Trust in business – why don’t we trust remote employees?

In business relationships, the principle of limited trust applies. Why don’t businesspeople trust one another? How can you gain a client’s trust in a company? Why do we still have a problem trusting virtual assistants or copywriters?

The market for remotely provided services is constantly expanding. Many people give up looking for full-time employment and start working on their own, without leaving home. Especially during the pandemic, there are many remote work opportunities: you can work as a virtual manager, run an online store, do translations, teach languages, and much, much more. So why do companies still struggle to trust remote workers?

Trust in business

A nationwide study, “Trust in the Company,” conducted by Procontent Communication showed that one in four Poles does not trust their boss. Other studies, meanwhile, showed that more than 80% of people do not trust corporate employees, and more than half of managers do not trust their superiors. 

It turns out that the main reason for distrust in companies is suspicion that superiors are concealing the truth and manipulating shared information. Building trust is also influenced by open communication (or the lack of it) within the company. The “Trust in the Company” study also shows that employers trust people over the age of 35 the least! The younger the employee, the greater the trust in them. Bosses also often fail to appreciate their subordinates’ contributions and blame them for poor decisions, while those subordinates claim they are undervalued and criticized. A very important motive for distrust is also unfair pay—those who earn less feel they are treated unequally.

Lack of trust may also be caused by the fact that as companies have grown, anonymity among employees has increased. If you don’t know the person you work with, you will be more distrustful toward them. The era when companies expected loyalty and honesty from employees—and guaranteed the same themselves—ended long ago. Today, everyone strives for individual success, which worsens relationships between employees. 

Distrust of remote workers

Media and the internet have made us more distrustful. Imagine you meet a beautiful, handsome man (or woman) online, and a different person than the one you saw in the photo shows up for the meeting. Or you bought a product from an online store that did not meet your expectations. It is no wonder that these kinds of situations affect trust and your later decisions.

Many workers take on remote work. Building trust with a client, however, requires a lot of effort here. Small businesses prefer to know the people they work with. They are simply afraid to hire, for example, private assistants, because it is very likely they will never meet them face to face. Clients often do not know how to verify their work or how to check whether they will complete the assigned task well.

However, cooperation between enterprises and external companies cannot exist without trust. Thanks to it, a remote worker increases their productivity and receives the motivation needed to complete the assignment. In turn, thanks to trust, the client becomes loyal and is more willing to buy a product from us or use a service.

Sometimes distrust results from the fact that companies have had bad experiences with remote workers: someone did a task poorly or failed to complete it on time. Or, worse, they stopped contacting the client altogether. When building client-company relationships, it is especially important to stick to deadlines. It is precisely failing to keep one’s word that most affects a remote worker’s credibility and reliability.