Loyalty - The Unvarnished Truth

 Employees can handle the truth.

Based on my 45 years of varied experiences employees can handle the truth.

What they do not like is BS, or the old soft sell (trimming the truth), and the real truth eventually leaks out anyway.

Some business matters must be kept in the executive offices or among the owners, but most business matters become obvious to the employees, especially matters the employees care about, like compensation.

When and how you keep employees informed depends on the type of information, the timing of the information and the critical-or-not nature of the information.