10 Top Tips for Improving Business Collaboration

In order for a business to grow and be successful, it must value the opportunity for better collaboration. Business collaboration enables businesses to work together to solve problems and achieve their goals to grow. If you’re from a larger organisation, it’s crucial for improving workplace relationships and eliminating any departmental divides. 

Business collaboration has been proven to increase productivity and ROI, and a whole host of other benefits including improved business communication and connectivity. Right now, having a business collaboration platform in place is essential for businesses to be more agile in their working and to help overcome problems. 

There are examples of old school collaboration such as email, brainstorming and peer reviews but with the advancement in technology, it’s now easier than ever to promote business collaboration within your organisation. Here are our top 10 tips for encouraging collaboration in the workplace;

1. Implement a Business Collaboration Platform 

There are many tools available that encourage business collaboration in the workplace; the obvious ones being instant messaging and video call platforms such as What’s App and Zoom. But to truly see the real benefits you should look at implementing a business communication platform such as an intranet. 

An intranet platform has many purposes; to keep employees informed and connected to an organisation, act as a communication tool and to enable collaboration. 

With Oak’s intranet solution, the possibilities of promoting business collaboration within an organisation are endless; instant messenger, main timeline feeds and hubs are just a few features that can help collaboration grow within your business.

2. Team Building 

To maximise business collaboration, you need to have a team that works well together and get along with each other. Team building creates stronger bonds between your employees and strengthens workplace relationships, leading to higher productivity. If you have a team that doesn't get along or have the ability to work with one another, you’re not going to see the true results of business collaboration. 

You should set up team building activities such as challenges or getting your team together to solve a fictitious problem. Remember, these activities don’t have to break the bank! It gets your team working together and being in each other's company which will help when it comes to working on a big project which requires collaboration from all employees.

3. Share the Business Vision

Making sure your employees are involved in every aspect of your business is crucial to maximising business collaboration. This is why you should always share the business vision and keep your employees informed about what is going on within the business. 

Sharing the business vision will make employees feel included and that they serve a purpose in the business- leading to them making more meaningful contributions when the time comes for collaboration. 

You can always keep your employees updated using a business collaboration platform and here they can contribute to the conversation- giving them a key place to share ideas and give feedback.

4. Encourage Departmental Interaction

If you’re from a large organisation made up of many different departments it’s important to encourage interaction between these departments. Make sure employees have a go at ‘trading places’ with members of a different department so they can gain a perspective of what that department does and how they operate. Giving employees experience of working in different departments will enhance business collaboration and enable employees to work better together.

5. Incorporate Business Collaboration into Your Culture 

If you want your employees to collaborate and work well together you should make sure business collaboration is a key focus of your company culture. Ensure you make this clear throughout your intranet by having a section for your company culture and values. Here, your employees can find the information easily and get an idea of what is expected of them to maximise business collaboration. 

Remember to make this a focus in the onboarding process too- this makes new employees aware of your culture and they know what is expected from them at the beginning.

6. Value Social Interaction 

Although business collaboration is mainly focused on getting innovative ideas from your employees and seeing your team work better together, you should also value social interaction to strengthen relationships in your team. 

Investing in a business collaboration platform like an intranet not only helps you communicate with your employees more effectively, but it’s also a means for employees to interact with each other through social networking. With an Oak intranet, the possibilities of promoting social interaction within your company are far-reaching;

Instant Messenger: 

Leave the days of back and forth emailing behind and continue the conversation through instant messenger. Messages can be sent to an individual user or a whole group; perfect for social interaction.

Hubs: 

With Hubs you can create a page relating to anything, bringing your team together through hobbies and common interests. Perfect for enhancing interaction and business collaboration. 

Social Feed: 

Filter out all work-related information and have a feed dedicated to social interaction and activity. Here your team can create bonds and work on their team-building skills.

7. The Power of Mobile 

When it comes to improving business collaboration within your organisation, having an intranet platform that is accessible through mobile is crucial. 80% of the global workforce is deskless meaning the majority of these workers don’t have access to a desktop or company email - which then leads to a large proportion of employees from a company missing out on key business updates and feeling disconnected from their workplace. 

Having an intranet that enables employees to access via mobile means that they can connect with their organisation at any time, they can use collaboration features such as instant messenger and timeline and get sent important updates through push notifications.

8. Inspire with Content 

Sending a message straight to the main timeline of your intranet telling your workforce about the benefits of business collaboration probably won’t leave the great impact you’re hoping for. Instead, be creative with your content to inspire your employees to collaborate in the workplace. 

Whether this is through a video message from the CEO or you create inspiring posters to be shown on your main timeline, using visual imagery is something that will leave a lasting impression.

9. Lead by Example 

Remember to always practice what you preach. You can preach about the benefits of business collaboration as much as you want, but without your employees seeing you practice the behaviour first, you’re not going to see results. 

Demonstrate behaviour of workplace collaboration in any way possible; setting up team-building exercises, sharing information on your business collaboration platform and encouraging others to share ideas in meetings.

10. Reward Employees 

If you’re starting to see collaboration grow within your business you want to ensure your employees maintain the same behaviour. To encourage collaboration from your employees, give out rewards when a milestone is achieved. Not only does this motivate your employees, but it’s also a great sense of achievement.

Summary

Right now, business collaboration is essential for organisations that want to grow and achieve skyrocketing results. In the digital era of the modern workplace, there is no excuse to not experiment with collaboration in your organisation. Find the right business collaboration platform for you and you’ll be sure to get the most out of your workforce.

Want to see how Oak could help enhance collaboration within your organisation? Get in touch today.