Not all team members fit the same mould. And that doesn’t mean they’re not great at what they do. And it doesn’t mean they’re not team players.
The modern workplace is demanding: time, creativity, priority. We expect more and more from our teams because more and more is demanded of us.
And that’s not great for morale, wellbeing, or productivity.
Thankfully technology is making a big impact on the workplace.
We’ve all seen those movies: machines are here to take over; dragging us down to the depths of anonymous slavery in a post-apocalyptic dystopia with a heavy metal soundtrack..
I digress.
It doesn’t have to be like that.
The collaboration technology market is massive. And it’s making life in busy workplaces infinitely more bearable – introducing innovative, flexible working platforms so that your teams rescue their work-life balance. While increasing productivity.
With flexibility comes wellbeing.
And with wellbeing comes efficiency.
See where we’re going with this?
Find out how to improve employee efficiency and wellbeing using collaboration tools.
What are Collaboration Tools?
Good question.
Think back to the 80s.
Big hair, Sinclair C5s, and Filofaxes aside, the 80s saw a real change in the way we worked. Working hours escalated exponentially.
Suddenly we were plunged into a world of more.
And a world of more means more expectation: more stress, more time spent at work, and less time spent with the family.
A perfect storm for stress-related illness.
We’d love to say that the pressures on our workforce have diminished – but, of course, we’d be lying.
No-one’s going to believe that.
But what we do have now is the internet.
And effective cyber-security.
Which means that flexibility in the workplace (aka: working from home) is now a genuine possibility for teams.
Collaboration technology has brought with it new ways to communicate, to create documentation, to share files, and to manage our projects.
And for when the team is all in the same place, we have interactive displays, facilitating group collaboration from smartphones and wearables that increase employee efficiency.
Some Collaboration Tools you might want to consider
Chances are, you’re probably using some of these tools already.
But:
Are you using them to their maximum capacity to drive truly flexible working and employee efficiency?
Interactive Displays
An interactive display is way more than just a fancy whiteboard – but it’s unbelievable how many users treat them solely as an expensive scrawl pad.
Interactive displays make collaboration possible by integrating natively with Windows 10, Office 365, and Microsoft Teams. Each team member can contribute to an evolving summation of productivity that amalgamates team activity into a single hub; making project management visual.
And:
Seeing your contribution merge with the efforts of the rest of the team adds to a sense of belonging, solidifies a sense of purpose, and is enormously affirmative to one’s wellbeing.
Communication Tools
Yammer helps employees collaborate across locations, business apps, and departments.
The interface is very similar to Facebook – so it already has a friendly aesthetic. You can separate work-streams into “group” pages.
It’s like arranging a night-out on Facebook Events, but you’re getting work done.
And because you can log into your Yammer network from any internet browser, you can work from home when you need to, or be in the office and have all of your message threads in one place (not in a thousand, sporadic emails).
Slack is a messaging app designed for remote teams. It’s a central hub allowing workstreams to be divided into channels that track and archive team conversations and project progress.
Zoom is an interactive video conferencing suite that aids communication and collaboration between employees in different locations – cutting down on stressful travelling for meetings.
Perfect for presentations and collaborative creative sessions – or just face-to-face meetings – there are plenty of tools, such as virtual Breakout Rooms, that provide collaborative platforms for group working.
RealtimeBoard is an “endless online whiteboard”, suited to visual collaboration. If Agile is your working mode, then this tool offers excellent workflow collaboration that integrates natively with a plethora of other collaborative tools, including Slack, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Facebook.
RealtimeBoard offers a virtual meeting room, allowing 24/7 collaboration in real-time from anywhere in the world.
Documentation Tools
If your team is working across sites to create new processes, systems, products, or development projects, Google Docs and MS Office Online are a fitting choice.
Locked into the Apple infrastructure?
They have Live – their online collaborative technology. Live works across Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, allowing group edit and creation of documents held in iCloud.
When working hours see no signs of diminishing, we can at least boost employee wellbeing by providing more flexible approaches to being part of the team when not in the room.
If a colleague’s child or pet is sick, they can nurse them at home while remaining in the boardroom. If an extra hour in bed is needed after an interrupted night’s sleep, working from home saves the stress of sitting in traffic.
When employee wellbeing is so in the spotlight, we need to move with the times and find new ways to collaborate.