A study of 1 million people reveals a key ingredient for happiness that most leaders ignore

What’s one thing every leader can do to make sure employees are happy at work and engaged with their jobs? Make sure they can trust in you, your organization, and one another. That’s the finding in a 2024 meta-analysis of studies with more than 1 million participants. When leaders seek to improve employee well-being, they typically think about things like remote work, flexible schedules, and wellness offerings such as gym memberships. But trust may be the most valuable perk of all.

A 2024 meta-analysis by an international research team led by Minxiang Zhao and Yixuan Li of the Renmin University of China psychology department examined 132 studies on trust from around the world. The studies had a total of more than 1 million participants. The researchers focused on two types of trust, interpersonal trust and institutional trust, exactly the two types that can occur in workplaces. They found that both types of trust correlate with social, psychological, and to a lesser extent, physical well-being.

If trust is so important, how do you get more of it? Unlike some other things, you can’t mandate trust, and you can’t demand that employees trust you, your company, or one another. But you can provide a workplace culture where trust can flourish. Here are some ways to do that.

1. Be transparent

If you want employees to trust you and your company, it’s obviously important to treat them fairly. But it’s almost as important to let them know what’s going on. You may have to find a delicate balance between sharing competitive information and keeping too much to yourself. But half the employees in a recent survey said lack of information about what was going on at their companies was their biggest source of stress. Keep that in mind when considering whether to share bad news.

2. Be predictable

Many years ago, a CEO known for turning troubled companies around told me that his employees should never have to guess how he would answer a question. He told them his top priorities so they could always predict what he would say. He never wavered from those priorities.

We may be fascinated with leaders like Elon Musk who often change their minds. But we trust those like Warren Buffett, who consistently say the same things year after year. The more they can predict what you will say and do, the easier it is for employees to trust you.

3. Be trusting yourself

It may be hard for employees to trust you if, say, they know you’re using software to monitor their keystrokes. Admittedly, treating employees with trust can backfire in the short term if you trust the wrong person. But in the long term, research shows that more trusting organizations tend to perform better, even in the often mistrustful retail industry.

I believe the reason for this is that, while we can easily see the cost of employee dishonesty when it happens, we don’t always recognize that our mistrust comes at a high cost as well. If an employee has their bag searched every time they leave work, they won’t feel the same trust or affection for the company that they otherwise might. And it’s human nature for them to try to figure out a way to sneak items out despite the search.

4. Help employees trust one another

Setting up competitions that pit employees against each other for important things like compensation can bring about acrimony and mistrust among them. Here again, the short-term gain may not be worth the long-term loss. Employees who trust their coworkers are more likely to collaborate effectively with them. They’re also likely to be happier, and to stay in their jobs. Relationships at work are often the biggest deterrent to leaving a company.

You can help foster those relationships by asking people to collaborate on important projects and letting them share the credit equally. You can also create teams across different functions so that employees get to know their colleagues outside their immediate areas. And of course, any opportunity for employees to socialize, get together outside of work, or work together on community projects can help create those relationships and that trust.

In my book Career Self-Care, I explore workplace happiness, and how relationships at work can contribute to that happiness or detract from it. The more employees can trust in you, your company, and one another, the happier and less burned out they’ll be. It’s your job as a leader to make that happen.

Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you’ll never miss a post.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

—Minda Zetlin

This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister publication, Inc.

Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.

View the full article