How businesses can improve transparency without revealing valuable information

Running your enterprise is exciting and you may want to shout to the world about it. After all, billions of dollars are poured into marketing each year to create awareness about brands through events, promotions, or perhaps by sharing their history.

For this reason, promotional capability is generally seen as a positive, just like transparency. After achieving any substantial outcome, it is very easy to feel proud of and scream it from the rooftops. Transparent companies are upfront about achievements and also issues and don't try to hide them.

But how can businesses improve that transparency without giving the game away? If you’re not careful, you might reveal valuable information or sensitive work processes that others may benefit from or try to steal. Here’s how you can improve business transparency without revealing valuable information

1. Label a Trade Secret and Protect it

It’s good to be transparent, but not at the expense of your competitive edge. Trade secrets need clear boundaries and you need to know exactly what they might be so that you don’t have a vague or unsure approach here. That might mean internal documents are marked as confidential, or sensitive information is shared only on a need-to-know basis among those who have verified access and understand how to handle it.

For instance, if you’ve developed a unique production method, that’s something to safeguard and safeguard correctly. A public case study explaining how your products are made in general terms is fine. Outlining every step of the process is not. Some companies use a good combination of NDAs, internal policies, and secure storage systems because they all help keep this information safe.

For instance, the blockchain allows you to seek and verify transactions perhaps with an OP block explorer, but they still allow each individual to protect their personal information, and their wallet access isn’t exposed. That kind of discipline matters - in this case, it’s baked into the system.

2. Be Mindful Of Meet the Team Pages

Team pages can be great for building trust and showing that you’re a real company with real people ready to work, but they need careful curation. You want to showcase your team's expertise without revealing too much personal or sensitive information.

Focus on professional achievements and skills, nothing they wouldn’t have on LinkedIn. Include brief, professional bios that highlight what each team member brings to the company and don’t be more personal outside of nice anecdotes, such as a story about their car. Separate professional headshots, current roles, and key accomplishments work well.

3. Encourage Social Media Filters for Staff

It’s fine to be open about the work you do and the life you lead, and some people take that principle and apply it to social media. There’s nothing wrong with that necessarily, but remember that a single post can potentially open sensitive information or create unexpected PR issues if a mistake is made. That’s why it benefits every business to develop simple guidelines for staff about what they can and cannot share online as part of your policy.

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That’s not to say you have the right to control employees, but if it blows back onto or reflects poorly as part of your brand, then you have every right to discipline against that. Providing training on how to represent the company professionally online can be a good way to start, but also look at case studies where that hasn’t been followed and the fallout that resulted, which helps staff more easily understand the potential impact of their social media presence.

You might encourage private social media filters for your staff, especially if they work in an environment where they connect to people daily, such as carers, and medical or educational support staff. This way their online presence can’t be found or accessed easily, and that protects them as well as your brand.

4. Have Staff Sign Appropriate Clauses

As with social media, sometimes best practice comes from your staff and how they integrate with your business daily, not necessarily the ideals you constantly say you follow.

Legal protection is essential here. Put simply, sometimes you have to protect what your brand is doing so staff don’t leave and attempt to follow the idea for their own benefit. Confidentiality agreements, non-compete clauses and non-disclosure contracts help ensure that your team understands the importance of protecting sensitive information.

If you regularly review and update these agreements as your business scales, you can make sure they’re always relevant.

With this advice, you’ll be sure to make use of transparency, but without ever giving your golden game away!

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