MIT Sloan Management Review Article on How to Build a High-Trust Workplace

These days, it’s hard to read the news without encountering a story about quiet quitting — the notion that swaths of employees have become so disengaged that they’re doing the minimum required to keep their jobs. To address this issue, many organizations are investing in better office spaces, hybrid work support, enhanced employee wellness, and more targeted collection of employee feedback. Other companies in an array of industries are taking a more punitive approach, such as withholding benefits or strong-arming underperformers into taking a buyout.

We contend that leaders need to take a fundamentally different tack, starting by asking the question, “How much do my employees trust me?”

About the Author

Ashley Reichheld, a principal at Deloitte Digital, works with clients across industries to help them to reimagine their brands and experiences. She created HX TrustID, a groundbreaking system to help companies measure, predict, and build trust with their customers, workforce, and partners. She is the lead author of The Four Factors of Trust: How Organizations Can Earn Lifelong Loyalty (Wiley, 2022). Amelia Dunlop, chief experience officer at Deloitte Digital, helps organizations solve their toughest problems using human equity-centered design to build empathy and trust. She is the author of Elevating the Human Experience: Three Paths to Love and Worth at Work (Wiley, 2021) and coauthor of The Four Factors of Trust.

Learn more about MIT SMR.