A new report from Great Place To Work®, a UKG company, underscores a compelling trend: trust isn’t just a feel-good factor—it’s a powerful business driver. The Great Place To Work Effect Playbook: How Building Trust Fuels Growth draws on millions of employee survey responses across the U.S., showing that companies with high-trust cultures outperform peers in revenue, stock performance, innovation, agility, and resilience.
Trust Translates to Tangible Results
The data is striking:
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Revenue per employee (RPE) at Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® averages $883,928, compared to $104,030 across the broader U.S. market.
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Cumulative stock returns are 3.5x higher over 27 years for high-trust companies versus the top 1,000 U.S. companies by market cap.
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Innovation and agility soar, with 80% of employees at high-trust companies quickly adapting to change and generating 5.5x more revenue growth.
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Discretionary effort rises 42%, while collaboration jumps nearly 30%.
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During crises like the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, high-trust firms not only survived—they thrived, achieving cumulative returns 2,000% higher than peers.
“In today’s climate of constant disruption, trust isn’t a soft skill—it’s a business accelerator,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. “Leaders who earn trust by listening, adapting, and owning the employee experience are unlocking performance at every level.”
Real-World Impact
Companies like Trek, Hilton, and Delta Air Lines illustrate the Great Place To Work Effect in action. Trek’s CEO, John Burke, points to a direct correlation between leadership trust scores and business outcomes: “You can go leader by leader. The best leaders have the best Great Place To Work scores.”
Hilton consistently ranks at the top of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, linking employee trust to impressive stock performance. Delta attributes much of its customer satisfaction and profitability to the trusted, high-performing workforce cultivated through a focus on trust and culture.
The Great Place To Work Effect Playbook provides actionable strategies for leaders to build trust, showing that when employees trust their leaders, they don’t just work harder—they work smarter, faster, and better.
As workplace culture becomes a critical differentiator in competitive markets, these insights make a strong case for embedding trust as a core business strategy, connecting employee engagement directly to measurable financial and operational outcomes.
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