Four years ago, Hilton was so badly bruised by the pandemic’s lockdowns that two-thirds of the hotelier’s workforce would face furloughs or layoffs as hotel room bookings plunged.
Only a few years later, Hilton is ranked atop this year’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list, which is compiled by Fortune research partner Great Place to Work. President and CEO Christopher J. Nassetta, who has led Hilton for over 17 years, credited a focus on building a culture of respect and clear communication. He emphasized that employees need to feel they are part of something bigger than themselves, yet trust they fit into that deeper purpose.
“Without trust, you don’t have the shield to get you through difficult times,” said Nassetta, speaking at a virtual conversation hosted by Fortune. “We communicate in the right way, we treat [employees] respectfully, people trust us, and ultimately, it builds in huge resiliency into the business.”
Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work, said that “a great workplace is defined by trust.” Today, employees crave honest communication, desire to be treated fairly and ethically, and want to work for people they enjoy working with, he said. He added that when employees go to work, they want to feel that their own personal purpose is fulfilled by the work they do.
Penny Pennington, managing partner at Edward Jones Investments, described trust as the rails that the financial advisory’s business model runs on. Tens of thousands of Edward Jones advisors collectively meet with clients half a million times each week, going into people’s homes and asking families to discuss deeply personal matters.
“This is all about human connection and trust,” said Pennington. “It really matters in the lives of millions and millions of people that we are entrusted with their assets, with their hopes and dreams, and with their financial plans.”
Edward Jones was ranked 31st on this year’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list.
At Delta Air Lines, which ranked 94th, CEO Ed Bastian said his company’s business model cannot work without trust. There’s the trust that customers give to Delta with respect to their lives: 500,000 people fly on the airline’s planes each day. But frontline employees need to feel that sense of confidence, too, most importantly from the CEO and other leaders.
“We trust our employees to make the right decisions to take care of the safety and well kept performance for our customers,” said Bastian. “And as a result of that, that enables them to do an amazing job.”
Amid turbulent times, including an unfavorable view of the economy, wars abroad in Ukraine and the Middle East, an upcoming U.S. presidential election, and a divisive political environment, corporate leaders face challenges to retaining trust in the workplace. Leaders say the pandemic was a big shift in the attitudes of workers, who largely felt that employers needed to step up and take better care of their teams.
Along those lines, Delta last year launched an emergency savings program that offered to put aside $1,000 for employees as long as they took a free financial literacy course and met with a financial counselor for tips on budgeting and other money matters.
“I think that employees really appreciate the fact that we want each of them to be able to show up as their best self when they come to work and take care of their financial, their physical, their emotional well-being,” said Bastian.
Since the pandemic, Hilton has put a greater emphasis on mental health, offering resources to team members who need them, as well as other benefits including a stock purchase program and free educational courses. Hilton also offers a team member assistance fund to support colleagues impacted by disasters or other hardships.
Pennington said she sees the value in creating a safe space that is free of judgment—and that’s a shift in thinking from a few years ago, when difficult conversations about faith, diversity, or history might have been discouraged in the workplace. Today, those conversations are encouraged.
“It’s always been part of our business to ask our clients really deep and penetrating questions,” said Pennington. “But now we’ve turned that on ourselves, realizing that if we are more curious and empathetic with each other as professionals, we can practice with each other.”
One societal change today that’s leading to angst among workers is the rising use of artificial intelligence. Pennington said AI will help augment financial advisory services and offer more insights to clients, but it won’t replace human connection.
“We do believe that human financial advisors and the trust that they build is even more important in an environment where artificial intelligence is in the background,” said Pennington.
Nassetta said he sees a great gain to improve customer service with “very sophisticated use of AI and translating that information into workflows and giving them the tools and resources technologically they need to deliver a much better experience to customers.”
All three leaders agreed that despite the recent political pushback to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the best path forward is to continue to focus on inclusivity.
“We cannot possibly serve those customers as well as we can until we really know them and we understand their motivations, their aspirations, and their needs,” said Bastian. “And so that to me is the core driver for why we have to become a much, much more inclusive employer.”
To ensure Delta is able to broaden the pool of talent it attracts, the company has eliminated the four-year-degree requirement for virtually all jobs, including piloting.
Pennington said with $84 trillion of assets transferring from the two generations that own those assets today to the next two generations, which are also more diverse, Edward Jones has to ensure that the financial advice it offers is accessible and relevant to the next wave of clients.
“When we think about competitiveness, we have to be a place of opportunity for more people, where a more diverse group of potential clients, and a more diverse group of professionals, know that they belong,” said Pennington.
Nassetta acknowledged the backlash to DEI has gotten to an unhealthy place, but that inclusivity has been embedded into the culture at Hilton. And he said it will remain that way, because it is the right thing to do—and good for business.
“It is an absolute business imperative that we have diversity, because our customer base is wildly diverse everywhere around the world,” said Nassetta.
