energy into politics, employee motivation drops, relationships deteriorate and productivity suffers.

All strong, effective relationships are built on trust: this is key to employee engagement and a critical driver of loyalty and performance – happy staff who enjoy their work gain personal satisfaction from working hard and contributing to the success of the business.

It’s in this type of environment that employees are willing to go the extra mile and businesses achieve real growth and a competitive edge (for more about encouraging productivity, read about how to make work interesting).

The good news is that building and maintaining the trust of your employees isn’t rocket science – but it does require commitment from the top of the business and for them to lead by example.

Four simple but powerful ways to create trust, and values that you should encourage throughout the business, are:

• Honesty and integrity – the foundations of trust in any type of relationship. Be truthful in every aspect of business, not just interactions with employees – strive to maintain a reputation of honesty. Keep promises. Be genuine. Lead a business people can believe in

• Respect. Regardless of hierarchal structure, treat every individual with politeness and consideration in all interactions. Make employees feel part of the team, with an important contribution to make. Be fair and consistent. Put people at ease.

• Communication. Openness and clarity help to prevent rumours from developing. Don’t withhold information. Encourage staff to share their views. Listen to suggestions, comments and concerns and respond to employees’ questions.

• Recognition and reward. Demonstrate that you acknowledge, appreciate and value employees’ contributions. Praise sincerely and reward consistently. Consider putting an employee reward or incentive scheme in place. Don’t underestimate the impact of simply saying ‘thank you’.

Where there’s no trust, there’s no passion – and this could hold your business back from reaching its full potential.

Further inspiration on boosting staff motivation, creating loyalty and incentivising employees can be found on the Love2reward website.

I considered writing this post about the ways in which a company could damage or lose the trust of its employees, but decided to go with a positive angle. However, I’d like to hear your views on this – where do employers often go wrong? Do you have any real-life examples – whether as an employer or employee – you’d like to share (without naming businesses or individuals)?

Of course, if you’ve got suggestions to add to my list, please share those too.