The results of the research of Professor J. Helliwell put this into a scientific context. He has built hard evidence behind his quote: “having a job in a workplace where trust in management is ranked 1 point higher on a 10-point scale has the equivalent effect on life satisfaction as 36% change in income”. Hear more about this in the interview he gave to Maria LeRose. https://youtu.be/OA3yetYMuOc

As a practitioner in compensation and benefits (C&B) management I ask myself: what is in these radical insights for my clients? Can they integrate this factor into their propositions to their employees?

In the interview, Professor Helliwell points out, that people, when deciding to take a job, tend to make the mistake of choosing for the higher salary, instead of for higher life satisfaction. It means that the market conformity of the pay practices will remain a must to attract and retain talent.
Employee trust manifests in the interactions between the employees and the company. The quality of these interactions is determined by the competences of the players (line managers, HRBPs) and the framework (management practices), in which the interactions take place.

C&B generates many delicate and complex interactions with each employee, multiple times a year. Optimizing the applied C&B framework into practices, which are trusted by the employees, is the way the C&B function can contribute to the enhancement of employee trust.

The entire research paper (is available on the following url.:http://www.nber.org/papers/w14589.

(Helliwell-Huang: Well-being and trust in the workplace – 2008 )

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