There was a time when HR was seen as a safe place. A department you could go to if something felt off, unfair, or just too heavy to carry on your own. Somewhere along the way, that image cracked. Business leaders have already learned this the hard way.
A 2023 Gallup report found that only 21% of American employees strongly agree that they trust their organization’s leadership. This represented a drop from 2019, when the figure was at 24%. Since HR is often seen (rightfully or not) as an arm of leadership, restoring individual department trust starts amid this broader crisis.
Trust in HR has been chipped away by a combination of silence, inconsistency, and repeated association with the worst moments in someone’s career. So, what’s the first step in regaining trust? It’s understanding why that trust eroded in the first place, and what it actually takes to restore it. Let’s learn more.
Ensure Professional Growth Extends to the HR Department
In almost every professional environment, there’s always an emphasis on lifelong learning. Sadly, the same cannot be said about many HR departments, which are often immune to such initiatives. If you are serious about making HR great again, consider incentivizing and sponsoring additional training.
Often, HR performs best when they are exposed to diverse environments. This is something you can look into when onboarding HR employees as well. The best ones tend to have an educational background in psychology and social work.
This is something that Indeed.com echoes as well. They note that if you want to advance in an HR career, then an advanced degree allows you to better support employees. Maybe they had some past experience in these fields as well that allows them to understand the reality of real emotions and tough interpersonal situations.
Naturally, it’s a bit harder when you already have a fully-staffed HR department. However, solutions do exist in the form of online learning that you can sponsor. If an employee can take up an online master’s of social work degree while still working, that would be ideal.
As Cleveland State University notes, these degrees can be completed 100% online with no on-campus visits. Thus, you won’t have to worry about your team even missing work.
Sure, you would probably need to adjust their responsibilities, but it’s doable and also benefits the HR member for their future growth. This is especially true for those employees who show a deep desire to take on sponsored learning opportunities.
Enforce Transparency and Credibility
Transparency shouldn’t just be a buzzword for HR. It’s actually the make-or-break factor in whether employees view the department as trustworthy or performative. Unfortunately, many HR teams operate like a black box. Employees file complaints or raise concerns and then hear… nothing. No outcome. No reasoning. No visibility. It’s not hard to see how that kind of silence breeds suspicion.
As one Forbes article notes, employee concerns about HR come from various factors. However, perceived bias is at the top of the list. The article highlights survey findings that indicate how 86% of employees are afraid of HR representatives.
The trust gap doesn’t always come from dramatic betrayals. More often, it forms through a thousand small voids: unanswered follow-ups, vague policies, unclear escalation processes. When HR is only seen during onboarding, performance reviews, or disciplinary meetings, it becomes harder for employees to believe HR is a neutral party.
Credibility, then, must be actively earned. Some forward-thinking companies are publishing anonymized quarterly HR reports. These show how many issues were raised, which themes were most common, and what changes were implemented. Others are experimenting with internal audits of their grievance-handling process.
The boldest step? Owning mistakes. When HR says, “We didn’t get this right last time, but we’ve changed our process,” it shows real accountability. Employees are far more likely to trust what they can see than what they’re told to assume.
Give HR the Permission to Earn People’s Trust
One of the hidden reasons employees don’t trust HR? Their only experience with the department is negative. Layoffs, disciplinary action, conflict mediation, vague investigations—if HR only shows up when things go sideways, of course, people start to flinch when they get a calendar invite.
The imbalance is real. HR often isn’t allowed to create enough positive engagement to offset the hard moments. But trust, like a bank account, needs regular deposits. People need to associate HR with support, opportunity, and care, not just damage control.
Bryan Hancock from McKinsey & Company has something to say on this subject. “I’ve seen HR work hard to build trust-based relationships-” he says, “-only to be thrown under the bus in a big meeting with leaders.”
To fix this, leadership must give HR the space and resources to build proactive, positive touchpoints: thoughtful wellness initiatives, open-door office hours, career pathing sessions, feedback circles, and even casual “HR hangs” just to hear people out. The idea isn’t to avoid hard conversations—it’s to make sure those conversations don’t exist in a vacuum of fear.
When employees associate HR with multiple good experiences, they’re far more likely to stay calm, curious, and open when something difficult inevitably arrives.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why does HR have a bad reputation?
HR often gets a bad rap because it’s seen as protecting the company, not the employee. People mostly interact with HR during layoffs, conflicts, or disciplinary issues. When positive experiences are rare, it’s no wonder people assume HR’s not really on their side.
2. Why do employees fear HR?
Many employees fear HR because it’s usually involved when something’s wrong, like getting written up or let go. It feels less like support and more like judgment. That pattern trains people to expect the worst, even if HR genuinely wants to help sometimes.
3. Where will HR be in 10 years?
Ideally, HR will be more people-focused than ever, using data, empathy, and tech to truly support employee growth. Think mental health tools, flexible policies, and real-time feedback systems. But only if companies let HR be more than just the policy enforcers.
All things considered, trust doesn’t grow in response to a single big gesture. It builds slowly through small, thoughtful actions that prove HR is genuinely invested in the well-being of people, not just the organization’s bottom line.
If HR is always tied to stress, then no one will lean on them until they have no choice. HR needs to be allowed to be a presence in the good moments, too. It’s only when they’re seen planning, celebrating, listening, not just managing risk, that perceptions start to shift.
