5 ways to make your business more transparent - Viewpoint - careers advice blog Viewpoint careers advice blog

5 ways to make your business more transparent - Viewpoint - careers advice blog Keen to prove that they are moral and honest, businesses now wield transparency as a means of attracting new investors and clients. But it’s not just investors who stand to benefit from an increased policy of candidness. Employees too feel more confident working in transparent businesses; valuing them more, just as investors do. It should be your aim to encourage transparency within your business so that everyone knows the who, what, why, when and how. Once your team know more about the wider workings of the business and feel like they have more access to those above them in the organisational hierarchy they will undoubtedly feel more involved, and subsequently motivated. In truly transparent businesses everyone feels like cogs of the same machine. The top executives aren’t silo’d away and everyone knows how their role relates to one another’s. So, what can you do to encourage transparency in your business? 1. Experiment with new tech Are you making the most of the technology available to you There are always ways of working smarter, and technology often has something to do with it. There are many programs and apps you can use to foster a feeling of open and collaborative working. If you don’t have a shared network drive in your business where you and your team can store and share documents, or if you do but require a less restrictive hub, then I’d encourage you to use a tool like Google Docs. Such a tool helps encourage collaborative working, while also reducing the need for myriad emails laden with inbox-crippling attachments. An internal messaging system is another, more informal way of encouraging open working within your organisation. Emails are to computers what texts are to phones, so what is the WhatsApp equivalent for computers? Well WhatsApp is certainly an option, but there are instant messaging systems that are better designed for the workforce, such as Microsoft Office Communicator, Yammer and Slack. Open and honest conversation is key to transparent working, and introducing an internal instant messaging system would certainly help to facilitate this. But it’s not just tech titans like Google and Microsoft that can help you build an open environment. There are many exciting tech startups breaking new frontiers and coming up with innovative solutions to improve transparency in the workplace. My favourite of these that I have come across is Humanyze, a data-dependent product that monitors and shares each employee’s daily routine, using these learnings to identify communication bottlenecks and information loss within organisations. You should also ask yourself whether you’re making the most of the existing technology available to you. Many businesses have an intranet upon which the CEO or senior board members can post and share regular updates. Alternatively â€" and this is something Hays do â€" your senior figures could and should issue monthly updates to their teams, which can be sent via email or posted online. 2. But don’t neglect the face-to-face While there are many great benefits to embracing new technology in the workplace, none of them will ever compare to the value of real conversations, in real time, in real rooms, in real offices.   Whether it’s a team meeting, employee performance review or AGM, there’s no better way to build trust and inspire an open environment than to have real conversations. Our CEO Alistair Cox is a big advocate of interpersonal communication. He believes that face-to-face communication is “the glue that binds a business together and is still the best way to create the relatedness between colleagues that allows a business to get things done”. Adopt an open door policy with your employees, wherein they can come and voice any concerns or ask any questions of you at any sensible time. This will encourage a flatter management structure, creating an open environment where everybody feels equally valued. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken this ‘breaking out of silos’ mentality to the literal extreme; he doesn’t just have an open door, it’s been entirely removed and so have the four walls. 3. Tell the whole truth and nothing but A two-way channel of honest feedback is what you should aspire to It’s not enough to just be having conversations with your staff though; these conversations need to be honest and sincere. Being open and transparent is all about building trust; one can’t really undermine its importance in any kind of relationship. Being direct and saying honestly what you think or what consequences follow in certain situations is not easy, but it’s a fundamental contributor to any leader’s reputation. By being truthful with your staff â€" about business expansion plans, business failures, their performance, their role, their future in the business and so on â€" you’re creating an environment where everyone feels equally invested in the business. Equally, don’t reprimand others simply because you don’t like what they have to say this is the opposite of collaborative and transparent leadership. A two-way channel of honest feedback, where both parties receive each other earnestly, is what you should be aspiring to. As detailed in the latest Hays Journal, Bill Gates help promote a culture of honesty within Microsoft by sharing an email each week titled, ‘The mistakes I have made this week’. 4. Rearrange the furniture If you’re investing a significant amount of your time and effort into creating a transparent work environment then it’s also worthwhile that you invest some resource in transforming the workplace itself. Create spaces where teams can come together and collaborate on projects â€" commonly referred to in our offices as ‘break out areas’. This will also help your different teams break out of their individual silos. Alistair Cox believes that by breaking down barriers between departments you can “help [employees] understand how their role and teams fits into the wider organisation… It’s not always easy, but it pays dividends if people can see how things fit together”. He provides some advice on other ways, aside from thinking about the office layout, that you can encourage cross-departmental communication in his Influencer blog, ‘Get your employees thinking big’. There has been a lot of original thought in this area over the last few years. From meeting rooms with no chairs to smart offices which measure cups of coffees drunk, toilets flushed and table football goals scored, there is a whole array of ways businesses large and small are adapting their office space to stimulate open and collaborative working. Experiment with a few of them yourself; if it doesn’t work then at least you tried! 5. Hold office ‘Town Halls’ Dont be weary of sharing business ambitions and goals This point is closely related to points two and three, but deserves a mention in its own right. Don’t be weary of sharing your personal ambitions and goals for the business with your team, often this can help galvanize them towards helping you realise these goals. Update your team on how the business is performing just as you would to your investors; quarterly meetings during which you disclose the business’s current KPIs. An open door policy like this, where members of staff who may have only been in the job for a month, are invited to come and question the top ranking employee helps your employees feel empowered, while also keeping them informed. You could even have online Town Halls, such as software company ‘Red Hat’. Red Hat has an internal forum called ‘Memo List’, where employees of any seniority are invited to share their opinions and ideas and provoke debate. The statute of limitations Having said all of this, there are limitations as to how transparent your business can and should be. I’ve recently read about companies who share all employees’ salaries in one place and other businesses who make all emails accessible on their open network. I personally wouldn’t opt my team and I into either of these initiatives, but then it very much depends on the individual circumstances of that business and what culture they have. What’s important is that you have the backing of all your employees in whatever transparency initiatives you decide to experiment with. Make it clear that you’re trying to encourage a more congenial style of working, and not a big brother style operation! If you enjoyed this blog then you might also enjoy some of the following: 11 ways to become more productive at work Are you suffering from career burnout? Its time to make a change Great leaders put themselves second How to use Facebook and LinkedIn in your job search Successful people create their own luck 15 questions to ask your interviewer Prioritising personality in your hiring process Make your interviewer love you Asking the right questions 10 Daily Habits to Bring You Career Success from Hays