How do companies show they are trustworthy?

Trust thought for today - Pondering what 'evidence of trustworthiness' for companies looks like.

(Remember Baroness Onora O'Neil on how to restore trust? First: be trustworthy. Second: provide good evidence that you are trustworthy.). Not easy.

Having a code of Ethics is a start, here is the new Institute of Business Ethics evaluation of FTSE 100 ethics codes, not promising as an indicator though:

https://lnkd.in/g_RCpr82

Not least because MIT Sloane Review work "When It Comes to Culture, Does Your Company Walk the Talk?" shows:

“...there is no correlation between the cultural values a company emphasizes in its published statements and how well the company lives up to those values in the eyes of employees. All of the correlations between official and actual values were very weak, and four of the nine — collaboration, customer orientation, execution, and diversity — were negatively correlated.” !!!!

https://lnkd.in/g3xEuN-3

Does being verified by others a good? Is being a B Corp enough to provide that evidence? It surely helps. But we have to trust the governance of B Corp.

https://bcorporation.uk

What about producing a high quality Social Report to complement your Annual report through to the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative? Lots do. Do you even know they do it? Does that make you trust a company? (And does that include work in the digital space and aspects of human rights? Doesn't look like it.)

https://lnkd.in/geKKm_Zu

Personal experience, anchoring to the community, positive media coverage on values based subjects, diversity and human rights support? Lots of initiatives, hard to tell the talk is being walked.

Or does it come down to random personal hunch. "I trust x supermarket because they sponsor my son's football team." ! (A real quote, as far as I know)

Any other ideas for me on what makes you trust companies?