How to Build Trust with Employees Through Recognition, Transparency and Shared Success

Full Webinar Transcript

Transcript lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the speakers’ meaning and conversational tone.

Welcome and Introductions

Anne Cesak: Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining us this afternoon or this morning, whatever it might be, wherever you are. Thank you for joining us for our October Insights Webinar. I can’t believe it’s October already. This is the next in our series where we take a closer look at something we call the Great Place To Work Effect. This session is really designed as a conversation with HR and leaders, to share stories and some learning that you can maybe take back and implement at your workplace.

My name is Anne Cesak. I’m with Great Place To Work Canada. I’m a senior consultant here, also a Certified Human Resources Leader here in Ontario, and I’m going to be your host today.

At Great Place To Work, our mission is to build a better world by helping organizations become great places to work for all. We do that by helping organizations, giving them the tools to assess the workplace experience of employees and then also to act on that data. Really important that we act on it. And we believe that trust is at the heart of an exceptional workplace.

Before we start today, just a couple of things. Please use the Q&A if there’s anything that you wanted to talk about. Merve is behind the scenes. She’s a member of our team, and I’m really happy to have her with us supporting today. And if you have anything for the chat, just pop that in. I do see that we’ve got people from across Canada already joining us, so thank you very much for doing that.

As I said, our theme for this year has been the Great Place To Work Effect. It’s really the idea that leaders build trust, trust shapes culture, and culture drives performance. And today, what we’re going to be talking about is building employee trust through recognition, transparency and shared success. We’re going to have a great conversation, lots to talk about there. Right before we get into meeting our panelists, I’m just going to get us all anchored in again on what we call the Great Place To Work Effect, and then we’ll have this conversation with our panelists.

The Great Place To Work Effect

Anne Cesak: So let me just share my screen. I love technology. There we go. I’m going to share that.

So what we’re looking at is, again, the Great Place To Work Effect. So what is that? Well, the Great Place To Work Effect, as you can see here: great starts with leadership. A recent study that I saw, I believe Gallup put out the data, found that 70% of an employee’s experience is influenced by their leader and leadership. That’s a huge number, right? There’s a lot of accountability on leaders’ shoulders, and on recognizing the impact that they have.

So great starts with leadership. And why? Because leadership [creates] experience. Something that we do here at Great Place To Work is help organizations measure that experience: the day-to-day of what’s going on in employees’ experience at work. And experience is important because experience shapes culture. If you’ve heard me before, you’ve heard me say that culture is an outcome. It’s an outcome of the behaviours that we reward, encourage or ignore. It’s how stuff gets done around here. It’s those norms and traditions in an organization that people quickly pick up on, right? And culture is important because it drives performance. Whether you’re for-profit, nonprofit or a charity, all organizations have performance metrics. So it’s really looking at how our leadership, the experience and culture impact that overall performance.

Really quickly, I’ll go to our next slide. I’m sorry. We have identified nine what we call high-trust leader behaviours. We’re not going to go into them all today; we’ve just listed them here: listening, speaking, inspiring, caring, developing, thanking, sharing, celebrating, hiring. We are going to touch on several of them today, and we have touched on others in some of the other webinars we’ve done this year.

And there’s that experience. At Great Place To Work, we’re looking at trust. We’re going to be talking about trust today, right? It’s trusting in leadership. We also look at pride, camaraderie and “for all.” It’s one thing to be a great place to work on average, and it’s another thing to be a great place to work for all, where everyone feels valued and they can contribute fully.

And there’s that culture piece, right? Lots of organizations will describe their culture as maybe collaborative, innovative or agile; there’s opportunity, belonging, well-being. So as HR professionals and leaders, it’s looking at: how are people currently describing the culture, and how would we like people to be describing that culture? If there’s a gap, taking action to close that gap.

And there’s that performance piece, right? Again, whatever’s on your dashboard, whatever your organization is tracking to ensure that you’re a successful organization, a sustainable organization. We think about organizations regardless of whether you’ve got five employees or you’ve got 10,000, right? How are we ensuring that we have a sustainable organization?

Meet the Panelists

Anne Cesak: So I’m going to stop sharing that, and now we’re going to talk to the people you actually came here to listen to, and I’m going to do some introductions. I’m really happy to be joined today by Alexandra (Alex) Tillo, the Senior Talent Marketing Consultant at Indeed Canada. Indeed is the world’s number one job site and a global leader in job matching and hiring, operating in over 60 countries. Welcome back, Alex. Happy to have you.

