Transparency with your workforce creates an engaged workforce that is highly motivated

Transparency is a cornerstone of any successful business. It’s essential to have, but far tougher to stick to. Transparency – communication, honesty, regular feedback, respect and admitting wrongs - is perhaps the most powerful tool a business leader has in their arsenal, but it’s easy to forget the wonders it can work.

 We all know that, regardless of the level you’re operating at, busy periods make regular communication between departments almost impossible. Employees can be so engaged in their daily working lives that it can be days, weeks or even months before there is time to pause and take stock. However, this can be very easily remedied, and as always, it starts from the top.

Take the onboarding of a new leadership team, for example, or even a change in structure. This can be unsettling and uncertain at the best of times, but a lack of transparency can turn what is already a complicated process into a disaster.

Transparency needs to be implemented from the very start of something. It’s not enough to update your team when something has already started. Transparency means outlining reasons for doing something once a decision has been made – not when action has been taken. It means explaining the effects on the workforce – both collectively and as individuals. It means explaining the challenges and solutions, along with the benefits and what it means for the company in the future.

The same applies on an individual level, too. When conducting performance reviews and appraisals and implementing a team member’s resulting objectives, transparency helps ensure not only that the appraiser is clear, but also that the employee feels the respect and honesty they deserve, in any conversations about their career development and how their hard work contributes to the business.

Transparency also has implications for your reputation in the future, too.

All too often we see politicians, senior government figures or heads of global companies become victims of massive scrutiny and criticism because of a lack of transparency in the past.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has now succumbed to calls to resign, for stating that immigration targets had not been used, only to backtrack and admit that they had previously been used internally, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg is in the midst of a huge scandal surrounding how the platform handles customer data, and hundreds of UK companies with more 250 employees or more have recently revealed their gender pay gap; all of them are taking lengths to be more transparent moving forward.

If there is complete honesty and transparency from the start of a process, it can save time, money, stress and reputational damage if ever something needs to be investigated. Don’t ever underestimate the security that safeguarding your reputation in this way can bring.

It might feel uncomfortable, but admitting your mistakes is key here too. As an employer, if you want to make sure you have an engaged and highly motivated workforce, you need to allow them to share in your journey; the good times and the bad. Transparency here enables team members to see that everybody makes mistakes and is an approach far more likely to elicit ideas on best practice in the future, resulting in higher motivation levels.

The benefits of transparency cannot be overestimated. It means better employee engagement, problems are solved more efficiently, accountability becomes a shared value, and employees are easier to manage, work with, and most importantly, retain. It’s essential that businesses use it to its full potential – you won’t be disappointed with the effects it has on your workforce.