Why transparency will be big reward trend

Have you noticed how Generation Y are so keen on transparency?

These are the employees, that are sometimes called the millennials and are born between 1981 and 2004.

They probably don’t call what they do 'transparency'. To them is it about sharing and not keeping secrets.

So they plaster their lives on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Vine and no doubt, increasingly on Periscope (no, I have tried this last social media tool either).

With Gen Y now firmly ensconced in the workplace, and some even at management level, we are going to hear a lot more about transparent workforces in years to come.

So what does a transparent workforce look like, particularly from a compensation and benefits point of view?

The US is ahead of us in the UK, so let’s look across the pond for a trend coming our way.

First up is Whole Foods.

Over in the US, staff at Whole Foods can look up each others' salaries all the way up to CEO level.

Whole Foods believes you shouldn’t have secrets in a high trust organisation.

Another one is the tech startup Buffer.

It takes is the concept of pay transparency even further—it posts all salaries, and its formula for pay, online for all the world to see.

While SumAll, a New York City-based company, allows staff to access all pay information as well as other company documents and partnership agreements—everything except health data.

SumAll also links trust to transparency.

So will we this this type of transparent here? Not immediately, because of the EU laws on data protection.

I checked with Whole Foods, and they said UK staff can’t check each others salaries because of data protection rules.

But don’t let a bit of red tape stop you from being transparent where you can.

Your millennials will thank you for it.

And they'll trust you more if you don't have secrets.