Open-Book Test Expose your financial secrets to employees? Are you crazy?

Want a fast way to jump-start your workers' productivity?Open your books to them--that means the P&L statement and muchof the rest of your financial recordkeeping. Can it really be thatsimple?

Apparently so. Since we wrote about the subject four years ago,numerous companies have jumped on the bandwagon. "Companiesthat have done this have seen higher productivity and largeincreases in profits," says Craig Minnick, managing directorof American Express Tax and Business Services Inc. (TBS) inChicago.

"There's no question that productivity goes up inan open-book business," agrees Terry Lauter, a principalat Humanomics Inc., a Granada Hills, California, human resourcesconsulting firm that helps companies implement open-bookprograms.