Building Trust Inside Organisations: From Grievance to Growth
Over the past few years, almost every conversation I’ve had with leaders has circled back to the same theme: trust.
Not as a big abstract concept, but in questions like:
Why don’t people tell us what’s really going on?
Why do issues surface externally before we hear about them internally?
Why does our big transformation story land so flat?
When you look at the data, some of the answers are uncomfortable.
The trust gap we’d rather not admit
Edelman’s Trust Barometer recently found that 68% of employees believe business leaders are actively misleading them – up 12 percentage points since 2021. They describe this as a “crisis of grievance”: 61% of people globally feel a high sense of grievance and low trust, and don’t believe business is meeting their needs.
Alongside that:
63% of people are worried about being harassed at work – up 10% in a year
At InChorus, across thousands of employees, we’re seeing a spike in reports of harassment and discrimination
Employees with a high sense of grievance are 21% less likely to trust their CEO
And if you’re experiencing an issue at work, our data shows you’re now 6x more likely to go to social media than to HR
That last point, to me, is the real warning sign. When people would rather take their story public than use internal systems, trust isn’t just low – it’s broken.
Trust is infrastructure, not “soft stuff”
It’s still tempting to treat trust as intangible. But the numbers say otherwise.
Research from Great Place to Work (190,000+ employees) found that organisations with high-trust cultures see:
50% lower turnover than industry competitors
Employees 60% more likely to embrace AI
Those in the top quartile for high-trust innovation culture achieve 5x higher revenue growth than those in the lowest quartile
So when we talk about trust, we’re really talking about whether:
Risks surface early or late
People experiment with new tools or quietly resist
Your best people stay long enough to build what’s next
How our culture lens is shifting
If you zoom out over the last decade, you can see a progression:
Engagement – “Are you happy? Would you recommend working here?”
Belonging & Inclusion – psychological safety, identity, bringing your whole self to work
Employee Trust – “Do you believe us? Do you think we’ll do the right thing when it matters?”
Engagement and belonging are still essential, but I’ve come to see trust as upstream. If I don’t trust you, I won’t answer your survey honestly, I won’t bring you early warning signs, and I won’t lean into your big change story. You might get compliance, but not commitment.
Three practical shifts that build trust
There’s no silver bullet, but there are patterns in organisations that deliberately build trust.
1. Step outside the leadership echo chamber
Most leadership teams hear from confident, well-connected people who already feel relatively safe. The real picture often sits with frontline teams, underrepresented groups, lower-income employees, and those far from HQ.
A simple question I often pose is:
Whose experience of our culture would surprise us the most – and when did we last hear from them directly?
Making deliberate space for those voices – and listening without rushing to explain – is quiet, foundational trust work.
2. Design speak-up systems for low psychological safety
“Radical candour” and “my door is always open” assume people feel safe enough to walk through the door. Many don’t – especially if they’ve experienced discrimination, microaggressions or retaliation.
Trust-building systems tend to:
Offer clear, simple channels to raise issues
Include options for anonymity or confidentiality
Make what happens next very explicit
Show visible follow-through, not just collection of complaints
This is the space InChorus operates in: creating speak-up routes and culture insights that work for the people who currently trust the system the least. The core principle, though, is universal: design for low psychological safety, not just for the confident few.
3. Move from generic responses to targeted, trackable action
Insight without action can actually erode trust.
Higher-trust organisations:
Look for patterns, not one-offs – by team, location, demographic group, theme
Take targeted action where issues are concentrated, rather than defaulting to blanket training
Close the loop – sharing what they heard and what they’re doing
Track change over time in perceptions of fairness, safety and trust
Over time, employees start to see a pattern: “When we raise something, you don’t always get it perfect, but you stay with it and try to make it better.” That pattern matters more than any single initiative.
A final thought
I don’t think trust is about getting everything right. In complex organisations, that’s impossible.
For me, trust is about whether employees can reasonably believe that:
You’re broadly telling them the truth
Their experiences will be taken seriously
And when harm happens, you’ll respond in a way that’s fair, human, and willing to learn
In that sense, trust really is the infrastructure for innovation and growth. Without it, everything else we’re trying to build – AI, new ways of working, bold strategies – sits on shaky ground.
If you’re exploring how to strengthen speak-up systems or understand where trust is fragile in your organisation, I’m always happy to compare notes – feel free to connect.