Alexandra Tillo: Thank you, Anne.

Anne Cesak: And then also we have Masa Idelbi. She is the Executive Vice President of People and Culture at Entrust Disability Services. Since 1997, Entrust has provided personalized disability services in Edmonton and Calgary through long-term supportive group homes and comprehensive programming. Masa, nice to have you joining us from Alberta today.

Sorry, and I cut you off, Alex, so I apologize. But we will hear from everybody.

And then Amanda Porowski-Downey, Director of Talent, Onboarding and Life Cycle, North America, with OSL Retail Services, which was established in 2012. They specialize in providing clients with customized strategic sales solutions in retail, direct sales, merchandising and customer acquisition. Amanda and Alex, I want to thank you both as well, because you’ve been with us before and shared some great insights. So it’s nice to have you both back today.

What’s Taking Up Space in Your Brain Right Now?

Anne Cesak: All right. Now, what I like to do when we start off these panels is just ask a very broad question, and that is: what’s taking up space in your brain right now when it comes to the work that you’re doing and the employees that you’re interacting with? So, Alex, I’m going to start with you, and any insights from Indeed and the clients you’ve been talking to. What are you hearing?

Alexandra Tillo: Yeah, so I actually speak to both sides of the marketplace. I spend a lot of time with employers, I would say the majority, but we also have a lot of studies where we listen to job seekers, candidates and employees. I’m trying to really hear both sides and give that insight to employers and job seekers.

And what I find interesting right now is there’s a tension between what I’m hearing employers need, whether it’s from a candidate or their employees, and what people need from their employers. Right now, companies are asking employees to adapt a lot. We have AI that’s changing a lot of business priorities, and there are new ways of working, and I’m often hearing employees saying, “I’m being asked to do more with less.” And from our work well-being research at Indeed, we’ve noticed that the number one daily stressor for people is work.

So I think it’s really important for employers to ask themselves if they’re creating a workspace where people can thrive. And to have employers asking themselves as well whether they’re not just asking employees to keep adapting, but creating that environment for people to be able to adapt: feeling safe, trusting their leadership. It really helps with adopting whatever they’re being asked for.

Because I do see a lot of employers who have great employer branding. I see great career opportunities and, oftentimes, really strong purpose statements within their employer value proposition. But I really want employers to think about the day-to-day experience they give to their people, because if that doesn’t match the promise, people will notice. And we’re talking about trust today, and I really do think that’s where trust starts to really matter.

Anne Cesak: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you for sharing that there’s this gap between maybe what employers are looking for and what employees are looking for. Masa, what’s going on in your head? What are you thinking about?

Masa Idelbi: Right. What keeps me thinking is whether organizations are developing their people quickly enough to meet their growing expectations. At Entrust, we are seeing something really encouraging. More and more of our employees, whom we proudly call Entrusters, are proactively reaching out, asking how they can grow their leadership potential with us. They’re not simply looking for another paycheque. They want purpose, development, recognition and a future with Entrust.

So my challenge is: how do we turn that ambition into opportunity while ensuring our leaders have the capabilities to support it? Because when talented employees stop seeing a future with us, they start imagining one somewhere else.

Anne Cesak: Right. Right. Okay, interesting. So, developing people for the future and ensuring that they see potential with the organization. And Amanda, how about you? What are you seeing and hearing?

Amanda Porowski-Downey: Very similar, from all those perspectives. As OSL is a growing company, we are often in the same struggle of being asked to do more with less. With that point, I just always try to hearken back to my own experience. It’s putting that trust into the narrative: when I started with the organization, I looked after only one client, but as I grew, I was always the individual putting up my hand to take on those new opportunities, and I’ve been able to advance in my role.

So it’s really trying to show the proof of why, sometimes, taking on those stretch goals and working through new opportunities is going to be rewarding. And it’s really tying it back to that personal ROI. It’s not just that you’re helping the company to succeed. You’re going to learn so much in taking on these new programs, these new clients, whatever it might be. And then that is going to succeed not only for yourself, in having been able to achieve that, but also in your career.

Poll: What Has the Biggest Impact on Employee Trust?

Anne Cesak: Nice. Okay. Yes, I’m hearing developing leadership. Again, we’re going to be talking about that trust.

