The issue of trust is highly topical in society at large.  Members of the public have lost confidence in many institutions after a series of scandals and misconducts.

In recent years and months we have seen scandals engulfing the media, the banking sector, politicians, food trading standards, and the NHS, to name but a few.

But does this loss of trust matter?

The answer is ‘yes'. Trust is critical for building the foundations of social order; it is the basis of civil society.

Trust for instance is crucial in the foundational institutions in our society such as education, where parents must trust teachers to do the best for their children, and in our hospitals, where patients must place their trust in the hands of doctors.

Trust is about a relationship and about the sustaining of that relationship despite uncertainty or risk.

Trust aids good team-working and collaboration and fuels innovation.  Trust also increases employee engagement.

The CIPD/Halogen Employee Outlook research also shows that trust in senior leaders in particular is positively correlated with employee job satisfaction, advocacy and intentions to remain with their current employer.

The survey has been tracking perceptions of senior managers since April 2009.  Our research shows that trust in senior managers has remained low over time, with trust in senior managers in the public sector well below trust in the private and voluntary sector.

There seems to be an ongoing struggle for senior managers in the public sector to gain the trust of employees – something no doubt heightened by the economic climate and austerity measures.

Our autumn special Employee Outlook Focus: trust in leaders showed that trust between employees and senior managers is more likely to be weak than strong, with trust being considered particularly weak in the public sector.

The research also showed that trust ratings between employees and senior managers increase with an employee's seniority, suggesting that senior managers are somewhat out of touch with how other employees are feeling, particularly at the coalface.

In contrast, employee trust in both colleagues and line managers is very strong, with employees in the public sector benefiting from the highest level of trust in colleagues of all the sectors.

Is this creating a ‘them and us' mentality between employees and senior managers?

When it comes to leadership selection, more than two-fifths of employees surveyed believe that trust is already a factor taken into account when selecting senior managers.

Many more (88%) think it should be.  There appears to be a gap in this area in the public sector, with employees in the public sector much less likely to say that trust is a factor taken into account when selecting senior managers and more likely than employees in the other sectors to say that it should be.

Finally, when asked to think about the most important senior management attributes, competency is rated above all others.

Being a good communicator is next on the wish list, with trustworthiness rated as the third most important attribute.

Trust maintenance and repair is particularly important for public sector organisations, currently grappling with low levels of trust in senior leaders and a ‘them and us' culture.

If leaders are aware that mistakes have been made they need to verbally apologise to the workforce.  In general, leaders need to kill the spin and make frequent and honest communications about what is happening in their organisation and offer employees more meaningful consultation.

They need to operate in a way that reflects the organisation's vision and values and be consistent – ‘do what they say they will'.

Employees themselves point to a fairly simple and common sense style of leadership to engender and create a climate of trust.  Employees talk about ‘approachable', ‘competent' and ‘consistent leaders' who ‘act with honesty and integrity' and ‘lead by example'.

Our research also suggests that senior managers need to reduce the distance between employees and themselves by being more visible locally in a face-to-face capacity or, if that is difficult, to clearly delegate their leadership down.

Reciprocal trust is also important.  They need to show that they trust employees at all levels and in particular that they trust junior and middle managers to make decisions and communicate important messages to employees on the front line.

The selection and development of trustworthy leaders is a complex area and one that the CIPD is currently investigating with the University of Bath.  Academic research highlights four traits associated with trustworthy leaders; ability, benevolence, integrity and predictability.

Organisations need to examine their selection and development processes to see to what extent they are assessing these areas with candidates.  If they don't think they currently are, then they need to think about how best they can redesign those processes.

Often, selection and development processes focus on ability, competence, skills and experience but are less likely to explore candidate behaviour and values.

But, behaviour and values are just as important as competence and are crucial for creating a climate of trust.

Techniques such as values-based interviewing are helpful in exploring candidates' values and behaviours that impact upon trust.

Claire McCartney is research adviser at the CIPD