My Employer became the linchpin of Trust during the Covid-19 pandemic; this elevated position is now under threat. Edelman’s latest Trust at Work study, which surveyed over 10,000 employees across ten markets, finds many employees destabilized by change, with trust in leaders, acceptance of innovation, and commitment to the employer all at risk.
We observe the first statistically significant year-to-year drop in trust in My Employer since August 2024, with large declines in China (-11 points)and Germany (-5 points). Workplace relationships are splintering: In the same time period, trust in My CEO has declined from 70% to 66%, in my co-workers a decline from 82% to 73%, in my direct manager from 79% to 72% -- each a record low in our data series.
The workplace is in flux, with 76% of respondents saying that they have experienced at least one transformation in the past twelve months, including over 90% of executives, 86% of mid-level managers and 61% of associates. The most prevalent transformation that employees experienced is implementation of AI (53%), followed by strategy shifts (47%). Companies in the developing world are more likely to undergo multidimensional transformation, as the majority of employees in India and UAE, and more than 40% in Brazil, South Africa and China report three or more firmwide changes in the past year. Transformation is justified by tangible outcomes such as company competitiveness and survival, not by improved shareholder value or political headwinds.
It must be presented as an opportunity for productivity and wellbeing, not a disruption or AI revolution.
Not everyone is being brought along. One in three reports that their overall transformation experience was not positive. This is more evident in developed markets such as Germany (47%), Canada (44%), Japan (44%) and the UK (37%). Associates (49%) are three times more likely to have a less than positive experience in transformation than executives (17%) or mid-level employees (26%).
All of this is occurring at a time of multiplying workplace concerns. Job loss fears have escalated, with three quarters of workers fearing unemployment due to tariffs, automation, offshoring, and lack of training. There is a twenty-one-plus-point gap between what employees expect for compensation and internal mobility versus what employers deliver. The data indicates a chilling of workplace conversation, where the employee feels much less comfortable discussing societal issues they disagree with colleagues on like discrimination (down nine points, to 56%) and climate change (down six points, to 65%) since 2022. Six in ten employees fear that they are being monitored by their employer without their consent: This is more the case in developing markets (India 80%, UAE 74%, S. Africa 71%) and among executives (71%) than associates (50%).
It is clear: Transformation can divide or unite an organization. We already know that many are skeptical of whether leaders are telling the truth about what’s really going on. Poor transformation experiences take a toll on trust in leadership; there is a 33-point drop in trust in My CEOs (from 82% among those who had a positive experience to 49% among those who had a negative experience) and 25-point drop in trust in My Manager (from 85% to 60%). Insularity raises its ugly head in poor transformation, with a 27-point drop in trust in co-workers with different values (from 77% to 50%). Those with a negative transformation experience are two times less likely than those with a positive experience to embrace increased AI use in the workplace (from 40% to 18%). By contrast, with positive transformation experiences, employees will go above what’s expected to help the company succeed (26 point increased effort from 57% among those who had a negative experience to 83% among those who had a positive experience) and are committed to a long-term career at the company (32 point increase from 51% to 83%).
Business has been on a great run as the most trusted institution. But transformation is the hinge point, the litmus test. If transformation goes poorly, it will go back to all the bad things once assumed about business — profits over people, employees are just numbers, and the like. That’s why this moment is crucial: It’s the central business leadership challenge of our moment. It can drive a wedge in your organization or accelerate its growth. To succeed, truth well told, commitment to reskilling, employee agency and empathetic leadership must be the game plan.
Richard Edelman is CEO.
