NEWS EXTRA Lack of collaboration can cause failure in the workplace

In the modern office, collaboration is king. Collaborative working encourages your employees to work together and share their skills and knowledge to generate new ideas to achieve your company goals.

Encouraging collaboration in the office can bring benefits right across the business. It can boost employee engagementhelping to motivate your employees and increases productivity, retention rates and client satisfaction - and expand the skills of your team by encouraging employees to work together, give and share feedback, and streamline the progress of your projects by enabling lots of people to tackle a problem that one lone person might have taken a week to solve. It can also help to improve employee wellbeing.

Collaboration encourages your team to work together and share responsibility and, equally, a lack of collaboration can translate to uneven workloads which can lead to stress and employees feeling disengaged and unappreciated.

Make sure you’re encouraging collaboration among your workforce - here are eight strategies for boosting a collaborative workplace culture to get you started.

●LEAD BY EXAMPLE: encourage collaboration by working collaboratively yourself – it’s important to model the behaviour you want to see in your employees.

● FOSTER A POSITIVE WORK CULTURE: employees are more likely to be collaborative when they feel valued and supported. Try and encourage a positive culture by promoting open communication, recognising employees’ contributions, and encouraging teamwork.

● CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEAM BUILDING: team building can help build trust and encourage employee communication and respect. Activities can range from social events to off-site retreats, where employees can get to know each other better and build stronger relationships.

● ENCOURAGE DIVERSITY: encouraging employees from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to work together will generate new ideas, and better solutions and promote respect and understanding between team members.

● ESTABLISH CLEAR GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS: communicating goals and expectations will help you and your employees work better together to achieve them.

● RECOGNISE AND REWARD COLLABORATION: performance evaluations, bonuses and other incentives can help to recognise and reward those employees who are going above and beyond to collaborate, as well as encouraging teams to collaborate more.

● PROVIDE A COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACE: a workspace designed to facilitate collaboration can encourage employees to work together. Provide meeting rooms, breakout areas and other spaces where employees can come together.

● USE COLLABORATION TOOLS: technology such as video conferencing, and accessories such as headsets and microphones, can help employees communicate and work together more effectively, especially when they are working remotely.

Making sure you are creating a collaborative culture is becoming increasingly important; it can impact the productivity, retention and wellbeing of your team. Not sure what’s out there to help you get going? Head to page 30, where we take a close look at the best collaborative tools for the new hybrid office environment.