The gaps and opportunities for trust in business

Trust runs through the veins of every single thing we do in society. This is especially true for businesses – with 92% of business executives, 92% of consumers and 94% of employees agreeing that organizations have a responsibility to build trust.

The 2023 PwC Trust Survey explores how trust impacts business and how companies can cultivate it. This inspired me to sit down with Kathy Nieland, leader of PwC’s Trust Leadership Institute, to get her perspective on how executives are working together to harness the power — and the business value — of trust. 

Through the Trust Leadership Institute’s three-day, in-person academies, Kathy has witnessed first-hand the learnings, conversations and connections occurring on this topic. Since November 2021, the Trust Academy has convened nearly 500 senior executives from 250+ companies, 10 industries and more than 20 different functional senior executive roles — who collectively drive approximately $3.8 trillion in global corporate revenues. 

Perceptions of trust levels are largely unaligned. 

Businesses think they are much more trusted by consumers and employees than they actually are. Our survey shows that 84% of business executives think customers highly trust their companies while only 27% of consumers actually do. Employees are more trusting, but there is still a gap: 79% of business executives say employee trust is high, compared to 65% of employees who say they highly trust their employer.

My question to Kathy: Are businesses, customers and employees even on the same page as to what the word “trust” means? 

Trust might seem simple to understand, but it can be complex in practice. As Harvard Business School professor and Trust Academy speaker Sandra Sucher says, “trust is in the eye of the beholder.” But when we listen carefully to our stakeholders, we can have a clearer sense of where we should focus our efforts, and what the trade-offs might be.  

At the Trust Academy, we spend time assessing the business case for trust and identifying how we can bring it to life in organizations in order to drive sustained business outcomes. We learn that trust is not only about culture, personal leadership style or corporate reputation — although those all play a part. Organizational trust is about balancing the expectations of a diverse and expanding set of stakeholders across all business dimensions — from cybersecurity, to AI implementation, to workforce strategy and to sustainability and transparency.  

Listening is key – check in with your employees. 

Employees have their ears to the ground and can help businesses uncover what they should be paying attention to. For example, our survey showed that nearly half (46%) of employees whose company experienced a trust-damaging event in the last 12 months say they expected it.

We also heard this loud and clear during the Trust in Action webcast I hosted with Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of investment firm Revolution LLC and co-founder of America Online, just a couple of weeks ago on the topic of trust in deal making. Steve shared that leaders need to spend more time listening than talking. They need to ask open-ended questions and go beyond the spreadsheets to address individual hopes, fears and underlying needs.

My question to Kathy: How does a culture of trust among employees play into the viability of a business? 

There’s no doubt that there’s a new workforce contract. It recognizes different skill sets, worker types and preferences — especially as employees demand more safe, inclusive, flexible and transparent workplaces. And embracing this new workforce contract is going to be critical in driving sustained outcomes across a variety of business dimensions, regardless of how the labor market evolves. 

The only question now is, how does it show up in organizations? Often, expectations can be unclear. Earning trust comes down to what’s important to stakeholders at any one moment — and that continually evolves. Employees say the most important trust-building actions are getting paid appropriately (80% cite it as very important), protecting their data (75%), communicating clearly (72%) and offering flexibility (66%). As leaders, we can do our part to earn trust through how we show up in everyday interactions, how we manage operational processes and how we design large-scale transformation.

Juggling a multi-stakeholder environment remains a top challenge for executives. 

Trust is a moving target as stakeholder expectations continually shift. Not only are stakeholder needs often at odds with each other, but – to further complicate things – what matters to each of those stakeholder groups keeps changing. 

Our survey showed that business leaders continue to rank consumers, employees and investors as their most important stakeholders, in that order. But, diverse stakeholder perspectives ranks as a top-three challenge for executives when it comes to building trust, second only to company culture.

My question to Kathy: The Trust Leadership Institute serves a wide range of executives who are all critical to how trust is earned and communicated to stakeholders. What advice do you give them in navigating and balancing stakeholder wants and needs? 

It’s not enough to focus independent trust-building efforts on employees, consumers and other stakeholders. You have to develop a plan that addresses their sometimes conflicting needs, and keeps business goals front and center. 

When done right, this multi-stakeholder approach creates a positive, forceful multiplier. For example, if you build trust in your employees, they can become your trust ambassadors to customers and local communities. As customers see you do right by your people, they’ll be more likely to give you credit for your culture and consistent customer experience. When customers and employees trust you more, you’re more likely to strengthen trust with other key stakeholders such as shareholders and regulators. 

A special thanks to Kathy for her insights on the intersection of trust and business. To learn more about the Trust Leadership Institute, visit our website.