Building workforce trust: A narrative shaped and owned by leaders

KUALA LUMPUR, 18 July 2024 – A workforce in a high-trust organisation is 13x more likely to believe that the company will reward efforts fairly in the future than a low-trust organisation, according to PwC Malaysia's latest report in collaboration with the Asia School of Business (ASB). 

The report, titled 'Leading the leap: Trust-driven strategies to shape reinvention', is based on a survey among PwC Malaysia's Building Trust Awards 2023 finalists, as part of PwC's Building Trust programme. 

The report explores the attributes of a workforce in a high-trust organisation, one where employees are more willing to be open and vulnerable to leaders' decisions. It reveals important insights on business reinvention, an area of concern for CEOs. 

Polling over 11,000 employees in Malaysia, the report assesses the level of employees’ trust and their daily experiences in relation to their workplace social relationships. Their views were supplemented by interviews with business leaders. 

The report was launched this morning at an event attended by C-suites and senior decision-makers in Corporate Malaysia, and academicians. The event featured a panel discussion with Prof. Dr. Michael Frese, Professor of Management at the Asia School of Business, Lai Pei-Si, Chief Executive Officer of GXBank and Arien Zackary Ritzal, Chief Talent Officer of Gentari. The panel was moderated by Pauline Ho, Assurance Partner and the Building Trust Programme Sponsor at PwC Malaysia.

Behaviours around responding to new innovations were intriguing, in particular artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, where employees in high-trust organisations were observed to be 8x more likely to adopt AI in the workplace, and 6x more likely to seek out new ways to learn and innovate, compared to employees in low-trust organisations.  

Pauline Ho underscored the continuous journey of building trust within organisations:

‘Just like innovation, the journey to build trust is never linear. High-trust organisations need to continuously make efforts to earn the trust of their workforce. This is an age where a workforce in a high-trust organisation will support sustainability strategies. Our research shows they are 7x more likely to support the company's efforts to conserve the environment. The responsibility for such transformation initiatives rests with the leaders, and the buck needs to stop with them.

Our collaboration with the Asia School of Business, a thought leader in the area of organisational behaviour and leadership has been enriching, aligning perfectly with PwC's efforts to expand our body of research on trust.’

Imperatives for leading with trust

The study recognises that trust is built over time, reinforcing the need for it to be embedded in the company's DNA. 

In terms of technology, this includes responsible and effective use by employees, and making this a pivotal part of organisational culture. A fundamental way to ease the transition towards embracing a new technology is being transparent about how the organisation is focusing on progress, accepting failures as part of growth,  instead of striving for perfection, and sharing early success stories. 

In terms of sustainability, the study signals a need for a customised approach in engaging the workforce, making it clear that every single activity across the organisation has an impact on sustainability goals, for instance indicators of ethical business practices. Employees need to be emotionally connected to the overarching sustainability goals of the business, which makes it easier for them to embrace the necessary changes. This is in line with findings from a 2023 PwC survey 'Driving trust from the top' where employees were observed to pay more attention to the behaviours that directly impact their lives. 74% of respondents cited ensuring employee safety and wellbeing at work as an action that earns their trust in an organisation's sustainability commitment.

Professor Yi-Ren Wang, Associate Professor I of Organisational Behaviour at Asia School of Business highlighted key factors from the survey that influence an organisation's readiness to reinvent. She stated:

‘From the survey, we established that several key factors impact an organisation's readiness to reinvent. Notably, positive employee behaviours need to be reinforced through a fair and just rewards system; the absence of which may result in them being 6.68x more likely to distrust their company. 

As the search for value and fairness intensifies, organisations also need to be mindful of interpersonal justice - that is - the degree of respect, dignity and sensitivity shown to employees. It is timely to explore the relationship between a high-trust organisation's workforce and business reinvention, to pave the way for more meaningful discourse on trustworthiness among Malaysian organisations.’

As there is no one-size-fits-all model for building trust, the onus is on business leaders to consistently refine their approach to earn the trust of their employees in this volatile environment. An organisation's competitive advantage lies in its ability to be more receptive to a leader's decisions and how it demonstrates resilience to the turbulence that often accompanies new strategies.

ENDS