Communication is the exchange of information for a better understanding, while collaboration means working together to achieve a common goal.
We cannot understate the importance of communication and collaboration in business. According to statistics, 75% of employees find teamwork and collaboration vital, and 63% would resign if poor communication hindered them from working effectively.
Further, connected teams exhibit about a 21% increase in profitability. So, you’re losing out if your workforce isn’t collaborative.
Traditionally, collaboration in organizations required all the participants to be in the same room, but things have changed radically. With more field workers and remote employees, online communication and collaboration tools have become integral in solving logistical challenges.
Let’s see how investing in a robust, easy-to-use business communication tool enhances teamwork and other processes.
Builds a Better Community
Do you have departments that hardly interact due to their roles in your company? If so, your employees are probably working in silos, which could bring about the silo mentality.
Silo mentality refers to the reluctance of employees to share departmental information with members of other divisions in the same organization. While this habit can preserve data privacy, it’s more detrimental than beneficial.
For instance, it leads to the duplication of efforts as workers repeat processes that other departments have already completed. It wastes time and money, reduces efficiency and staff morale, and hurts company culture.
Silos can develop when you have teams that are over-protective over data and resources. Another reason is an organization’s lack of proper channels to support collaboration.
Communication and collaboration tools provide a way for your staff to work as a family unit. An intuitive, secure platform encourages employees to work together towards your organizational goals regardless of their departments.
Improved Project Management
Managing a project can be more challenging than you think. It gets trickier when you have multiple professionals working on different fragments of the same task.
Collaboration tools can improve project outcomes by simplifying communication. By working together, your team can solve complex tasks, eliminate avoidable mistakes, and stay on top of deadlines.
One of the best things about online collaboration tools is storing all project materials and resources in one location. You can also receive updates about projects on the go.
Moreover, maintaining one collaboration tool enables organized document archiving for quick retrieval. You don’t have to fret about tracing emails and messages on different platforms and user accounts.
The tools can also save the comments or editions that every team member makes. With detailed audit rails for every activity, managing any project becomes simpler and irrespective of the number of participants.
High Employee Retention
The SHRM describes employee engagement as a critical driver of business success. Collaboration is a crucial contributor to an open, connected, and engaged workplace.
Why does employee connection matter? Because workers want a workforce that respects their opinions and collaborates to achieve targets.
Invest in a business communication tool that allows smooth collaboration amongst team members and departments. It should enable field workers, remote employees, and office staff to communicate seamlessly. It will encourage transparency and harmony, making your workplace more enjoyable and engaging.
Such an atmosphere is attractive to current workers and future hires as it promotes job satisfaction. After all, why would an employee quit when they are happy, content, and working with team players who are always willing to help? Instead, workers will remain committed and loyal to your business.
Effective Training and Development
One of the best things about collaborative workforces is that organizations can combine different skillsets and expertise in assignments. As team members and departments work together, they learn from each other by sharing knowledge.
Essentially, project participants give their views, ask for feedback and opinions, and understand how their coworkers approach various tasks. Teams learn from their mistakes, weaknesses, and failures by appreciating the perspectives of their knowledgeable counterparts.
Besides learning from experience, management teams can create and disseminate training materials to employees through collaboration tools. The trainees may be existing workers or new hires during the onboarding process.
You can segment your audience and distribute bite-sized courses through video conferences or whichever channel you deem suitable. That way, you painlessly engage diverse team members with relevant content in and out of your organization.
Increased Efficiency and Productivity
Most business assignments require group effort for optimum results. For example, you need help completing a complex and arduous task even if you are an expert in the area. Otherwise, the probability of making mistakes and over-delaying will be high.
Collaboration allows you to break down workloads into smaller modules and match them with the best talent. Team members can focus on their assignments and devise creative solutions by applying their knowledge and comparing notes with their peers. The methodology delivers quick results with minimal errors.
Effective communication and collaboration enable an organization to have a standard style of working. Employees connect with their jobs since they know what they should do, making them more efficient. It eliminates the confusion and time wastage that results from the trial and error approach.
Online collaboration platforms provide employees with the tools they need to perform tasks regardless of time and location. Team members become more productive since they can work at their best time.
Additionally, real-time communication about work progress allows the relevant parties to respond on time.
More Engagement with External Stakeholders
Apart from consumers, your organization interacts with other vital external parties, including suppliers, vendors, and investors. You need to communicate with them frequently, more so when undertaking something that requires their input.
However, traditional methods of engaging stakeholders like advertisements, paper surveys, meetings, and phone calls can be expensive. Some require extensive preparation, and it’s hard to measure their engagement levels.
It’s more convenient to invite anyone to the table via online communication and collaboration means. It brings diversity to your discussions, resulting in more creative solutions and tighter relationships.
Increased Customer Loyalty and Retention
An effective communication solution is not only crucial for your employees but also for your clients. Customers want to reach you whenever they need to, so your customer service should always be available.
It enables you to solve customer issues whenever they arise, fostering better relationships and customer retention. Implement customer feedback into your goods to better align your products’ features with consumer needs.
Similarly, it’s in your best interest to constantly update your customers with relevant information to keep them engaged with your brand. Enlighten them about new products, offers, discounts, price changes, opening hours, and more. You’ll boost loyalty when you keep your customers informed about matters that affect them.
Be sure to use the channels your customers prefer when communicating with them. For this reason, consider investing in a software tool that supports multiple communication channels.
Increased Trust and Morale
Low confidence and low morale in the workforce can hurt the performance of your organization. When there is mistrust, employees don’t ask for support in work-related issues. People are also reluctant to open up when they make mistakes for fear of reprimand.
Such a workplace creates dull and dispirited workers. Demoralized employees do the minimum to appear like they are working while they’re only there for a paycheck. They derail your company’s productivity levels and compromise customer satisfaction.
The best way to increase trust and cheer up your workforce is by building connections throughout your organization. Let your employees and departments interact more often for individuals to get familiar with one another.
With an appropriate online communication tool, you can create frequent virtual meetings with engaging topics for all to contribute. Introducing the participants can ease the tension and let everyone know who to ask which questions. It’s a great approach when you have teleworkers.
Cost-Effective Communication
Effective team communication can reduce your operational costs tremendously. If you utilize an online collaboration tool, rest assured of a high return on investment.
Your headquarters serves customers, field workers, and remote employees effortlessly at a relatively low cost. With a subscription service, you will pay a standard amount for all your organization’s video and chat conversations every month.
Make sure your business communication app has background connectivity to keep you connected round the clock. It should sync with your devices so you can send and receive important messages and announcements anytime.
With such a collaboration tool, your teleworkers and field employees will only need to come to the office when needed. Therefore, you’ll save on office space and utilities and still stay in touch with your team round the clock.
Achievable Business Goals
Effective communication is a must if your team has to achieve your business goals and objectives. The team manager communicates the desired outcomes and divides work based on each employee’s qualification and strengths. Therefore, no one has to do everything.
A leader with top-notch communication skills clarifies every project demand. They stay in touch with the team members via collaboration tools to ensure the project is on track. On the other hand, team members plan to complete their tasks on time, making the whole project less stressful for everyone.
Improve Your Bottom Line with Pronto
Pronto is an easy-to-use collaboration tool that supports real-time chat, group video meetings, and announcements to help your teams communicate seamlessly. It allows your employees to share innovative thoughts and create strategies that drive stronger business results.
Book a Pronto demo to realize the value of effective team communication.
