Sharing your failures with your employees most likely sounds at least uncomfortable, if not terrifying, to most people. Transparency is difficult to create, but can be a big game changer in how you run your company. Transparency comes with benefits to the wellness of your company and your employees. Here is why and how you should make your company more transparent:

Why

  • Transparency builds trust: Employees who know more about the company they work for are more likely to feel secure in their jobs and more secure in their employers. When employees can trust their employers, they are less likely to quit. 
  • Solutions come faster: If everyone is aware of current issues in your company, then there are more people to help come up with solutions. This will make your company more productive. 
  • Employees become more engaged: Employees are more engaged when they’re updated on company progress and have a direction. 

How

  • Encourage employees to ask questions: Provide times where questions can be answered honestly. This can be done in large presentations or in one on one meetings. Decide what works best for your company. 
  • Figure out what employees want to know: Simply providing all of your company’s information in a large document will not be helpful to anyone. Figure out what is most important to your employees and make that information easily accessible. 
  • Create a culture of honest feedback: Try to create an environment where employees and managers can give each other helpful feedback. You might want to train the members of your company to give good feedback for this to be the most useful. 
  • Don’t hide the bad news: Hiding bad news can make your employees suspicious and uneasy. Try to share defeats as well as successes to give your employees a good view of what is going on in your company. This will help increase the trust in your company. 

While it may feel uncomfortable at first, these tips will help you to implement and reap the rewards of transparency in your company.