The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a global decline in employee trust, with only 75% believing their employers “do the right thing,” signaling a critical trust gap.
This HR Spotlight article gathers insights from business leaders and HR professionals on practical steps to rebuild trust.
From transparent communication and authentic leadership to creating safe feedback channels and consistent follow-through, these experts share strategies to address skepticism while aligning with business goals.
Their actionable approaches, like visible micro-consistency and employee-centric platforms, offer a roadmap to foster loyalty, enhance engagement, and close the trust gap in today’s dynamic workplace.
Read on!
Jared Pope
Founder & CEO, Work Shield
In light of growing concern around employee trust, one of the most important and actionable steps a company can take is ensuring employees feel heard and protected.
Create a Work Shield to help organizations foster workplaces of integrity and trust by giving employees a secure way to report misconduct–without fear of retaliation.
As the first and only end-to-end third-party misconduct management solution, Work Shield demonstrates a company’s genuine commitment to integrity, which is essential to rebuilding trust.
Secure Reporting Rebuilds Employee Trust
The only way to really rebuild this kind of trust is to actually do the right thing.
From an employee’s perspective, that means being loyal to them, but it can also mean taking moral stands that align with employee values and even making smart business decisions.
Whatever you do, don’t start talking about how moral and trustworthy you are in your internal communications. Let your actions speak for themselves.
Trust is Built by Actions, not Words
Spencer Romenco
Chief Growth Strategist, Growth Spurt
Trust is hard-earned currency in marketing, and it’s not limited to customer relationships, it starts internally.
At our company, we help brands rebuild consumer trust by being there as human, authentic, and transparent.
Employees are the first ambassadors, so trust issues internally have the potential to impact everything externally, specifically how a brand is received by customers.
When we’re talking about rebuilding trust in DTC brands, we’re not giving get-your-corporate-gloss-on PR phrases or “brand tone” tweaks. What we do is tell the truth, show the flaws, and speak openly about product testing, sourcing, and how we set prices.
My number one strategy for trust-building I have discovered is authentic content, whether it’s UGC reviews, behind-the-scenes content, or real-life usage scenarios.
On top of that, we have seen customers get real traction with open talk in their marketing. Instead of hawking perfection, we show customers real problems being solved in real life.
Customers do not require perfection, customers require brands to take responsibility and make something that resonates for them. That’s how you approach trust not through guarantees, but through open books.
So, sure, you can’t simply hang a “We Care About Trust” sign on your page and call it a day, but you can align your people around your brand story because trust starts inside and extends outside.
No company rebuilds trust without genuine alignment on values and communication, internally and externally.
Authentic Content Rebuilds Brand Trust
Where trust is the basis of how we support both clients and employees.
Trust can be rebuilt with employees through continued transparent communication. When decision-makers communicate not just their successes but also their setbacks, they minimize uncertainty and build trust. We regularly and openly discuss with our teams, and this is true even when we don’t share good news.
One of the ways I do this is through regular weekly check-ins which allows for feedback to flow both ways. This allows us to build a culture of feedback where people know they were valued and heard.
Trust is earned under specific actions that align with your words. This means that doing what you say you will is critical.
It is about creating an environment of stability and reliability where employees can speak openly and their contribution is valued. This simple practice significantly increased our trust and engagement within the team.
Transparent Communication Rebuilds Employee Trust
Matt Bowman
CEO & Founder, Thrive Local
After 18 years leading a business with both local and global teams, I’ve learned that rebuilding trust isn’t about grand gestures—it’s about MICRO-CONSISTENCY. Start by over-communicating decisions and the “why” behind them.
Second, put faces to leadership. Let teams hear from people, not departments. I’ve held weekly 15-minute “Ask Me Anything” calls across time zones—those built more goodwill than any memo ever could.
Third, own your missteps publicly and promptly. “We got this wrong. Here’s what we’re doing to fix it,” earns more loyalty than spin.
