What is transparent communication?

Transparent communication is the process of sharing information in an open and honest way across all levels of your company. To be fully transparent, leaders must share negative and positive details with employees. This helps ensure the entire workforce is informed and aligned.

For leaders accustomed to making major decisions alone or withholding bad news to avoid alarming the team, transparent communication can feel very different, especially in the beginning. Switching to open communication is usually a gradual process that looks different for every business.

Transparent communication examples include:

• Sharing challenges, successes and failures with the whole workforce
• Practicing salary transparency and promotion information
• Asking for employee feedback on major business decisions
• Expressing uncertainty about the company’s future
• Making key performance indicators (KPIs) available to all workers
• Asking employees to review their supervisors

How to achieve transparent communication in your workplace

If your business is ready to introduce more transparency, it may be beneficial to take a gradual approach. This gives everyone on the team time to adjust to the new system.

1. Identify key communication topics

Sit down with the leadership team and create a list of subjects that would benefit from more open communication. If you’re not sure where to start, consider these common pain points and frustrations:

• Salaries
• Promotional schedules and criteria
• Strategic decision-making
• Operational challenges
• Scheduling and work-life balance
• Management styles

Your list will vary based on the current state of the business. If you’re planning an expansion in the near future, you might focus on increasing transparency regarding new locations, hiring plans and potential new roles or retraining opportunities. The purpose of this process isn’t to limit communication; it simply helps you focus your efforts in the beginning.

Next, open the discussion to the workforce and ask employees where they want more transparency. Consider offering anonymous feedback to encourage honest responses.

2. Set up communication channels and policies

Establish channels, tools and policies that allow for more open communication using your chosen focus topic areas as a guide. To increase transparency around business development, you could create a company-wide dashboard that displays key metrics. If you want to improve information-sharing between teams, consider implementing a central communication platform such as Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Other things that can promote transparency include:

• Open-door policies for all supervisors, managers and executives
• Internal news page with real-time company updates
• Frequent town-hall meetings
• A policy that requires teams to share regular updates

Once your new systems are in place, ask leaders and supervisors to use them enthusiastically to empower employees to start sharing more openly.

3. Make leaders visible

Transparent communication requires company leaders to be available for conversations. Encourage them to maintain a strong presence throughout the company, especially during challenging times. The more visible they are, the easier it is for employees to ask questions or share their ideas. Regularly scheduled town halls or monthly check-ins can help make leaders more accessible, making it easier for employees to ask questions or share their ideas.

4. Answer questions honestly

As employees become more comfortable with your new policies, they’re likely to start asking questions. It’s important to give straightforward answers, even when it’s uncomfortable. Honesty is the core of transparent communication.

This process might include:

• Explaining your decisions
• Sharing your own confusion or frustration
• Expressing indecision
• Articulating challenges
• Being able to say “I don’t know” and find solutions

Of all the things you can do to increase transparency, this is one of the most effective. Consistent honesty builds trust and encourages workers to offer the same in return.

5. Don’t avoid uncertainty

Business decisions aren’t always clear-cut. When your company is facing an uncertain future, don’t be afraid to express it to the workforce.

Some leaders wait to discuss these situations until they have a clear path forward. However, team members can often sense when something is wrong. By keeping them informed, you can prevent frustration and confusion resulting from a lack of clarity. Communicating through uncertainty also helps employees understand the full picture, potentially allowing them to make more informed decisions for their jobs and careers.

Read more: Leading Through Uncertainty: 8 Tips to Help Manage Unpredictability in Business

6. Encourage employee feedback

Establishing transparent communications isn’t a top-down process—employees also need to participate. It can take time for them to feel comfortable doing so organically. In the meantime, you may need to set up specific practices:

• Ask for input on key team and company decisions
• Seek out employees for their specific insight and expertise
• Create manager performance-review forms
• Set up one-on-one check-in meetings
• Send out regular surveys
• Offer an anonymous submission option
• Start asking for input in meetings

As employees start to give feedback, it’s important to do two things:

• Respond positively. Train your managers and leaders to receive feedback positively, even when the information is critical. Affirmative responses help employees feel safe, making them more likely to communicate openly in the future.
• Take feedback seriously. Incorporate employees’ suggestions whenever possible, and if you can’t, explain why. This process helps show that you recognize and value workers’ experience and knowledge, encouraging them to continue offering input.

Related: Creating a Positive Feedback Loop in Your Business (With Examples)

7. Explain the limitations of transparency

Your industry and corporate structure may limit how transparent you can be with employees. To avoid confusion, make sure employees are aware of these restrictions from the beginning.

You may also need to limit transparency when it comes to:

• Respecting other employees’ privacy
• Disclosing protected information
• Revealing partners’ trade secrets

Benefits of transparent communication in the workplace

Transparent communication in the workplace requires team members to be open—especially at the leadership level. If your team is ready to boost transparency, the process can bring several important benefits, such as:

• Trust. Transparency in the workplace can help reduce confusion and guesswork. When leaders openly communicate about challenges, potential solutions and their own feelings, they show respect for and trust in employees. This helps build trust in the company, which can increase engagement, job satisfaction and employee retention.
• Better decision-making. Open communication enables employees at all levels to make informed decisions.
• Streamlined operations. A lack of transparency often causes bottlenecks and delays in businesses. For example, if your engineering team changes a product feature without informing anyone, it may delay the official launch until the marketing team reworks its campaign. Open communication helps each team plan their workflows efficiently, making it easier to meet milestones and deadlines.
• Innovation. When your company leaders embrace transparency in communication, they can empower employees to do the same. Increased information-sharing helps break down barriers between teams and departments. This is beneficial for your business because it ensures that everyone has access to ideas, plans and knowledge that can help them develop innovative solutions.

FAQs about transparent communication in the workplace

Is transparent communication good?

When everyone, from entry-level workers to executives, communicates clearly, honestly, and respectfully, it can build a more trusting, collaborative, and innovative culture. Open discussions can also help prevent anxiety and speculation during challenging times.

Is transparency a barrier to effective communication?

No, it’s typically the opposite. Transparency promotes effective communication instead of hindering it. Honest conversations ensure that everyone involved has all the facts so they can make better decisions and avoid preventable problems.

How does transparency affect communication?

Transparency tends to change the frequency and style of communication in the workplace. To start, it requires employees to be vulnerable and face uncomfortable topics. You may also find that the volume of communication increases as people start sharing information and responding to each other.