CM Labs as mentioned in Baltic Transport Journal:
Across industries all over the world, trust is an essential part of operations and leads to a wide range of benefits. These, according to a study published in the Harvard Business Review, include a 40% decrease in burnout, a 50% boost in productivity, and 13% fewer sick days among employees. But knowing that trust is important is one thing; building it is quite another.
In our recent webinar, Bridging Gaps in Training: Workforce Engagement, Safety, and Technology, the CM Labs team spoke with industry veteran Capt. Richard WA Brough, OBE, BA, for his insights on how to foster trust, enhance workforce engagement, and improve safety in a port industry environment. “My experience over many, many years – and it hasn’t changed in the 50+ years I’ve been working in the industry – is that there is a lot of mistrust,“ says Brough. “Not just in our industry, the ports industry, but in every sector. The managers don’t trust the supervisors, the supervisors don’t trust the workforce, and the workforce doesn’t trust either the managers or the supervisors.” So, what concrete actions can a port take to build trust? Here is a look at how to earn – and maintain – trust among all levels of port operations.
According to the landmark Experiences of arrangements for health, safety and welfare in the global container terminal industry study by Cardiff University, safety incident rates increase alongside worker disengagement. Improving employee engagement is an important first step to building trust. Because when employees feel heard and understood, trust follows. “You need to engage every level of the organization in what you’re planning to do,” points out Capt. Brough, “be that a simple operation or introducing new technology or a new training program.”
Take, for example, overhauling a training program. Involving operators and trainers from the very beginning ensures that their perspectives are heard and accounted for. What challenges do trainers face? What concerns do operators have? What approach would best address each group’s goals? Engaging all levels of the organization helps ensure changes made will have a meaningful impact on training outcomes. “Everybody needs to understand what their part in that program is and what they will get out of it because everybody’s mindsets are totally different,” underlines Brough. “The manager and the supervisor and the guy driving – or the lady driving – the forklift truck are thinking about totally different things.”
To foster engagement, ports can use transparent and open communication that encourages the exchange of different perspectives. When overhauling a training program, for example, it’s important to include everyone in the decision about bringing in new technology, such as training simulators. This can be as simple as having operators test different simulators ahead of procurement or meeting with trainers to see which training management features they would use most. Listening to each of these perspectives helps find a solution that will work for all while also fostering buy-in.
“Trying to break down those barriers and help people understand what’s going on in the other person’s mind can help them to engage,” notes Capt. Brough. If trainers feel sceptical about a novelty, their involvement in the procurement process can help address concerns and ensure adoption. Because without their involvement and endorsement, there’s a real risk that a new approach or tool will go unused. He adds, “If you can’t get every level of an organization that’s going to use the technology – or the equipment or the training – to understand why they’re doing that and what its usefulness is to them and not just the company, then it will fail.”
Trust and safety also go hand in hand, and building one is an important step to building the other. After all, if a worker can’t trust that their employer values their safety, why would they trust them in any other capacity? To improve safety and build trust, ports need to take a careful look at their training programs. “You can’t separate training from safety,” stresses Capt. Brough. “They’re an integral part of each other. If you want to have safety in the port, people have to be well-trained.
[…]Read the full article discussing how to build trust for better workforce engagement, safety culture, and overall efficiency in Baltic Transport Journal’s February 2025 Magazine, p52-p53.