Trust Rebuilds Through Micro-Consistency
Bennett Barrier
Chief Executive Officer, DFW Turf
I run a field-heavy business in Texas. Turf crews, site leads, logistics. Not a Fortune 500, but we’ve got boots on the ground year-round. And I’ll tell you what erodes trust fastest: telling your team something’s handled when it isn’t. No survey, memo, or bonus program makes up for that.
We had a stretch where we overpromised on equipment upgrades. Said new trucks were coming, better blade kits were ordered, and schedule shifts were being reviewed. None of it hit the calendar fast enough. Morale dipped, not because the gear was late, but because guys stopped believing what leadership said.
So, we scrapped the big talk and flipped the play. We now use what we call visible proof updates.
If we say something’s coming, new trailer, adjusted start time, pay structure tweak, we show the change in writing, confirm it twice, and let crews see the impact within a week. No vague rollouts. No in Q3 noise.
Trust doesn’t drop because people are ungrateful. It drops because they hear one thing and see another.
You want to fix that gap? Get small promises right, every time. If the word doesn’t match the walk, no survey metric’s going to save you. That’s the part the trust barometers miss; it’s not the culture slides that count. It’s the follow-through that lands.
Visible Proof Builds Trust and Follow-Through
Walt Brown
Founder, Walt Brown
Start by listening—really listening.
Run a simple, anonymous BITE7 survey to understand where trust is breaking down across the Seven Critical Needs: Belonging, Belief, Accountability, Measurement, Being Heard, Development, and Balance. Don’t guess. Measure.
Then, act with transparency. Share the results with your team. Own the gaps. Pick one issue and fix it visibly. Small, consistent wins rebuild trust faster than grand gestures.
And finally, tighten your structure. When people know who’s doing what, how decisions are made, and that leadership follows through, trust follows.
Listen, Act, Structure to Rebuild Trust
Jennifer Mihajlov
EVP North America, Leading Workplace
Rebuilding trust begins with consistent transparency and authentic communication. Employees need ongoing opportunities for real-time feedback, not just annual surveys to feel genuinely heard.
AI-powered platforms that capture employee insights continuously and enable leaders to respond quickly and personally to concerns are essential.
Trust grows when employees see clear follow-through on commitments and receive recognition tailored to their individual contributions. Equally important is leadership modeling accountability by admitting mistakes and demonstrating a sincere commitment to improvement.
This continuous cycle of listening, acting, and communicating builds a foundation where employees feel valued and secure, effectively closing the trust gap and fostering a culture of loyalty and engagement.
Consistent Transparency Rebuilds Employee Trust
David Rice
HR Expert, People Managing People
Moving people along in their career journeys in a way that maintains trust you’re building through empathy and transparency will require some coaching and investment in training.
Being transparent is great, but if you don’t back it up by showing people you value them by investing in their skills, then why wouldn’t they jump to the next logical conclusion, which is at some point you’re not going to need them? That’s what they’re used to hearing and the leader’s tone on this has not been helpful thus far.
Neither has the decision-making in many sectors where organizations have blindly adopted AI at the expense of people. But in any case, people think they can’t trust the organization that leaves them to figure out how to do all of this on their own.
So you’ve got to help them see it and give them the resources to make the necessary moves to get to where they need to go.
Transparency Needs Investment in People’s Skills
Rabbi Shlomo Slatkin
Certified Imago Therapist & Advanced Clinician, The Marriage Restoration Project
In our work, we’ve seen that the first step to rebuilding trust is creating a safe space for honest, non-defensive dialogue. That means leaders have to go first—they must show humility, take ownership of mistakes, and invite feedback without punishing vulnerability.
From there, consistency becomes key. Trust doesn’t come back all at once—it’s rebuilt one interaction at a time. I often say, ‘The repair is more important than the rupture.’ So don’t aim for perfection—aim for presence. Show up, listen deeply, and make integrity visible through your actions.
Rebuilding Trust: Intentional Effort, Not Time
The HR Spotlight team thanks these industry leaders for offering their expertise and experience and sharing these insights.
Do you wish to contribute to the next HR Spotlight article? Or is there an insight or idea you’d like to share with readers across the globe?
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