Charter and the Edelman Trust Barometer have each recently studied trust among employees. These independent studies find that employees want their employers to build and support infrastructure to address their concerns, and that that infrastructure is key to assuring workers that their voices are heard.
The Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust at Work, released earlier this month, shows a widening gap between how much employees trust their employers and how much they trust other institutions — employers are trusted 23 points more. The Trust at Work report also finds that employees expect to influence their workplaces, which employers can facilitate by creating a stakeholder council or other groups to address workplace issues. .
At a time when employees are increasingly concerned about losing their jobs due to automation, frameworks for soliciting their input become even more important. Charter found a similar trend when we asked people what they thought about their employers and artificial intelligence. Individual contributors and managers who we surveyed in August told us they primarily rely on their employers for information and education on how to work with AI. We found that, overall, employees want clear communication from and to partner with their employers on how to make AI work for their organization.
- Employers and managers top the possible sources workers would rely on for skilling around AI. When we asked who they trust most to provide them with AI tools, training, and related career guidance, manager and non-manager workers indicated self-reliance (44%) and employers (43%) first, followed by managers and tech companies (both 31%). It’s notable that both employees and hourly workers trust these sources over educational institutions, colleagues, friends and family members, and their labor unions.
- Two in three managers believe that their employers value workers’ input when it comes to decision-making around generative AI. Some 67% of managers and 55% of individual contributors agreed or strongly agreed with this statement: “I’m confident that my organization values its workers’ input around the use of new technologies and will equitably distribute opportunities that come with increased usage of generative AI.” Managers and individual contributors (non-managers) also say that they welcome employer-provided education on AI topics, as well as clear communication about how employers’ AI plans affect their roles and the ability to help shape how their organization is adopting AI.
This is trust in practice. Soliciting workers’ perspectives is an important component to being an organization that employees trust. Both studies’ findings about worker voice and psychological safety in workplaces show that constructing a framework for employee input is vital to their trust in employers.
This autumn, Charter will be sharing more about employees trusting their employers for guidance when it comes to AI. Charter surveyed 1,173 workers and managers last month across three sectors: manufacturing, service, and knowledge work with the research platform Glimpse and support from the Innovation Resource Center for Human Resources.
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