Transparency: Cultural pillar of digital transformation

Transparency has become a paramount quality that digitally ready organizations must possess today.

Corporate leaders of companies at various stages of digital transformation are beginning to realize the major role that building a transparent culture plays in the overall employee experience, productivity, and growth of the company. A transparent culture is the one that is based on trust between managers and employees. It inculcates an openness wherein employees feel safe to voice their concerns and/or ideas. 

A transparent culture promotes innovation, creativity, and makes employees open to experimenting. In a digital-ready culture, it is important to be transparent about the data that you are gathering, future plans of the organization and the impact that leadership’s decisions will have on the employees. 

It shouldn’t be something that the leaders talk about just for the sake of a tick-in-the-box. Transparency is a two-way street that works both ways between the managers and the employees. 

A transparent culture begins with an openness and willingness to share information and extends into trusting employees to make their own decisions, sharing the relevant results of plans once they’ve been implemented successfully or not so successfully. 

In order for a culture to be transparent, it is essential to actually put active communication channels in place that would facilitate conversations. Breaking down the hierarchical barriers and reaching across the silos into cross-functional teams can go a long way when it comes to changing for the digital age as a team. 

Accountability is another crucial component of a transparent work culture. Once the culture is open and robust communication channels are in place, every stakeholder becomes the owner for her or his own work. That way, each employee takes pride in her or his work and assumes responsibility for their part of the job. As a whole, the entire team becomes more productive and efficiently works towards the team goals. 

A transparent workplace fosters professional relationships based on trust. HR leaders can build a transparent culture in various ways in their workplace--it begins with ensuring that the job description, roles, and responsibilities are easily accessible and open for all. 

Building a transparent culture does not have to be difficult. A simple activity such as holding an open for all town hall meeting, ensuring that new information is shared on employee channels at the right time, and making room for receiving feedback from the employees creates a healthy flow of information. 

Being transparent about the kinds of new technologies that are entering the workplace and those that are impending is one way to build a regular flow of information. Many times, when a particular company is going through a large scale change there is a lot of apprehension among the employees. Restructuring of company resources, movement of key leaders and the impact of macroeconomic changes on the employees’ job security are all factors that contribute to the chaos and confusion in a company. If a company has to succeed in its journey of digital transformation, a culture that is absent of fear is the foundation. 

This foundation can be strengthened by keeping the employees informed, creating a safe environment where employee feedback is received and acted upon in a constructive manner and even external members/freelancers are kept in the loop. 

In the absence of a transparent culture, chances are that employees might start feeling disengaged and that could lead to a high turnover rate, attrition, and an eventual loss of coveted top talent. 

Digital transformation is increasingly becoming a reality for many organizations across the globe and every leader is trying to find the right way to navigate this labyrinth. During this journey that is going to be marked by successes and failures, sharing the moments with your employees and walking with them through the turbulent times is not only going to make the leaders and employees stronger but also ensure that the company has a stable, sustainable, and scalable work culture to face the demands of the future of work.