Leadership That Works: Give Managers the Data To Succeed

Claire Hastwell
2025-03-20T12:13:51-04:00
Leadership That Works: Give Managers the Data To Succeed
Great Place To Work

Great leadership isn’t about holding a title—it’s about driving engagement, performance, and trust. Yet, many managers struggle to translate employee feedback into meaningful action. Manager Access in the Trust Index Survey gives leaders the insights they need to take accountability for their teams and create a thriving workplace.

Manager Access in the Trust Index? Survey provides real-time insights that empower leaders to take ownership of their teams’ experience, drive positive change, and build a thriving workplace.

According to Gallup, managers influence 70% of the employee experience, yet research shows that 75% of HR leaders say their managers feel overwhelmed. Without the right tools, leadership effectiveness suffers, and so does business performance.

Manager Access helps solve this challenge by giving leaders targeted insights—not overwhelming data—so they can:

Make informed decisions based on real employee feedback

Identify opportunities for growth and track improvements

Create accountability for engagement, retention and performance

How Manager Access transforms leadership effectiveness

Without clear insights, even the most capable managers struggle to improve team engagement. Manager Access bridges this gap by providing tailored survey results to leaders at every level.

This means:

Department leaders get relevant insights on their teams’ experiences—without jeopardizing confidentiality

Managers can track key performance indicators (KPIs) like engagement, retention and productivity

Actionable reporting helps leaders develop data-driven strategies to improve culture and performance

“Effective leadership is about creating a high-performing, engaged and purpose-driven team,” says Julian Lute, insights & innovation strategist at Great Place To Work?. “Effective leaders don’t just manage people—they inspire them.”

What makes Manager Access so powerful?

Great culture doesn’t happen by accident. Leadership is defined by actions and impact, not just by their title.

Manager Access is more than just a reporting tool—it’s a strategic solution that drives measurable improvements in leadership effectiveness. Here’s how:

1. Clearer leadership accountability

Managers are responsible for engagement, retention, and team development. Manager Access gives them the visibility and accountability to lead effectively.

Helps leaders model trust-building behaviors like listening, thanking, and developing employees

Encourages transparent, constructive feedback between managers and teams

Creates measurable goals and action plans for continuous improvement

2. Smarter decision-making with data-driven insights

Managers receive survey results specific to their teams, allowing them to:

Pinpoint strengths and areas for improvement

Compare their department’s performance to company-wide benchmarks

Track progress over time and measure leadership impact

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure,” explains Julian Lute.

3. Higher employee engagement & performance
By giving managers targeted insights, organizations create a culture where employees feel valued, heard, and supported.

Leaders can identify and address engagement gaps before they become retention risks

Managers develop actionable strategies to improve communication and trust

Teams experience a more consistent, positive workplace culture.

Leaders must take ownership of engagement —Manager Access ensures they have the data to do so.

Real companies, real impact

Trek Bicycle: creating leadership ownership with data

By breaking down employee survey data to a granular level, Trek Bicycles fostered a sense of ownership among its leaders. Drawing on insights from the Trust Index Survey, Trek could benchmark against similar divisions and share best practices to drive improvements.

John Burke, CEO at Trek, calls this “The Montgomery Principle”—a nod to their warehouse manager who realized that making the organization great was everyone’s responsibility.

The result?

24% improvement in manager communication across the organization

Leaders used survey data to drive meaningful conversations with their teams

Manager Access became a key tool for accountability, with every leader having a Great Place To Work objective in their OKRs

“Every key manager at Trek has a Great Place To Work objective as part of their OKRs,” says Burke. “It forces managers to have conversations with their team on how we can make Trek a great place to work.”

Wellstar Health System measure & improve high-trust culture

Wellstar Health Systems took action to support their leaders in taking ownership of the business by actively listening to their people and responding to feedback.

To do this, Wellstar leaders rely heavily on feedback from the Trust Index Survey, particularly the Manager Access feature, to ensure that they are creating an environment where trust is at the forefront.

The results speak directly to the employee experience:

Wellstar used survey data to build leadership trust through actionable data, helping leaders see the direct impact of their actions

73% of leaders increased or maintained high trust scores, with an average increase of 21 points

Employee engagement shot up, with notable gains in respect and connection across the board

“Data from the Great Place To Work Trust Index survey is the most powerful point to drive home [to our leaders] why culture is important,” says Samantha Ros, Director of Team Member Engagement.

How WP Engine made strategic, high-impact culture decisions

By reviewing the Trust Index data, WP Engine was able to find a solution to the challenge of cascading information from leadership to ensure employees felt aligned with the company strategy and how it related to them.

The outcome?

Unified feedback from 1,300 employees across 10 countries, enabling informed decision making.

Implementing regular meetings with all people managers to improve transparency and alignment of company goals

A more transparent and connected workplace where everyone feels a sense of direction

“This is an insight that could only come from the data collected by the Trust Index,” says Annette Alexander, the Chief People Officer. “There was a disconnect between how we thought we were performing versus the employees’ actual experience — we needed the data to highlight this gap for us.

Create leadership accountability with Manager Access

Leadership isn’t about titles or power—it’s about accountability and impact. Manager Access helps leaders take ownership of their team’s experience and turn insights into meaningful action.

Customers: Want to give your leaders the data they need to take action? Get in touch with your CSM today to activate Manager Access and begin witnessing the impact on engagement and performance.

Once manager access has been enabled, organizations can invite managers to view their results in the platform and review responses of the survey.

Not already a customer of Great Place To Work? Start using manager access to improve leadership and enhance team performance at your company today. Talk to someone on our team.