Collaboration among employees: A necessity to succeed

Introduction:

To elaborate and describe the scenario of collaboration among employees, let's start with an example. The BBC assembles a sizable team of researchers, writers, producers, cameramen, and technicians to cover the World Cup or the Olympics, many of whom have never worked together before. With only one opportunity to record the action, these specialists collaborate under the intense strain of a "no retake" situation.

Similar to this, when Marriott's central IT team sets out to create complex systems to improve guest experiences, it must work closely with independent hotel owners, customer-experience specialists, global brand managers, and regional heads, each of whom has their own goals and requirements.

Some January blues: According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), 1 in 6 adults in the second half of 2021 reported having depression. This percentage was one in ten before the pandemic. Therefore, monitoring employee mental health and fostering greater human connections in a virtual workplace should be on the list of corporate leadership goals to be set for 2022.

A quick fix to collaboration among employees:

Collaboration among employees does not simply refer to a style of the work process wherein all the employees work together. It can be Synchronous or Asynchronous, but in both procedures, employee interaction is decisive. In this mind-boggling and brainstorming article on ways to improve employee collaboration, you will get to know a lot of things starting from the types of corporate collaboration and how one can achieve the goal. Learn More:

What is employee collaboration?

Working together to accomplish a shared objective for the organization is what is meant by collaboration among employees. This typically entails idea-sharing and brainstorming, equitable workload distribution, and bringing people together for a common goal.
There are two ways of collaborating within a team:

• Synchronous
• Asynchronous

Synchronous: When team members collaborate on projects in real-time, this is called synchronous collaboration. Collaboration tools like video chat, instant messaging, and other online meetings are frequently used for this. When using the synchronous technique, the team collaborates in real time. To stay in touch during the working day, they might use collaboration and communication tools like video conferencing, online meetings, and instant messaging.

Asynchronous: Teams that operate in an asynchronous manner may rely more on email for communication. Asynchronous indicates that discussions among coworkers may not always take place at the same time. People that operate in separate time zones or shifts, for instance, might use more asynchronous collaboration techniques.
Organizations typically mix synchronous and asynchronous collaboration in equal measure. Setting limits on when more real-time synchronous cooperation might occur is crucial, especially if you have staff that work flexibly or irregular hours or are located in various time zones; everyone needs to be able to unplug.
This approach of synchronous cooperation aids in improving team productivity and morale and reducing feelings of loneliness, which many workers experienced during the pandemic.

Benefits of collaboration among employees:

Let's have a look at the emotional impact of collaboration within teams:

• Sharing the workload: Particularly in a fast-paced, virtual office, a high workload, deadline pressure, and accountability can become too much. Working together rather than alone can offer significant advantages for individual employees. Employees feel more engaged and have a sense of belonging within their organization when they realize that they are not the alone in dealing with deadlines and that each team member contributes to reaching a common goal.
• Improvement in problem-solving: The competence and confidence of professionals might be impacted by loneliness and anxiety. Daily productivity can benefit from having their peers available to assist with common problems and questions. Workers have a better chance of conquering daily obstacles collectively if they can communicate with coworkers, managers, and other stakeholders promptly.
• More engagement among employees: All of this eventually implies that your employees will experience a greater sense of teamwork and engagement with the company as a whole. Maintaining your team's connection, productivity, and a sense of purpose may depend on having the appropriate collaboration tools and procedures in place.

Ways to improve collaboration among employees:

Let's start by noting down some of the most practical ideas to enhance collaboration in an organization by leveraging the strategies mentioned below:

• Creating a supportive work environment : The team members' sense of security is essential for effective teamwork. Nobody wants to be hesitant to express their thoughts at work for fear that their coworkers may mock them. Every team member should feel valued and supported at work, which calls for a supportive workplace. In the workplace, trust-building requires time and effort. Learn More: Project & task management

Since the outcome is a team that cultivates empathy for its members and communicates openly with one another, the advantages are worth the effort. The team members will have a greater grasp of each other's areas of strength.

• Executive level support: We discovered that every time we examined complicated collaborative teams that were operating in a creative and productive way, the company's senior executives had made a considerable investment in creating and sustaining social networks across the entire firm. But how they went about it differed greatly.

We refer to "signature" practices as those that were distinctive, challenging for competitors to imitate, and particularly well adapted to the business climate of the most collaborative organizations.

For instance, one of Fred Goodwin's objectives, when the Royal Bank of Scotland CEO invested £350 million to create a new headquarters facility outside of Edinburgh in 2005, was to promote effective staff collaboration. The new building, centred on an interior atrium, allows more than 3,000 employees of the company to mingle.

• Excellent HR practices: There was no appreciable difference in the productivity and innovation of complex teams depending on the type of reward system used, whether it was based on team or individual performance or directly linked to collaborative behavior or not.

Although the majority of formal HR programmed seemed to have little effect, we discovered that two practices—training in skills linked to collaborative behavior and assistance for informal community building—did increase team performance.

Convalescence:

Building relationships and trust, creating a culture where senior leaders serve as role models for cooperation and making wise short-term decisions about how teams are formed, roles are defined, and challenges and tasks are articulated are all necessary to increase your organization's capacity for collaboration. When teams get more complicated, procedures and frameworks that may have worked well with small groups of individuals who were all in the same place and were familiar with one another are likely to fail.

FAQs:

How do you collaborate with employees?

Collaboration with the employees happens when a constructive work environment with proper HR practices, including incentives are involved.

What are the five benefits of good collaboration?

• Improved problem solving
• Time saving
• Sharing workload
• More engaged employees
• Improved relationships

Why is collaboration so important in a workplace?

Collaboration enhances how well your team functions as a unit and solves problems. As a result, there will be more innovation, more effective procedures, greater success, and better communication.

How do you encourage collaboration among employees?

• Communicate regularly
• Provide a collaborative work environment
• Keep tabs on employee growth
• Use team-building activities
• Encourage team members to socialize informally
• Lead your team by example

Learn More: Enterprise Workflow Automation and Document Management System in SharePoint

• Deepak Kapoor
• October 08, 2022