Employees are the lifeblood of companies. They are vital to the growth and success of the business.
However, collaboration can be a little difficult to facilitate because of how diverse and dispersed employees can be. While these characteristics are useful in sourcing out creative input, they can sometimes be a source of struggle, too.
In this article, we will talk about the importance of employee collaboration and how we can implement this concept in our organization despite coming from different backgrounds, departments, interests, and locations.
Let’s get started.
Why is employee collaboration important?
To put it simply, employee collaboration delivers results.
When people are motivated to collaborate, they become more efficient and innovative in handling and solving problems. They become engaged and committed to achieving better performance at work, which eventually results in improved financial outcomes.
To discuss these in detail, here are the most important reasons why employee collaboration is important in the success of the business:
Strategic Alignment
When employee collaboration is promoted in the workplace, every single member of a team stays aligned, updated, and connected. People will share their expertise with one another, thereby finishing tasks more effectively and innovatively.
Employees feel more at one with the business’s principal strategies. They become more competitive and knowledgeable.
Furthermore, when employee collaboration is practiced within the organization, everyone understands their roles better in the company’s entire strategy.
Once this happens, goals and objectives are met with ease. Because of how synchronized everyone is, decisions are made smarter and faster, and everyone understands how integral they are in making things happen.
Problem Solving
When people work together effectively, talents, knowledge, and skills are combined. Teams with individuals that are varying in skill sets are able to solve problems quickly and creatively because unique standpoints and experiences are used in the problem-solving approach.
Collecting a wide range of outputs creates optimal solutions in solving problems. A problem that takes months to resolve can be done in a matter of hours once employee collaboration takes place.
Blind spots are also covered, which brings never-before-seen ideas, concepts, and solutions to the table.
By the way, we recently published a guide for leaders and managers on how to engage employees. Get a copy of this guide for free and learn how to engage employees the right way.
Enhanced Customer Experience
When teams communicate effectively, businesses resolve problems faster, which brings happy customers to rate your company with five stars for great customer service.
Moreover, aside from a faster response time, employee collaboration also improves the quality of information that an organization provides to its customers because of how employees share their expertise with one another.
This creates stronger customer service and an enhanced customer experience.
Efficient Work and Production
Employee collaboration turns teams into productivity machines. As goals and agendas are clearly outlined for every member of the organization, businesses are able to accomplish things easily and are able to meet crucial deadlines with ease.
This is because the workload is divided equally, and different insights are utilized in handling specific tasks, which shortens the production or even the project delivery time.
Improving Team Relationships
Employee collaboration involves setting clear intentions and realistic expectations for the entire organization.
Once effective communication is established regarding these matters, individuals understand that they are working together to provide better results. Such realization leads every member to demonstrate equal participation and enthusiasm in finishing tasks.
As each member of the organization contributes significant input, trust is fostered and teamwork is improved.
How do we establish successful employee collaboration?
Doing something always requires taking the first step.
If you want your employees to collaborate, the best thing to do is to foster the concept within your culture. Encourage it and practice it all the time.
More specifically:
Gather Your Team and Ask Questions
One of the things that would spark collaboration in an organization is trust. Knowing that their insights are valued by the company makes employees feel that they are indeed a part of the team.
Moreover, asking the right questions also helps your employees generate ideas.
Formulate questions that promote creative thinking. When answers are given, entertain them and discuss. This is vital for others to follow you and provide you with more ideas in the future.
Give Out Rewards
Providing incentives and other rewards is a great way to motivate your employees. If you wish to incorporate employee collaboration in your business, placing them in teams, presenting them with challenges, and giving out incentives for a great job performance will get them moving.
You can also reward those teams whose ideas progress into innovation projects.
Furthermore, rewards don’t necessarily have to be cash. Aside from giving out written and verbal recognition, you can also provide:
- Food
- Gift cards
- A day off
- Stock-option programs
- Plaques
- Flexible work hours
- Corporate discounts
- Employee assistance
Persuade Them to Provide Feedback
It is essential for your staff to know and feel that their honest opinions are needed in the company’s projects. Persuading them to provide feedback enhances communication within your organization.
