What do high-trust cultures do differently?

(Building a successful workplace culture is a collaborative, ongoing process, Shutterstock)

As chief people officer at Personal Group, it was a moment of huge pride when we were recognised as one of the best places to work by The Sunday Times.

To reach the levels of engagement, satisfaction, trust and recognition we enjoy today does not happen by accident, or overnight, and reflects a commitment from everyone across the business.

The accreditation is also a reminder of an important truth: you never win at workplace culture, because it never finishes.

The organisations achieving the strongest engagement outcomes are not running better surveys or offering more perks.

They are creating environments built on trust, psychological safety and meaningful recognition, and that’s an ongoing process.

Psychological safety

Creating high levels of trust and psychological safety enables people to be themselves, which in turn allows them to perform at their best, speak up, ask for help, share ideas and discuss challenges without fear of judgment or negative consequence.

Being open about neurodiversity, caring responsibilities or menopause-related challenges isn’t just a managerial box-ticking exercise; it creates strong opportunities for managers to make adjustments and for employees to thrive.

Microsoft’s neurodiversity hiring programme has helped create more inclusive recruitment and support practices for employees with different cognitive strengths, for example.

I also know that Unilever has strengthened its support for carers through flexible working and enhanced family policies, while Vodafone was among the first to introduce menopause support programmes with manager training and practical guidance.

These are big companies making brave changes.

Listening to our people

One of the most common mistakes organisations make is treating employee feedback as an annual survey event, rather than a process. High-performing organisations are continuously listening, gathering feedback regularly through multiple channels and acting upon it visibly.

Across the employers we work with, the strongest engagement outcomes tend to come from organisations that are transparent about what they have heard and how they plan to act. Equally importantly, they are honest about what cannot change immediately and why.

Employees do not expect every suggestion to be implemented. What they do expect is to feel heard, because that grows trust.

The most effective organisations are investing heavily in developing managers who can listen well, encourage challenge and create opportunities for ongoing dialogue.

Forensic focus

Perhaps the biggest shift among leading employers is how they are using employee data. With increasingly diverse workforces, organisations can no longer rely on top-line engagement scores alone.

The most effective HR teams analyse data by gender, ethnicity, age, role, seniority, tenure and career aspirations, increasingly applying an intersectional lens to understand how our different groups experience the workplace.

Use the top-line data, and you get a pencil sketch. Add a more detailed analysis, and you get an architectural drawing.

The organisations making the greatest progress are those willing to interrogate the data deeply and challenge assumptions.

Honesty matters here in two important ways. First, organisations should never be afraid to adapt the questions they ask to reflect the specific or changing challenges they face.

Nor should they shy away from asking difficult questions, including those that hold senior leaders accountable.

Second, employees should never feel under pressure to provide positive feedback. The moment people believe there is a ‘correct’ answer, authenticity disappears, and the data loses its value.

The most successful organisations understand that difficult feedback is often the most valuable feedback, and that only honest responses provide a roadmap for improvement.

The power of recognition

The final piece of the puzzle, but by no means the least important, is recognition, one of the most underappreciated drivers of engagement, retention and performance.

The most effective recognition cultures are inclusive and accessible to everyone because recognition should flow in every direction: peer-to-peer, manager-to-employee, cross-functional and team-to-team. Crucially, recognition should not be reserved for exceptional achievements.

Everyday appreciation often has the greatest impact because it reinforces positive behaviours and helps employees feel seen.

Whether it takes the form of a simple thank you, public acknowledgement, a small reward or a more formal programme, recognition creates a sense of belonging, strengthens relationships, builds trust and contributes to a culture where people feel motivated to go above and beyond and give their best.

Turning culture into performance

At Personal Group, these lessons shape not only how we approach our own culture but also the conversations we have every day with employers across the UK.

The organisations recognised as great places to work have one thing in common: they understand that culture is built through thousands of everyday interactions.

It is shaped by the conversations managers have with their teams, the way feedback is handled, the support offered when people face challenges, and the recognition given when they succeed.

They also recognise that every day the workplace evolves and their employees’ expectations change, and so they need to keep listening, learning and adapting.