There's trouble in the trenches: boards need to assess the level of trust between the rank and file and the senior officers.

• Author: Farr, Pam
• Position: Capital Assets

IN THE MILLIONS of words written and broadcast in the last several years about fixing corporate governance and rescuing companies on the ropes, too little has been focused on the employees' role in the outcome. Getting more independent directors on boards and making CEOs and CFOs personally accountable are important steps to regaining the trust of investors and customers, but in the end, it's the company workforce that has to stand and deliver. They will do so only if their corporate leaders give them the same quality of assurances they have rushed to offer investors and customers.

First, employees need to know what the game plan is. Many top leaders simply assume that everyone knows what the company's mission is and how to support it. But a recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management, "Aligning HR with Organization Strategy 2002," revealed that only 44% of respondents said their organization communicates its strategic direction well or extremely well to its employees. That tells us that more than half of employees are in the dark about the "why" of their work. It won't be easy to obtain superlative results from this group without some change in the way management deals with its people.

Every bit as daunting is a finding of Watson Wyatt Worldwide's WorkUSA 2002 study, in which just 12% of employees said that they have trust in senior leadership. This finding is really disturbing, because once you breach trust, it's very hard to get it back. It takes years.

At the board level, it's prudent to understand the level of trust between the rank and file and the senior officers as one of many indicators that the business strategy/results are likely to be achieved.

To rebuild trust, management needs to know for sure where it stands with the workforce. Executives need to have the courage to survey employees at least annually (guaranteeing the respondents anonymity). I've been with clients who are convinced they have a stellar rating with their employees; then the outside polling group comes in and provides the reality check. It's best to accept the results: If the findings indicate a gap in the perceptions of management and employees, the leadership must step up communications with employees. Senior managers should always be prepared to explain discussions of the company in external media, too, and aim for as much transparency as they can. It's wise to remember that employees will use the Internet to try to verify what they've been...