The importance of collaboration in the workplace

Most bosses and business owners realize the importance of building a successful team in a company. However, perhaps of greater significance is the idea of fostering collaboration between colleagues.

Through collaborative work, staff learn from each other and come together to solve problems and, in today’s highly connected society, collaborative working is now more possible than ever – despite the increasing trend for remote-working.

Here are just a few reasons why collaboration is important in any company – and some suggestions for how to achieve it.

Collaboration increases morale, boosts productivity

For many people, work is much more than just a way of making money – it’s frequently also a source of friendship, community and social interaction. By working collaboratively, your staff will get to learn more about each other, in turn leading to the formation of friendships and strong relationships. Considerable research suggests working together increases morale among staff members.

Collaborative working hones problem-solving skills

Through working together, staff can increase their problem-solving abilities by approaching projects from a different perspective and pairing available resources to selected problems.

Working in collaboration with colleagues, it’s often possible to appreciate another view and find improved solutions – frequently ones that would have been impossible to achieve alone. Moreover, using software solutions like those offered at mattermost.com, staff are able to interact by video or text messaging as well as work together on files and log project progress resulting in a virtual record of performance.

Working together can open up new communication channels and improve overall company cohesion

Sharing information company-wide is good for the overall benefit of the firm, making different departments aware of overall project goals and aims. It may even open up entirely new communication channels that perhaps didn’t exist before.

For example, installing a company intranet will empower staff to share information with one another – whether that be through online updates, discussion channels, news boards or project monitoring tools, etc.

Collaborative working can increase your staff retention rates

Considerable evidence suggests that a productive, social working environment helps staff feel part of a bigger family, all working together towards a bigger mission. By opening up communication in your company, you’ll also help staff feel more involved in your firm and with other team members. Connections matter to humans and working with others who share a common goal and interest is a very good way to prevent staff from looking elsewhere for other opportunities. The majority of people benefit from feeling part of a team and will typically respond better to having increased human connections at work.

Working collaboratively is more efficient

Sure, working alone can be good sometimes, but taking on tasks together is far more likely to make us substantially more efficient as employees. Through a process of brain-storming and exploring ideas with others, we’re much more likely to come up with creative answers to problems – and perhaps even devise entirely new solutions to issues that don’t exist yet.

Collaboration also helps spark new ideas in your company through the notion of shared learning – of combining the skills of others with your own to reach new answers.