Transparency can be a debated topic when it comes to business. Not all business owners or executives are willing to be instill transparency since it may lead to internal conflict. It was something many conventional businesses did in the past. However, modern businesses are moving to the opposite direction because they have seen how instilling transparency can be beneficial instead.
Gaining benefits from instilling transparency in business
Today, many successful startups share salaries companywide. It made company performance reports more accessible to all employees. They also build transparency into almost everything they do in business. The great results are significantly striking such as increased employee morale, a boos to the bottom line, and higher employee retention.
Increase employees morale
Instilling transparency in business can be done in various ways. For example, you hold weekly meetings to improve internal communication or post information through internal communication app for all to see so no one is feeling left behind.
You can instill it in a way you provide salary and task information. By making those aspects more transparent, your team will find new opportunities in the work of other teams that they may not have otherwise encountered. It also improves accountability because you encourage task sharing in your team.
Increase the level of trust with customers
You need to instill transparency in business which includes the way you build your relationship with your customers. By building transparency with them, you gain more trust from them that can be used to build deeper, healthier, long lasting relationship. Be transparent with your customers about your pricing, product ingredients, company’s labor, sustainability practices, customer data use.
If you make a mistake in the way you handle those aspects, own up to it. Admit your mistakes and let customers know that you are planning to fix it. Make sure that they know you do your best to prevent it from happening again in the future.
Encourage decisiveness
Transparency can help level the playing field through information accessibility. And with, you empower your team to make more educated, informed decisions independently. They don’t have to pry for information to move projects forward since they are already given the access to it. They only need to access it and make accurate deliverable and quick turnarounds.
Boost efficiency
Transparency can also boost efficiency in business since people are more informed. They know what they are talking about when making conversation with each other. It also help reduce work duplication while increase the efficiency of internal communication within your team. You don’t have to keep telling the same information to different people since everyone has access to know the information already.
Are any downsides of transparency in business?
While it’s full of benefits, instilling transparency in business still carries its own downsides such as leads to distorted information, fosters blame assignment, requires extra effort, and takes time. To counter those potential issues, you can provide context, touch base, and communicate your expectation clearly. Instilling transparency is a logical and forward-thinking steps you can start implementing now.