The workforce is more distributed than ever. Some organizations have multiple offices spread across the globe, some companies employ only remote workers, and some organizations have a hybrid of the latter two. What happens is, remote employees start to feel siloed and lonely, which negatively impacts productivity and employee retention. There are more than enough reasons that prove collaboration in the workplace is beneficial not only to your employees but to your entire company.
Here are some tips to better collaboration:. When individuals work together openly, processes and goals become more aligned, leading the group towards a higher success rate of achieving a common goal.
Collaboration spurs creativity, improves productivity, and increases employee satisfaction. With the right mindset and practices, collaboration can be a unique differentiator for your company.
The outcomes mentioned above prove that collaboration in the workplace is a critical contributor to overall business success. In accordance with our privacy policy , we'll only use your information to contact you about Simpplr's relevant content and solutions. Unsubscribe anytime. All posts The Importance of Collaboration in the Workplace. Written by Jamie Yan. Category Employee community Employee engagement. What is workplace collaboration Collaboration is the act of individuals working together to make unified decisions.
Why collaboration in the workplace is important If you think about collaboration in general, the goal is to maximize the success of a business. Collaboration in the workplace: Promotes problem-solving Generally speaking, when diverse knowledge and skillsets are in the mix, it increases competence and experience. Spurs innovation The diverse expertise and perspectives of your team will foster problem-solving. Connects teams to the bigger picture Many times the bigger picture gets buried when an individual is focused on a problem.
Boosts learning and skills-sharing When you have people working together, there is a tremendous opportunity for individuals to learn from each other. Increases employee satisfaction Collaboration in the workplace helps create an open environment where people feel valued and heard.
Aligns distributed or remote teams The workforce is more distributed than ever. Tips to improve workplace collaboration There are more than enough reasons that prove collaboration in the workplace is beneficial not only to your employees but to your entire company. Here are some tips to better collaboration: Listen first, talk later. A large part of collaborating successfully between employees and teams is listening to one another and making sure that everyone feels acknowledged and heard.
Do you give up? No, of course not; you ask for help or find another perspective. In short, you collaborate with your team to solve the problem at hand. When a group of people pool their knowledge, skills, and expertise, then talk problems out and debate potential solutions, projects that were stalled will begin to move forward once again. Collaboration ought to inform the way your team works—it should be baked in. The more eyes on a given project from the get-go, the easier it becomes to spot problems and solve them.
These are generally ad hoc teams that tackle projects which require people with diverse skill sets and areas of expertise. For instance, a mixed-skills team might include a product designer, a user experience designer, a developer, and a content writer. One of the best things about working collaboratively with people who bring different skill sets and backgrounds to the table is learning from their experience. Collaborating with team members or even different teams should be thought of as a learning experience, and you should try to make the most of it.
This means asking for feedback and opinions, sharing knowledge, finding out how your collaborators approach their side of the project, and gaining a better sense of how they work. Teams that collaborate not only have an opportunity to learn from each other—their mistakes, successes, failures, workflow, etc.
You get a chance to hear their side of things: their pain points, priorities, even the way they think. Which can be extremely valuable as you work together going forward. Working with new people from different areas of your business also opens up channels that would otherwise remain closed. Finding new ways to communicate and share information is hugely important to the success of any business, which is why collaboration should be utilized whenever possible to form bonds between departments.
A lot of collaboration tools, like an intranet for example, do just that. As connections are made between teams and departments, people will naturally trust each other more, which can gradually boost the morale of your entire organization. Regularly working together with people outside of your own team or department is one of the most effective ways to build trust.
Collaboration can provide solutions, give individuals a strong sense of purpose and also reinforce that you are all on the same team. The same goes to teams working on a problem and finding a solution to that problem. As managers and owners we have to acknowledge when these collaborations succeed and give them credit for the job well done.
When employees feel like they are a part of a team, they are more likely to stay at their job. Solve Problems Faster We all have those problems or issues that come up and we need help figuring out what to do.
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