Most Philippine companies treat salaries as confidential pieces of information. And there’s good reason for this: for one thing, other companies will have a harder time pirating your people if they don’t know what their going rates are.

But it’s also possible that you’re keeping employee salaries confidential because some employees get “special treatment” over others… and you’re worried that if the others find out what that one pampered employee is getting, then they will start asking for more.

I used to think that there was nothing wrong with this setup, until I saw my colleague, Dr. Elvira Zamora, at work. While she was the Director of the Technology Management Center of UP some years back, she made it a point that what everybody gets per project was fully transparent. In other words, the staff knew what the consultants, and even what the managers, were getting. Nothing was kept secret. Rates were standard, and any bonuses and surpluses were distributed equally and openly among the entire group.

That blew my mind. Most managers are embarrassed to disclose what they are getting, either because of the fear mentioned above, or simply because culturally, salary is supposed to be a taboo topic. Also, overpaid managers get a sense of guilt if people found out about their going rates. More so if they get to avail of “hidden” perks and benefits.

But Dr. Zamora was laying everything out in the open. And the result was that there was no such thing as an overpaid consultant or an underpaid staff member. The rates were very clear, and the transparency even became a motivation for the people to try to achieve higher levels of performance to go up to higher pay brackets.

It takes a tremendous amount of managerial confidence to pull off such a hat trick. And it’s unlikely that bureaucratically-driven HR departments are willing to go for full disclosure. But full disclosure does have its advantages in building organizational confidence and drive. It’s certainly an option to try out for small and medium-sized enterprises.