Mumbai, India, 19th October, 2026: Over 2009–2025, India’s Best Companies To Work For delivered 14X cumulative shareholder returns, compared with 5X for major stock indices, underscoring the potential business value of environments where employees are enabled to contribute and perform at their best, as per The Great Place To Work® Effect Report, released by Great Place To Work India today.
The ‘Great Place To Work Effect’ is a research-based report examining how high-trust workplace cultures can contribute to stronger business performance and sustained competitive advantage in Indian enterprises.
Speaking on the insights, Balbir Singh, CEO, Great Place To Work® India, said:
“The Great Place To Work Effect report shows that high-trust cultures accelerate employees’ willingness to put in extra work, intent to stay, and bring their innovative selves to work, by at least 20%. Through this report, we have illustrated how organisations that build high-trust cultures create stronger workplaces and outperform their counterparts across business and financial outcomes.”
The report strongly puts forward the proposition: Trust is a business performance lever. Organisations that consistently build trust can create an environment where employees are more willing to contribute discretionary effort, collaborate across teams, embrace change and bring forward ideas and capabilities that become increasingly important as businesses navigate transformation and disruption.
Key research findings:
- Best Workplaces deliver nearly 2X the Revenue per Employee of the market, indicating stronger employee productivity and profitability.
- High-trust workplaces experience a discretionary effort advantage: Employees at Best Workplaces show a 22-percentage-point lead in expressing willingness to put in extra effort.
- Agility rises sharply with a positive workplace experience: Employees who feel trusted are four times more likely to demonstrate agility.
- Trust accelerates innovation: 89% of employees at Best Workplaces report opportunities to innovate, versus 67% at typical workplaces.
- A positive workplace experience strengthens retention: 92% of employees with a positive overall workplace express intent to stay, compared with only 12% among those with a negative workplace experience, showcasing a stark 80-percentage-point difference.
The report also presents impact stories from some of the recognised Best Workplaces that have observed a significant rise in employee productivity, more innovative outputs, and better employee retention.
Three shifts for business leaders:
Leaders understand that maintaining a high-trust culture today requires some perspective shifts. From culture as an HR agenda to culture as a business lever; from measuring employee sentiment to measuring trust as a leading indicator; and from short-term engagement initiatives to building long-term organisational resilience; when leaders look at culture as the accelerator of growth, they successfully create a high-performing organisation.
Balbir Singh adds, “Creating and sustaining a culture of trust helps achieve the most critical leadership agenda. Trust is the driver behind productivity, retention, adaptability, and long-term performance. The organizations that pull ahead are those that listen consistently, understand where trust is strong and where it needs strengthening, and act on what they hear. The real question isn’t whether trust matters, but whether you truly know how much of it exists in your workplace today.”