Improve Employee Collaboration With These Remarkable Tips

employee collaboration

(This is a contributed post)

We all know that two heads are better than one. When we come together and bounce ideas off each other, we often find that we can be a lot more productive in an office environment. And, by setting teams on a task together rather than allocating it to just one individual, you will find that a solution is often come to at a much quicker rate. That’s because people can bring their different skills and knowledge together to ensure they have everything that is needed to complete the project. As you can see then, collaboration within the workplace is absolutely key to improving your company’s productivity.

But how exactly do you improve collaboration itself? Here are some quite surprising tips that will bring your employees closer together.

Don’t Go Open-Plan

These days, open-plan offices are very much in fashion. That’s because it is widely believed that bringing down the walls can promote chatter and discussions amongst employees. However, some recent research has shown that open-plan offices could actually be counter-productive. It is now thought that all the chatter that comes with open-plan offices can actually be highly disruptive for some employees. When employees can work free from any distractions, they will be a lot more comfortable and will be more willing to reach out to others when they need to collaborate.

Improve Your IT

If you don’t already have some collaboration software or computer programs, then it is really worth looking into getting some. Don’t worry if you don’t have a budget for these as there are now lots of free products that can help, including Google Drive. You might even want to contact an IT Support firm who can help you set up some useful tools such as efficient phone networks and webinar tools. The more your IT infrastructure is focused on collaboration, then the more likely your employees will be to join forces with others.

Incorporate Team Building Into Training Sessions

Hopefully, you already have a training program in place within your company. This will ensure that all of your employees are on the same page when it comes to the various practices and processes within the business. It’s also useful to incorporate some team-building sessions in this training. These sessions will give them the chance to break the ice with their co-workers so they will be a lot more likely to cooperate and work together with them when it comes to collaborating.

Be Smart With Meetings

You might think that holding meetings is a great way to bring people together to collaborate. Unfortunately, though, that is rarely the case. In fact, meetings that are held for the sake of just having a meeting are usually very unproductive and a waste of everyone’s time. So, make sure there is a clear agenda to your meeting and that it is necessary to hold it in the first place. If things can just be summed up in an email, then it’s best to do that so no one’s time is wasted.

Enjoy your future collaborations!

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