Before we get into my first question with the panel, I’m going to launch a poll, or actually, Merve’s going to help me out and launch a poll here, because we want to understand from the folks who’ve joined us today: what do you feel has the biggest impact on employee trust? We’ve got some choices here, and you can pick all of them if you want to. What has the biggest impact on employee trust? Consistent recognition and appreciation; honest and transparent communication; opportunities to contribute and be heard; leaders following through on commitments. Or is it all of them? And if there’s anything that’s missing from here, pop that in the chat as well. This is an opportunity to learn from each other. So we’ll just give everybody a couple of minutes to provide some feedback on this. What has the biggest impact on employee trust?

That’s a tough one.

Alexandra Tillo: Yeah, I know. Right off the bat. I like that you added “all of them,” because I’m not sure you had that choice before.

Anne Cesak: Yeah. So we can probably close that now, Merve, and then we’ll see what people... Oh, all of them. 59%, all of them. Yeah, not surprising.

But again, trust doesn’t just exist by itself, right? There are so many ways that we can build trust with whoever is in our lives, whether it’s at work or in our personal lives. Trust is one of those things where you have it until it’s broken, right? And then there’s the “how do we repair it,” kind of.

So let me just go into the first question. [Reading a comment from the chat] “Also, caring culture, caring about the employee and the community, is also important when it comes to trust.” Yes, thank you for sharing that.

The Biggest Factor Influencing Trust

Anne Cesak: Now, in your own organizations, what is the biggest factor that influences trust? So, Amanda, I’ll start with you. In your organization, what do you think is the biggest factor influencing trust?

Amanda Porowski-Downey: I think it’s many things. Just to the original point, the expectations of individuals have changed. We’re no longer in a society where we just believe that leaders are going to act in our best interest. We want to have that proven to us. And to that point, you need to have that trust in the individual. Some of that comes through being given ownership and empowerment to make changes; having that trust of your leader, but also the honesty, if there is an opportunity, if something could have been done differently, or there are just opportunities across the board. Having that honest feedback loop, not only from the manager to the employee, but also from that employee to the leader.

That’s really one thing that I try to make sure of, something that not only I lead by but that OSL tries to lead by as well: the model of front, beside and behind. As we’re empowering our teams, in some cases they’re going to need us to stand in front. We’re going to take the hit. We’re going to field difficult questions. Other times, we’re going to walk alongside them. We’re going to make sure that they have the support and we’re guiding them down that path. And in other cases, I’m just going to stand completely behind and let them go. Maybe they’re going to trip a little bit along the way, but it’s going to be a great learning, and they’re going to know so much more through that experience than they ever could in the past.

And we’ve done a lot of development for our teams and for our leaders as part of that whole thing, because it’s not just a matter of employees looking to come in, clock in, clock out. They want to know that they’re getting something out of that daily work, whether it’s that recognition, the trust, a rewarding experience. That really has to come through.

Anne Cesak: Yeah, love that. Thank you. And thank you for breaking it down: front, beside, behind. I think that’s something that the folks who are joining us today could maybe take back and look at with their own teams.

I’m going to talk about Gen Z for a second, because some recent research has shown that for that generation, the top three motivators are: number one, meaningful work, and you talked about that, Amanda; number two is psychological safety; and number three is confidence in the executive team. So going back to what you were talking about with that feedback loop and having those conversations, a critical piece of that is psychological safety. What does that look like in our organization? How do we define it? So thank you for sharing that.

And Masa, how about you? What’s the biggest factor influencing trust in your organization right now?

Masa Idelbi: I believe employees are constantly asking themselves: Am I valued? Am I treated fairly? And can I trust my leaders to do what they say? So you have an impressive mission statement and beautiful values on your walls. But if employees see high performers overlooked, promotions awarded without clear criteria, or poor performance continuously tolerated, trust starts to erode.

So at Entrust, we are working to take the subjectivity out of the equation. We have undertaken a massive job analysis initiative to better understand the responsibilities, frequency and complexity of each role. We have also introduced competency-based hiring scorecards, clear leadership expectations and measurable KPIs to strengthen fairness and accountability in how we hire, promote and recognize our people. So trust is built when employees see fairness in action, not just fairness in policy.

Anne Cesak: Right. Right. And just, Masa, how many employees do you have?

Masa Idelbi: A thousand. Over a thousand.

Anne Cesak: Yeah. And Amanda, is it over five?

