Employees happier when treated like adults…..says HBR?!
Trust thought for today - I am lost for publishable words that an article on Trust by HBR leads with the intro that 'Employees are happier and more productive when they are treated, err, like the adults they are. Fun comments
So moving on to the article. I am familiar with the oxytocin research 'The Trust Hormone' from my Trust and Governance report. I left it, and other studies it draws on here which use money to measure trust, as I think money skews things differently and I was unconvinced by the methodology. But other research measuring levels of oxytocin here is more interesting and worth a read.
The upshot is they have found that stress makes people less trusting of each other and instead of perks like Karaoke Fridays, buying higher job satisfaction and short term bribes, that 'building a culture of trust' and treading people decently, trusting them to get on with their job and rewarding them when they do well, is what makes a meaningful difference. The British phrase 'No Sh*t Sherlock' springs to mind, but it is quite interesting research.
The article has a 'science based framework' to help, as 55% of CEOs think lack of trust is a threat to growth but don't know where to start - 8 behaviours to manage for trust. Which are sensible stuff on the whole, but seems to me to be SO basic I am surprised we still have to write this stuff. The real issue for me is how come such obvious things are considered so new and interesting.
Let's hope they don't start measuring oxytocin in recruitment like I understand (but can't now find the article) that Chinese companies are measuring cortisol for recruitment purposes to get more compliant employees. Not hard to imagine alongside emotional facial recognition, AI generated psych profiling, one's chemical profile being measured for recruitment purposes. Luckily I already know I am unemployable.
Thanks to Marianne T. Schoerling (PhD) and Loredana Magri Hormuth for the heads up.