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Gaining trust of remote employees

Victoria

I work for a company who have staff based at HQ as well as a number of staff who work remotely all over the world. My Directors are wanting me to have informal chats with all staff members to find out about what motivates them, what their pain points are, what the company is doing well and what it can improve. I know from experience that when HR comes calling for a chat, staff members are more than likely to clam up. I am looking for some advice on how to approach this and also how to approach it in a way that it is not sounding like I am trying to get information from them. 

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  • Hi Victoria

    You have two problems here: establishing relationships over distance and the image people have of HR. My first reaction to address both is that you and your colleagues need to get out and about at every opportunity so that people get to know you and to know that you haven't turned up to sack someone but I don't know how practical this is with a workforce spread across the globe. Do they come together for team meeting? If so, could you get yourself invited?

    I'd look into Skype, Webex, Facetime etc and whenever possible, talk to people via a medium where you can see each other.

    If that isn't practical then I think it is easier to build relationships by telephone conversations than email.

    If you can build the relationship, the trust will come.
  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    Hi Elizabeth,

    Thanks so much for this, unfortunately, the majority of our remote staff members work from home and no 2 people are in the same country. Each team has a daily/weekly team meeting held on Google Meet (without video) so I could get myself invited to these meetings. There was a plan to have weekly team lead/manager team meetings where I could work on building the relationships but for whatever reason these have not happened.

    I know the staff members that will be forthcoming in their views and who I have an existing relationship with. My challenge will be getting views from those who are not so forthcoming whether this be due to lack of trust in HR or down to cultural differences.

    Thanks again for your advice, I agree this will be a long term project so this time around I am aware I may not get the answers I am looking for first time round.

    Thanks

    Victoria :)
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  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    Hi Elizabeth,

    Thanks so much for this, unfortunately, the majority of our remote staff members work from home and no 2 people are in the same country. Each team has a daily/weekly team meeting held on Google Meet (without video) so I could get myself invited to these meetings. There was a plan to have weekly team lead/manager team meetings where I could work on building the relationships but for whatever reason these have not happened.

    I know the staff members that will be forthcoming in their views and who I have an existing relationship with. My challenge will be getting views from those who are not so forthcoming whether this be due to lack of trust in HR or down to cultural differences.

    Thanks again for your advice, I agree this will be a long term project so this time around I am aware I may not get the answers I am looking for first time round.

    Thanks

    Victoria :)
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