Why Encouraging Collaboration in the Office Is Important

By September 3, 2019 Blog No Comments

Every employee has a unique blend of strengths and weaknesses. They each bring different skills to bear and draw on a different well of experiences.

Separately, each employee will produce the same type of work over and over again.

But put them together, and those skills and experiences act as multipliers. They can enhance each other’s strengths and counteract each other’s weaknesses. You’ll end up with better work, produced more efficiently. In this way, collaboration draws the best out of each of your workers.

Split the Workload

Large projects can be daunting. Assigning one to an individual worker might overwhelm them. However, splitting that project into multiple steps, and spreading those steps around to multiple team members, ensures no one gets overloaded.

The strategy creates the opportunity to increase efficiency, since multiple parts of the project can move forward at once. Meanwhile, it minimizes stress for the individual employees, lowering the risk of burn out and increasing overall morale.

Positive Feedback Loop

Collaboration has a way of self-perpetuating. Once people learn to rely on one another, they will turn to each other instinctively. Teamwork becomes second nature.

By purposely encouraging collaboration in targeted projects, you encourage collaboration as an overall operating strategy. You’ll see your employees get together in other situations, leading to stronger output and improved productivity.

Collaboration also encourages a team spirit. Over the long term, it will make your workplace more enjoyable (even while it becomes more efficient). This helps limit turnover and maximize employee contributions.

Peer Pressure Provides Motivation

They say soldiers in a fox hole don’t fight for an army … they fight for each other. Collaborative projects encourage the same feelings (on an admittedly much smaller scale) around the office.

Nothing motivates like peer pressure. Collaboration makes team members reliant on each other. They take over management functions for each other, checking results and sticking to schedules. Meanwhile, employees work harder and more diligently because they don’t want to let their co-workers down.

A collaborative workforce decreases the burden on you, opening some of your schedule for long-term planning and growth projects.

Improved Communication

Collaboration puts communication into action. Things only get done by people talking to each other. It binds your team members together. They stop acting as individual workers who happen to share an employer. Instead, they begin working as a true team.

Think about a collaborative working environment as the ultimate team-building exercise. It not only puts those communication and teamwork skills into practice, it makes them sharper for next time.

Just consider your decision to encourage collaboration like this: All the productivity and morale improvement, none of the rope courses.

Hiring workers who thrive in a collaborative environment maximizes your ability to respond to clients and grow your business over time. Partnering with a strong staffing firm, like Recruiting In Motion, makes finding those team members simple and easy.

Contact Recruiting In Motion to learn more.