Trust Fuels Performance

Central to a For All culture is a high level of trust. Our data and other evidence have demonstrated that high-trust cultures win in business.

What Is a High-Trust Culture

It is a workplace where trust-based relationships are highly valued. In our 30 years of research, we have found that employees experience high levels of trust in the workplace when they

Believe leaders are credible (i.e., competent, communicative, honest)

Believe they are treated with respect as people and professionals

Believe the workplace is fundamentally fair

For more than 30 years, Great Place to Work has studied and recognized organizations with high-trust cultures, in part through the Best Workplaces lists produced in partnership with FORTUNE magazine. For these companies, a defining feature of being recognized as a great workplace is a high level of organization-wide trust, as reported by employees. This research, along with findings from various independent research groups, illustrates that high levels of trust pay off. Among the business benefits of high-trust cultures are:

Stock market returns two to three times greater than the market average (see Figure 2).

For more than a decade, an independent investment firm has tracked the stock performance of the publicly traded FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For. In a simulated portfolio that is reset with newly named list companies each year, the research shows Best Companies have a cumulative return nearly three times the benchmark Russell 3000 and Russell 1000 indices.

A separate, independent study came to similar conclusions. Alex Edmans of the London Business School conducted a complex four-year study that proved a high-trust culture precedes the Best Workplaces’ strong stock market performance, and not the other way around. He also found the 100 Best Companies delivered stock returns that beat their peers by 2 to 3 percent per year over a 26-year period.

Figure 2
High-Trust Cultures Win in the Stock Market

Turnover rates approximately 50 percent lower than industry competitors (see Figure 3).

Increased levels of innovation, customer and patient satisfaction, employee engagement, organizational agility, and more.

A Great Place to Work study of the hospitals that made the 2016 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list found that, on average, these high-trust hospitals have Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) patient satisfaction scores that are significantly higher than the U.S. average for overall hospital rating and whether patients would recommend the hospital (see Figure 4). As patients are the end “customer” in a health care setting, these results demonstrate the positive impact a high-trust culture can have on the overall customer experience.

Figure 3
High-Trust Cultures Enjoy Low Turnover