People are the lifeblood of any business organization. It’s safe to say that a company would not reach its full potential without its people.
Naturally, one of the major goals of the leadership team is to motivate their best people to stay. And there are a lot of factors that make professionals want to stay with their employer for the long term.
We’ve compiled them in this handy guide, and each week we’ll be outlining the best steps you can take to sustain each factor.
FACTOR 9 – TRANSPARENCY
Step 1: Observe a discretion level system.
The most prevalent concern leaders have with transparency is how much of it they should exercise. There’s always a risk of sharing sensitive information that’s not meant for certain eyes and ears.
To be clear, transparency does not mean you need to share absolutely everything with everyone. There should always be an understanding that information such as personnel files or trademarked company secrets cannot be shared with just anyone. At the same time, this must be balanced with the capacity to be honest about any information that will affect the organization’s members and clients at large.
The best approach is to implement a system that categorizes information according to how easily it can be accessed. Information that must be widely and readily available to every employee, such as learning resources and internal directives, should be easiest to access. The same goes for information involved in maintaining healthy business relationships with clients, such as updated contact information for frontline departments. Meanwhile, information that can cause irreparable damage to individuals or groups (if mishandled) should require heavy authorization. Work out what discretion levels work for your organization, and use them to build a workplace that is both transparent and secure.
Step 2: Appoint an information dissemination body.
Any quantity of information needs regulation, especially if there are discretion levels involved. Ensuring the safe and efficient dissemination of information to whoever needs it seems like a simple and easy task, but mixing up messages and recipients can cause confusion or even unintended exposure of sensitive information.
Of course, assigning this responsibility randomly to anyone who has spare time will be a temporary solution at best. Spare time at work, after all, is dependent on many factors including the nature of one’s responsibilities and the possibility of impromptu assignments. At some point, one person handling information dissemination responsibilities will be too caught up in their original duties to pay enough attention. But more than one person might be able to handle it.
That’s right: create a committee to handle information dissemination in all forms, whether for routine operations or during emergencies. By making it a group effort, you ensure that there will be someone to cover for others who might be too busy to handle the additional tasks involving information. You may even create an entire department to handle that responsibility, which has the added bonus of creating more career opportunities.
Step 3: Keep everyone up to date.
When handling information that is based on current events or situations, you may need to be mindful of the timeliness of such information. This is because the details may no longer be true after a certain period has passed. The circumstances that they’re based on may have already changed, or even ceased altogether.
Public service advisories, for instance, could refer to a current situation that may not be around next after a week. Laws that are relevant to workers may be amended. Training materials may become obsolete once better practices have been established.
Thankfully, all you need to do to avoid misinforming your employees with outdated information is to take the initiative to be updated. If your information dissemination body is always aware of the latest developments, they can easily cascade changes to everyone in the organization.
Step 4: Be true to what the organization claims to be.
Your organization’s identity is what bridges you with everyone – with clients, with partners, with potential hires, and even with your own employees. It tells them what matters to you and what goals you can work on together.
That identity should be true for your employees, first and foremost. They need to see and feel that your company is exactly what it says it is, because they’re involved in selling that identity and brand to everyone who wants to do business with you. How can they convince career-seekers that your workplace is a great one to become part of, if that’s not actually how it is internally?
Your outward identity will always be a reflection of the internal qualities of your organization. Make sure that the two are always aligned, and your people will have every motivation to speak great things about an organization that obviously cares about them.
The modern world runs on information. It guides all of our decisions, from basic survival and lifestyle choices to important decisions at work. Enabling appropriate and efficient access to information within your organization will show your commitment to integrity while helping everyone take informed action.
Foster a culture of transparency and responsible information usage so that no one misses a beat. And of course, stay tuned in the coming weeks for more ways you can show your people that they matter!