In a crowded marketplace, how can a company distinguish itself from its competition? How can it retain its employees while attracting new talent? And most important, how can a company stay true to its culture and identity?

For our mid-sized construction company with 150 employees working out of multiple regional offices, the goal was to ensure that all employees felt they were an integral part of the larger organization.

How did we achieve this goal?

Financial Transparency as a Business Strategy

As CFO, I proposed financial transparency to differentiate us from our competitors, knowing that sharing financial performance information with all employees increases engagement and reinforces the company’s culture.

In order to demonstrate the value of a strong relationship between management and company employees, one such resource that helped me bring forth this prospect was the 2017 Society of Human Resource Management report, Managing for Employee Retention. This report revealed that most employees want to feel respected and have mutual trust between themselves and management.

After two years, our campaign for employees and management to have a strong professional relationship deeply rooted in trust and transparency has become a key driver of our overall business strategy.

Our journey down the path to greater transparency began when we invited all employees to what we called our quarterly financial presentation.