For Delta and Accenture CEOs, helping employees navigate trade and tariffs uncertainty fits the company culture

It seems that president Donald Trump’s tariff and commercial wars – and the uncertainty that led to the weaker than the confidence of consumers and commercials in the United States – is placed companies like the Air Delta in a tail.

The airline caused investors when it reduced profit forecasts in the first quarter in March, and a month later, the entire year instructions for 2025 withdrew completely. Delta still expects to report profit this year, but CEO Ed Bastian warned that uncertainty about global trade made “very difficult to predict the policies that their policies may appear throughout the year.”

However, Bastian adhered to the commitment made by Delta before commercial wars to give employees a 4 % increase in wages, which is the fourth increase in a row since 2022.

“You don’t see many companies tend to face uncertainty,” says Bastian. luck. Bastian says that the percentage of the increase was less important for employees than “the fact that we were putting fuel in their tank to overcome these difficult times, as we did several times in the past.”

Investing in learning

This logic helps to clarify the reason for occupying 15th Delta in the best Fortune 100 company for this year to work in List, which was collected by the Great Place to work. This was the last symposium that caused the “redefinition of leadership: mastery of change in a complex world” – along with the UKG human resource and human resource supplier.

Julie Swit, President of Acceneture, also spoke at the web symposium and participated that during the first week of the tariff headlines, the Information Technology and Administrative Consulting Services Company hosted 900 customer seminars to discuss what is going on and how to respond. Internally, Accenture has invested in learning, as the company’s 10,000 administrative managers were equipped with a database of artificial intelligence. This tool allows employees to ask questions about complex topics, such as definitions, and to reach speed so that they can help customers. Accenture also brought the major economists to educate the workforce on definitions.

What he says to employees, Sweet, is “I am in a company on her head, and this helps me immediately succeed in this environment.” ACCENture ranks seventh on the best Fortune 100 company to work in a list.

Within just one week of launching customs tariffs, Accenene was already working to assess how they interacted and if the programs that were launched were well received.

“I think it is extremely important to remember that people need to communicate,” says Sweet. “They need a procedure. As a company, and the ability to invest in being an important fast for your employees because they are going through these different times.”

Communication with employees is also a top priority in Delta. Earlier this week, he met the FRONTLINE workers in Sult Lake City, one of the 15 employees ’participation and job development sessions hosted by the CEO, internally known as the” velvet “. Delta hosted these events for 19 consecutive years, which she returns to when she was swinging towards bankruptcy.

Listen to employees

“It allows us to return to the front lines of our people, and listen to them,” Bastian says. “There are many people who want to tell us what we should do. The most important people to listen to them.”

Michael C Bush, CEO of Great Place to work, says he attended the events of a Delta lines and witnessed an enthusiastic response to the presence of Bastian. “You can be a real person, you can be a care person, you can be a developing and weak person, and do a great job at work,” says Bush.

During the Delta event in Utah, it was one of the topics that appeared in talks between senior leaders and front lines workers are the trade war and the impact of definitions on travel. Consumer confidence has decreased to the lowest level since May 2020, putting the expected pressure on estimated spending, such as travel. International travel to the United States is now expected to decrease in 2025, a reflection of the increase expectations before the tariff news.

But other data points indicate that so far, foreign travelers still come to the American Bastian hitting the tone of optimism. His customer base, which tends to be richer. “I think the economy of the experience, which we serve, is in reasonable performance,” he says. “You still see people in restaurants, still see people on board, still see people planning their summer flights.”

At the age of 100, Delta has seen many volatile total economic conditions, including when traveling restrictions during the epidemic led to almost all demand for travel. Bastian says in difficult times, he encourages his team to take care of themselves as well as customers.

“Some leaders, when they strike suddenly, I think there is a natural stop, and people are retreating,” says Bastian. “I think real leaders are entering it.”

External challenges give leaders an opportunity to rethink their business approach. With all the geopolitical conflict arising from commercial wars between the United States and China, Sow says that Accene spends a lot of time speaking with customers not only about planning scenarios, but also addressing new questions about the markets in which you must invest and where to grow.

“Some are related to operational and financial flexibility, but many of them are related to what this means to grow,” says Sweet. “It is not related to tariffs, but also related to the broader effects that will have great opportunities and challenges for companies.”

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com

2025-05-02 13:45:00