Page 108 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

trust or Bust � 87

` moBIle trust-BuIldIng strAtegIes

Building trust is a process that occurs over time. It is dependent upon
human nature, so the principles are same for everyone. And it is de-
pendent on the human situation—in this case, a workforce that is
working mobilely. Because the principles are the same but the work-
force is at a distance, in some cases the leader simply has to do the
same things—but more often or more strongly—that a person would
do to build trust if the workforce were located in the same place. In
some cases, a leader has to adjust for this more complex situation. The
following are the most important actions you can perform to increase
trust in your mobile organization.

use performance and performance evaluation
as a tool to Increase trust
Perhaps the most effective way to increase trust is to establish clear,
achievable, and observable objectives with your mobile workforce
members and then to evaluate performance based upon those. Use
evaluation as an opportunity to give developmental and performance
feedback so the worker knows specifically where he or she succeeded,
fell short, and has the opportunity to improve. Setting these kinds of
objectives and giving this kind of feedback is very important when
employees are working mobilely, because leaders won’t have the op-
portunity to drop in and observe people working on a day-to-day basis,
and it also assures workers that they will be judged on merit and not
preferential treatment.
McKay Christensen, president of Melaleuca, believes the biggest
trust-building meetings for virtual workers are scheduled business re-
views. It is easy with a mobile workforce to forget to have scheduled
business reviews. Approaching a business review that will be con-
ducted at a distance forces a manager to give it much thought.
“A scheduled business review does a lot of things,” he says.
“It causes you to come prepared, it causes you to think about what