Trust is increasingly recognised as pivotal to productivity, innovation and talent retention. In a rapidly changing world where scepticism abounds, how can HR Leaders ensure trust is at the heart of corporate culture?
The findings of the just-released World’s Happiest Workplaces 2026 report suggest “wellbeing, trust and inclusive management are the strongest drivers of employee happiness”, linked with outcomes including “higher productivity, lower staff turnover and lower sick leave”. So can we achieve more trust at work in 2026?
Declining trust
First, we must admit that indices of trust show a decline. PwC’s most recent Trust Index shows that while 86 percent of executives say they highly trust their employees, only 60% of employees feel highly trusted. Further, while the same 86 percent of executives think their employees trust them highly, only a disappointing two-thirds (67%) of employees say they highly trust their employer. The gap has widened in recent years.
On a more specific level, Bright Horizons’ just-published 2026 Modern Families Index shows, among other findings, that working parents and carers perceive employer family support to be stalling. Running since 2012, the Index saw employees feeling increasingly confident to talk about family at work up until 2023 (71%) – remember that post-pandemic glow? – then confidence fell, 8 or 9 percentage points, in the last few years.
This loss of trust sits in a wider context of scepticism. The Edelman Trust Barometer 2025 reported a “crisis of grievance” with 61 percent globally holding “a moderate or high sense of grievance, which is defined by a belief that government and business make their lives harder and serve narrow interests, and wealthy people benefit unfairly from the system”.
The consequences of this distrust of governmental and corporate motives are grave: 4 in 10 say that to bring about change, they “would approve of one or more of the following forms of hostile activism: attacking people online, intentionally spreading disinformation, threatening or committing violence, damaging public or private property”. This is highest among respondents aged 18-34, where 53 percent approved of at least one such action.”
The speed of trust
So the stakes are high. But – according to Stephen M. R. Covey – while the “tax” of low trust is punitive, the “premium” of high trust is real. “Trust always affects two measurable outcomes: speed and cost. When trust goes down — in a relationship, on a team, in a company, in an industry, with a customer — speed decreases with it. Everything takes longer. Simultaneously, costs increase.
Covey’s book Speed of Trust sets out how trust is built through character and competence. His 13 common behaviours of trusted leaders are a helpful checklist:
1. Talk Straight
2. Demonstrate Respect
3. Create Transparency
4. Right Wrongs
5. Show Loyalty
6. Deliver Results
7. Get Better
8. Confront Reality
9. Clarify Expectations
10. Practice Accountability
11. Listen First
12. Keep Commitments
13. Extend Trust
When leaders are willing to offer trust first, while demonstrating their own consistent capability, employees are likely to follow.
When trust meets disruption
Established guidance such as Covey’s helps. However, one could say the cynicism revealed in the Edelman study above is a realistic response to a “post-truth” world. Among global superpower nations, “strong man” leaders appear to be getting more open about making their own rules, rather than upholding established norms.
Gillian Tett in the FT says recent US government action “has shattered many modern western norms of rule-based, democratic systems”, joining other prominent world leaders in what looks like a more feudal, king-like political dominion.
Some might argue it’s easier to trust a strong leader who is up front and direct about what they want. But, as Samuel L. Jackson’s character Ordell Robbie observed about Bridgit Fonda’s Melanie in the Quentin Tarantino movie Jackie Brown: “You can’t trust Melanie. But, you can always trust Melanie to be Melanie”.
Melanie here was no world leader but Ordell’s heist was founded on ‘trusting’ Melanie to act with disloyal self-interest. It kind of works. So, coming back to Edelman, would it be enough if workers conclude that they can’t trust leaders but just shrug and settle for treating it as a simple transaction of labour for cash?
That, of course, is the sentiment that results in #Quietquitting, #BareMinimumMondays, #QuietVacationing, and even ‘Resenteeism’. These are all trends with online advocates as blatant as those much-discussed world leaders. But is there a better way?
A taste for trust
We know our people lead their personal lives in a world based on the trust of the sharing economy – ride sharing, home stay holiday rentals – or on taking the advice of unknown peers, whether social media contacts or online reviewers. There is an appetite for relying on others and still an optimism that people will do the right thing.
I heard recently from a group of HR leaders I was facilitating that some with a ” three days in the office” hybrid working mandate were struggling with resentment while those with a trust-based, “plan your own week” policy found most people coming in two to three days without any pressure.
How to build real trust
Last September I moderated a panel of wonderful insurance sector professionals as part of the DiveIn Festival, exploring how employers can get beyond policy in supporting the work-life equation.
One of our conclusions was that great culture resides in those day-to-day conversations: where flexibility is offered before it is requested and where managers understand the family implications of the work schedule, or at least think to ask about it. And beyond the daily experience, when there’s a crisis — those moments that matter — it is clear to everyone when a leader shows that compassion comes first.
These experiences are all remembered. A word, a check-in, a simple note of support or appreciation: all these build to a sense of trust. We experimented as a panel with the idea of “micro-empathies” as a deliberate departure from “microaggressions”.
Conscious Communication
If we want to take our interactions to the next level, a concept gaining traction is Conscious Communication. According to the Canadian Management Centre, “becoming a conscious communicator starts with self-awareness”; it is about understanding that we communicate much more than words.
For example, “When two (or more) people are together, communication naturally happens — it’s impossible not to communicate. Each person will read and interpret some behaviour of the other person — whether it’s eye contact, arm motions, an offhand remark or even the positive energy someone gives off — regardless of whether they engage in an actual conversation.”
Another important reminder is: “Among co-workers who frequently communicate, ‘relationship residue’ can occur … For instance, if a person tends to be critical and dismissive in early encounters, their messages might be seen and heard in a negative light going forward – even when what they mean to convey is encouraging and positive.”
If we want to build lasting trust, we need to be open, consistently, to the feedback coming back at us and to consider the impact we are having, especially if our message comes with the weight of seniority.
This need for more sensitive awareness was beautifully conveyed in a recent Coaches Rising podcast where Joel Monk was in conversation with relational mindfulness coaches Emma Donaldson-Feilder and Liz Hall. Their wisdom included the need to be open to the complexity of different views, to be present enough not to resist what is communicated, and to sense the nuances. This is about an exquisite self-awareness combined with mindful attention to the other and the mutual contexts. It takes practice, but its scope for building trust is powerful.
Stick to the plan, bring the passion
The other option for astonishing productivity might be to figure out the magic behind Macclesfield FC’s recent “cupset“. The recent win was the first time since 1908 that a non-league team eliminated the FA cup holders. We know two of their strategies at least.
Manager John Rooney (Wayne’s brother) knew that former champions Crystal Palace were not strong at defending set pieces. So the team prepared to take advantage of those moments where play restarted, around a corner or a free kick. It paid off spectacularly. Huge mutual trust was shown in going all out for a once-in-a-generation opportunity, but with a plan.
But if building trust moment by moment, and having a plan, feels like hard work, the other option demonstrated by Macclesfield is that, sometimes, perhaps offering the reward of a trip to Ibiza is all it takes?
Jennifer is a business psychologist, leadership coach, coaching supervisor and consultant to HR leaders.
As a UK pioneer of parent transition coaching, Jennifer set up, and for a decade led, the Coaching & Consultancy side of what became Bright Horizons Work+Family Solutions, advising employers in banking, professional services, STEM and wider sectors on programmes for working parents and carers and evaluating their impact and ROI, as well as developing coaches and coaching capability.
More recently she was Head of Thought Leadership with Bright Horizons and now serves as an independent consultant in this area.
