Like rust, trust never sleeps

I’m so excited! Do you recall that sense of satisfaction of completing something big that you’re 100 percent passionate about? The buzz of seeing it develop and grow? Of handing it on for others to work on the next stage or to develop it further, or maybe to just enjoy?

I’m getting to the end of several months of working on the 2010 HRINZ National Conference programme. I love putting the programme together for HRINZ’s annual conference – it’s the most fun part of my job and where I can be creative and imaginative and forward thinking. I also spend quite a lot of time on the conference brand – choosing conference colours, working with our designer, planning the crazy dinner theme and looking for ways to make each conference fresh and unique – it’s so much fun it’s almost like being on holiday.

Every year when I put the conference programme together (months and months before the event) I wonder (and worry) if the theme will still be relevant and topical by the time it actually happens. In the old days we’d focus well into the future for our themes, but since the recession struck we’ve tried to give members what they need in the nearer future, so it’s always a little worrying that the world might have moved on by the time we get to deliver.

However this year it will be different because like rust, trust never sleeps! It’s never going to be out of date, no longer an issue, or something that can be fixed quickly and moved on from. We live and breathe it on a daily basis and there seems to be a world-wide shortage on several levels. Next to water it’s probably the most valuable and valued thing the human race has.

In putting this conference programme together I was struck by how many different angles there are on trust and while it might appear that every second word in the conference brochure is ‘trust’, almost every facet of people management is actually covered in our three days of conference, so it definitely won’t be repetitive, and it definitely won’t be about trust per se. Trust is a value and being such an intrinsic part of everything we do it would be impossible to discuss it out of context of any given situation.

So if trust is such a desirable attribute, commodity, value – call it what you will – how come we don’t do more to earn it, manage it, share it, keep it or benefit from it?

We can no longer travel without our trust being challenged, whether it’s the risk of deliberate autocide when we’re driving, or terrorism in the air, on the bus or train, or even as we walk down the street. We have to lock our homes when we go to bed and when we go out, and usually alarm them as well. We can’t trust previously safe forms of investment of our hard-earned money – even the property market is fickle and many investment companies have been exposed for their serious lack of trust. We can’t even trust the food we eat as it’s full of things we’d prefer not to ingest, and many are loaded with sugar, fats or artificial enhancers that we don’t want (assuming of course that we know about them in the first place). There are court cases and class actions over unfair fees and charges made by our banks and credit card companies and phone companies; the pricing structure of energy commodities has been created to penalise consumers who try to limit their consumption which demonstrates a huge loss of trust by consumers. Even simple things like chocolate bars are made smaller, repackaged and sold for more money and even their ingredients have been switched with milk being replaced with palm oil.

The list goes on and on. Depressing isn’t it? And it’s mostly about how trust has been abused and eroded by those we should be able to trust – in most cases they’re not our enemies and we owe them nothing.

Well now it’s HR’s turn to be in the line of fire. Being the meat in the sandwich, as HR is often squashed between the balance sheet and the wellbeing of the workers, we have a chance to redress the trust issue by being the workplace champions of trust within our organisations. I’m not saying we should be whistle blowers or watch dogs (or worse tree huggers) but surely we can be the conduit that links the mission statement with the reality? After all, it wasn’t us that lost the trust in most cases but we all have friends and colleagues who we can help once we’re properly equipped.

The recession is abating and before you have time to think about it, finding good talent will be that recurring headache you had a few years ago. So who would want to work for your organisation or sector if they have a choice? Time to drag out those old core values and dust them off a bit? We’ll help you. Trust us.