Organizations are encouraged to integrate sustainability into their HRM practices to enhance their attractiveness as employers to prospective employees and to motivate employees to excel, which allows them to recognize the contribution they make to society and the lasting impact they create. Establishing a trusting relationship between employees and leaders emerges as a crucial factor when organizations opt to implement sustainable HRM practices across diverse contexts. Thus, this study examines the role of trust in leaders on the relationship between sustainable HRM practices and employee job performance. Consequently, we employed a quantitative approach in which a simple random sampling technique was used to collect data from 156 academic staffs of three private universities across Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus. The research hypotheses were examined through the application of Smart PLS 3.0. Our results indicated a significant impact of sustainable HRM practices on employees’ job performance, emphasizing the importance of judiciously selecting these practices while fostering a trusting relationship between leaders and employees. These findings offer organizations the opportunity to not only enhance their comprehension and awareness of strategic resource allocation but also to tailor their policies in congruence with the company’s objectives and strategies, thereby ensuring the efficient utilization of resources to enhance employee satisfaction and well-being, ultimately leading to an improvement in job performance.