Today, everyone knows, there are newspapers, media and investigative platforms whose specialty is revealing the gray areas of companies. Even if their investigation is valuable, it turns out that they often tarnish the company’s reputation. They therefore place it in a difficult position even though it is sometimes a fact which does not call the company into question. Transparency is desired, desired, desired. However, in reality there is always the need not to reveal too much for fear of finding yourself the target of competitors.
When the company is in a bind, it does not want to let customers know out of fearyou of them lose. Such an attitude is completely understandable and judicious. Across the Atlantic, pleb societiesiscitenfinancial and extra-financial transparency has been around for a long time. In France, on the contrary, for the vast majority of French companies, transparency is hardly part of their habits. A few rare companies have decided to lift the veil on their affairs. Even if this phenomenon remained in its infancy for a long time in France, it has gradually become established due to media-judicial affairs, the strengthening of the regulatory framework (Sapin 2 law, post-Cahuzac law developments) and the European CSRD directive. However, is transparency at all costs wise for a company?
Transparency towards employees
Transparency allows an employee to no longer consider themselves as a simple performer. The employee will feel more involved in the life and development of the company. Their commitment will be a source of motivation, resulting in a productivity gain for the company. When the company allows employees to express themselves on company policy, conflicts are defused and misunderstandings reduced. In addition, revealing the salary of all employees and the CEO helps to remove certain suspicions and even stop false ideas.
A negative effect may arise when remuneration is revealed. Some employees may feel wronged compared to their colleagues. It is therefore necessary for the company to adopt good communication within the various departments which practice transparency. We must also ensure that for equivalent skills and work, salary is paid based on merit. The business manager will have a crucial role. He will have to justify to his employees certain unpopular decisions taken such as freezing salaries or increasing the share dedicated to shareholders to the detriment of salaries.
Transparency with the outside world
Total transparency on the part of a company is difficult to apply. Particularly in the case of companies where there is strong competition. Its economic security is at stake. For a company in full economic growth with an increasing turnover, thet revealing its positive accounts helps reassure potential shareholders. But transparency can be a handicap whenThe company is experiencing cash flow difficulties. Poor results can prevent the signing of new contracts with companies that are afraid of the poor financial health of the company.
In order to combat the opacity of certain companies, the European Union has regularly strengthened its directives on financial transparency and the publication of extra-financial information (such as the modernized “Transparency” directive and ESG regulations). These guidelines require companies to provide reliable and verifiable results data to shareholders and the public.
Nowadays, it is becoming difficult for companies to combat transparency because of the proliferation of media, social networks and reporting platforms that sometimes reveal sensitive information about a company. It is therefore preferable that each company takes charge of its communication on its financial and strategic account.
Transparency at the service of society
Some companies have made transparency an asset. Thermador, the specialist in plumbing equipment for watering and swimming pools, was a historic precursor in France. Its historical leader Guillaume Robin applied the motto “The more you hide, the more you create suspicion. “. The company communicates information relating to its management to its teams and redistributes a significant portion of the results to motivate its employees. The impact of transparency at Thermador remains exemplary: employee compensation is higher than the sector average and the absenteeism rate remains very low.
OpenClassrooms is an online learning platform that democratizes knowledge. Originally established in 1999 under the name Zero website by Mathieu Nebra then aged 13, the company advocates transparency. Employees manage their working time and failure is no longer stigmatized. Thanks to this agile and transparent management, the motivation and involvement of employees have placed OpenClassrooms among the European leaders in online training and digital education.
Transparency to involve employees
Transparency allows employees to understand the direction their company is taking. Information such as strategy, results or any other subject linked to the company and the teams, gives him the motivation to better carry out his tasks, because he understands the purpose and reason for the actions and the corollary is that turnover is reduced.
