Transparency into business performance and financial data is a key factor in employee confidence, according to Place Technology?s survey, titled Financial Transparency and Employee Confidence. More than half of all respondents (54%) said the frequency of their company?s financial updates has not increased since the COVID-19 outbreak, yet 65% said they could make a more effective contribution if they had greater visibility into financial performance.
The survey analyzes company financial transparency and employee confidence in financial performance entering the new year.
?The data silos that exist between internal teams?particularly between finance and the rest of the business?simply aren?t sustainable and leave financial performance open to interpretation,? said Brandon Metcalf, CEO and co-founder of Place. ?Employees crave transparency and want to understand how financial performance influences overall business strategy so they can better contribute to it. Everyone benefits when financial performance is integrated into operations. Companies and leaders can build trust and confidence with their staff, while employees are empowered with more information to do their best work.?
More than any other group, entry-level employees feel the impact of financial obscurity. The survey found that only 26% are updated on their company?s financial performance monthly, while 27% said they are never updated on their company?s projected performance. Nearly half of entry-level employees (47%) are either not confident in their company?s financial performance or lack the information to determine it.
There is also a higher degree of confidence when the frequency of financial updates increases. 64% of entry-level employees who received more frequent updates since COVID-19 expressed confidence in their company?s financial performance compared to just 46% of those who didn?t.
That correlation is even more pronounced among all respondents across organizations. 76% of those who receive more frequent updates said they were confident in financial performance compared to just 53% of those who receive similar or fewer updates since the COVID-19 outbreak.
?The desire for transparency is indicative of a larger trend around the future of business that we saw play out most recently with the Slack acquisition,? Metcalf said. ?Companies are turning to technology to break down information bottlenecks and align every team behind a customer-centric mission. The best strategy for achieving that goal is through a connected platform that drives collaboration between business functions and gives companies more tools to serve more customers in new and creative ways.?
Other key survey findings include:
- Of those being asked to contribute to company financial projections, only 39% said they are very confident that the systems and processes they use produce accurate data.
- Only 42% of respondents expressed a high degree of confidence in their company?s ability to execute its 2021 business plan, while 49% said they are only somewhat confident.
- 81% of managers who have received more frequent updates since the COVID-19 outbreak expressed confidence in financial performance compared to 55% of those who haven?t.
