A lack of trust between the employer and employee can create issues in the workplace that can impact the efficiency of the business. Employee transparency can create a much more productive and motivating environment. Here’s why.
According to a APA Survey in 2016, 25% of employees don’t trust their employer, while only 50% believe that the employer is upfront and open with them. This is a whopping 75% if a company’s employees have some degree of distrust with their employer. Without employee transparency, there can be a lack of trust in the workplace. This can impact employee engagement, productivity and even areas like customer satisfaction.
The old adage of over communicating holds very true when we speak of transparency. But it is just not how much you communicate but the content that is imparted. Over communications can actually have a negative effect if the employees feel the substance of the communications is not genuine.
Better Relationships
The biggest motivation for employees to quit their job was their boss. A 2014 survey found that 37% of employees were most likely to leave their employment because they have a negative opinion about their boss.
This is where Transparency plays a huge role between the manager and the employee. Feedback is one important layer to the communications. Employees need to know where they stand and sharing feedback and recognition is an important way to establish a foundation for trust.
Better Alignment
Alignment in an organization means that you take a look at the larger picture (company’s goals) and understand what role everyone plays in the picture. If there is employee transparency, teams will be able to understand why decisions are made. If leaders are transparent, employees understand the vision of the company and how to contribute to those company’s goals.
Letting your employees learn more about the company’s finances, management meetings, board meetings (good & bad) can also help employees feel more engaged with an “knowledge ownership” stake in the business.
Better Solutions
The best thing about employee transparency is that problems can get solved much more quickly. Employees can find solutions quicker if they have been told about the problems of the company in an open and honest way. If more employees are involved, they may be able to come up with a better solution since literally two heads are better than one. You will have employees fighting harder to reach their own goals if they know where their employee stands overall.
Transparency down to the group level can help get everyone involved. For example the support organization – goals and objectives around open tickets, closing tickets. At the end of the month does everyone know how they helped contribute to the group’s goals? Knowing group-wide goals can increase accountability in the firm as well as highlight the different challenges that the company could be facing. By involving them and sharing information, you are encouraging employees to find solutions too.
Better Engagement
A 2013 survey found that 70% of employees agree that they are most engaged when senior leaders update and communicate with them on company strategy on a routine basis.
Building a culture where employees have an innate trust in the leadership is a key building block of most successful companies.
