Four Ways to Promote Transparency in the Workplace

Transparency is the practice of being open and honest with others, no matter how challenging it might be. For both personal and professional relationships to thrive, you need to eliminate the stigma that comes with being straightforward. 

Workplace transparency is proven to breed long-term success. Done well, transparency creates trust between employers and employees, helps improve morale and lower job-related stress while increasing employee engagement and boosting performance. And being transparent costs nothing, which gives it an exceptional ROI. 

If you want to create transparency where you work and encourage those around you to do the same, here are four ways you can get started. 

1. Eliminate ambiguity.  

Remove any potential for confusion from all workplace communication, including company guidelines, roles, responsibilities and processes. Accountability begins with a clear understanding of who is responsible for which parts of the business, and employees struggle when management leaves important information open for interpretation. To avoid potential problems, follow up often and be firm about your expectations for open communication at all levels in the future. 

2. Provide access to information 

Within an organization there is often a lot of information that is not available to employees. Often this information is not made public because it is sensitive or for some other reason. However, there might be information that can be shared with employees, but isn’t. In order for you, as a leader to be transparent, you should consider if more information should be available to employees, and provide access to it. 

3. Involve people in decision making 

What’s even better than explaining your decision, it to involve others in the decision making process. You can do this in a number of different ways. Sometimes a quick poll on a subject can be enough to get input from others, in other cases you might want to hold a workshop or brainstorming session in order to make a collaborative decision. This approach to decision making does not only make you more transparent as a leader, but can also help you come to better decisions for your organization. 

4. Build a culture of empowerment 

Empowering employees means trusting them to make decisions about your organization. This is a key part of building a transparent culture. Empowered employees are more independent and productive. It also encourages collaboration and cultivates a safe space where everyone can express their opinions. Employees and other people don’t have to be concerned about being penalized for making a mistake. Instead, they’re encouraged to learn from the experience. 

At its core, transparency is about maintaining an open dialogue so everyone is heard, able to share, and empowered to do their best work. 

Bringing this transparency into your workplace won’t always be easy, but you may find the rewards are worth the work it takes to make it happen.