Any company that functions as a well-oiled machine has a foundation built on one vital characteristic; effective collaboration. It may sound like a trend or a buzzword thrown in from time to time, but it is far more than that.
Behind every great accomplishment lies a team of individuals. When a group of people with varying skills and experience put their heads together to achieve a single goal, magic happens. Everything from innovation to satisfaction, creativity, efficiency, and soft skills development is discovered.
Employers and management have begun to recognize the value of collaboration in the workplace. Studies show that 80% of decision-makers realize they need to improve collaboration with other departments, and 75% are looking to improve collaboration within theirs. While its benefits are tremendous, achieving real collaboration is easier said than done.
This article will discuss what team collaboration is, why team collaboration is essential in the workplace, and how to get yours rocking like a well-oiled machine.
What is Team Collaboration
Working with people is an inevitable aspect of any business. A company is full of employees, and whether they intend to or not, they will always need each other at some point. Collaboration is inevitable in the workplace. However, there is no guarantee of effective collaboration without enforcing certain qualities.
Effective collaboration is better understood as effective teamwork or team collaboration. It is collaboration with a focus on teamwork, maximum engagement, equal participation, communication, and creativity to achieve the goals of a group or a company. While it entails individuals taking up specific roles in a project and adhering to team norms and processes, an effective collaboration also allows for spontaneity and stepping out of defined roles if and when it benefits the team or company.
Team collaboration cannot happen overnight. It requires building vital skills like trust, tolerance, active listening, adaptability, empathy, open-mindedness, constructive debates, etc., which take time to cultivate. Other requirements include open discussions and honest appraisal of workplace culture and practices.
Why Team Collaboration is Important
Collaboration has many proven benefits to any company. It leads to increased employee communication, improved productivity, greater team morale, and a streamlined process that saves time.
A recent study revealed that 60% of employees believe that better collaboration has a positive impact on morale, while 70% concur with the positive effect on productivity and time saving benefits of team collaboration. But that's not all. Studies also reveal that 64% of employees have enjoyed a boost in creativity, innovation, and work engagement.
Below are some of the significant benefits of team collaboration. These benefits bring compelling arguments for the importance of team collaboration in any company.
- - Continuous Learning
Team collaboration usually involves different job roles with individuals of varying skills and experience, creating an opportunity for enlightenment. Team members get to learn and absorb new skills, knowledge, valuable experiences, and varying perspectives they've never encountered before.
- - Talent Attraction
Effective collaboration breeds a positive work culture in which younger generations value more than monetary compensation. A recent Glassdoor study reflects this sentiment stating that over 77% of job seekers across Europe and the US have a company's culture as a major criterion when applying for jobs.
- - Employee Retention
Team collaboration ensures that employees feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. It gives them purpose and makes them feel valued and heard, which increases morale and happiness. No employee wants to leave a company that values their input and provides opportunities for learning and growth for another that doesn't.
Conversely, a company with poor collaboration or one where collaboration is non-existent will always see a high employee turnover rate.
- - Improve Problem-Solving
Team collaboration helps deal with crises or emergencies in any company. When various individuals' talents, skills, knowledge, expertise, and perspectives are put together, the chances of spotting issues and providing immediate and long-term solutions increase significantly. There is no denying that the diversity that team collaboration brings makes it easier to creatively and effectively resolve problems
How To Improve Team Collaboration
Achieving effective collaboration is not an easy thing to accomplish. It is a process that requires time and effort, like all processes. After all, it involves people with different ideas, challenges, approaches, and goals working together.
Balancing and navigating all these elements requires specific collaborative skills such as adaptability, open-mindedness, empathy, communication, listening, etc. Fortunately, it doesn't require a massive budget to achieve team collaboration. Here are some ways to boost interaction and better engagement between colleagues.
- - Clear Goals and Expectations
Every collaboration needs an achievable objective or a clear structure. Without this, collaboration becomes riddled with gossip, idle chats, and time-wasting ventures, and the project loses direction.
Providing clear goals and expectations from the beginning and on a daily basis ensures that team members know what is expected of them and can tell the progress made.
- - Focus on the Strength of individual Employees
Members of any team or group have areas of great Strength as they do weaknesses. It is vital to highlight the strengths of individuals more than their weaknesses. This allows other team members to discover ways they can contribute and alleviate the deficiencies within the collective and also find out what's worth learning from each other.
- - Inclusivity
It is vital to ensure that everyone is involved, especially in the decision-making process of a project. This makes employees or team members feel like they matter, resulting in a willingness to participate. When people participate, it leads to the development of original ideas, and everyone learns from each other.
- - Improve Communication
Without effective communication, collaboration breaks down, leading to massive productivity and efficiency disruptions. A 2017 report showed that inefficient communication takes nearly 15 percent of employees' total work time. An estimated 5 million dollars in loss annually in companies with more than 500 workers results from inefficient communication.
Efficient communication is the glue that holds a team together and ensures that the quality of work does not suffer.
- - Make Use of Collaboration Tools
Investing in collaboration tools is a surefire way to achieve team collaboration faster. Many collaboration tools allow adequate planning and scheduling and improve communication, and with the rise of remote jobs, they make interaction possible anywhere in the world.
Find Harmony with Snapfix
Collaboration tools such as computerized maintenance management system software (CMMS) have become critical to the success of many companies. It makes it easier for employees to collaborate and connect with each other and provides a platform for organization and management.
Snapfix is an all-one-in platform that offers the tools required to keep employees in sync with themselves and each other. Employees can remain focused on the day-to-day activities with clearly assigned tasks that usually don't need words. A video or snapshot of the job works perfectly to get things running.
Employees can foster team cohesion using Snapfix instant messaging app, which comes with a file-sharing option. It offers inclusion and supervision of participants with ease.
Communication with Snapfix is seamless and without any hassle. Employees can report issues, place work orders, schedule tasks, provide status updates, ask questions, share documents, post photo updates, brainstorm ideas, and appreciate achievements. Snapfix uses a traffic system to indicate what needs to be done, what's in progress, and what is completed, eliminating confusion and enhancing productivity.
Snapfix is an award-winning and top-rated CMMS globally, gaining appeal with top brands like Toyota, Raddison Blu, Intercontinental Hotel and Resort, Indiana Bioscience Research Institute, and Fexco.
It doesn't matter what industry your business aligns with; Snapfix has your back anytime, any day. Visit Snapfix today and watch your team operate like a well-oiled machine in every area.