Amanda Porowski-Downey: 9,000 employees.

Anne Cesak: 9,000. Sorry. Yeah. So these are large organizations, where you’ve got some big, overarching policies, programs, those types of things.

Masa, I’m going to jump on something you said, because I think Amanda, or sorry, Alex, alluded to it earlier. It’s that gap between what was promised. So, I applied for a job, and this was it, and I went through this process and it sounded like this, and then I got into the role and it wasn’t quite what I expected. So I’m hearing a bit of that. So, Alex, how about you, in your research?

Alexandra Tillo: Yeah, I mean, I agree with both, definitely. Again, it depends on, you mentioned, the size of the company, and the way you communicate or live your trust is a bit different. But I think regardless of industry, even market size, consistency, I would say, is the biggest factor. Because if you’re doing things right but only once, then you kind of lose the trust if you see a change in behaviour.

And to what Masa just said, when I look at organizations and the way you present yourself, whether it’s the job description that you just mentioned, Masa, or your employer brand, we see what it is to work for us: companies talking about their culture, trying to explain their values or what growth looks like in the company. But then the way you experience it in the organization is through management. And you were talking about it, and even Amanda, you alluded to it: making sure everyone is trained properly, so the managers have that consistency as well. What’s the workload? How are decisions made? What support do you give to your employees?

There are good benefits; we all love offering benefits and talking about work-life balance. But in the day-to-day, do employees feel respected? We were talking about purpose. It always looks bright and shiny on paper, but is the work really meaningful? And as well, what does success look like? Because it’s one thing to have those beautiful ROIs or statistics, but what does it actually look like in terms of recognition? It’s not just because you achieve, let’s say you’re selling something, big numbers. It could even be the way you participated in the success. You might not be the one who signed the contract yet, but you participated in it. So what does it actually look like? And think about that workload as well, taking into consideration the well-being of your employees.

So I think it’s not just about the promise. It’s more about the consistency throughout your organization, from the top down, and through the little things you achieve every day. Not just the big achievement at the end of a project, but trying to be consistent in your communication and celebrating every little thing that’s happening every day.

Anne Cesak: Absolutely. It’s the power of moments. There’s a book by Chip and Dan Heath, The Power of Moments. And when you think about culture, that’s, again, that outcome, right? And then there’s the climate. If you think about the climate, like today, it’s cloudy where I am; tomorrow it’s going to be sunny. That changes. But over time, if it was cloudy every day, every day, every day, then you start to kind of feel it, right? So if we think about our cultures or our organizations that way, in terms of culture and climate... Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. Apologies. But it is, it’s the power of moments.

The Power of Recognition and Its Impact on Trust

Anne Cesak: So I wanted to ask now, you mentioned recognition, Alex, so I’m going to go to that. Talk about the power of recognition and the impact on employee trust. Amanda, I’m going to go to you first, because the theme of our session today is really around recognition, trust and communication. So talk to us about recognition and the impact it has on trust.

Amanda Porowski-Downey: Yeah. So we’ve launched our internal program, what we call our Perks program, and that is an avenue where everyone can recognize someone. It can be me recognizing my team, my team recognizing each other, our hiring managers and partners as well. They can go onto that platform and everyone can see it. As part of that, we also have some Perks dollars, where they can build up those funds to then purchase gift cards or activities, et cetera.

But that’s just one avenue. It’s a matter of not just putting out the words, like, “Hey, great job on this.” From my philosophy, you really have to mean what you say and say what you mean. So it’s a matter of really making sure that the message you’re putting out is going to be something that is impactful to that individual. And it can’t just be a one-and-done. You need to be making sure, whether it’s in person or a message on the side or whatever it needs to be, that you’re really recognizing those individuals on your team for that great work done, whether they stepped up in the moment or it’s been a consistent thing that they’ve always delivered. Again, that consistency of messaging needs to come through. It’s not just the fact of, “Oh, I need to do it this month because it’s Perks points time.” No, you need to do it because you’re rewarding someone for doing that great work, and it’s just what you should be doing as a leader.

Anne Cesak: Yeah, absolutely. And Masa, how about you? The impact of recognition on building trust in your organization.

Masa Idelbi: Our Great Place To Work Trust Index survey revealed that our Entrusters were craving genuine connection and two-way communication with the announcements. So what we introduced is informal Friday coffee chats, in person or virtually, no formal agendas, just getting to know our Entrusters as individuals: their aspirations, challenges and what matters to them. So we are building trust one coffee chat at a time.

