With the rise of cloud-based services and remote work platforms, companies across the globe have found a way to streamline their everyday activities. No matter the industry you work in or your role in any individual department, collaboration tools can improve the overall success and productivity of you and your coworkers.
According to Small Biz Trends, however, 57% of employees feel like they miss out on important work-related information, with 55% stating that they feel actively excluded from meetings due to their remote working conditions. This goes to show that collaboration tools can indeed help a team be successful but the success should always be preceded by clear communication and work delegation.
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Clear Job Delegation
The most important benefit that stems from collaboration tools is the ability for you to clearly delegate work to your team members. Once every team member receives a clear outline of what his or her duties are for the upcoming project, it will be difficult to mix things up.
Individuals should always be allocated the duties which correspond with their skillsets and interests to make things even clearer. Communicate with your team and find a perfect balance of experience and amount of work each individual receives. It’s also good practice to instruct your coworkers to consult with you about any further sharing or fragmentation of allocated tasks so that you can keep the collaboration tool up to date for everyone included in the project.
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All-in-One Tracking
Whether it’s KPI tracking, deadline management or last-minute edits requested by a client, collaboration tools allow you to keep track of everything at once. The biggest benefit of using a centralized tool for successful teamwork is the fact that everyone on your team will have access to the same metrics and information at all times.
This will help you clear up any confusion quickly and easily, as well as ensure that your team remains free of disagreements or conflicts about work prioritization. For example, a deadline set by you as the project lead will be visible and understood by everyone included in the project, making it much easier and faster to communicate changes to your team.
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Scheduling & Deadline Management
Teams that rely on collaboration tools typically work on multiple projects at once or simply split bigger tasks into smaller chunks for easier management. However, keeping track of milestones and goals without a centralized hub can be extremely problematic. Marie Fincher a writer at PickTheWriter spoke on the matter recently: “You don’t want to tell your clients you’ve missed an important deadline due to internal logistics or mismanagement. This is why remote work and teamwork platforms are a must, even if you don’t strictly form a “team” in your office.”
This is why collaboration tools should be used primarily as a means to keep tabs on what project or part of a bigger production is currently the priority. As a team leader, you can change up work priorities through the platform to refocus individual members toward different parts of the project depending on what upper management or clients require.
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Streamlined Communication
No matter how close you sit to your coworker or how far you are when a problem comes up, communication can represent a sore point in your collaboration. However, using a collaborative or project management tool to streamline your communication channels to a single source can be highly beneficial.
That way, you will effectively eliminate other forms of communication such as phone calls or social media platform messaging which are not as inclusive as you’d hope they are. This type of communication can quickly turn into a who-said-what game of catch-up with your team, resulting in precious time and resources wasted for no apparent reason.
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Centralized File Management
Depending on the type of work you and your team collaborate on, chances are that there will be files to keep tabs on. However, controlling who used which file and at what time, not to mention what edit they made to it can be stressful.
Collaboration tools can effectively eliminate the difficulty of keeping tabs on files for your team. Each file stored on the cloud server will be accessible by anyone on the team and their edits will be clearly outlined for others to see. This can be highly beneficial for your teamwork and continued productivity since it will help you save time and energy which could otherwise be wasted on another round of catch-up.
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Remote Work Capabilities
Even though the optimal work environment will always be a joint office space where everyone can communicate by voice, collaboration tools can offer more versatility. Your team members might have to leave work early or have unexpected travel plans or events to attend and cannot postpone.
Using a collaboration platform can help them stay in the game and contribute to the project 24/7, no matter where they are. This is highly beneficial for teams that focus on IT, programming and software development where individual parts meet to make a whole in the end. All you have to do is focus on initial work delegation in order for your remote collaboration to bear tangible fruit down the line.
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Improved Employee Satisfaction
One of the most important reasons to include a collaboration tool in your everyday work environment is due to employee satisfaction. No one likes to be out of touch with the latest developments or changes to a project’s timeline.
Using a centralized cloud-based hub for the entire team to use and collaborate is one of the best ways to raise their satisfaction and productivity over time. You can even nurture future team leaders through the collaboration tool by delegating more important tasks such as team meeting organization or drafting reports for clients or upper management. Communicate with your team and find the best ways to utilize a collaboration tool for the betterment of everyone’s work conditions and employment satisfaction.
In Conclusion
There is a plethora of benefits to be found in using collaboration platforms for the betterment of your teamwork. However, it’s also important to use these tools in a meaningful way with a clear goal in mind. Make sure to explore the platform carefully and find out which features suit your leadership style the most to make the best out of what you have on offer. Once you do, your team will enjoy using the platform just as much and you will be on your way toward successful teamwork.
Guest article written by: Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she had found herself as a freelance writer. Kristin runs her own FlyWriting blog. You can find her on Facebook.