Transparency & Consistency are Great Ways to Motivate Your Employees

By: Debra Wheatman

Debra Wheatman, CPRW, CPCC is president of Careers Done Write, a premier career-services provider focused on developing highly personalized career roadmaps for senior leaders and executives across all verticals and industries. Debra may be contacted directly at debra@careersdonewrite.com. Visit her site at: careersdonewrite.com. Follow Debra on Twitter.

In order to build a world-class organization, a company needs outstanding people. In order to attract outstanding people, it is imperative that you establish, maintain, and encourage a culture of accountability and honesty that starts at the top. Below are the three reasons why transparency and consistency matter so much to your employees and their importance to the success of your enterprise.

• Employees never forget and rarely forgive.
  Transparency and consistency are most critical during year-end review periods; organizations that win consistently have high morale and committee staff it when it comes to having a robust, clear, and effective employee evaluation process. An organization can choose whatever methodology it wants to grade and rank employees (full 360 degree, 180, self-evaluation-focus, peer-driven reviews, etc.) but if rules are easily manipulated, subject to random change, or inconsistently followed by executives at the top, you can forget about the review period holding any water. A review process built in such an environment will de-motivate employees and potentially de-stabilize productivity-enhancing goodwill that took months to develop.
  
  
• Monkey see, monkey do.
  If you are a manager at any level, understand that your employees are watching for signs of weakness. If you deviate even slightly from the company line on set policies and procedures that impact the employee experience, your credibility will crumble and your direct reports will mimic your behavior. How does this affect your organization’s ability to attract talent? Recruiting protocols may not be followed, good candidates may be disrespected or mishandled without management knowing, and suddenly your corporate reputation is at risk.
  
  
• It’s a seller’s market.
  The best prospective candidates will be driven to work for you by the opportunity presented for career advancement and compensation based on successful performance. Questions of culture and reputation also play a part in the decision-making process.  Encourage and foster a culture of accountability and transparency. Let that message and complementary examples resonate both internally and outside your organization.  Hiring the right people takes time and money no matter what type of market in which you are operating.

It is a known fact that happy employees are motivated to do good work. They perform better, and they are more willing to go the extra mile for the organization. This proactive approach will pay dividends for your company and ensure growth and productivity into the future.