Can you pin down exactly how much your employees trust leadership? Well, it is a tricky question.. Yet, knowing how you fare on the trust and transparency scale is essential. After all these virtues are the backbone of any thriving workplace. Trust impacts employee engagement, retention, motivation, and overall performance. 95% of executives believe it significantly  impacts the company's bottom line. Without trust, even the best internal communication (IC) strategies fall flat..

Interestingly, the views of executives and employees around trust often differ. According to a study, 86% of business executives believe they have high employee trust, but only 67% of employees report high trust in their employer, revealing an 18-point trust gap. I was discussing this challenge with Daren Jennings, Speakap's CCO. He rightly pointed out, “Trust is one of the hardest things to measure because it’s an emotional, visceral response.”

While that’s true, you can’t leave trust to chance, right? So how do you measure it?

In this blog, we’ll go through some actionable strategies Daren and I discussed to measure trust, foster transparency, and align your communication efforts with business goals.

How to measure trust and transparency in internal comms: A multi-layered approach

Trust in the workplace doesn’t appear overnight. It requires consistency, authenticity, and a communication strategy beyond updates and announcements. While trust may feel intangible, there are ways to measure its impact.

Here are three practical approaches that Daren recommends:

1. Conduct employee engagement surveys

Employee surveys offer a straightforward way to track trust levels over time. When you ask targeted questions, the answers will give you a clear snapshot of sentiment.

You could ask questions like: Do you trust leadership to make decisions in the organization’s best interest? Does the company communicate transparently about challenges? 

2. Regularly engage in pulse checks with team leaders

Managers are closest to their teams and can provide real-time insights. Regularly engage with them. When you do this, the conversations can surface trends that surveys may miss. 

You could ask questions like: Have you noticed a shift in how employees respond to leadership communications?

3. Assess the retention of leadership messages

Transparency isn’t just about sharing information—it’s about ensuring it sticks. If there are gaps in message retention, it could signal potential communication issues. To measure the retention of messages, you can conduct quick polls, quizzes, or follow-ups. Review the result to see if employees recall key messages. 

Measuring trust isn’t always straightforward—especially when communicating difficult messages. As Daren rightly points out, “Sometimes the information you share isn’t positive. He explains, “That can temporarily hurt trust. However, you need to remember honesty and transparency are non-negotiable for long-term credibility.”How do you ensure trust in the general to the trickiest situations as an internal communicator?

Free webinar recording: Measuring internal comms the right way

This exclusive webinar recording with myself and Daren Jennings dives deep into the strategies and tools you need to effectively measure the success of your internal communications and link them to meaningful outcomes. Check it out!

Follow these strategies to build trust and transparency with your comms

As an IC professional, you’re at the center of building trust. It’s not just about what you say but also how you say it. To build trust, here are some actionable strategies you can follow.

1. Craft campaigns that resonate 

As internal comms leaders, you must align messages with your company’s core values to reinforce purpose. Yet, simultaneously, you must strike a delicate balance by humanizing your campaigns and sharing what people want to listen to. There are several ways around this. For instance, you can share highlights of team or individual achievements. 

One simple, impactful, and multipurpose strategy that Jennings highlights to this end is leadership video updates. These give employees a clear understanding of strategic priorities, foster trust by sharing direct, transparent communication from leadership, and encourage alignment by connecting leadership messages to day-to-day work. 

2. Leverage the proper channels to foster transparency

Studies show that fewer than half of employees work in environments that support key trust-building practices. Only 47% agree their employer encourages clear and transparent communication.

If you want transparency, you need to reach employees where they are. Dan explains, “In distributed teams, it’s harder to gauge trust through traditional methods” To bridge this gap, you can use employee communication platforms with interactive feedback, like employee apps or surveys. 

3. Encourage two-way conversations

“Trust isn’t built by talking at people—it’s built by talking with them,” Daren emphasizes.

Encouraging two-way conversation is crucial. This need is amplified when you have distributed teams, where assessing trust can be even more challenging.

To encourage two-way dialogue, you must create opportunities for employees to ask questions, provide feedback, and interact with leadership. Town halls, Q&A sessions, and open forums are all effective ways to build connections.  If you have distributed teams, partner with local team leaders to gather qualitative feedback, observe sentiment shifts across locations. Based on your findings, adapt messaging to resonate with regional needs. 

Remember: Building trust takes time, but the impact is worth it

Employees who trust their leaders are more engaged, aligned, and invested in the organization’s success. Trust and transparency do not come easily. They require consistent effort, thoughtful strategies, and targeted measurement to build and sustain.

As an internal comms professional, you can play a vital role in creating a culture of trust by using practical metrics, fostering two-way conversations, and aligning campaigns with company values. Follow these steps to connect with employees and drive actual business results.