But we also recognize potential, not just performance. Through Entrust Academy and our leadership development partnership with the University of Alberta, we have recently invested in developing 51 leaders and helping ambitious people prepare for advancing their careers with us. Because you can’t build a high-trust organization with low-trust managers. We work on building that leadership capacity across the organization.

And for me, recognition isn’t only saying thank you for what you have done. It is also saying, “I see what you’re capable of becoming, and I’m willing to invest in you.” For me, that’s a powerful form of recognition that many organizations don’t spend time handling or thinking about often.

Anne Cesak: Yeah, and thank you for sharing that, because you’re absolutely right. For folks joining us today, it’s looking at recognition very broadly, and looking at it in terms of: What does this individual value? How do I recognize this individual? Is it public recognition? Is it private? Is it learning and development? Is it a Perks recognition? What is it that is going to motivate this person to really perform?

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to go through some training with Achievers. They have an online platform for recognition, and I took a few things away, but the one that really stands out with me is: what gets recognized gets repeated. So as organizations, if we are looking for specific behaviours, we need to recognize those behaviours, because they will get repeated.

So, Alex, how about you, when you think about recognition and building trust?

Alexandra Tillo: Yeah, I think with the examples both Amanda and Masa brought, I was like, yes, I agree so much. Because I do think, again, we’re talking about very different companies, but often it’s overcomplicated when we talk about recognition. People think they want to give awards or big public celebrations, but it’s actually much simpler than that. I think both Amanda and Masa gave great examples.

It’s just: be specific. When you want to thank someone, recognize someone, explain what it is that they’ve done that you want to celebrate. Not just, “Hey, let’s celebrate Alex today.” No, you need to explain the why behind it, so other people understand it. And then, again, consistency in the message, transparency in the message: explain why it mattered, why the person is being recognized. And making sure, and I think that’s very important, that the right people know about it. Because it’s [one thing] to talk to a person and to celebrate them, but to Masa’s point earlier, when you’re talking about career progression, you want to make sure that when someone does something right, the right channel of people knows about it.

And as I touched on quickly just before, I think recognition goes beyond the outcome. I think I took the example of signing deals or delivering big results. I often see that the people we sometimes miss are the ones who collaborate, who have mentored others, who have shared knowledge, or who just make the team stronger. I think they’re great people to recognize. They’re not the obvious ones when you look at the results, but they made it happen. They make the company perform day to day. And because sometimes they’re a bit more discreet, we forget about them, but they are the foundation of the performance.

And it helps build trust. Recognizing those people does build trust. People feel seen; they’ll appreciate it. And again, it’s just looking at the human, how they contributed: “Let me explain why I think they deserve recognition. Let me be vocal about it to upper management, why they deserve recognition, not just for the numbers they deliver, but for how they contributed to the success.” So, little tips that I think can make a bit of a difference.

Anne Cesak: Yeah, and it goes back to being a great place to work for all, right? Where we are seeing people and seeing their contributions. Because in many organizations, especially larger ones, it’s the revenue-generating parts of the business that you just tend to hear more about. And those are very important activities, right? The revenue generation helps the rest of us to have jobs, if you look at it from that perspective. But those people who are not part of those departments are still so critical to those people being able to go out and do what they need to do to delight customers and to get those contracts signed and all of those things, right?

So it’s really important, and it’s really going back to purpose too, and helping people to understand: How does the work that I do impact our customer? How does the work that I do impact the end beneficiary of the work that we do, and my colleagues? So recognizing people for their contributions to the organization is really, really critical.

Balancing Transparency and Confidentiality

Anne Cesak: I’m going to switch gears a little bit now. I want to talk about transparency and communication. Masa, I’m going to come to you first. I’ll just ask my question. Employees often say they want greater transparency, right? They want to know sort of everything that’s going on. But how do you balance transparency with the fact that sometimes you can’t share all the details, and people can’t be involved in things? So let’s talk about communication and transparency when it comes to building trust in your organization. Masa, I’ll go to you first.

