make sure your people understand what they’re seeing.
by jody grunden
joel gascoigne, founder and ceo of buffer, a saas product that helps users schedule social media posts, has become very well known for building a transparent organization.
more: how to run effective leadership team meetings | toss the org chart for an accountability chart | how core values affect remote work culture | how ‘tech stacks’ can help you standardize
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
a few examples of the types of information that buffer shares publicly include salaries and equity shares of all team members, company saas metrics and things they’re learning in their journey – good and bad.
transparency like this within a company is not the norm. traditional company leadership tends to lock down information in order to control how people react to it and/or what they do with it. as a result, employees often feel in the dark about things and don’t believe that their opinions have any value to the company. when employees are in the dark, they tend to make things up in their minds, and the stories they tell themselves become their reality.
in his book “reinventing organizations,” frédéric laloux wrote, “in most workplaces, valuable information goes to important people first and then trickles down to the less important. sensitive information is best kept within the confined circle of top management. the underlying assumption is that employees cannot be trusted; their reactions could be unpredictable and unproductive, and they might seek to extract advantages if they receive too much information.”
contrary to the way many traditional companies disseminate information, i believe that transparency is essential for the long-term health of an organization as well as employee satisfaction. being transparent sends the message to your team members that you trust them. and trust begets trust. when people know that you trust them, they will know that they can trust you in return.
we default to transparency, but i believe there’s an important distinction to be made between transparency and confidentiality. a certain level of confidentiality is necessary at times. even the most transparent of companies will need to have some level of confidentiality at the leadership level. however, we aim to be as transparent as possible with our team when it comes to the reasons behind decisions that are made. while it’s not realistic for us to allow any employee to sit in on leadership team meetings, we do try to communicate as openly as possible with everyone in the company about leadership team decisions when it’s appropriate.
in addition, our company financials are shared with all of our employees on a regular basis. i want to note here that i would not advise sharing your company financials with employees unless you’re willing to take the time to educate your employees so they understand what they’re looking at. if they don’t understand the numbers, seeing them might cause unnecessary fear or frustration. if you choose to share your financials with your team, make sure you properly educate them about what they’re seeing.
another way we practice transparency is by making salary information available to all employees, including the owner salaries. although we don’t publicize individual people’s salaries, we do make available the salary ranges for each of the different levels. we set our salary ranges based on the national averages, starting senior accountants at the national average and virtual cfos at 90 percent of the national average. we want to pay fairly. because we go by national averages and we hire people throughout the united states, the national average often turns out to be a pay raise for most people we hire.
for example, bob doesn’t know what sally makes, but bob knows the range of what a level 3 senior accountant makes. sally is a level 3 senior accountant, so it’s pretty easy for bob to deduce. transparency around salaries ensures that salaries are fair and removes the possibility of bias. it also provides employees with clarity and sets expectations around raises.
ultimately, transparency builds trust and prevents people from telling themselves a story that isn’t true. when you have a transparent organization, it’s easy for people to ask questions and gain the clarity they need. being transparent has helped us build a team that can trust one another, and when employees feel trusted, they are happier, more confident and perform at a higher level. it’s a win-win for everyone.