People Lens: Hope Is A Leadership Choice

Hope, like trust, is not a word one would readily associate with business and the economy. After all it can sound too wistful, too whimsical. It seems far removed from the hard facts and strategy and data organizations rely on to succeed in the marketplace.

While preparing for my keynote for the Indonesia’s Best Workplaces event, I returned to something our global CEO said earlier this year at the FOR ALL summit in Las Vegas:

Growth is a word that sits at the centre of every organization’s agenda: revenue growth, customer growth, market share growth, productivity growth, and EDITDA growth.

But what does this mean for the individual?

On paper, the Indonesia economy is growing. Official sources put the year on year growth in the first quarter of 2026 at 5.61%. Investments has also created jobs, although job creation has not grown at the same rate as investment.

These measures tell us whether an economy is expanding. They tell us much less about whether individuals feel secure or optimistic about their own future. That gap matters because hope is shaped by the distance between what organizations report and what people actually experience.

40 million reasons to care

Indonesia has around 40m employees under the age of 30 years old. As populations and workforces age in many parts of the world, Indonesia’s younger workforce represents a significant source of energy and opportunity. When we talk about the future of work, AI, skills, productivity, or economic transformation, we’re really talking about whether this generation can see a credible path forward.

For many younger workers, the questions are practical ones:

• Will I be able to find a place for myself and my family in the future?

• Will I share in the benefits of economic growth and expansion?

• Is there a place for me in the future that is being built?

At Great Place To Work^®, we collect and study data on the workplace experiences of millions of employees around the world. That includes employees in the Best Workplaces, those in more typical organizations and those whose experience of work is poor. Their responses allow us to examine what people are seeing and experiencing at work, and how that shapes their willingness to contribute, innovate and give more than the job strictly requires.

Typical Indonesian Workplace data

The data from a typical Indonesian workplace shows that people are already bringing a strong foundation to work. Even in a typical Indonesian workplace, 89% of employees say they feel physically safe at work, 87% say they feel proud of what they accomplish, and 85% say they were made to feel welcome when they joined. Indonesian workers also score highly on many of these human experiences compared with broader regional benchmarks.

• 89%

  feel physically safe at work

• 87%

  feel proud of what they accomplish

• 85%

  were made to feel welcome when they joined

This is not the picture of a workforce that has given up. People are showing up with pride in their work and a willingness to contribute. They are bringing something to the workplace already. The question is whether leaders and organisations are meeting them there.

When we studied the 2026 cohort of Indonesia’s Best Workplaces, we saw a significant difference. The clearest difference was in how employees experienced leadership.

In a typical Indonesian workplace, 44% of employees say an honest mistake is treated as part of doing business; among the Best Workplaces, that rises to 78%. The proportion who feel they can count on colleagues to cooperate rises from 50% to 80%, while the proportion who have a great deal of confidence in the executive team increases from one in three to two in three. Overall, the Trust Index^™ rises from 71% in a typical workplace to 89% among the Best Workplaces.

Trust is not what leaders promise, it’s what people experience

Employees assess trust in practical ways.

• Do leaders follow through on what they say they will do?

• Are decisions explained and applied fairly?

• Can difficult issues be discussed openly?

• Are leaders transparent about what they know, what they do not know and how decisions are being made?

These questions matter when economic conditions are uncertain and the future of work is changing. AI is creating opportunities while also reshaping roles, career paths and the skills organizations need. For many employees, particularly younger workers, the question is not whether change is happening but whether they can see a place for themselves in the future being created.

Leaders cannot remove that uncertainty, but they can be clear about the decisions they are making, invest in people as work changes and give employees an honest view of what those changes may mean for them.

Hope is a leadership choice

The organisations recognised as 2026 Best Workplaces in Indonesia have not solved every problem or found perfect leaders. They still face uncertainty and many of the same external pressures as other employers.

But they have made a choice. They have chosen the kind of workplace they want to build, invested in trust and given people credible reasons to believe that their contribution has a future.

The Best Workplaces show that hope does not depend on perfect conditions. It develops when people trust the leaders making decisions, believe they will be treated fairly and can see how their contribution fits into what the organization is building.

A workplace cannot guarantee the future.

It can, however, give people confidence that they will be told the truth, treated fairly and given a meaningful part in shaping what comes next.