Transparency in the Workplace – It’s Time to be Open and Honest

In most organizations, there is an unspoken understanding that employees will provide quality work in exchange for decent compensation and treatment from employers. Employees expect stable work to generate an income, and employers expect employees to use their skills to generate ideas and revenues for the company. It’s pretty simple – or, is it always this clear?

Transparency in the workplace is on the rise

The trend towards making things more transparent in the workplace has been growing in the last few years. The idea is to get issues and information out into the open and confront them rather than use a “head in the sand” philosophy hoping that things will go away. Problems never work themselves out this way; instead they just fester. In the past, employers resorted to only sharing things on a need-to-know basis, so by the time employees found out the truth of things there were already a number of rumors spreading like cancer through the organization. Greater transparency makes sense, given these parameters. But there is another facet to it that employers can forget – employees can be transparent too. Why is this important? What could an employee have to share that could impact the business?

What if greater employee transparency is directly connected to talent retention?

The 2016 Harris Allied Research Annual Talent Acquisition & Retention Survey indicated that 18 percent of CEOs are concerned with employee retention, and offering an amazing corporate culture was a top aspect of fostering greater retention. The survey also revealed that, “More effectively communicating a company’s plan for future growth has become an important strategy for attracting and retaining talent in 2016.” Transparency has a great deal of value to employees, because they have a right to know what changes are occurring that can impact their jobs.

It comes down to trust

When employees know they can trust that their organization has their best interests in mind and enough respect to be transparent about important matters, they tend to respond by being more loyal, motivated and working harder to help the company succeed. Creating a culture of communication that’s open and direct can support retention. Consider the cost of not taking steps to retain your best workers. It’s been estimated that it can cost as much as three times an annual salary to replace one high performing employee. Factor in administrative costs for recruitment, weeks of lost production, the expertise lost to a competitor, and months to train a new hire -- and it makes a lot of sense. It’s much less expensive to retain an employee. Why do a lot of employees leave? They are not respected enough to be heard by their management team. Their ideas are squashed rather than being valued. They rarely hear any positive feedback that lets them know they are doing well. They have no outlet for sharing concerns or getting answers to their questions. They feel lost, therefore they lose faith in the company and the culture. How can employees best be retained? The company that cares about retaining employees takes steps to put an employee engagement survey system into place, so employees can communicate openly and let leaders know things are going well. Employers can also communicate better with employees by responding to concerns in a prompt manner. They can also inform employees of any changes so that employees can plan for the impact on their lives, incomes, and careers.

To find out more about how Thymometrics' real-time anonymous feedback solutions can enhance your businesses open and transparent culture, email info@thymometrics.com, call +1 646 760 9323 (US) or +44 (0) 1223 750 251 (Europe) or visit thymometrics.com. Image courtesy of artur84 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net