By Sofia Lahtinen, Marketing Manager at MORS Software
Most companies talk about culture.
As a marketer, I see it everywhere. It shows up in employer branding, careers pages, and LinkedIn posts. But I’ve also noticed something else. There’s often a gap between how culture is described and how it actually works inside a company.
That’s why the concept of the Great Place to Work Effect resonated with me. When I read the Great Place to Work Effect Playbook (you can explore it here: https://www.greatplacetowork.com/customer/effect), it puts words and data behind something that can otherwise feel vague: Trust is what turns culture into performance.
What I learned from the Great Place to Work Effect
Reading through the Playbook, one thing stood out immediately. Culture is not treated as something “nice to have.” It is presented as a system that directly impacts how a company performs.
The model is surprisingly simple: leadership behavior shapes trust, trust shapes employee experience, and that experience drives business outcomes.
It made me rethink how I talk about culture. Instead of asking “what kind of culture do we have?”, a better question might be:
“what kind of performance does our culture enable?”
Trust shows up in everyday moments
What I find most interesting is that trust is not built in big, visible initiatives.
It shows up in small, everyday moments. How openly people speak in meetings.
How feedback is given and received. Whether it feels safe to admit “I don’t know” or “this isn’t working.” These moments are easy to overlook, but they shape how people experience their work. And over time, they shape how teams perform.
When trust is there, things just move faster
One of the most practical insights from the Playbook is how trust affects speed. In high-trust environments, things tend to move forward more smoothly. People share information earlier; decisions are made with less friction, and collaboration feels more natural.
In low-trust environments, the opposite happens. Things slow down. Not because people are less capable, but because more energy goes into navigating uncertainty, protecting oneself, or second-guessing decisions.
From a business perspective, that difference is significant.
Why this matters in a tech-driven world
Right now, many companies are focused on transformation. AI, automation, new tools, new ways of working. But something the Great Place to Work Effect highlights clearly is this: Technology does not create progress on its own. People do. And people perform best in environments where they feel trusted, supported, and aligned. Without that, even the best tools struggle to deliver value.
How I see this at MORS
At MORS Software, we’ve been a Great Place to Work certified company since 2023. Reading the Great Place to Work Effect Playbook made me look at our everyday work from a new perspective. Not just what we do, but what it feels like to be part of the organization. For me, the most meaningful part is not the certification itself. It is recognising how trust shows up in everyday work. You can see it in how openly people communicate and how easily questions are raised. In how teams support each other without being forced. And in how ideas are shared, challenged, and developed further. It is not something formal or structured. It is part of how things naturally happen.
As we continue to grow as a company, I think this is becoming even more important. Maintaining that sense of trust and openness doesn’t happen automatically, it requires attention and care. That’s also something I personally want to take responsibility for, making sure we continue building on this and don’t lose what makes our way of working strong. And over time, that has a clear impact on the quality of the work we deliver.
Culture as a quiet advantage
What I appreciate about the Great Place to Work Effect is that it doesn’t try to make culture sound glamorous. It simply shows that when trust is strong, people care more, collaborate better, and contribute more. And when that happens consistently, performance improves. Not dramatically overnight, but steadily and sustainably.
As a marketer, I spend a lot of time thinking about how companies communicate who they are. But the more I reflect on the Great Place to Work Effect, the more I think this: The most important thing is not what we say about our culture. It is what people experience when they work with us. Because when that experience is built on trust,
performance is no longer something you have to push. It becomes something that naturally follows.
