Promoting a Transparent Culture in a Remote Workforce

What does it mean to have a transparent workplace culture? According to Glassdoor, creating a transparent workplace means “operating in a way that creates openness between managers and employees.” There’s no better time to implement a transparent culture than during a global pandemic, when it has become critical for managers and employees alike to be able to communicate clearly and without obstacles. This means being able to broadcast critical information about new safety measures, changes in company policies, and more, at the click of a button and to all relevant parties.

Unfortunately, with workforces transferring to remote-only work policies, communication best practices are changing quickly, and it’s difficult to keep everyone in the loop when employees are both spread out and in some cases, isolated. So how can you promote and implement a transparent culture throughout a remote workforce?

• Communicate effectively.

  This means telling the right things to the right people. If there’s a potential point of COVID exposure in your Dubai office, your London team doesn’t need to know; and if they do, they’ll become saturated with notifications, and will miss critical information that is relevant to them. And remember, teams aren’t only divided by location–your frontline workers will need different safety procedures and updates than your sales team will, and those will also be different from the ones you’ll have to send out to your engineering team. Make sure to personalize the content your employees have access to, so that they can act accordingly and efficiently.

  Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean gatekeeping information–everyone in your company should always be on the same page when it comes to wider company goals and new policies that affect everyone. Your employees should always know where they stand; part of achieving that is making sure they have the right information to make the best decisions they can and to be able to take appropriate action. Honesty is the best policy, and according to experts, dishonesty actively disrupts your workforce. If you find your organization is having to gloss over significant events, you are not communicating effectively.

• Make sure your recruitment and hiring methods, as well as performance management, career development, and goal-setting practices, are redefined within a remote setting.

  Every enterprise has a complex procedure for recruitment, onboarding, and employee performance and career management. But does your process transfer smoothly onto a digital communications platform? Making sure your enterprise’s key practices are remote-friendly is crucial to creating a transparent work-from-home culture–it ensures that your employees understand and align with your company’s goals and objectives.

  It’s important to note that if your enterprise is changing communication platforms to adapt to a remote workforce, this is the time to clean up your practices and policies. Don’t move with unnecessary clutter: if your sick leave no longer makes sense for your frontline workers, or you want to start implementing shorter and more frequent evaluations instead of yearly reviews, adapt now and make sure your company is ready to go for the next normal.

• Make sure your digital communication platform can keep up with your workforce.

  Communicating with a global remote workforce is a demanding task; make sure that your digital communication platform can keep up with your enterprise’s needs. In general, you’ll want a platform that will have the following features:

  • Real-time collaboration
  • One central location
  • The ability to personalize content and information
  • Ensured content security

  To learn more about what you should look for when selecting this type of platform, read our piece on using digital collaboration platforms.

Adapting for the next normal is an intimidating but crucial process–and it can’t be done without the implementation of a transparent workforce culture. Enterprises that lay the foundation for this type of communication are optimizing for productive and efficient employees. To find out more about how you can get ready for the next normal, take a look at our three-part series on the future of work.