The preferences of employees and job seekers alike are crystal clear – they want greater transparency in the workplace. In fact, many people consider transparency to be a critical, must-have characteristic of any company they associate with.
Need further proof? According to a recent Future of Work study by Slack, “80% of workers want to know more about how decisions are made in their organization and 87% want their future company to be transparent.”
In this blog, we’ll discuss:
- What transparency in the workplace means and what it looks like in action
- Why transparency matters to your business
- How you can introduce more transparency into your organization
What is a transparent workplace?
A transparent workplace embraces a culture of open, two-way communication – that is, the free and timely exchange of information about the organization and its position and plans at the macro level, and an individual employee’s role and career prospects at the micro level.
- The company wants its people to be informed.
- Employees feel empowered to use their voice to ask questions and submit feedback on certain topics.
- Within reason, the company is able and willing to provide answers to those questions and respond to feedback.
It doesn’t matter if the information shared is positive or negative – it’s the honesty and forthrightness of leaders and the inclusion of employees in the information loop that are appreciated.
The specific details of what a company chooses to be transparent about may differ from organization to organization. Much of the appetite for transparency depends on the organization’s status as a public or private entity (as it relates to discussing financials) as well as the comfort level of leadership.
Generally, employees want their companies to be honest and upfront about topics such as:
- Their company’s financial performance
- Their company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges
- Organizational goals and strategies, and how each employee supports these
- Any significant news, plans, projects or other actions expected in the near future (typically six months or less)
- The why behind significant decisions that affect employees and how they work
- Each role’s responsibilities and expectations for individual performance, including goals and metrics
- Employee pay
- Performance feedback
- Opportunities for personal development and career advancement within the organization
- Company policies, including updates
- Benefits offerings, including changes
- Changes to leadership or organizational structure
- Corporate social responsibility, including efforts to minimize environmental impact and benefit the surrounding community
How transparency helps your workplace
Businesses that share information with their employees openly and consistently reap important benefits.
For starters, transparency builds a stronger sense of trust between leaders and employees, which often results in improved employee:
- Engagement
- Morale
- Satisfaction
As it turns out, employees who feel valued, respected, trusted and included are happier, more confident and feel more connected to their workplace.
Furthermore, giving employees more information about their role, including deeper insight into their importance to the organization and the expectations that management has of them, often leads to higher productivity and a greater sense of purpose, accountability and ownership among the workforce.
Some of the top reasons why employees leave their company are that they:
- Don’t understand the impact of their job and how they support the company’s mission, vision and goals.
- Aren’t aware of their career opportunities within the organization
Transparency may, in fact, be the answer to this challenge!
Additionally, open dialogue among broader groups of people can foster better collaboration and idea sharing – enhancing teamwork, interpersonal bonds and organizational innovation in one fell swoop.
All of these things positively influence employee retention.
How lack of transparency hurts your workplace
However, businesses that resist transparency can suffer from:
- Employee mistrust and resentment when they suspect valuable information is being withheld from them or they’re being lied to
- Decreased engagement associated with employees’ lack of knowledge and little sense of connection to the workplace
- Low morale associated with employees feeling powerless over their situation and “in the dark”
- Poor communication that is both infrequent and lacking in substance
- Inefficiencies related to poor communication
- Subpar performance
- Information silos
- Loss of institutional knowledge when in-the-know leaders leave
- Reduced idea sharing and innovation
And then there’s what happens on the rumor mill. When employees are not given information proactively or in full, it’s human nature for them to fill in the blanks with their own assumptions or run with rumors based on the trickles of information they may have captured somehow. Often, their version of events can take a more negative slant than reality. When gossip circulates, inaccuracies can mount, the organization can quickly lose control of the narrative and the workplace becomes toxic.
All of these things negatively influence employee retention.
The big fear that holds employers back
So, if transparency is so beneficial, why do some employers hesitate?
It comes down to fear of what employees will do with any negative information they receive.
For example, let’s say a company is undergoing a rough patch. Leadership may worry that if they share information with employees about current conditions, employees will panic, assume lay-offs are imminent and initiate a mass exodus.
Though this is an understandable concern, a crisis of employee confidence can be avoided using the right communications approach, including messaging that explains how the situation came about, what the new business strategy is and what the immediate next steps are to overcome the challenge at hand.
And, in the context of a healthy and proactive open-communication culture developed over the long term, employees usually appreciate being kept in the loop and shown trust and respect. They want to be treated like adults who can handle the truth and draw their own conclusions.
Think of it this way – using the example above, is it better to:
- Not acknowledge a rocky situation and allow employees to believe something inaccurate or, worse, that you’re misleading them?
- Tell the truth and make employees part of the solution?
How to make your workplace more transparent
Here are some practical steps you can take right now to introduce transparency into your workplace.
1. Conduct a climate survey
You likely won’t know whether your organization has a “transparency problem” and how to best resolve it until you ask your workforce. Distribute an employee survey to determine how employees perceive the current level of transparency in your workplace compared to the level of transparency they’d like to experience. These survey results will help inform your next steps in addressing any gaps that exist.
2. Obtain leadership buy-in
Make sure company leadership is onboard with efforts to increase transparency. Without their approval, support and active involvement, no initiatives will move forward.
3. Create a plan
What does transparency look like in your particular workplace?
Consider:
- What information will you share with employees, and what will you not share? (More on this next.)
- How will you communicate with employees, using which communication media?
- How frequently will you communicate?
- Who is responsible for sharing certain types of information with employees? This could range from human resources professionals to direct managers.
4. Strike a balance
It’s not realistic for a company to share everything with employees. There’s a fine line between information that can be shared to the benefit of employees versus information that should be held back for valid business reasons. It’s up to you to decide where that line falls at your organization, and why.
And then there’s information that should always remain confidential because it could expose the company to liability.
Examples of what companies choose to not discuss with employees:
- Proprietary information that could disadvantage the company, such as intellectual property
- Sensitive information about other employees, such as reasons for termination
- Certain decision-making processes and rationale that don’t impact employees directly, such as the selection of a vendor
5. Engage with employees about your intentions
Announce the results of the climate survey to employees. Let them know about your efforts to promote transparency and address issues they may have raised. Explain to them the details of your plan – what information you’ll share, how you’ll share it, how often they’ll hear from you, and who will share it.
Then commit.
6. Practice honesty
Share information with employees as you promised.
When you’re unable to be transparent, be upfront and say so – but explain why.
7. Be proactive
Try to get ahead of employee concerns. Your frontline managers should have a pulse on their teams. Communicate with them regularly to learn about your employees’ mindset and focus.
Either way, prepare to receive negative feedback from employees and consider how you’ll respond to their criticism and use it to refine your transparency approach. Whatever you do, don’t roll back transparency in response – that can make the situation worse.
Summing it all up
Transparency in the workplace is a top-of-mind issue and prominent concern for most employees. They want to know their company’s position and how they fit into this picture, now and looking ahead to the future. To become an attractive employer of choice and retain employees, your company should embrace transparency as much as possible. When employees feel valued, respected, trusted and included, they thrive and the workplace benefits.
For more information on cultivating an engaged, productive workforce, download our free e-book: How to develop a top-notch workforce that will accelerate your business.