Fascinating insights from the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer.
Traditional power elite figures, such as CEOs, Government and heads of state, continue to lose trust as the growth of social media platforms shifted people’s trust from a top-down focus to a horizontal one in favour of peers or experts. Now we are seeing a further reordering of trust to more local sources, with “My Employer” emerging as the most trusted entity, because the relationships that are closest to us feel more controllable.
Trust in company owned media grew by seven points and 'technical experts' and employees ranked globally as two of the most trusted sources of information.
In the report, Richard Edelman, President and CEO, said: “Empower Employees – Go direct to employees with fact-based information about the issues of the day, supplementing the mainstream media, which has been challenged by a difficult business model. Give employees a voice on your channels”.
If you ever needed a more compelling business case to invest in employee advocacy and storytelling to drive engagement and recruitment, it's just arrived.
This is the emergence of the new contract between employee and employer, which we call Trust at Work,” said Edelman. “This contract is predicated on companies taking four specific actions: Lead on Change, establish an audacious goal that attracts socially-minded employees and make it a core business objective; Empower Employees, keep employees directly informed on the issues of the day and give them a voice on your channels; Start Locally, make a positive impact in the communities in which you operate; and CEO Leadership, CEOs must speak up directly on issues of the day. Smart companies will heed the call to build trust from the inside out with employees as the focal point.”
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