Regardless of whether it is in relation to your employees, customers, partners or even engaging with the community,  it is important that you are open and honest about your business’s purpose and performance. Business transparency is extremely important because it is the main way to instill trust  with your employees and customers. By being honest about your operations, vision and your business practices you can boost sales, increase your customer retention and loyalty and reduce your employee turnover! In fact, 85% of people are more likely to stick by a business during a brand crisis if it has a history of being transparent and authentic.

With that said, there are times when you can be too transparent. After all, the last thing you want to do is share the secret sauce with your competitors! To learn about what areas a company can be safely transparent about, we sat down with 13 business leaders to get their take. Keep reading to learn how they leverage transparency without sacrificing their competitive advantage!

Let Them Know the Flow of Your Process

Businesses should let clients know about their organizational processes, such as their flow. This includes things such as intake, internal evaluation for services, communicating services to clients and where the clients make the decision. I think this is very helpful for all parties involved. Financials should be kept private unless there's a reason to disclose them. For example, you can say your business doubled, but you do not need to give specific numbers.

-Michael Jonas, Rational Unicorn Legal Services

Impact Reports

I believe that companies should be very transparent about what their impact is on their community and the planet. If more companies were required to report on these impacts, I think we would have more accountability for the short and long term effects of business activities. Maybe this would lead to more sustainable choices and practices.

-Jennifer Leonard, Planet to People

Transparent Interactions With Employees

For a business to be transparent, its leaders must first model transparency in how they engage and interact with their own people. They need to feel comfortable being vulnerable and showing their humanity. This kind of transparency provides the bedrock that trust is built upon.

-Trever Cartwright, Coraggio Group

Humanity Documentation

Transparency should be documented with templates, charts and descriptions that are public for humanity (employment, community service, hiring dynamics, partnerships, inclusion), environment, energy use and civic duties. However, obvious IP and personal information should be kept private.

-Kim Allchurch-Flick, Mighty Epiphyte

This, Then That Goals

Business owners always toe the invisible line of sharing too much or not enough information internally. Employees usually say they want transparency, but oftentimes, the realities of a company can be too heavy to share. A good common ground is “this, then that” goals - where if “this” occurs, then “that” happens. For example, if the company hits “X” in monthly revenue, then “pay reductions” will be lifted. Having a “this, then that” goal fosters transparency, keeps things simple, and provides some positive momentum for people at a company. 

-Brett Farmiloe, Markitors

Open Dialogue 

Open dialogue and transparency create mutual trust enabling more rapid problem solving. We can overcome many daily obstacles when interests are aligned and there is clear communication.

-Jonathan L. Cohen, Generated Materials Recovery

Break Down Your Pricing

We have all the trust in the world when talking with our clients about our products, then we bring up price and it becomes a sensitive subject. Breaking down our pricing model in a transparent way and taking the time to walk clients through exactly what they are paying for builds trust and puts our clients at ease. 

-Andy Newstrom, Arrow Lift

Provide Where You Source Your Products

Businesses can be more transparent by providing where they source their products from. Whether it be through official certifications or not, being open about the ethics of your business is something that consumers have grown to consider during their decision-making. You don’t have to share how much it costs, though, if that is something you choose to keep private. 

-Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional

Give Access to All Important Information  

As a startup, things change on a minute-to-minute basis. As our team grows, more people become reliant on our company for their happiness and livelihood. That’s why it’s so important for us to be transparent about the state of the company, our expectations for our team and goals for the future. Without this transparency, team members become passive participants versus active contributors, which hurts everyone involved because you never know where the next great idea or solution will come from. I have not found anything yet that needs to be kept private from the team. Everyone needs access to all the information if we want their decisions to be successful. It is a dangerous hallucination to think you can help the company by hiding something from the team, the facts or probabilities one tries to hide are necessarily important data points in decision making and the team’s work will be hindered if they are operating blindly.

-Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell 

Everyday Decisions and Investments

An organization’s decision-making is an area where more transparency has the greatest impact. Why certain decisions or investments are made gives employees a better understanding not only of what has been considered but what hasn’t. This along with a strong (and correct) mission statement can help employees to make better decisions when faced with choices where there is little supervision or oversight.

-Matthew Lee, Learning & Development Leader

Safety Plans

Businesses today need to be transparent around COVID-19 safety plans for both customers and employees returning to work. To help provide our customers with a peace of mind, we created a landing page on our website with a video on how we clean our vehicles. By being transparent about our approach to cleaning and health safety, we can help our customers hit the road and experience the great outdoors as safely as possible. 

-Randall Smalley, Cruise America

Information Around Job Security

Businesses can be more transparent by checking in with employees regularly and sharing the knowledge that they have that impact job security, the bottom line or the way work is done. Change can be scary for some, so navigating these conversations with grace, positive language and reassurance where it's valid and true will help build up team morale.

-Stephanie Thoma, Networking Career Coach

Allow Clients to Be in the Loop

Businesses can be more transparent by sharing stories, photos, and videos with their customers. For example, I routinely tell stories about what my company is doing in my daily emails. My clients feel as if they're "in the loop" when they read these. However, one thing I believe should remain private is your overall business-building strategy. If you're playing chess, you don't want to broadcast your moves.

-James Pollard, The Advisor Coach LLC

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