Nonstop disruption. This is what has impacted every business and its employees across industries, borders, and regardless of company size. And nearly three-quarters (72%) of business leaders say their business isn’t moving fast enough, per Aon.
In particular, leaders are worried they are falling behind on AI implementation and adoption. Nearly half (47%) of C-suite leaders say their organisations are developing and releasing generative AI tools too slowly, per McKinsey.
This is what makes a great workplace culture more critical than ever.
Because amidst the ongoing rapid change, people-first organisations are coming out more agile, more resilient, and more competitive. When change hits – whether it’s economic uncertainty, AI adoption or organisational transformation – culture determines how quickly people respond.
This article is part of our Great Place To Work Effect series, exploring how trust directly drives performance outcomes — from innovation and agility to productivity and retention.
The Great Place To Work Effect is a proven link between trust and business performance. Across millions of employee survey responses globally, Great Place To Work has consistently found a repeatable pattern: great leaders build trust, which shapes the culture that drives performance.
High‑trust organisations consistently surpass their peers across business metrics, including agility. In fact, high-trust workplaces are 2.5X more agile than their low-trust counterparts.
Because of this, our research consistently shows that the UK’s Best Workplaces outperform the market by more than four times and achieve 6.25 times greater revenue per employee than typical UK organisations.
| Useful Read: The Great Place To Work Effect
Agility is the ability to adapt quickly and effectively when conditions shift. At work, it shows up in everyday moments:
In low‑trust cultures, change creates hesitation. People protect themselves, information slows down, decision‑making bottlenecks appear – even small shifts take months to happen.
In high‑trust cultures, the opposite happens. People move quickly, stay aligned, and pull together, even when conditions are uncertain.
Trust removes friction. When employees trust their leaders, they are far more likely to:
Likewise, leaders who trust employees share context sooner, delegate decisions, and prioritise progress over control. This mutual trust creates psychological safety, clarity, and confidence – the core conditions for agility.
The evidence is clear: high‑trust cultures adapt faster. In Great Place To Work Certified™ organisations, employees are significantly more likely to say that people in their organisation adapt quickly to change.
Building a high-trust environment that fosters agility starts with everyday leadership behaviours. Things like:
Clearly communicating a vision for the future: Employees want to know how they fit into the future of the organisation. The more confident they are that their leaders have the skill and foresight to guide them through a volatile business environment, the better they perform.
Involving employees in decision-making: This doesn’t mean every employee has a voice in every business decision, but employees who are invited to contribute ideas and solutions, not simply execute plans designed elsewhere, will adapt to change more quickly.
Fostering psychological safety that allows everyone to take smart risks: In agile organisations, people are trusted to respond to change without fear of punishment if every decision isn’t perfect. Learning is valued over blame. How can leaders create an environment where failure can lead to growth? A key ingredient is the ability to acknowledge their own mistakes.
Offering recognition for those who try new and better ways of doing things: What you celebrate matters. That’s why “thanking” is one of the nine high-trust leadership behaviors that strengthen culture and contribute to long-term success. When effort, flexibility and collaboration are acknowledged – not just outputs or outcomes – agility follows.
Organisations become agile when people feel trusted enough to move quickly together – even when the path ahead isn’t clear. That’s why trust isn’t a “nice to have”. It’s a serious performance lever.
As the Great Place To Work Effect shows, trust fuels the culture that enables agility, innovation, and long‑term business success.