Although most businesses utilize teamwork, it often doesn’t go much further than divvying up tasks. Everyone carries out individual roles rather than seeing the big picture. Employees work in their comfort zones, not aware the colleagues right down the hall have the expertise and guidance required to solve their problems.
Leaders talk about valuing teamwork, but if rewards and incentives aren’t in place, it just doesn’t happen. Task hoarding ensures things are done “my way,” even if it’s not the best way.
What is collaboration?
Collaboration is humans working together. They combine varied skill sets and experiences to creatively achieve a common goal.
Collaboration can be brainstorming ideas, giving feedback, sharing links, voting on polls, and sharing meeting notes. Anytime people are working together on a project or process, collaboration is involved.
Team collaboration is a more complex—but more beneficial—approach. Dynamic groups and individuals share knowledge and expertise, challenging each other’s perspectives in meaningful discourse. Group members might not always agree, but their constructive conversations confront mindsets and urge open-mindedness, expanding possible solutions for teams, and ultimately, the business as a whole.
What are the benefits of team collaboration?
Here is a list of several benefits that intentional team collaboration has to offer.
1. Fresh inspiration
Sometimes, you just hit a wall and aren’t sure where to go or what to do next, no matter how many years you’ve been on the job. Employees may be too shy or embarrassed to ask for help or a second opinion unless they’re already working in a collaborative team environment. Top-notch professionals may also apply new knowledge and different approaches from their colleagues to daily work, inspiring innovation.
2. Cut costs
Ineffective communication, including excessive communication and lack of meaningful conversation, wastes time and affects the bottom line. Stronger coordination, project monitoring, and exchanging feedback streamline processes, reducing the amount of time, people, resources, and cash needed to finish work.
3. Faster time to market
If team members in product development collaborate, but the marketing team is minimally or not at all involved in the development, marketing team members will have a lot of catching up to do before they’re ready to present a marketing strategy for a new product. When teams across an organization combine their ideas throughout processes and projects, high-quality, innovative solutions can be produced more quickly.
4. Improved customer experience
Collaborative work and its benefits extend to customers as well. In organizations where team collaboration is healthy, standard practices are in place for addressing and following up on customer cases. Issues with website-friendliness, customer service, and customer complaints are promptly directed to the individual or team who can resolve the problem and improve experiences for the next customer.
5. Greater transparency
Tracking progress and measuring productivity is more readily accomplished in a collaborative workplace, and frequent irritating team briefings aren’t needed when everyone is in-the-know. Problems are identified sooner because teams are consistently touching base on multiple levels. The effect? Reduced duplicated work, less rework, and better fluidity when tweaks are needed.
6. Clearer standards
Hmmm…I’m not 100% sure how I’m supposed to format this document, but I’m not sure whom to ask, so I’ll just submit it as is and see what my supervisor says. In a workplace where team collaboration thrives, it’s easier to find published standards for work or the appropriate individual to contact for guidelines on a particular task.
7. Stakeholder alignment
If stakeholders are involved in a process, there is better alignment between all the roles extending from sponsors to implementers. Stakeholders feel freer to express needs and concerns throughout a project’s duration. Instead of sending implementers back to the drawing board, stakeholders are a part of the process that carries implementers from start to finish.
8. Access to top talent
Your organization needs to beef up the content marketing strategy, but with a limited number of in-house writers, increasing the level of content while maintaining quality poses a significant challenge. Collaborating with remote freelance writers not only adds fresh perspectives but boosts the content quantity without sacrificing quality to increase online traffic to your business. For any work that can be completed on a computer, talented workers around the world wait for new opportunities in a collaborative workplace.
9. Increase employee engagement
According to Gallup1, “Organizations that are the best in engaging their employees achieve earnings-per-share growth that is more than four times that of their competitors.” Gallup noted that organizations most successful in employee engagement have created a CEO-supported culture of high development experiences through continuous company-wide communication. The more collaboration is built into internal operations, the more likely employees are to plug in.
10. Reduced turnover
When employees can count on their team, team loyalty takes root, and in turn, company loyalty grows. Higher retention rates allow organizations to reinvest more capital into product development and business expansion.
A collaborative workplace leads to happier workers who are more likely to stick around and add increasing value to their company, reducing turnover by up to 59 percent2.
11. Positive work environment
Any organization has individuals who are more reserved or less confident in their abilities. Open-mindedness is an essential component of team collaboration. When employees are treated fairly in a collaborative workplace, they don’t have to be so nervous about giving feedback or offering alternative ideas. Also, when colleagues take the time—even just a second—to contribute positive or constructive feedback, morale among workers surges. Perhaps that’s one reason why 85 percent7 of employees with access to collaboration software are more likely to perceive themselves as happy in the workplace.
12. Less employee stress
Wrike’s Stress Epidemic Report3 found that poor teamwork is the leading cause of stress in today’s workplace. Poor communication, imbalanced workloads, and bottlenecks heavily burden team members. In an open workplace where typical team issues are minimized, employee stress is greatly reduced. Workers are confident in their roles, have immediate access to any knowledge they need, and can rest assured that support is available from their colleagues.
13. Centralized workplace
Around 416 hours a year4 per employee goes to waste when internal information isn’t consolidated, and two-thirds of employees spend 60 minutes a day5 navigating work apps. Whether tracking down past correspondence or project guidelines, team collaboration tools make it possible to perform work and communicate efficiently, solving problems like information hoarding and siloed data.
14. Improvement in team performance
Aargon’s Research Globe6 predicts that by 2025, team collaboration will be the primary method for business communication, driven by the demand for higher performance and agility. Collaboration isn’t just another fad; it’s a core value that can increase productivity and heighten synergy.
15. Smoother onboarding for new team members
Occasionally, leaders determine additional human capital is required to complete a job on time or to fill knowledge gaps, leading to long-term or gig hires. By the time help is found, projects are already rolling, and new members want to hit the ground running. An influential collaborative culture in a connected workplace enables new team members to get up to speed in a jiffy.
How can Kissflow Collaboration support your team?
Kissflow Collaboration is a powerful tool created for businesses to capitalize on the potential benefits of collaboration. In an integrated digital workplace, Kissflow merges all types of work elements—automated processes, projects, cases, and collaboration—into one application.
66 percent8 of employees are already looking for a single workplace collaboration tool to achieve better workflow, improve productivity, and reduce chaos. Instead of toggling back and forth between apps, workers can coordinate work and communicate spontaneously on one organized platform. Conversations are tied directly to related work projects or posted in thematic channels.
The ability to work on-the-go or remotely is crucial for effective team collaboration, and Kissflow delivers a secure, user-friendly app for desktops or mobile devices that fits companies of any size, no matter the level of IT expertise. Pair a collaborative company culture with a transformative tool and set your business up for long-term, holistic success.
