Why transparency is important in business

Policies and company cultures that provide a transparent work environment are important for the worthwhile retention of a company's employees. They also save money and allow businesses to devote their resources to other practices that grow the company and increase profitability.

Transparency may seem like a vulnerability or a liability to your company at first. Transparency at work contains within itself an enormous amount of power over any organization. Leaders need to know the source and benefits of that power. Although most leaders realize company culture has a significant impact, I am not convinced that most understand how they can be intentional about shaping it.

Goal setting can help your employees stay motivated and increase their engagement. Learn more about the top goal setting techniques for businesses.

As pride month continues, inclusivity in the workplace measures increase. Here's how to maintain that inclusivity to all groups year round! Close Menu Try Weekdone Today. Objectives and Key Results. Plans, Progress, Problems. Investors associate corporate transparency with good management and future market opportunities. On the other hand, a lack of transparency is often associated with a hidden agenda, which can halter or even stop investments in the long run.

Hence, transparent businesses are less affected by recessions, tend to do better on the stock market, and attract more investments. External and internal transparency go hand-in-hand. Keeping employees in the loop about important business decisions and activities makes them feel more valued and engaged. On top of that, transparency in the workplace fosters innovation and creativity. Moreover, a transparent working environment creates bonds of trust between management and employees. Nowadays, there is increasing pressure on businesses across all industries to become more transparent.

Customers, employees, investors, and the general public expect companies to timely and openly inform them about business operations, financial outlook, and overall performance.

The good news is, there are numerous advantages that come with business transparency:. They even go as far as to discourage their customers from purchasing too many of their products. The way they practice transparency is by putting detailed financial and customer data on their blog.

They even make their annual reports accessible and open to the public. Of course, they also try to make these reports more visually appealing by using infographics and catchy subject lines, to save you from the usual boredom of reading a report.

Hopefully, the transparency of these three companies will inspire you to offer skills you would want to teach your employees. Upskilling can help promote a culture of transparency and accountability. When 1 Hotels was looking for an internal communications platform to replace WhatsApp groups, they implemented Beekeeper to create a more transparent, inclusive company culture.

Using Beekeeper, team leaders can create one message to post in Beekeeper that is visible by all hotel teams. They hold daily morning rallies where the team reviews recent posts and updates in Beekeeper to make sure everyone is on the same page. With this added transparency in the workplace with Beekeeper, employee engagement at 1 Hotels has increased, and turnover has decreased significantly.

The growing millennial workforce is fluid, changing jobs regularly in search of a better…. A large majority of companies already focus on their brand—the customer-facing name that truly tells your customers who or what they are buying. When a customer thinks about Apple,…. The beliefs and values that guide behavior in a company might seem like an intangible part of business. The German summit for HR decision-makers in Bonn has just kicked off. The practices that were developed worked for that company and have since gone on to help hundreds of organizations in a wide range of industries.

Creates a competitive edge in business. When employees realize they are trusted by, and can trust, management, they are more likely to step up and perform their work in an engaged and thoughtful manner. Organizations are learning what best motivates millennials in an effort to reduce turnover and retain good talent.

Consequently, trust in the workplace is becoming more of a priority. An SHRM job satisfaction and engagement report indicated that the two most important factors in job satisfaction are respectful treatment of employees and trust between employees and management. How can a business create transparency? The number one way to be more transparent is to implement open-book management practices. The financial information provided in an open-book approach creates an ownership culture in which employees start to see the business in the same way owners and executives see it.

This lifts the veil between upper management and the rest of the team, and allows for a more honest and collaborative relationship and improved communication. Along with open-book management, a financial literacy program must be developed so that employees have a foundation for understanding the information being shared. Those business leaders who are open to new ideas and like the idea of transparency can dive deeper into The Great Game of Business operating system and community to fully understand how The Game can transform an organization.

Creating more transparency in management, communication, and operations produces a positive impact, but you may need assistance in making the transition.