Once the most taboo topic in business, company transparency is now non-negotiable for businesses looking to prove their ethical credentials and attract top talent.
From achieving B-Corp status to pay transparency, the secret to successful business in 2025 seems to be complete honesty and openness.
Seems simple enough, right? Practicing business transparency effectively can actually be really tricky—like walking a tightrope between ensuring everyone you work with and for knows all the essentials without treading into overshare territory, or worse, employee surveillance (time tracking and ‘bossware’, we’re looking at you).
In this article we’ll look at why business transparency is important, what you can do to improve transparency in your business, and how to avoid the ‘transparency trap’ of sacrificing all privacy benefits within your company.
What is Business Transparency?
Time travel back to 20 years ago, and you’d be looking at a very different age of business opacity. Back then, discretion helped to keep a business buoyant, with companies only sharing certain aspects about themselves with their employees and the public. In many ways, this ‘closed door’ approach was the cultural norm rather than intentional secrecy, with most businesses unlikely to share information about their financial status, supply chains or work code of ethics, for example.
Today, it’s more common for these types of practices to be seen as corporate concealment, with the dial firmly shifting towards the need for companies to be more transparent about how they operate, who they hire and the type of work culture they adopt in the office.
Business transparency might include a willingness to share information about a company’s:
Finances, by making annual reports available to the public (which is not a legal requirement for UK private companies).
Salaries, which don’t have to made public but can be requested by candidates and employees under guidance given by the Equality Act. Companies with more than 250 employees must publish their gender pay gap figures annually under the Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations. Further UK legislation may also be brought in relating to pay transparency influenced by the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive, which is likely to affect UK businesses from 2026.
Ethical policy, including information about the company’s environmental and sustainability standards, diversity policy and employee code of conduct.
Supply chain, including details about where products are sourced, manufactured or distributed.
Hiring and HR, including diversity statistics, inclusivity policy and gender equality practices.
The Business Transparency Balancing Act
Balancing a good level of corporate transparency with company confidentiality can be a sensitive juggling act, as it’s possible that not everyone within the business will be happy with certain types of information being shared with others, internally and/or publicly.
Generational differences between staff may mean that it’s more difficult to convince a more senior employee of the benefits of business transparency, but this can be resolved by making sure everybody is completely clear on what can and should be shared with others.
In terms of what you should be looking to share as a company, the list above is a good rule of thumb, but depending on your company context, you may decide that some information should remain confidential, unless legally requested.
The Advantages of Transparency in Business
Once you’ve struck a fine-tuned balance between company transparency and discretion, you can really start to harness the full advantages of business transparency.
Far from bring a corporate headache, business transparency is actually a really effective way to boost interest in your business, attract good recruits, and improve morale within your team.
Many businesses now use company transparency as an impactful branding technique. It’s an opportunity to show that your company works within ethical standards, which is increasingly important as consumers become more conscious in their buying choices. Companies like Patagonia, FedEx and Accenture are just a few transparency in business examples that tap into this ethics-as-brand strategy.
Company transparency is also an effective method for attracting the very best employees to your business. According to a survey by Adzuna, less than half of UK companies advertise a starting salary along with the job description, but research suggests that candidates are more likely to apply for a job which does advertise salary clearly. Job seekers are also actively looking for transparency credentials in the companies they apply for, and an open attitude about sustainability, green values and workforce diversity is particularly important for more conscientious Gen Z candidates. So, if you want to attract the best recruits, communicating business transparency in your company marketing is all-important.
Another business transparency advantage is the way that it levels the playing field internally, making all employees feel like they know more about the ins and outs of the company’s finances and policies. It’s a great way of saying ‘we are all in this together’, boosting team morale and motivation in the process.
B-Corp or Not-to-B-Corp?
One of the common queries that comes up in relation to business transparency is whether it’s worth striving for B Corp status. The US-based non-profit B Lab Global set a high bar for companies looking to prove that their social and environmental standards are good enough to deserve the B Corporation label. However, recent business transparency examples in the press have raised questions about the value of the certification.
In June 2022, a group of more than 30 B Corps raised concerns about Nestlé-owned Nespresso’s new B Corp certification in an open letter, citing the company’s alarming human rights record and claiming giving the coffee company certification risked diluting ‘the integrity of the movement’.
Later in the same year, the Scottish brewing giant Brewdog lost its B Corp status amid allegations of a toxic work culture (and made a remarkable reputation recovery since).
B Corp used to be the ultimate stamp of company transparency, but is it losing its gleam? B Lab are reacting with an upcoming overhaul of its certification process, so watch this space.
Transparency in Action: A Simple Business Transparency Framework to Live By
Talking about business transparency is all well and good, but how can you actually implement it in your own organisation? This simple framework can be used as a checklist for making your business more open and transparent, and is inspired by the strategies used by a number of globally known companies.
Be accountable
Transparency in business is effectively like turning a magnifying glass onto your company, so you need to make sure that the things you are sharing are exactly as they say they are.
If you open up your business practices to others, it’s highly likely that people will take an interest, and it’s not hard to find out if a company is not living up to the standards they preach. UK clothing retailer Boohoo was exposed by a BBC investigation in 2023 for breaking ethical and financial promises to their suppliers, but the fallout of the exposé was more damaging for the company given that they had professed to practicing ethical trading standards.
So if you share it, live up to it!
Who are you hiring?
The difference between a transparent business and one which is less so often lies with the people who work within the organisation. Individuals in senior roles who are found to be violating their position of power, or discovered to have a concerning history, can completely dismantle the hard-won reputation of a business, making it vital for transparent companies to thoroughly screen the people they hire and collaborate with.
The importance of background screening in transparent businesses cannot be understated—people are the foundation on which a transparent company is built.
You can background screen prospective candidates and employees within your company using a smart screening tool like YOONO. By simply searching for someone’s name you can learn about the person’s online presence, social media history, employment background, financial record and much more, making it an indispensable tool for building transparency into your business from the ground up.
Use transparency to drive change
Business transparency isn’t simply a flash-in-the-pan trend, it’s representative of a much larger shift in the way that corporates do business today. The purpose of company transparency is to make businesses accountable for their actions (see above), and to also drive change in business practice for the better.
When you decide to make your company more transparent, you shouldn’t see it only as a way of opening up what is already in place, but also it should give the business and the people who work within it a good foundation on which to build in even more ethical practices. After all, becoming a better business now goes beyond having a good work culture and good profits, as consumers are actively looking to buy from businesses with better ethical policies.
If you want to stay at the forefront of your market, business transparency can highlight shortcomings, as well as opportunities for further growth in your company. As you go down the transparency path, it’s a good idea to keep track of anything and everything that is exposed along the way (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and make sure that these are consistently addressed with strong policies and strategies.
No business is perfect, but that’s kind of the whole point of business transparency. What’s important is being able to prove that your company is constantly striving for change and development in relation to ethical, environmental and social standards.
Business Transparency: Through the Looking Glass
Company transparency isn’t intended to trip you up! Many large and long-established corporations can find the idea of opening up their business information a little daunting, but it really shouldn’t be.
Striving for a more honest and open business model benefits just about everybody. Employees will feel more involved and motivated, and customers will react positively to a business which demonstrates it is making a concerted effort to improve ethical standards. It’s a win-win!
Make those first steps into improving your business’ transparency
While you’re here, you might be wondering how you can make those first steps into improving your business’ transparency and ethical credentials. Thorough background screening with YOONO is a quick and easy way to make sure the people you hire are exactly who they say they are.
No secrets, no hiding. Try it now and see how you can make sure the foundation of your company—the people you work with—are going to positively contribute to a transparent business environment.
