Learn why leading HR professionals trust ekincare! Explore Now

Tips to improve team collaboration & scale new heights of productivity

improve team collaboration and employee productivity

When thinking of strategies to improve workplace productivity, words like "team performance" and "teamwork" come to mind. Often, an organization relies upon all employees combining forces to contribute innovative strategies for tackling issues, brainstorming ideas to improve the existing process flow, and coming up with the best insights on optimizing organizational productivity.

This post aims to act as a guide, covering the reasons team collaboration and effective employee engagement strategies make a difference, as well as how to improve an organization's productivity by implementing better team collaboration systems.

What is team collaboration?

In the most fundamental sense, “collaboration” is defined as establishing a process of working with other people in order to produce something of value. In a business environment, this may mean brainstorming solutions for challenges faced by the company, teaming up to accomplish a big target, creatively establishing better systems to manage tasks, and much more. Effective team collaboration can also help improve employees' mental health and well-being

For effective team collaboration, the best leaders often create a system of checks and balances that encourages passionate participation by all the team members when it comes to coming up with new ideas, and contributing their expertise and skills on every level.

The challenges of inspiring true team collaboration at work

Implementing team collaboration sounds easy on paper, with everyone thinking of team-building workshops and conversations between employees at the water cooler. However, every corporate leader today understands that the simplest sounding things are often the most challenging to implement correctly. Many organizations often find it difficult to achieve effective team collaboration for various reasons. Some of these are listed below.

  • Miscommunication between team members - Every organization's workforce consists of unique individuals with their own thought processes, creative ideas and ways of understanding information. This individuality can prove to be both a blessing and a potential problem when it comes to team collaboration.

Possible solution - Set up a streamlined template for communication between team members can make sure everyone is on the same page about the bare facts of the matter at hand.

  • Information overload due to excessive communication - In the modern workplace, employees are often faced with the difficult reality of living in the "information age". Due to the sheer number of tools available, "unplugging" can become a challenge in itself. Constant meetings, redundant or outdated information and constantly staying in touch through ever-present communication channels can lead to an overwhelming experience. This can also result in burnout for many employees.

Possible solution - Reducing the "clutter of communication", so to speak, can result in a well-informed and adequately productive team for organizations. The quickest way to counter information overload and employee burnout is to reduce the amount of information that employees are expected to keep up with.

  • Lack of immediate outcomes - Improving any given aspect of an organization takes time and effort. However, sometimes this reality is lost in the myriad of challenges faced by managers and leaders. While often time-consuming in the beginning, creating an efficient method of team collaboration pays greater dividends in the long run.

Possible solution - Developing an attitude of patience is essential when trying to improve team collaboration. The process may seem daunting, but it is definitely worth the trouble.

Tips for improving team collaboration at the workplace

  • Create a clear road map of team norms and best practices - Setting up clear expectations, processes and result areas for team members can help establish a better workflow for all employees. Setting up contingencies in case of emergencies, reducing the workload of specific team members, and effective planning to achieve targets can help improve team collaboration across the board.
  • Revamp and optimize older procedures for greater efficiency - Just because something has been done a certain way in the past, doesn't mean it can't be improved upon. Team collaboration is heavily dependent on utilizing the best resources and strategies available at the time. Hence, optimizing processes for accomplishing tasks can help employees collaborate more effectively.
  • Implement simple and efficient communication channels - To counteract information overload and reduce redundant communication, it is advisable to set up a simple and effective set of guidelines when it comes to team communication can help boost collaboration due and reduce confusion between team members.
  • Offer incentives for effective collaboration - Find out what motivates team members across the organization. Each member of the team is unique and will be spurred to collaborate with others for different reasons. Some of them may respond well to customized employee wellness programs, while others may seek better implementation of employee engagement strategies by the organization. Understanding the needs, goals and motivations of employees is the key to incentivizing them toward greater levels of collaboration to achieve goals.

In closing

As we have seen so far, team collaboration is often the greatest method of achieving the most ambitious goals of an organization. In the face of everyday challenges at the workplace that might seem insurmountable to an individual, effective team collaboration can offer the best solutions in the most efficient way possible. The final tip to improve collaboration between employees at the workplace is for managers to be enthusiastic about the concept of teamwork. Enthusiasm and positive energy work wonders in the workplace, and seeing company leaders become excited about challenges and opportunities for collaboration can make employees feel the same way! Creating effective employee wellness programs and using the tools to constantly improve upon the employee engagement strategies in place also helps drive employee satisfaction in the long run. This guide is a great starting point to help team leaders and managers across companies improve cross-functional team collaboration at the organizational level. The best time to put these tips into practice is now!

Schedule a demo to learn how your organisation can get the best employee health and well-being experience with ekincare's commitment to quality.

Aditya Prakash Swain is an adaptable and dynamic Digital Media Consultant responsible for content marketing strategy, conducting thorough research on industry-related topics, generating ideas for new content types and enhancing brands digital presence.