When employees share a common goal, combine their strengths and help each other out, an organization is bound for success. Teamwork and collaboration forms the fundamentals of any successful business but what does it usually entail?
Teamwork and collaboration usually brings numerous benefits within organizations and workplaces, including improved creativity, creating a sense of community, improves employee productivity and morale and lastly much faster problem solving. Here are some key statistics from countless studies that have proved the effectiveness of healthy teamwork and collaboration as well as its impact on a company’s bottom line:
86% of employees and executives cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures
99.1% prefer a workplace where people identify and discuss issues truthfully and effectively
Businesses with effective communication are 50% more likely to have lower employee turnover
This proves that teamwork and collaboration is essential and necessary for organizations to succeed; measures must be put in place to ensure transparency and clearer, effective communication between relevant parties to ensure the dynamic fluidity of teamwork and collaboration is maintained.
However, in this digital age we are living in, how has technology impacted the way we view teamwork and collaboration? The ever-changing digital landscape has rapidly transformed the way we communicate, making teamwork and collaboration more challenging than before. What are some of these challenges?
Firstly, not being able to sit, talk and communicate face-to-face can lead to a disjointed team effort during meetings where important issues are discussed. Having remote workers operating in different time zones adds even more complexity to this particular issue. Secondly, access to information (documents, files, and other important media) can be difficult, especially if the company still utilises paper documents. Storing documents and files in the cloud can help solve the problem to an extent. However, sharing multiple cloud links with employees and making sure the right employee has given access to the right information is such a time-consuming process. The deployment of tasks and to-do’s also poses a huge problem that often creates confusion, especially when employees are unable to see what their teammates are working on, which leads to redundancies and inefficiency. Thirdly, communication is another huge hurdle in a digital workplace. Emails are a poor information-sharing tool and the worst knowledge-storing repository since it is astonishingly difficult for the receiver to find the information again once he/she consumes it. Additionally, no one else outside of the email thread can benefit from this transfer of knowledge, so the same knowledge gets shared multiple times when someone needs it, adding to email overload.
Even though technology has played a huge role in improving office productivity, it still has its limitations when it comes to working together in teams and collaborating effectively. However, many digital collaboration tools have come up in the last decade, helping employees solve common problems of digitization and foster healthy collaboration.
The adoption of software and apps, known as digital collaboration tools, has significantly gone up in modern times. Businesses are looking for ways to set up these collaborative practices in this digital era, since a massive 91% of people who work from home feel that they’re more productive than when they’re in an office. These software tools are helping employees to collaborate on work with the aid of technology and digital devices. According to an Alfresco survey of more than 753 business professionals, it was found that nearly 83% of professionals depend on technology to collaborate and nearly 82% of the participants also felt that they would feel impacted if this technology to collaborate was lost. These digital collaboration tools not only improve communication and collaboration, but also facilitate information flow, provide ways to create and manage content and lead to increased productivity and employee efficiency. Companies can then function beyond geographical boundaries and regular work timings.
There are a multitude of benefits of deploying these tools in the workplace. It makes remote working possible due to the creation of software and applications like Zoom which are used for communicating through video conferencing, holding virtual meetings, brainstorming of ideas and sharing of documents - more than 77% of people working remotely report greater productivity. These tools open up plenty of opportunities to keep in touch with your teammates at all times, increase clarity amongst employees and develop better interdepartmental relations. It also improves internal communication and collaboration - newer, faster communication tools like instant messaging and real-time collaboration tools have provided ways to improve communication and transparency in the organization. They provide a virtual space for all of your teammates to know what’s going on in the company, which in turn helps develop better interdepartmental relationships.
Digital collaboration tools can improve productivity by completing time-consuming administrative tasks quickly, saving time for employees to spend time on other value-adding activities. Having digital collaboration systems in place also allows employees to quickly find the information or content they are looking for. 44 percent of employees are either poor or very poor at transferring knowledge. Collaboration tools like knowledge management software allow organizations to not only store all internal as well as external documents safely in one place but also document the experience and know-how of senior managers which can be used to train future hires. In this way, the knowledge of the company does not leave when the employee does, allowing current and future employees to access this information and get work done efficiently.
Collaboration and teamwork have taken an entirely different meaning in the digital age. Face-to-face meetings are replaced by video conferences, paper documents are replaced by word processors, while email inboxes are the new mailrooms. AwanTunai believes in the usage of digital collaboration tools to promote teamwork and collaboration - join us to experience a fun and collaborative workspace!