Deloitte says 72% of workers can’t say they trust performance management. 6 fixes to earn that trust back.

A Wednesday question for People leaders in Tallinn, Stockholm and London: if you asked your employees tomorrow whether they trust the rating they got in the last review cycle, what would they say?

Deloitte asked a version of that question at scale. Its 2025 Global Human Capital Trends chapter on performance management (Julie Duda, Jason Flynn, Sue Cantrell, Nicole Scoble-Williams and Amy Sanford, 23 March 2025) draws on a survey of nearly 10,000 business and HR leaders in 93 countries, plus separate worker and manager surveys. The headline is uncomfortable: most people don’t trust the process that decides their pay and promotion.

1. What Deloitte actually said

In plain language:

• Trust is the problem, not just effort. 61% of managers and 72% of workers could not say they trust their organization’s performance management process.
• Almost nobody is getting the evidence right. Just 6% of organizations said they’re doing great things using data and evidence to capture the value of workers’ performance while enhancing trust.
• Decisions suffer. Only 32% of executives said their approach enables timely, high-quality talent decisions about high and low performers, and 75% of organizations rated their ability to evaluate the value individual workers create as not very or not at all effective.
• Managers aren’t set up to help. Only 26% of organizations say managers are very or extremely effective at enabling their team’s performance, and managers report spending just 13% of their time developing people.
• The fix is design, not another reinvention. Deloitte recommends defining the purpose of performance management, making assessments evidence-based with a transparent process, training managers to assess with data and reduce bias, and simplifying the whole thing. It points to Rolls-Royce, which simplified its process, aligned goals to strategy and used calibrated ratings to make performance conversations more honest.

2. The mid-market hurdle: ratings nobody can explain

In a 200–600 person company, distrust usually starts small. One team rates generously, another is strict. A manager writes the review from memory the night before. Goals were set in January and never looked at again. Then the ratings feed pay and promotion, and people compare notes. Nobody can point to the evidence behind a rating, so they assume it was politics.

You don’t fix that with a new rating scale. You fix it by making the process predictable: the same short scorecard for everyone, evidence collected during the year, and a calibration check before anything is shared.

3. 6 fixes to earn back trust in your review cycle

1. Say what the review is for. Pick the job: pay and promotion decisions, development, or both, and say it in one sentence at the start of the cycle. Deloitte’s point is that organizations try to make one process do everything. In Revolut People: review cycles run centrally with one scorecard and automated reminders, so every manager works from the same purpose and timeline.
2. One short scorecard for everyone. A few criteria and a clear rating scale, the same for every team. If two managers can’t agree what a “3” means, employees won’t trust it either. In Revolut People: configurable review scorecards tied to your talent bar, so every manager scores against the same short list.
3. Make every rating point to evidence. Goals, feedback and 1:1 notes collected during the year should be the raw material of the review, not the manager’s memory. In Revolut People: goals, structured 1:1s and continuous feedback sit next to the review, so the evidence is there when the cycle opens.
4. Calibrate before anything goes out. A short calibration session catches the generous team and the strict team before employees see their ratings. Keep it to edge cases and evidence. In Revolut People: calibration views across teams, so People leaders can spot outliers before the meeting.
5. Explain the link to pay and promotion. Publish how ratings feed decisions, even if it is a simple table. Distrust grows fastest where the link is hidden. In Revolut People: reviews, goals and people data in one system, so the trail from evidence to decision is easy to show.
6. Ask employees if they trust it, then act on the answer. Add one question to your next pulse survey: “I understand how my last rating was decided.” Track it cycle over cycle. In Revolut People: engagement surveys sit in the same system as reviews, so you can track trust in the process next to the review results.

The PDF goes to your work email. Curious what your current cycle costs in manager hours? Try the performance review cost calculator.

4. Where Revolut People fits, and where it doesn’t

Revolut People started as the in-house system Revolut uses to run performance. The part that matters most for Deloitte’s trust finding is evidence: goals, 1:1s, feedback, reviews and calibration in one place, so a rating can be traced back to what actually happened during the year.

To be straight about the limits: software won’t make people trust a process that is unfair by design, and it won’t fix a pay structure people think is broken. Those are leadership choices. What it can do is make the process consistent and the evidence visible, which is where most distrust starts. Related reads: Gallup on manager engagement, Calibration theatre, and Promotion decisions that feel political.

Bottom Line

Deloitte’s data is blunt: 72% of workers and 61% of managers could not say they trust their performance management process, and only 6% of organizations are doing great things with evidence. For a mid-market People team, the fastest win isn’t another reinvention. Say what the review is for, score everyone on the same short scorecard, base every rating on evidence from the year, and calibrate before results go out. Try it with one department next cycle and ask them if they trust it.

FAQ

What did Deloitte find about trust in performance management?

In Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 61% of managers and 72% of workers could not say that they trust their organization’s performance management process. Just 6% of organizations said they are doing great things using data and evidence to capture the value of workers’ performance while enhancing worker trust.

How big was the Deloitte survey?

Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends survey polled nearly 10,000 business and HR leaders across many industries in 93 countries, with extra worker, manager and executive surveys and more than 25 executive interviews.

What does Deloitte recommend?

Deloitte suggests clearly defining the purpose and scope of performance management, designing it to build trust and fairness with evidence-based assessments and a transparent process, and simplifying it so it is as painless as possible. It also argues that one process cannot carry all of human performance, so feedback and development should happen in the flow of everyday work.

How can a mid-market People team make reviews more trusted?

Tell people what the review is for, score everyone against the same short scorecard, base ratings on evidence collected during the year (goals, feedback and 1:1 notes), calibrate before results go out, and explain how ratings link to pay and promotion decisions.

Is Revolut People available in Estonia, the Nordics and the UK?

Yes. Revolut People is available to businesses with a registered entity in the UK, the EEA or the US, which covers Estonia and the Nordic countries.