Masa Idelbi: Right. So this is something we are navigating currently at Entrust, as we work through some organizational change in a unionized environment; we are unionized. Sometimes there are legit reasons why certain information must remain confidential, whether because of ongoing bargaining, in our situation, privacy, or decisions that haven’t been finalized. But confidentiality should never become an excuse for avoiding communication. We can still explain why we are reviewing our structure, what principles are guiding our decisions, when employees can expect another update, and how we will support them throughout the process. So we might not be able to share every decision, but you can always be transparent about your intentions, your processes and your commitment to your people.

Anne Cesak: Wow, I love that. And you got clapping hands there. I don’t know if you saw it, but yeah, very, very powerful. Sometimes you can say, “I don’t know.” Or you can say, “I know, but unfortunately I can’t tell you right now.” And it’s building that foundation of trust. I’ll use Covey for a second, where you’re making deposits into that account, right? Where you’re communicating, or whatever that is. And then you may have to make a withdrawal, but you’ve built that foundation where employees understand, or can appreciate it. Amanda, how about you?

Amanda Porowski-Downey: Yeah, very similar to both of those points. So I’ll just add, from our side, where we’ve really tried to place a focus is making sure that everyone understands they do have a seat at the table to voice opinions, and that we will obviously hear those opinions. We unfortunately may not be able to act on those in every case, but you have been heard. And making sure that the feedback loop is also happening: that we’re not just opening this as an inbox where you can spout all this information and no one’s actually going and listening. We are hearing it. It’s just a matter of it may not work for right now, or it might be because of certain limitations with a program or the structure of the organization that it’s unfortunately not feasible at this time. But just making sure that it’s clear throughout that we respect your opinion and that you should always bring forward those ideas.

Anne Cesak: Right. Right. And going back to that psychological safety, right? I can ask questions, I can offer an opinion, and sometimes there will be action taken and sometimes there won’t. But I feel I had that opportunity. So, Alex, how about you, in the work that you do?

Alexandra Tillo: Yeah. I don’t think transparency means sharing absolutely everything. I think it’s really about helping people understand what’s happening and why decisions are made, and, as you both mentioned, how it affects people. Because sometimes, even myself, in roles I’ve been in, I’ve been in meetings where they’re talking about X, Y, Z, the change they’re making, and I’m like, “Why am I in this? I don’t understand why it will impact me.” And if you want the trust to be built and people to buy into the change, they need to understand why it will directly impact them, whether in the short term, mid-term or long term. Why are you making those decisions? So I think explaining the context is really important.

And to both your points, being clear about what you know and honest about what you don’t know yet, and that’s totally okay. It’s not just about “Let me communicate about absolutely everything.” You might lose trust as well, because people feel like, “Oh, it’s oversharing,” and then they don’t know what really matters and what’s important. It’s noise at the end of the day. It’s really communicating in a way that helps your people understand why you’re making this change, why you’re taking that decision, so they can trust you.

And again, I talked about consistency earlier, but being consistent in what you share, what you don’t share, and the impact of it, why you’re doing it, is really important. And again, it’s okay not to have the answer. I think [leaders] feel that pressure to know absolutely everything, and they’ll prefer to make an answer up, oftentimes, rather than just say, “Hey, you know what, we’re working on this. We’ll get back to you when we can.” Or, you were making a point about the feedback: “That’s something we haven’t thought about before. We haven’t worked on it. Let’s reconvene,” or “We’ll get back to you on it.” I think it goes both ways. Trust is the topic today, and I do think being sincere and being okay with not knowing is part of the trust you build with your employees.

Anne Cesak: Absolutely. Yeah. And I’ll just go back to something else you said, around an expression that I’ve used: every business decision is a people decision. So when you start thinking in those terms, we’re making a business decision, and there is a people element, whether we can see it right now [or not]. It’s there. And so what does that look like, right?

Poll: How Would You Rate Trust in Your Organization?

Anne Cesak: Okay, I want to do one other quick poll. Just for the folks joining us today: how would you rate trust in your organization today? And there’s no “all of the above” this time. It’s very strong; strong but could be improved; mixed across teams; or needs significant improvement. So when you think about your own organization, how would you rate trust?

And I think “mixed across teams,” Alex, goes back to what you were talking about around consistency, right? If we have inconsistent practices, then we would see that mixed across organizations.

Just take a minute to do that. And then I’ve got one more question. I know we have a question in the chat, which is great. I want to make sure we get to that. Okay, Merve, do we want to close that, please? Thank you. All right. So, mixed across teams. Interesting.

