For more than a century, productivity has been the dominant language of HR leaders. Economies measured it, organisations chased it, and CHROs & other CXOs were rewarded for extracting more output from the same, or fewer resources. Even when the nature of work evolved, the metric remained stubbornly intact.

Today, that language is beginning to fail us.

Despite unprecedented technological capability, many organisations are discovering that higher efficiency does not automatically translate into better outcomes. Attrition is rising, engagement is fragile, and confidence in institutions—corporate and public alike—is thinning. The problem is not that people cannot work harder or smarter. It is that they no longer trust the systems within which they work.

The Limits of a Productivity-First Mindset

Productivity is an attractive goal because it appears objective. It can be counted, compared, and optimised. But in knowledge and service-driven economies, productivity increasingly depends on intangible factors: judgment, collaboration, creativity, and ethical decision-making.

These qualities cannot be compelled. They must be voluntarily offered.

When organisations push productivity without investing in trust, they often trigger the opposite effect. Employees comply, but they disengage. Innovation slows, risk-taking declines, and the organisation becomes technically efficient but socially brittle.  This helps explain a paradox of our time: why workplaces equipped with advanced digital tools often struggle with morale and retention.

Trust as Economic Infrastructure

Trust is usually discussed as a cultural or moral value. In reality, it is also a form of economic infrastructure. High-trust environments reduce friction. They shorten decision cycles, lower monitoring costs, and enable faster coordination. People share information more freely when they believe it will not be used against them. Teams recover from mistakes faster when blame is replaced by learning.

Conversely, low trust imposes hidden taxes. Organisations invest in layers of controls, approvals, and reporting. Employees hedge, withhold effort, or quietly disengage. The apparent productivity gains are offset by long-term erosion of capability.

In this sense, trust functions much like roads or power grids: invisible when it works, debilitating when it fails.

Technology, Surveillance, and the Fragility of Confidence

The growing use of workplace analytics and artificial intelligence has intensified this tension. Tools that promise efficiency can easily drift into surveillance, particularly when deployed without transparency or consent.  The tragedy is that technology designed to enhance productivity ends up undermining the very human judgment it depends on.

The challenge is not whether to adopt technology, but how transparently it is governed. Without transparency, trust erodes.

In organisations, if artificial intelligence dominates human ingenuity, opacity exists.  For example,

• An AI tool rates performance, but no one explains the criteria
• Employees are monitored, but don’t know what is being tracked
• Decisions affect pay or promotion, but there is no clarity on the factors used
• Algorithms operate in the background with no human explanation

From Performance Management to Confidence Building

If trust is so central, then the role of leadership, and particularly human resource leadership must evolve.

Traditional performance systems focus on evaluation and control. Future systems must also focus on confidence: confidence that effort will be recognised fairly, that mistakes will be treated proportionately, and that change will be explained rather than imposed. This does not mean lowering standards. It means making standards intelligible and processes credible.

Employees who trust leadership are more willing to accept short-term discomfort in service of long-term goals. Those who do not trust will resist even sensible reforms.

A Broader Social Implication

The erosion of trust at work mirrors a wider societal pattern. Confidence in institutions, such as governments, corporations, media has weakened across democracies. Workplaces, where adults spend a large portion of their lives, either reinforce or counteract this trend.

When organisations demonstrate fairness, transparency, and respect, they become sites of social stabilisation. When they do not, they contribute to cynicism and alienation far beyond office walls.

Choosing the Right Measure

As organisations plan for the years ahead, the most important question may not be how much more output can we generate, but how much trust can we sustain.  Productivity will always matter. But without trust, it is hollow and temporary.  The future of work, therefore, is not only about productivity curves or technological adoption. It is about whether organizations can earn and sustain human confidence in an age of relentless change.