James Bennett, managing online editor at internal communications research and training company Melcrum Publishing, on how leaders can rebuild trust and employee engagement:

In January, Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman PR, said that it had been a “catastrophic year for business, well beyond the evident destruction in shareholder value and need for emergency government funding”. Well thanks Richard, Happy New Year to you too.

But he had a point. The global economy has been hit hard with huge-scale redundancies, iconic brands disappearing and executives blamed and even imprisoned. Trust has been hit even harder.

Edelman’s January trust barometer found that trust in business was at a low of 36% in the UK. So what can communicators do to raise trust among employees?

Internal communicators are already stepping up. But what happens when it’s the leaders who take matters into their own hands? Well, for one chief executive – armed with a false name and the intention to change his company’s fortunes – it had incredibly positive consequences.

Stephen Martin, star of Channel 4’s recent ‘Undercover Boss’ series, is CEO of Scunthorpe based Clugstons, a £155 million turnover construction company. Two years ago, he joined Clugstons as the man at the top but faced major challenges. His predecessor, a fearsome northerner known to employees only as Mr Butcher, had just retired after 18 years at the helm and talk of the recession was beginning to make waves. With the business failing to win major new contracts, Martin had been forced to slash jobs, halve lunch breaks and cut bonuses altogether.

Leadership visibility was low so Martin was able to spend two weeks undercover on the frontline, talking to his staff and experiencing what it felt like to start work at 5am and dig holes in the ground in freezing conditions.

What he discovered was revelatory. Training was virtually non-existent with little opportunity to move around the company and learn new skills; the business was failing to attract school leavers; and there was no communication between management and employees – one worker had been with the business for 37 years and never sat across the table from his chief executive. “Management need to look at themselves before they have a go at us,” one heavily set man in a yellow hard hat told Martin one morning. “We’re just a number when it comes down to it,” said his pal. The workers felt alone, dispirited and literally left out in the cold.

Martin began to transform the business by identifying and empowering key workers to become company ambassadors who could encourage young people to join Clugstons and gave opportunity and training to passionate individuals. Most importantly, he made himself available for his employees to talk to, listening to what they had to say and feeding back the results in larger meetings where staff are now able to talk directly and openly to management.

“You can never communicate too much during a recession,” advises Martin. “If you don’t tell them the ruth, they’ll make up their own assumptions, and it can be incredibly damaging.”

The faster company leaders recognise the merits of building trust internally, the better for communicators everywhere.

How to rebuild trust
• Identify how employees want to be communicated to and constantly communicate them at all levels
• Identify and promote key workers and give opportunities to those who want to progress
• Interact with employees on their terms, but make your conversation two way
• Engage with young people – use the communication tools they’re comfortable with
• Arrange events where employees can meet and talk to the management in an open forum
• Show your enthusiasm and passion for the business – not just for a few hours as a piece of PR.