Nowadays, transparency, both within the company and outside of it, is of vital importance. Transparency in company culture helps you create an organization that performs like a well-oiled machine, as well as an organization that fosters trust and loyalty.
On the other hand, being transparent in the online world gets you the right kind of attention from consumers that expect you to be transparent in the first place. Achieving a good reputation through transparency is its own kind of competitive advantage these days.
Moreover, such a reputation can also benefit your employer branding efforts, as well as any other branding efforts you might engage in. However, when a company claims that it’s transparent, people always assume that the company is hiding something, especially since claiming that you’re transparent sounds a bit too corporate and fishy.
That’s why incorporating transparency into company culture and strategy is more of a” show, don’t tell” kind of an approach. With that in mind, here’s how transparency fits in with company culture and strategy.
Transparency helps with hiring
Every company is on the lookout for talented employees who will also be an ideal cultural fit. Such employees are easy to manage since they are engaged, efficient, ready to collaborate, and showcase their true potential.
However, you simply cannot find such employees if you’re not transparent about who you are or what you do. If you’re transparent about your company culture, you’ll be able to attract employees who share the same values and would love the opportunity to work in such an environment.
Moreover, such hires expect that there’s something you’re not telling them, so if transparency is an essential part of your company culture, as it should be, you can prove them wrong through a well-designed onboarding process. That way, you can show them that you’re not just saying things they want to hear to get them on board but that you’re actually able to walk the walk.
Fosters employee engagement
Engaged employees are productive, efficient, happy, and they perform exceptionally well. It’s every company owner’s dream to have engaged employees. One of the keys to employee engagement is company transparency. The main reason is that company transparency fosters loyalty and trust.
Once you share your values with your employees and regularly update them about your vision, mission, and goals, it becomes easy for them to see meaning in their work, so they become more engaged. With transparency, you can have everyone working towards the same goal. That includes both in-house and remote workers.
Of course, you can always use time and attendance tools to monitor how everyone is doing, but you’ll know for sure that you can rely on your workers to get the job done effectively. If you’re transparent with your employees, they’ll be transparent with you. That way, they will voice their concerns on time, and you can fix any problems before such issues get out of hand.
Reputation
It’s no secret that transparency is directly correlated to a good reputation. In the online world, consumers pay close attention to what companies do. That said, even if a company does something wrong but is transparent about it, consumers will still appreciate the effort.
In other words, it’s easier to maintain a good reputation and mend your mistakes if you’re transparent than when you’re trying to hide the facts that will eventually surface one way or the other. When transparency is an integral part of your culture and strategy, it will make everyone happy.
Your employees will voice their satisfaction over social media, for instance, and your happy customers will promote your company via word-of-mouth.
In other words, your good reputation will precede you, which opens new doors and business opportunities you can capitalize on. This is especially true for your brand. Your branding efforts will be more successful if there’s a good reputation following you around.
It helps your company grow
Up until recently, many companies withheld information in silos. There was little to none cross-department collaboration, and every department was isolated. Only the managers and executives shared information between themselves when creating strategies or making executive decisions.
Fortunately, company owners are starting to realize that company transparency is the key to company growth and development. When information is no longer held within a silo but freely shared across the entire company, it paves the way for setting realistic goals and allowing employees to do their job more efficiently.
As a result, a company-wide collaboration approach was created, allowing everyone to utilize the information and work together towards achieving company goals and milestones.
When information is shared, there are no unpleasant surprises, and employees don’t get to be blindsided. This allows for smoother operations, and it helps everyone focus on their job without having to worry about unexpected inconveniences.
Transparency is a vital component of your company culture and strategy. Without transparency to lead the way, you’ll undoubtedly face numerous problems and obstacles that could’ve otherwise been avoided. That’s why it’s very important to integrate transparency company-wide if you haven’t done so by now.