So then the opportunity being: how do we close that gap, right? How do we get more information? How do we look to the leaders that have built that trust, and how do we share that across all of our leaders? If we look at our leadership team as a team, and not just individual leaders, how can we replicate that?

Building Trust Through Uncertainty and Change

Anne Cesak: So, something I wanted to talk about, my last question for the panel today: there’s a lot of uncertainty right now. Well, it’s not a question, it’s a statement. Trust is often tested during times of change and uncertainty. So, is there anything different that you’re doing today, Amanda, at OSL, given the current environment? I don’t know if your organization is impacted by the current uncertainty, but...

Amanda Porowski-Downey: Thankfully, at this moment in time, no, we have not been impacted, knocking on wood as we speak. But really, it’s going back to your earlier comment as well, on that bank. I have tried with my leads, with my managers, with the entire team, to really make sure that there has been that foundation of trust: that if there is anything that’s going on, if there are going to be changes or new programs, I will share, again to that point, what I can and when I can. And just know that I am going to be, again, the earlier comment as well, behind, beside and in front of you, making sure that I’m focused on you as a person, not just as someone that is fulfilling our...

Anne Cesak: Right. Nice. And then, Masa, how about you? You mentioned that there may be some changes, that sort of thing, and uncertainty. What I’m hearing from a lot of clients is that employees are experiencing uncertainty within their lives, right? And we are whole people; we bring that to work. So, Masa, what are your thoughts?

Masa Idelbi: Right. So this is what we are going through at Entrust right now. To me, three leadership behaviours become so prominent. First is empathy: putting ourselves in our employees’ shoes. Change might look exciting on a strategic presentation, but to an employee who does not know what is happening to their role, that can be deeply unsettling.

Second, I would say influence. We need to influence in both directions, especially HR professionals: advocating for employees at the executive table while helping them understand what can realistically change and what cannot. So we don’t want to overpromise what we can’t really influence or deliver on.

And third, I would say follow-through. When we commit to making something better, we need to take ownership of delivering on it. Nothing erodes trust faster than empty promises. Employees don’t expect us to control everything, but they should be able to trust that we are advocating for them, we are speaking honestly, and we are keeping our commitments as much as we can.

Anne Cesak: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. And then, Alex, how about you?

Alexandra Tillo: Yeah. Oh, I agree. Well, we talked about consistency. I think the empathy piece is interesting. I think, Anne, when you summarized a point just earlier, you made the point that not everyone will be affected the same way by change. Sometimes you have leaders who make decisions and find them logical at that level, but when you look from the top down, it might be a very different experience for employees. So, just having leaders acknowledge that their life is very different from that of people in the field, at the bottom line. So I think leading with empathy is huge here, and recognizing that difference.

And, Amanda, earlier I think you made a great point as well. Where I think the behaviour of a leader is really, really important in uncertain times is through the feedback, the questions and feedback that you mentioned earlier. I’ve discussed with a lot of companies or leaders that sometimes view questioning as resistance. I often hear, “Oh, my employees are very resistant to change.” And I’m like, are they? Sometimes I find that people who ask questions are just trying to understand. They want to know how, and mapping to empathy: How does it affect me at my level? Is it going to affect the way I do my job? So when there’s this questioning, there’s curiosity behind it, and I really think it’s important to see it as an opportunity to be more clear, versus feeling resistance or negativity.

I think it’s actually a really good indicator when there are questions. It means people are interested. Because when they’re silent, either they don’t believe what you’re saying or there’s disinterest, and I don’t think either of those two is positive.

Anne Cesak: That is such a great call-out, around when there’s silence. Yeah, that’s an indication right there that people either don’t care or they don’t believe you.

One Piece of Advice for Building Trust

Anne Cesak: I know we’ve only got a couple of minutes left, but, sort of a last opportunity for all of you: if you could leave the folks who’ve joined us today with one piece of advice about building trust, what would it be? Amanda, I’ll start with you.

Amanda Porowski-Downey: Well, it’s actually stemming off of what Alex was just talking about in terms of that silence. We’ve done a lot of work this year in terms of trying to build up our leadership bench, and one of those sessions was actually looking at how people learn and understand, and what kind of behaviours they have. And in some cases, and again, I completely agree with the point, Alex, but sometimes the person that’s silent, it’s actually because they’re still processing, and they need the time to really go through that process to then be able to come back with their questions. And there are certain individuals who are going to be really focused on the compassionate side, or, exactly to your point, they have all those questions; they’re really the systematic individual.

