Stress and fear around layoffs has had a negative effect on employee mental health, productivity, and engagement. And when workers give and do less, businesses suffer. 

What breaks that cycle? Trust in your workplace. 

Workers who trust that management will lay people off only as a last result are more likely to look forward to work, give extra on the job, and adapt quickly to business changes, according to Great Place To Work research. 

Those high agility and productivity levels are relished by leaders at any time, but particularly during periods of economic uncertainty. 

Employee trust in management around layoff decisions is one of many reasons the Fortune Best Workplaces in Chicago,Texas, New York, and the Bay Area outperformed typical U.S. workplaces across productivity, retention, and recruitment. 

This is why trust matters, says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. This is how it shows up. Its hard to stay motivated and be all in when you wake up with fear and dread that youll be out of a job. 

But if employees believe layoffs are a last resort at their workplace, the quit rate is cut in half and motivation to come to work is 210% higher. 

These workers trust their leaders to make tough decisions, and that comes from a reservoir of trust built long before hard times hit, Bush says. 

What drives employee trust in management decisions around layoffs?

The top four drivers, according to Great Place To Work research, are confidence in the executive team, company pride, feeling welcomed, and a caring work environment. 

Great Place To Work determined the Best Workplaces in Chicago, Texas, New York, and the Bay Area by analyzing data and survey responses from more than 420,000 employees.

Feeling welcomed helps companies during downturns 

Out of all the measures of the employee experience among the winning companies, feeling welcomed topped the list, with varying impact across regions.

Employees who felt welcomed when joining companies in the Bay Area and Texas are 40% to 50% more likely to recommend their companies, and employees who felt welcomed when joining companies in Chicago and New York are 10% to 30% more likely to be agile.

Making employees feel at home is one of the five areas of the employee experience critical to surviving and thriving amid downturns, according to a 15-year recession study from Great Place To Work. How welcomed employees felt predicted company performance.

There are many ways to help employees feel welcome, whether theyre new to your company or new to a team. The first step is to recognize the impact of a new teammate through introductory meetings that will spotlight their talents.

Its also important to actively seek their ideas and input in decision-making instead of making them prove themselves.

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants (No. 11 on the Best Workplaces in the Bay Area among large companies) asks new employees to fill out a personal preference profile to get to know them better right away.

The list of questions vary in complexity and depth, and includes questions such as: What do you like to do for fun when not at work? Whats your favorite food or snack? Tell us one thing that people would be most surprised to know about you.

When Lindsey Yealy, catering sales manager at the Hotel Monaco in Pittsburgh, started at Kimpton, she was blown away by the individualized welcome her managers gave her based on what they read. She received a Welcome to the Family postcard before starting.

It was a small act of kindness that went such a long way for me, she says of the postcard. I had shared that I had Type-1 diabetes and mentioned bringing in some juice boxes to put in the communal fridge for my low blood sugar. Within the hour, I had my own personal mini fridge set up in my cubicle. Living and working with Type-1 diabetes is so stressful and challenging most of the time. 

Knowing her team here was there to help in any way makes a world of difference, she says. 

Company pride fuels recruitment 

Another metric leaders chase is recruitment. The ability to fill the pipeline with much-desired referrals is the result of giving people a workplace experience theyre proud of. 

What drives those referrals? Pride. Its the No. 1 recruitment driver across all regions.

Employees who feel high levels of company pride are 4.3 to 6 times more likely to recommend their company to others. 

Pride also drives retention and is second only to meaningful work. Employees who feel pride are between 1.8 and 2.3 times more likely to stay, and those who feel their work is meaningful are 2.8 to 3 times more likely to stay at the company. 

More than nine out of 10 employees across these four regions said theyre proud of their companys reputation compared with six in 10 employees at a typical workplace. 

Giving back to the community helps instill pride at NuStar Energy, No. 9 on the Best Workplaces in Texas list of large companies. 

The companys chairman, CEO, and executives work side-by-side with employees on volunteer projects that are organized by employee-run Volunteer Councils. 

Weekly volunteer projects range from cleaning up parks and mentoring students to delivering meals to seniors and coordinating parties for children with disabilities. 

NuStar also matches employees who want to serve on a nonprofit board with an organization that matches their interests, and supports them by providing contributions and other resources to the charity. 

Building workplace pride is a competitive advantage, and is the result of consistent effort. Creating one of the best workplaces in the country cant happen without prioritizing this often overlooked way to engage employees. 

Roula Amire is the content director at Great Place To Work.  

Being made to feel welcome when joining a company is a key employee experience during times of economic turmoil. Great Place To Work research shows that if all employees feel welcomed to new teams, a company has stronger performance during a recession.

For employees on the 2023 Fortune Best Workplaces in Texas List, 96% of employees reported feeling welcomed when joining the company. For these companies, 94% of employees reported having pride in their organization and 94% also said they could take time off when needed.

For employees at these companies, when they feel proud of their organization they are:
2.3 times more likely to stay
2.1 times more likely to report a great workplace
5.9 times more likely to recommend their employer

Congratulations to the Best Workplaces in Texas, says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. These are companies that understand how putting people first drives performance, productivity, and innovationessentials in this economy.

Fortune congratulates the Best Workplaces in Texas, says Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell. They are leading their industries in employee satisfaction, a critical metric for success in a period of economic uncertainty.