Make it clear to them that their feedback counts.
This will make the management look and feel approachable.
Incorporate Gamification Elements
In building employee collaboration, encouraging others to participate is a must. Their cooperation is important, and one way to stimulate this is by applying gamification elements to the collaboration process.
Their engagement in this fun way of collaborating will keep them engaged in tasks and other activities.
This is why Accept Mission has included a lot of gamification features in its software, including undercover mode.
Other features include:
- Goal setting
- Timers
- Scoring points
- Teams working together
Gamification elements included in the software are designed to strengthen employee collaboration and innovative processes.
Establish Communication Channels
Following a solid communication plan is important in implementing a successful employee collaboration within the organization. This is why it is important for companies to make communication between teams a lot easier.
Establishing communication channels is a great way for both managers and employees to communicate with ease. Instructions and projects can be disseminated properly while collecting ideas from both ends will be simple and hassle-free.
Utilize an Idea Collection Tool
Many platforms and tools are available in collecting ideas from employees. In fact, for this process, using idea collection tools and idea management solutions are recommended.
No matter where your members are, it is important for them to be able to share their ideas.
Accept Mission has an inbox feature that enables everyone in the organization to share their ideas on certain inboxes, even with undercover identities. This dynamic feature enables employees to drop their ideas without feeling uncomfortable or afraid of rejection in any way.
Turn the Best Innovative Ideas Into Projects
Turning the best innovative ideas into projects is one of the best ways to cultivate idea-sharing. It would be rewarding for your employees to see their suggestions being carried out by the organization, especially when recognition comes with it.
It would also feel spectacular and inspiring on your employees’ part if everyone in the workplace knew who contributed the idea. Or, the project or product could be named after the contributor and get the credit that he or she deserves in the company’s published content.
Make Collaboration Easier Through Platforms and Applications
Because globalization has greatly changed the way companies operate, teams within organizations do not necessarily have to be in a single location or time zone anymore. Times have changed and now — even remote work is easy.
Fortunately, collaboration doesn’t have to be confined within the four walls of an office. Collaboration now involves the usage of modern technologies to unite employees from different parts of the world.
The good news is there are plenty of digital tools now available to help make collaboration virtually possible.
Here are a few:
- Slack – It enables messaging within teams. It offers a list of functional tools that employees can use like file sharing, archiving, and integrations with services like Dropbox and Google Drive. Its integrations also include project management tools, repository hosting services, and social media platforms.
- Trello – Projects are represented by boards that contain task lists. Users and boards may be categorized, and instructions are given with ease.
- Skype – It’s a famous voice call and video chat service that companies can use for video conferences, screen-sharing, job interviews, and messaging. Skype for Business supports video conferencing for up to 25 people, integration with other third-party apps, compatibility with MS office tools, and improved security.
- Google Docs – Although Google Docs’ features are limited compared to MS Word, this documentation tool is still perhaps one of the most widely used in businesses. It enables multiple people to edit documents at the same time, see who revises what, and leave feedback for tasks.
How Accept Mission Can Help
Accept Mission is an innovation software that makes collaboration easier. With its features, communication, project management, and tracking results can be performed without hassle. It helps users share their knowledge with each other and improve upon each other’s ideas.
Despite your members’ diverse set of strengths, experiences, and ideas, collaboration might be a little difficult to implement.
However, with Accept Mission’s gamification elements and other features that foster working relationships, business engagement, collaboration, and creativity are boosted no matter which part of the world your employees reside in.
All of your members’ innovative ideas can also be collected, compared, followed, and managed with ease.
Evaluate your current situation in terms of employee collaboration and feel free to use the tips listed above to boost this concept within your organization.
Make this easier using our platform. Book a demo today and see for yourself how it could help you increase employee collaboration in your company in a fun and engaging way.
