3 Steps to Achieve Transparency in the Workplace

Between ongoing economic turmoil and the lingering impact of the COVID pandemic, it’s safe to say that the modern workplace is an uncertain one. In the face of this uncertainty strong, clear, transparent communication has become a priority for workers.

The emphasis on clear communication and transparency is supported by a recent survey conducted by LumApps. After speaking to more than 9,000 employees from the US, the UK, and France, we found that an astonishing 92% believe that authentic leadership and honest communication are important in the workplace, with over 60% ranking it as “very important.”

While the statistics may not come as a surprise to HR leaders—almost 40% of the professionals surveyed said that a lack of transparency negatively impacts employees—that doesn’t mean these issues can be resolved by forcing employees to sit through a quarterly update call. They need a concerted, considered effort from both the HR and management teams.

In this article, we explore three practical steps you can take toward achieving a transparent workplace.

1) Personalize Your Message

When it comes to communication, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. Indeed, bombarding staff with generic messaging can often feel deeply impersonal and end up causing employees to feel more alienated than reassured.

This helps to explain why more than a third of HR leaders we spoke to said that the most common challenge facing employees was a lack of personalized and relevant communication, with 77% of those leaders believing that personalized communications would help to improve employee engagement at their company.

Offering communications tailored to the individual needs of staff members can help them to engage with the messaging you’re trying to send out, increasing transparency and making them feel more secure and well-informed.

2) Communicate Across All Platforms

Just as your messaging needs to be tailored to fit your employees, so does your delivery method. After all, not all employees access communications in the same way. We probably all know colleagues who will skim over lengthy emails but can happily engage with a video, for example.

With such a variance in the way individuals consume information, if a business aims to effectively communicate with employees, it cannot limit itself to a single platform or medium. For companies to remain transparent, any important messaging must be available – and consistent – across all the different platforms that you use to communicate with the workforce.

After all, if you know that only 40% of employees actually read the company newsletter, how can you be surprised when the remaining 60% of the team feels left in the dark?

3) Have a Communications Hub

It’s easy to talk about the importance of personalized communications and broad platforms, but implementing these ideas in practice can be challenging without the right tools. In order to effectively boost transparency across a business it’s vital that HR has a centralized hub to easily share personalized communications and for employees to access them.

This is where a modern employee experience platform can be game-changing. These systems connect employees across the company, including those working remotely, to information sources as well as business applications. The platforms can provide a unique experience to every employee, wherever they are and whatever device they’re using – which is especially important for deskless team members, or those who may not operate from a traditional office set-up.

When used well, this kind of communications hub can allow employees to stay up to date on all company activities and news. This is a key step in making the workplace feel more transparent and accommodating.

The Path to a Transparent Workplace

Transparency – and lack thereof – is an increasingly important factor in engagement, productivity, and retention. Almost 40% of the HR leaders we spoke to said that a lack of transparency negatively impacted the employee experience, reducing confidence in the business and ultimately stifling performance.

When you consider the wide array of changes to the way we work in recent years, from the rise of remote working through to the so-called “great resignation,” this isn’t a position any business wants to be in.

Transparent communication isn’t easy, but it can be possible with careful planning and the right tools.