11/19/2025

Massive Study Reveals a Key Ingredient for Happiness Many Leaders Ignore

It just may be the most important perk

What is one thing that every leader can do to make sure employees are happy at work and engaged with their jobs? Make sure they can trust in you, your organization, and one another. That is the finding in a 2024 meta-analysis of studies with more than 1 million participants. When leaders seek to improve employee well-being, they typically think about things like remote work, flexible schedules, and wellness offerings such as gym memberships. But trust may be the most valuable perk of all.

A 2024 meta-analysis by an international research team led by Minxiang Zhao and Yixuan Li of the Renmin University of China psychology department examined 132 studies on trust from around the world. The studies had a total of more than 1 million participants. The researchers focused on two types of trust, interpersonal trust and institutional trust, exactly the two types that can occur in workplaces. They found both types of trust correlate with social, psychological and, to a lesser extent, physical well-being.

If trust is so important, how do you get more of it? Unlike some other things, you cannot mandate trust, and you cannot demand employees trust you, your company or one another. But you can provide a workplace culture where trust can flourish.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Fast Company.