Importance of Teamwork & Collaboration in a Digital World!

Teamwork and collaboration form the fundamentals of any successful business. When
employees share a common goal, combine their strengths, and help each other out when
needed, an organization is bound to strive.

Collaboration and teamwork generate numerous benefits in the workplace. Some of

these include:

 Improved creativity
 Faster execution of ideas
 Creates a sense of community
 Improves employee productivity and morale
 Leads to both personal and professional development
 Faster problem solving

Teamwork and collaboration is not an opinion. Countless studies have proved the
importance of healthy collaboration and teamwork in an organization and its impact on the
company’s bottom line. Check out these impressive stats:

 54% of employees say a strong sense of community (great coworkers, celebrating

milestones, a common mission) kept them at a company longer than was in their
best interest
 About 75% of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as “very important.”
 86% of employees and executives cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective
communication for workplace failures.
 33% of millennials want collaborative workspaces.
 99.1% prefer a workplace where people identify and discuss issues truthfully and
effectively.
 Businesses with effective communication are 50% more likely to have lower
employee turnover.
 33% of employees say the ability to collaborate makes them more loyal.
 33% of employees said a lack of open, honest communication has the most negative
impact on employee morale.
 37% of employees say “working with a great team” is their primary reason for
staying.

However, technology is quickly changing the fundamentals of how we view teamwork and
collaboration in the workplace.

From entirely changing the way we communicate and engaging with each other, to rapidly
transforming the way we work.
Technological advancements have been overwhelming. In this constantly changing digital
landscape, teamwork and collaboration have become challenging.

Impact of Technology On Teamwork and Collaboration

Technology has infiltrated every aspect of our lives- our smartphones, laptops, tablets,
smartwatches, speakers, and even our fridges are getting smarter day by day! Our
workplace is no different.

From raising money for your company and brainstorming creative ideas to HR and
customer service, technology has taken over every inch of business operations. 

Challenges to Teamwork and Collaboration in a Digital World

Not being able to sit, talk, and communicate face-to-face can lead to a disjointed team
effort. Having remote workers operating in different time zones adds even more
complexity to this issue.

Access to information (documents, files, and other important media) can be a bit difficult,
especially if you still operate on paper documents.

Storing documents and files in the cloud can help solve the problem to an extent. However,
sharing multiple cloud links with employees and making sure the right employee has given
access to the right information is a time-consuming process.

Moreover, the deployment of tasks and to-do’s poses a huge problem that often creates
confusion. When employees can’t see what their teammates are working on, it leads to
redundancies and inefficiency in the process.

Communication is another huge hurdle in a digital workplace. Email quickly fails as we rely
on it too much. Email is a poor information-sharing tool and the worst knowledge-storing
repository. It’s astonishingly difficult for the receiver to find the information again once
he/she consumes it.

Besides, no one else outside of the email thread can benefit from this transfer of
knowledge. Thus, the same knowledge gets shared multiple times when someone needs it,
adding to email overload.
Even though technology has played a huge role in improving office productivity, it still has
its limitations when it comes to working together in teams and collaborating effectively.

However, a lot of digital collaboration tools have come up in the last decade, helping
employees solve common problems of digitization and foster healthy collaboration. 

Importance of Teamwork for better Collaboration

The adoption of software and apps, known as digital collaboration tools, has significantly
gone up in modern times.

Businesses are looking for ways to set up collaborative practices in this digital era,
especially since a massive 91 percent of people who work from home feel that they’re more
productive than when they’re in an office.

These software tools are helping employees to collaborate on work with the aid of
technology and digital devices. According to an Alfresco survey of more than 753 business
professionals, it was found that nearly 83% of professionals depend on technology to
collaborate.

Nearly 82% of the participants also felt that they would feel impacted if this technology to
collaborate was lost.

These digital collaboration tools not only improve communication and collaboration, but
also facilitate information flow, provide ways to create and manage content, and lead to
increased productivity and employee efficiency.

This also ensures that companies can function beyond geographical boundaries and

regular work timings.

There is a multitude of benefits of deploying these tools in the workplace. Let’s see how
they impact businesses and help foster a culture of teamwork and collaboration.

#1. Making Remote Work Possible

Remote work wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for these digital collaboration tools.
There are software and apps for communication, document collaboration, video
conferencing, holding meetings, brainstorming ideas, sharing documents, and even using
whiteboards! And it’s working, according to data:

 More than 77% of people working remote report greater productivity and 52% are

less likely to take time off
  About 91 percent of people who work from home feel that they’re more productive
than when they’re in an office.
 Over 77 percent of remote workers get more done in fewer hours thanks to fewer
distractions like meetings, conversations, and noisy coworkers.

