In today’s business world, transparency sounds to be a buzzword for many. But professionals, who have been in the business for a while and are aware of its importance, acknowledge the fundamental importance of transparency in directing the organization’s success. If we look into the perspective of Michael Hershman, an internationally recognized expert on transparency and accountability in business operations, maintaining transparency in business operations has some amazing benefits.

It helps in creating a healthy workspace and fostering collaboration between employees and the company’s leadership. In this blog post, we aim to explore the role of transparency in business growth and success. Let’s get started to learn more. 

What is Workplace Transparency?

Transparency is often listed as the core value of many successful businesses and organizations. However, the term means different for each organization. Still, some transparency indicators are the same for almost every organization. The first thing is the clarification of the company’s objective within the organization as well as with the customer and includes both the organization’s goals and the individual goals of the workers within the organization. 

Clear goals spark a sense of purpose within each individual and are a driving force to help them achieve their goal. Secondly, transparency also calls for accountability and ownership of each task in the organization for effective project management.

Effective Ways to Build Transparent Workplaces

Successful business operations are directed by effective strategies. Formulating such strategies demands for the access of the employees the accurate information for on-time decision-making and processing. However, this is not possible in obscure organizations that compromise the productivity of the employees, thus impacting overall business growth. 

Secrecy results in gossip, ignorance, and disruption of the workflows while hindering the employees to perform at their fullest. Building a transparent workspace is not a spontaneous process. Nevertheless, taking small steps and achieving each milestone can make a significant difference. Here are some simple ways to enhance the contribution of employees and enable them to perform better

• Transparency in Communication

The first step in bringing transparency in business is to facilitate open communication that empowers all employees to be involved in company operations like decision-making. For transparent communication, make sure each employee is getting a safe environment for their freedom of speech and seek assistance whenever needed. Organize daily meetings, and honest Q&A sessions, and encourage the use of collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack to enhance the interaction between employees.

• Open-by Default Policy

Implementation of an open-by-default policy is a bit tricky because you need to set up different privacy settings for various documents based on their confidentiality level. However, the majority of the information can be made open by default and there is no good reason not to. So, make sure that your employees, as well as customers, have as much information as they are concerned, so they can interact more effectively with the business. Moreover, easy access makes the decision-making process boosts the overall growth of the business.

• Promote Healthy Competition

Healthy competition at workplaces increases the collaboration and skill development journey of the employees, thus it helps in their personal growth which is overall beneficial for the business. An effective way to promote healthy competition in the workplace is to create performance charts and enable the access of the entire team to that performance data. Such data motivates the employees to upgrade their skills and perform better while achieving their goals. However, do not neglect the fair appreciation to motivate them to keep going.

• Financial Transparency

This step of transparency is the highest level and implementing it depicts the commitment of the organization to involve their employees in the business operation to every possible extent. Teach your employees about the financial basics including how the company works financially. It will help them to truly understand how the company they are working for works. The advanced level of financial transparency is the sharing of the salary of each employee and business lead with everyone involved, so they know that each one of them is getting their fair share.

Final Words

Transparency in the workplace is a crucial element in the trust-building process between employees, customers, and stakeholders. All the ways that we have discussed in the above section enhance trust and create a positive brand image for everyone who is connected to the business in any way. 

Overall, this process enhances the efficiency of business operations by motivating everyone to invest their best skills to improve the performance of the organization. In conclusion, transparency is imperative for the growth and success of a business.