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Every year since 2000, Edelman, a global public relations firm, has conducted a global survey to determine public trust in our major organizations. The survey is called the Edelman Trust Barometer, and earlier this year, Edelman released the latest results based on responses from more than 36,000 respondents in 28 countries. The results paint a striking but not surprising picture: High levels of mistrust reduce our ability to communicate, collaborate and solve the problems we face.
But amid this bleak picture, the Edelman Trust Barometer finds hope in an unlikely place: business. Among the organizations studied, business is the most trusted, with 61% of global respondents reporting that they trust business, compared to 59% of NGOs, 52% of government and 50% of the media. Furthermore, business is seen as the most capable of solving social problems and achieving results, scoring a staggering 53 points higher than the first organization created to solve social problems: government.
Businesses are most trusted by their employees. Seventy-seven percent of respondents worldwide, and 74% in the US said they trust their employers. On a more personal level, 66% of respondents said they trust their boss, and 75% said they trust their co-workers, a level of trust second only to scientists.
Related: Study Reveals Problem of American Trust with Government, Business and Media
The burden of trust
Considering these results, business leaders should ask themselves the question: If our organizations have stores of an increasingly scarce commodity – trust – what responsibility do we have to use those assets to help society solve our problems?
Our employees and customers have already made up their minds. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 58% of people make purchasing decisions, 60% make career decisions, and 64% make investment decisions based on their beliefs and values. This may interest you : Nasir Nichols employed as Sports Business Coordinator – Virginia Military Institute. Further, 60 percent want their CEO to speak out on controversial issues they care about, and 81 percent want CEOs to be seen personally on public policy issues. As an extreme example, according to the Deloitte Global 2022 Gen Z and millennial survey almost half of Gen Zs (48%) and millennials (43%) say they have put some pressure on their employers to take action on climate change, for example. .
This may not be surprising but it is bad news for CEOs. Historically, many business leaders have avoided entering the murky waters of social issues. Unless the subject had a clear reference to the bottom line, it was considered too confusing and too dangerous to be involved.
A world where every business deals with every issue that society deems important would be noisy, confusing and unproductive. But the trust people place in businesses, and especially their employers, creates opportunity, responsibility and a way for business leaders to act. The challenge is choosing when to do it, especially given the speed of change, social fragmentation, and limited time, attention and resources.
Related: How Businesses Can Navigate the Trust Crisis
When should business leaders act on these issues?
It is important for businesses to speak up and act when they have a credible reason to do so. Without a credible reason, the company’s actions become predictable, confusing, or even counterproductive, and often erode trust. On the same subject : How to Manage Your Business Exit. But with a reliable reason for action, the company’s action has a greater chance of achieving the three “i”: intentional, informed and relevant. Businesses can determine whether they have a valid reason to speak or act on a particular issue by examining the issue in three areas:
Impact on the mission: The current purpose of the company is defined by its mission and how it will achieve the mission is defined by its values. Therefore, the first step is to assess to what extent an external event or issue affects the organization’s ability to achieve its mission and values. For example, at Mineral, our mission is to help businesses and their people succeed at work. So, we first look at whether the issue disrupts, enhances or does not affect the ability of employers to create a successful team. Issues such as anti-harassment, equal pay or mental health are very important to what we think are ingredients for a successful team, while an issue such as animal cruelty is irrelevant.
Employee impact: The second part of the analysis is where the external event or issue affects the employees of the business. This requires looking beyond the knowledge of workers to their whole life experience, including their families and communities. At Mineral, we have seen events and issues such as natural disasters, human rights laws, climate change and hate crimes as affecting the well-being of our employees and their families.
Customer impact: The third part of the analysis is the extent to which the issue or event affects customers. Similar to the employee perspective, this perspective wants to focus on the health and well-being of customers rather than the business relationship with them. For example, at Mineral, our customers are small and medium-sized US businesses. When the Covid epidemic caused the closure of businesses across the country in the spring of 2020, we joined campaigns to support these businesses with money until the economy reopened.
Related: CEO Activism – When CEOs Should Speak Out
Decision matrix
The more important the error on these scales, the more reliable the reason for the business to operate. See the article : Kobalt Music downloads more than 700,000 songs from Facebook and Instagram. Here is a simple decision matrix for deciding when and how to act based on these considerations:
Let’s start with the red area. If an issue or event has a significant impact on the company’s mission and its employees or customers, the company has a valid reason to act. And if it does, its action can show the three “I” above: intentional, knowledgeable and involved. Corporate action may include using a website, social media, or thought leadership to promote a position or take direct action through volunteering or financial contributions.
Now there are orange areas. If the issue has a significant impact on the company’s mission, but affects its customers and employees, then the company must do some research to see if the action or public position is appropriate. The same would be true if the issue has a high impact on customers and employees, but a low impact on the mission. Further analysis may include assessing whether the company has a unique perspective to offer or can take reasonable steps to achieve results.
Now there are green and blue areas. If an issue or event has a high impact on customers, but the impact is low on the mission and employees, the company can use external customer communication to respond to the issue. For example, external communication may mean sending an email to customers acknowledging the issue and the company’s position on it or responding to it. Similarly, if an issue or event has high impact on employees, but low impact on the mission and customers, the company can use internal employee communication to respond to the issue.
The last is the gray zone. If an issue or event has a negative impact on the mission, employees and customers, the company may not have a credible reason to act. This does not mean that the story or event is not important to society. It simply means that corporate integration may not be productive, or productive enough, to justify taking time, attention and resources away from other efforts. Company officials and employees can certainly continue to deal with this issue as individuals in their own right.
As shown in the Edelman Trust Barometer, businesses now have a powerful and diverse combination of advantages – trust and competence – but they must use them wisely. Business leaders must embrace the responsibility given to them by their employees and customers, focusing on issues where there is a real reason to act and gain this loyalty by impacting the purpose of the business, employees and customers. By taking these steps, businesses can step confidently from the boardroom to the town square, driving positive change for their companies and on an even larger scale.
