Employee collaboration does not happen overnight. It takes time, effort and the correct strategies to build a workplace where employee collaboration occurs seamlessly. In this article, we share our top tips for improving employee collaboration.
The benefits of employee collaboration
Before we share our top tips for improving employee collaboration, let’s take a look at how collaboration can benefit your business:
- Boosted morale – Now more than ever, workplace morale is crucial. A happy workplace is a productive workplace. It can reduce absences, attract top talent and increase retention. Employee collaboration is a great way to form positive bonds and boost morale in the office.
- Learning and knowledge sharing – This is arguably one of the best things about collaborative working. Employees can learn new skills from each other as well as sharing their past mistakes, successes, failures and workflow.
- Reduced stress – Long hours and large workloads can often lead to work-related stress and at worst, burnout. Working alongside colleagues on a project can ease some of that burden. Moreover, a collaborative workplace that fosters positive relationships can help employees feel happier.
- Improved efficiency and productivity – Employees working independently has its advantages, but collaborative working increases productivity and efficiency in the workplace. Large projects can be broken down into manageable tasks and employees may find they get more done knowing someone is relying on them.
- Increased retention – Employee collaboration is one of many factors that create an open and honest workforce and build positive working relationships. This will help employees stay loyal and committed to your business.
Top tips for improving employee collaboration
It is clear that employee collaboration can have a range of benefits for your business. The question is, how do you encourage employee collaboration in the workplace?
Here are our top five tips for improving employee collaboration:
Improve communication
If your employees aren’t communicating effectively, they will struggle to collaborate. Good collaboration relies on honest and open communication between your employees. This should begin at the top. As an employer, you should ensure communication is a priority.
Keep your employees in the loop and have regular meetings with them. You should also make sure you communicate with each employee individually.
Your team should feel comfortable sharing ideas, raising concerns and reaching out for support. Once you have an open and honest workplace culture built on great communication, you will notice an increase in employee collaboration.
Migrate platforms
Migrating all of the company’s emails, contacts, calendars, data and files to one easy-to-use platform, such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or Dropbox, can work wonders for employee collaboration. Your employees will be able to access their emails, files, calendars and more from any device, wherever they are.
They will be able to communicate via the platform, edit and share files with each other and collaborate on projects – even if they are working from different locations. This will be particularly beneficial if your team is working from home or if it is common for your team to work flexibly.
Get out of the workplace
Whether it’s a team lunch at a local pub, a charity event, or a team-building day, getting your employees together outside the office is always an excellent idea. It enables employees to get to know each other better and builds positive friendships within the team.
And if your business has several departments, it gives employees the chance to spend time with colleagues they may not see much in the workplace. Encouraging positive relationships across departments can improve communication and streamline how work is carried out in the workplace.
Lead by example
As an employer, how often do you collaborate with your employees or your fellow management team? Encouraging your employees to work together is not going to get you anywhere if you don’t foster collaborative behaviours yourself.
Your employees are more likely to work together if collaboration and co-operation are engrained into the culture – starting at the very top. Talk to your employees one-to-one about projects they are working on and offer to help where you can.
Reiterate the company’s mission
Your employees need a reason (aside from their salaries), to turn up each day and give it their 100%. Having a shared goal that the team as a whole must work towards is a great start. You should communicate and embed this goal to your team frequently.
Your employees should also understand their role in helping achieve the common goal. When everyone is working on the same mission with a clear goal in mind, collaboration will come naturally, and challenges will be resolved quickly.
Author bio: Chloe Curwen is Content Marketing Executive at GrowTraffic Ltd.
Photo credit: Hans-Peter Gauster on Unsplash