Who made the list

Great Place To Work developed the Best Workplaces in Texas list by analyzing surveys from companies that employee 7.5 million people in the U.S. Of the 1.3 million surveys collected, more than 100,000 responses were received from employees at companies who were eligible for the list and these rankings are based on their feedback.

Companies with more than 1,000 employees were considered for the large category on the list. Companies with 10 to 999 employees were eligible for the small- and medium-sized category.

Here are the companies atop the list of large Texas companies:

1. David Weekley Homes
2. Hewlett Packard Enterprise
3. Camden Property Trust
4. Vizient
5. Ryan, LLC

Here are the top small- and medium-sized employers in Texas:

1. PMG
2. Credera
3. Pariveda
4. Continued
5. Embark LLC

What employees said

As part of the survey, employees were able to answer two open-ended questions about their experience in the workplace. Heres what it sounds like when an employee is experiencing a high-trust culture:

The culture here is differentiated. We actually care about each other and enjoy each other. Our organization cares most about the well-being of our people and continues to find ways to enhance our benefits rather than cutting them at every turn to save money. It makes me feelsafe I dont come to work feeling vulnerable, wondering if today is the day they bring me into a room with a bunch of people and eliminate us. I have never felt that way here. I know if Im doing a good job I will be recognized for that work. I also know that there are no ulterior motives or agendas lingering in the background. We are very open about our goals, about our opportunities for improvement and we are all working together to move the needle.

Employee at Texas Health Resources, No. 6, large category

What you can learn

These winning companies offer lessons in creating high performance culture, a priority for every business in 2023. Here are the top takeaways:

1. Cultivate pride. With nine in 10 employees at winning workplaces feeling proud of their organization, pride is an essential piece of the best workplace cultures. Pride is also a top driver of business results from employee retention to overall positive experience of the workplace.

2. Offer flexibility. Flexibility is a top priority for many organizations focused on well-being in 2023. At winning companies, 94% of employees say they can take time off when necessary. When employees can take time off, they have 10% higher odds of staying with the company long-term.

3. Create an inclusive environment for all. For the Best Workplaces in Texas, a warm welcome is a top experience for employees. When employees feel welcome, they are 1.4 times more likely to recommend their company to friends and family.

How to make the list

Think your company deserves special recognition? Get started here to become eligible for next years Best Workplaces honors.

Ted Kitterman is a content manager with Great Place To Work.

Find all of Fortunes Great Place to Work rankings here.

In March, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO told his millions of followers that he found cis to be personally offensive, and now it appears that it will be an indexed term whose use could result in an account suspension for those who employ it. 

The words cis or cisgender are considered slurs on this platform, Musk posted in response to a man who claimed to have been harassed by the term used perjoratively.

Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.

The term cis-gender and its short form cisfrom the Latin meaning on this side that is the root opposite of transcame into popular use as a way of describing people who feel comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Twitters new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, did not respond to a request for comment from Fortune. 

Cis as a slur

Behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, who tracks online misinformation and hate speech, said Musk may have ventured into new territory with his latest policy.

As far as Im aware, this is the first time a social media platform has designated the term cis as a slur, she wrote. 

When the Tesla and SpaceX CEO acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk promised to foster a town hall atmosphere where even his most ardent detractors were welcome because that is what free speech means.

However, the serial entrepreneur and worlds richest person appears to at times have let his own personal views shape and inform his policies governing what can and cannot be said on the platform.

The Twitter owner, who has a transgender child who has disowned him, has been critical of trans protections and in April removed rules banning deliberate misgendering or deadnaming of usersin other words, prohibitions on employing the name trans users had before they transitioned.

Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.

The words cis or cisgender are considered slurs on this platform.

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023

Also, to coincide with the start of Pride Month, Musk agreed to actively promote What is a Woman?, a online film meant to delve into gender definitions that was produced by the right-wing Daily Wire and is considered offensive by many in the LGBTQ community. 

Initially the Twitter content moderation team had limited the reach of What is a Woman? by flagging the controversial film for hateful conduct, but they were subsequently overruled by Musk. The movie has since gone on to garner over 185 million views, thanks in part to Musks explicit endorsement.

In the immediate aftermath of that reversal, Musks second head of trust and safety left the company, claiming to have resigned. 

His first, Yoel Roth, resigned in November shortly after Musk took over, and went on to openly criticize the entrepreneur for his impulsive changes that made clear that at the end of the day, hell be the one calling the shotsa claim that appears to be prescient.

A month later Musk implied the former Twitter safety chief was in favor of sexualizing children, reportedly forcing Roth to flee his home alongside his husband. 

Limiting content

Twitter does belong to Musk and his investors, meaning they are within their rights to act with their property as they see fit. But Musk has often adopted the moral high ground of untrammeled free speech in his justification for buying the platform. In this context, applying new prohibitions on certain terms could be seen as contradictory to this claim.

This isnt the first time Musk has appeared to use his influence as owner to remove or limit content he deemed to be personally damaging, undesired or that does not align with his views.

The Tesla boss suspended an account called ElonJet that posted the movements of his private Gulfstream, claiming it was a threat to his personal safety by doxxing him in real time. 

And this month, he blocked one of his critics that had made available redacted legal filings involving X Corp that revealed the parent company of Twitter sought to keep the identity of its 95 shareholders under seal.