If it weren’t for these digital tools, remote work wouldn’t have been successful, leading to
more chaos than order.

#2. Improved Internal Communication and Collaboration

According to McKinsey, knowledge workers spend an average of 14% of their workweek in

communicating and collaborating internally.

The study also showed that improving internal collaboration through social tools could
help raise the productivity of interaction by as much as 20 to 25 percent. This is huge,
knowing since over 300 hours a year is wasted in inefficient or ineffective communications
in the office.

In this fast-paced world, people can’t bear to wait for an email reply, or worse, let it get lost
in their inbox.

Newer, faster communication tools- specifically instant messaging and real-time

collaboration tools have provided ways to improve communication and transparency in the
organization.

A collaboration tool provides a virtual space for all of your teammates to know what’s going
on in the company, which in turn helps develop better interdepartmental relationships.

#3. Improved Productivity

Digital collaboration tools can help with a ton of administrative tasks in a jiffy, saving time
for employees to spend time on other value-adding activities.

Thanks to remote work (which is made possible due to these collaboration tools),
employees no longer have to spend hours commuting to and from the office, saving them
time for leisure. Ah that ‘work-life balance.’

Moreover, having digital collaboration systems in place allows you to quickly find the
information or content you are looking for, rather than shoulder tapping other employees
and disturbing their workflow. All of these combined help improve office productivity and
employee morale.
 

#4. Access to Information

You would be surprised how much time we all spend looking for information. We’re
searching for content in Dropbox, searching for documents in file cabinets, or searching for
an endless list of folders on your desktop.

It all leads to an immense waste of time. According to data, almost 20% of the business
time – the equivalent of one day per working week – is wasted by employees searching for
information to do their job.

Collaboration tools make sure every employee has access to the information they need,
when they need it, thereby improving workflows.

Tools like Bit.ai act as a central location for all documents across cloud storage systems,
media, and files, etc. which employees can quickly gain access to, irrespective of their
location and timezone.

#5. Improves Team Interaction

Collaboration tools enable employees to improve team interaction by providing a number

of ways to communicate with each other.

Tools like Skype and Microsoft Teams have made it really easy for teams, especially the
ones which are geographically scattered, to communicate with each other at via text, call,
or even video.

Tools like Zoom and Google Hangouts allow you to carry out full-blown meetings,
collaborate on share screens, give feedback, while others like Bit.ai allows teams to
collaborate and write simultaneously on a document.

These tools open up plenty of opportunities to keep in touch with your peers at all times,
increase clarity amongst employees and develop better interdepartmental relations.

#6. Knowledge Management

IDC data shows that a knowledge worker spends about 2.5 hours per day, or roughly 30%
of the workday, searching for information.
 Mo
reover, an organization employing 1,000 knowledge workers wastes at least $2.5 to $3.5
million per year searching for non-existent information, failing to find existing information,
or recreating information that can’t be found!

Collaboration tools like knowledge management software allow organizations to not only
store all internal as well as external documents safely in one place but also document the
experience and know-how of senior managers which can be used to train future hires.

In this way, the knowledge of the company does not leave when the employee does. These
tools allow your current as well as future employees to access this information and get
work done efficiently.

Since 44 percent of employees are either poor or very poor at transferring knowledge,

knowledge management tools become the need of the hour.

#7. Improved Business Operations

Up to 80 percent of businesses use social collaboration tools for enhancing business

processes.

While there are numerous tools to get work done and collaborate with your teammates,
there are some digital collaboration platforms like Bit.ai which provide a one-stop-solution
for employees to create content, document knowledge, chat with employees, brainstorm
ideas, and share and store information, and more- helping them make decisions more
swiftly.

Using such multi-featured tools allow team members to always be in the know-how of
what’s happening in the company and what’s the next plan of action.

Final Words…

Collaboration and teamwork have truly taken an entirely different meaning in the digital
age. Face-to-face meetings are replaced by video conferences, paper documents are
replaced by word processors, while email inboxes are the new mailrooms.

From reducing the operating costs and resources to saving the most important asset of
them all-time, technological advancements have provided us with a ton of upsides.

However, the sheer number of tools we use to get our work done ends up invalidating all
the benefits. Having too many tools in place only leads to more confusion and chaos, often
leaving us more busy than productive.

An ideal digital collaboration tool is the one that brings the work to you, not the other way
around.

A virtual space where all your employees can hang out, brainstorm new and innovative
ideas, communicate in real-time, store and share knowledge, and get the work done
without jumping from one tool to the next.