That’s one thing that I think has been so foundational for this year, really doing that analysis, because it has impacted the way that I work with my team. I know going in that with this one individual, I’m going to have to have a much more systematic conversation, because they’re going to have the 20 questions. Versus the other, I need to give them a heads-up before the call as to what we’re going to talk about, because they need the time to think through and structure their thoughts to have the most impact.

It might seem initially that that’s a lot of work, to go and do those extra steps, but it’s just showing so much value. I’m seeing the growth in them, how they’re functioning within their role, and how they’re even taking that to their teams and really having a huge impact in that sense as well.

Anne Cesak: Yeah. So the tip there is: get to know your people.

Amanda Porowski-Downey: Exactly.

Anne Cesak: I mean, what you were describing is DISC profiles, or whatever other styles you look at. Do I need more information? Am I going to have a ton of questions? Do I want the data? Really getting to know your people is so important. Thank you for sharing that, Amanda. It’s really relevant.

Alexandra Tillo: And Amanda, when you said that, I was like, yeah, it makes so much sense. We all feel different ways. Someone said, “I think I’m both: I need a heads-up and also have a million questions.” Sorry, I just wanted to highlight that. But yeah, true: giving time for people to process is part of the trust as well.

Anne Cesak: No, that’s definitely a great point. Absolutely. And then, Masa, one thing you’d like to leave with people today?

Masa Idelbi: Right. So I would say quantifying the cost of mistrust. Trust may feel very intangible, but its absence has a real, tangible cost to businesses. Every employee who leaves takes institutional knowledge, relationships, training investments and experience with them. When I first joined Entrust, our turnover was 49%. So nearly one in two employees was leaving annually. That’s a costly revolving door, particularly in the disability sector, where continuing care matters a lot. So through intentional investment in employee experience and leadership development, we reduced our turnover from 49% to 23% in just two years.

So my advice is: connect the human impact of mistrust to its business cost. If you want decision-makers to invest in trust, learn to speak both the language of people and the language of business. Building trust isn’t just the right thing to do for people. It is also a smart business decision as well.

Anne Cesak: Wow. Love that. Thank you for sharing that. I think that’s really important for HR professionals as well, right? It’s knowing the business. Who are we? What do we do? Why do we do it? And then how do the people impact that, right? And how does strong leadership impact that? And, Alex?

Alexandra Tillo: I think the key about trust is that it needs to be something your people experience, and not just something you talk about. Yes, we’re talking about it today, but I think they both gave fantastic examples of how they’re making it a true reality in their companies: recognizing people in a way that shows you understand their contribution, which we talked about earlier, not just the big numbers, but the small things as well that support your company. And really, the transparency about when decisions are made, regardless of the decision, and how it affects people.

To Amanda’s point earlier, make sure your people are trained, so managers are able to really explain, “Okay, within my team, this is the impact.” It’s really on leaders to make sure the message is clear to their people as well. Because you really want the success of your organization to be something people feel part of, and not just something that happens to the top people at your organization.

So those are a few little nuggets here and there. But if you start with transparency and recognition, and make sure the communication goes all the way down and is consistent all the way down, I do think you have a good foundation for building trust in your company.

Audience Questions and Closing

Anne Cesak: Awesome. We did have a couple of questions. There’s one specific to Masa and Amanda individually, so I’m going to recommend those folks reach out to you on LinkedIn, if that’s okay. One is about the Perks program, and another is about your leadership and the work that you’re doing, Masa. And there was another question just about recognition generally, if people don’t like to be recognized publicly. Certainly, I think that individual can connect with you folks as well.

So with that said, we’re going to have to make these 50 minutes, because I can’t seem to keep it under 45. But I want to thank Amanda, Masa and Alex so much for coming today and being on this panel. We always have a great conversation, and I think we could probably talk for hours, but there’s some really important, insightful information for folks to take back to their workplaces. And I want to thank everybody who stayed over time to listen to us, because, again, great conversation. And thank you for being part of our mission to build a better world by helping organizations become great places to work for all.

We will be back in November with our next Insights Webinar. And if you’re looking to survey, if you’re looking to find out the level of trust in your organization, please reach out to us, because we can help you with that. So with that, I will say thank you to everybody. Have a great rest of your day, everyone.

Panelists: Thank you, everyone.