How to Leverage Most Effective Collaboration Tools to Increase Productivity

 

As technology advances, new ways of communicating and collaborating in and outside the office. Collaboration tools also increasingly becoming important in facilitating communication and collaboration in the office. Whether you’re IMing on Skype, Whatsapp-ing or sharing your pictures on Instagram, there are numerous ways to make yourself heard. When it comes to the office, there is still a gap in the most effective ways of communication and collaboration and what employees and employers adopt in the workplace.

Despite the increasing number of new and innovative collaborative tools, there is a trend towards the old and familiar. It is naturally difficult for people to embrace change. Therefore, many people prefer to stick to their old collaboration tools that they are familiar to rather than trying new tools that have been proven to bear results.

This reluctance to change can impact your business’s ability to innovate and evolve. Growth is fueled by trying new things and learning something from scratch. Old ways of communication can be time and resource-intensive impacting on the productivity negatively and hence, not yielding the desired results. The new generation of employees have embraced different ways of engaging and working compared to ways used by older business cultures. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the tools you are using to fit the changes. What are the most effective tools available for communication in the workplace?

Two-way Conversations Collaboration Tools

Traditionally, communication was oriented top-downwards. It was entirely controlled by the elite few and responses to internal communication announcements was seen as rebellious. At the time, employees were just seen and not supposed to be heard.

Things have changed drastically and communication philosophy is driven by two-way conversations today. Today, employee engagement is the ultimate goal in the wake of internal communication. It is apparent the traditional communication methods are irrelevant and ineffective in the modern-day climate. Examples of traditional methods include notice board announcements, mass emails and text emails. In contrast, social collaboration tools allows communication of ideas and news as well as facilitate engagement. The examples of modern internal communication tools include polls, blogs and forums.

Employee Engagement With Communication Is Vital

First of all, internal communications should be easily accessible to employees to view anytime and anywhere they are. The cloud has made it easier for employers to avail internal communications readily. Cloud-hosted platforms with interactive as well as social collaboration tools provides an effective way to avail internal communications instantly and promote engagement. The widespread use of smart phones also offers an opportunity to improve information accessibility.

The Most Effective Internal Collaboration Tools

Effectiveness will depend on the achievement of the results you’re looking for. If you are able to achieve high productivity with a collaboration tool such as document collaboration software, the tool is effective to you. You should be able to achieve your goals using the tool you have selected.

Effective tools should be easily accessible everywhere, digitally-based, empowers employee with the ability to respond, and quick to deploy. When you’re looking to implement a new collaborative strategy, you should evaluate the effectiveness of the existing tools first. The more effective they are, the easier it will be for you.

 

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