Why Trust Is Becoming HR’s Competitive Advantage

Trust shapes every stage of the employee lifecycle. That was the message from a panel discussion at SHRM26 in Orlando, where Kyle M.K., senior talent strategy advisor at Indeed, and talent leaders from retail, grocery, and healthcare organizations shared practical examples of embedding transparency and AI accountability into their hiring, leadership behaviors, and employee practices.

“Trust will be very important going forward,” M.K. said. “We are living in a paradox right now. It’s the first time in human history that we have the most technology available to the general population. It is either a magical time or a terrible time.”

Artificial intelligence, he noted, is transforming recruiting and work, but organizations risk sacrificing something essential in the pursuit of speed.

“We are using AI to optimize for efficiency,” M.K. said. “But we forgot about trust.”

Candidates already feel disconnected from the process. “Job seeking is hard,” he said. “Candidates are ghosted twice as much as they ghost employers. They feel invisible.”

At the same time, employers are drowning in applications and questioning whether candidates are even real, while specialized roles remain difficult to fill.

For M.K., trust goes beyond emotion. “Trust is not just a feeling. It is also a system,” he said.

Consumers become loyal to brands because of how those brands make them feel, and the same principle applies to employers, he explained. Too many organizations, he argued, view filling a position as the finish line.

“The role is filled. The best companies treat this as the start of a beautiful relationship, turning an employee into an engaged employee,” he said.

Creating that engagement depends on something deeper than perks. “They need a community,” he said. “They want to belong to a full culture, not just a work culture.”

Engaged employees eventually become ambassadors, even after they leave. “You don’t need a perfect process,” M.K. said. “You just need an honest one. Whatever is honest to your culture.”

Specialty Credential: Talent Acquisition

Bringing the Brand Promise to Hiring

For Sarah Wright, director of talent acquisition at Valvoline Inc., in Lexington, Ky., trust starts with recognizing that customers and candidates are often one and the same.

“Many of our candidates are customers or referred by family members,” she said. “So our people are our brand. A customer is a potential employee.”

Because the company’s consumer promise is “quick, easy, trusted,” Wright said recruiters have worked to mirror that experience throughout the hiring process.

“We just launched a new ATS and we’re leveraging AI,” she said. “As we built that out, we wanted to be quick, easy and trusted.”

Despite the challenges of high-volume recruiting, “every candidate gets communication at every stage of the process,” she said. “Trust comes with expectations. Trust is broken when expectations are not met.”

Transparency has become central to Valvoline’s employer brand, Wright said. Employees share their own stories on the careers site, while frontline candidates receive realistic job previews before applying. “That gives them an option to opt out,” Wright said.

Building trust internally required improving relationships with hiring managers. Weekly reports showing openings and candidate activity “alleviated 80% of our issues,” she said, while regular calls and local market visits strengthened collaboration.

Resource: Talent Acquisition

Making Candidates Feel Seen

Crystal Watson, senior manager, talent acquisition at H-E-B in Austin, Texas, is facing similar challenges leading high-volume recruiting at the beloved grocery store chain, which processes more than one million applications annually.

“Just about all of our candidates are customers first,” she said. “So we want to engage with our candidates in a way that builds trust and loyalty because that is what our customers expect from us.”

Speed and communication are critical. Applicants are automatically invited to complete digital interviews or virtual job tryouts, providing insight into both the role and the organization.

“We make sure to respond as quickly as possible,” Watson said.

When recruiter workloads spike, collaboration becomes essential. “We let our 30 recruiters know that they can partner with someone else if their candidate flow is becoming overwhelming,” she said. “It’s a highly collaborative process to make sure candidates are feeling seen.”

Maintaining hiring manager engagement also requires accountability. “We have a SLA we use with our business partners in stores, which is a commitment for us but also relays our expectations for the business,” Watson said.

Trust Through Transparency and Listening

For Keturah Hallmosley, vice president of people experience and talent development at Seattle Children’s Hospital, trust begins with honesty and mission.

“Our applicants come from a variety of places,” she said. “It’s important that we make it as personalized and honest as we can. Also to be very clear about our mission.”

After years of strain on healthcare workers, leaders discovered that transparency itself needed definition.

“We had a lot of different opinions on what transparency meant,” Hallmosley said. “We took the time to define what transparency means for us.”

Listening remains one of the most important tools for spotting trouble early. “If employees get quiet all of a sudden, something is going on,” she said.

The panelists agreed that technology alone will not determine who wins talent. Trust, built through transparency, communication, and community, remains the foundation that turns candidates into employees, and employees into lifelong advocates.

“We have a built-in ambassadorship,” Watson said. “Former employees are likely going to continue to be customers and end up being our best evangelizers.”