Great Place To Work’s Charles Plumley on why the retention crisis is a trust issue, and what the data says about the companies who will win the talent war.
In 2026 people are so done with fake. AI slop, fake news, polished social media pictures and #humble LinkedIn posts, years of content saturation have recalibrated the average person’s tolerance for inauthenticity to approximately zero. We are collectively starving for something real, and we know immediately when we’re not getting it.
The workplace is not exempt from this insincerity reckoning. According to Aon’s 2025 Human Capital Employee Sentiment Study, sixty-four percent of employees in the Philippines are either actively changing employers or considering a move in the next 12 months. The country is said to have the worst retention rate in all of Southeast Asia, and this mass intent to leave is not just about pay or perks. Aon’s Study reveals that Filipino workers are looking for better benefits, work‑life balance, financial stability, and stronger signals that employers genuinely care about their development and wellbeing. That’s where the trust gap opens.
Those all-staff emails from leadership featuring the usual commitments to “growth” and “wellbeing”? The workers reading have developed, through prolonged exposure to exactly this kind of communication, a finely-tuned detector for the gap between what leadership says and what it does.
The Gap Costing Companies Their Best People
Great Place To Work’s latest data across Philippine organizations and thousands of employee voices makes the scale of this credibility collapse measurable. Between 2023 and 2025, the share of employees who say their workplace is psychologically and emotionally healthy dropped from 82 per cent to 78 per cent.
Those who say people care about each other fell from 88 per cent to 83 per cent. Workplace enjoyment slid from 87 per cent to 83 per cent. The overall Trust Index, our composite measure of credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie, declined from 86 per cent to 82 per cent.
However, over that same period, employees who say they have the tools and resources to do their job rose from 87 per cent to 91 per cent. Filipino workers are better equipped than at any point in recent memory and yet they are still less connected, feel less cared for, and are less trusting of the people running the show.
The Nonsense Detector Is Now Factory-Fitted
Age may be a factor here, with nearly two-thirds of the Philippine workforce under 35. This is a generation raised on platforms that algorithmically surface inauthenticity and reward calling it out.
The AI content saturation of the last two years has made it genuinely difficult to distinguish authentic communication from generated filler, in LinkedIn posts, in brand statements, in corporate values on lobby walls. The result is a workforce that reads organizational behavior forensically.
Our data makes this perception gap precise. In certified Best Workplaces (so, workplaces with a sustained commitment to building things like trust and psychological safety) 90 per cent of individual contributors agree that management makes expectations clear. In non-certified organizations, individual contributors drop to 77 per cent.
The Exit Routes Have Never Been More Accessible
There’s a temptation, when confronted with data like this, to reach for the obvious solutions like a new engagement platform or an emergency town hall. These are not nothing, but they’re are also not the thing. When people know what success looks like and how it is measured, they stop wasting energy second-guessing the system and focus on work that adds value. That clarity is itself a form of psychological safety.
Psychological safety, the organizational condition in which people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, take reasonable risks, and flag problems without bracing for consequences, lives or dies on whether leadership means what it says.
The scale data backs this up. After surveying more than 100 million employees globally, we’ve found that high-trust companies see 50 per cent less turnover, deliver four times market-beating returns, and 86 per cent of employees give discretionary effort.
Trust, demonstrable, specific, consistent trust, is the thing that makes someone choose to stay when the recruiter’s DM is already sitting there, half-read. The companies that figure this out won’t just survive the retention crisis, they’ll be the ones everyone else is watching their people walk toward.
People Also Ask
Why are so many Filipino workers planning to leave their jobs?
Data from Aon’s 2025 Human Capital Employee Sentiment Study shows that 64% of employees in the Philippines are either actively changing employers or considering a move in the next 12 months. This mass intent to leave is driven less by pay alone and more by a desire for better work‑life balance, meaningful growth, and workplaces that genuinely care about employees.
The trend reflects a broader “authenticity reckoning” in the workplace, where workers are increasingly sensitive to the gap between leadership talk and actual behavior. When trust and psychological safety erode, employees are more likely to start looking elsewhere, even if they have the tools and resources they need.
Is the Philippines facing a retention crisis?
Yes. With nearly two‑thirds of Filipino workers planning or considering a job switch, the labour market is seeing a clear retention crisis. What’s notable is that this is happening against a backdrop of low unemployment and economic growth, which suggests the issue is about job quality and workplace culture, not just the availability of roles. Retention is becoming less about salaries and more about trust, clarity, and whether employees feel valued and heard. Companies that fail to build psychological safety and consistent, authentic leadership are more likely to see higher turnover.
How does trust affect employee retention?
High‑trust workplaces see significantly lower turnover. Great Place To Work data across millions of employees globally shows that high‑trust companies experience roughly 50% less turnover, deliver four times market‑beating returns, and see 86% of employees giving discretionary effort.
When employees believe leadership is honest, fair, and consistent, they are more likely to stay, even when recruiters are messaging them. Trust acts as a psychological safety net: people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and take smart risks, which deepens their emotional connection to the organization.
What are the signs of a low-trust workplace?
Common signs include:
- Declining scores on psychological safety, camaraderie, and fairness.
- Employees saying they’re “well‑equipped” but not “well‑supported.”
- A growing gap between what leadership thinks is clear and what employees actually experience.
In many organizations, leadership believes it has strong communication and clarity, but frontline employees disagree. That perception gap is a red flag for trust issues and an early warning sign of rising turnover.
How can companies rebuild trust in the workplace?
Key steps include:
- Being specific, consistent, and measurable in commitments (e.g., to wellbeing, growth, and psychological safety).
- Aligning leadership behavior with stated values.
- Creating safe channels for feedback and visibly acting on what employees say.
Rebuilding trust is about demonstrable behavior over time, not one‑off campaigns. It means showing employees that when they speak up, they’re heard and protected, and that leadership is willing to change course when it’s clear something isn’t working.
How do you measure workplace trust?
Organizations can use tools like the Great Place To Work Trust Index, a globally recognized composite measure of credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie, to track how employees feel year‑on‑year. Declines in these metrics, even when business performance is strong, can signal a growing trust deficit.
Regular pulse surveys, anonymous feedback channels, and trend analysis of engagement and turnover data help surface early warning signs.
