How to Promote Teamwork in the Workplace

Having a team of talented employees is essential for a company’s success. However, it is also vital that these workers understand they are part of a team. Remember, even though they may not always work on the same projects, ultimately, each member helps to contribute towards a common goal.

Is your company struggling to achieve good teamwork? Well, it’s likely you haven’t created the right conditions. Even so, cultivating a teamwork culture is feasible. The following section will discuss the importance of team collaboration and how to promote teamwork using five proven strategies.

Why is Teamwork in the Workplace Essential?

1. Promotes the exchange of new ideas

Teamwork allows each employee to contribute their perspectives, promoting the exchange of meaningful ideas and knowledge. Likewise, effective teamwork builds the enthusiasm of every team member to deliver their best.

2. Allows teams to combine individual strengths

As a team manager, you may have realized each member will shine in specific areas and struggle in others. However, creating a collaborative working environment allows you to combine your team’s strengths to promote a smooth workflow.

3. Employee retention

Work relationships play a significant role in employee retention. When your employees work well together, this creates a sense of belonging. Such camaraderie builds harmony among team members even during setbacks and strongly motivates employees to stay loyal to your company.

How to Promote Teamwork in Your Organization

1. It starts with your leadership team

Believe it or not, creating teamwork in the workplace starts at the top. Your employees look to your managers and other departmental heads for guidance. It’s, therefore, only fitting that the leadership team nurtures teamwork, and over time this behavior will trickle down to all employees.

To achieve this, you must first establish a relationship with your employees. A good working relationship means that your staff trusts your judgment. It is only then that your workers will adopt teamwork.

2. Communication is key

Successful teams communicate routinely and clearly. Additionally, such units are always open to sharing their ideas, listening to feedback, and are great at solving common problems.

Here are a few tips to bolster communication within your team.

• Set clear expectations: How often is the team expected to meet? Is it acceptable to contact other members after hours? Setting the tone prevents confusion and miscommunication.
• Listen: By letting your employees talk and considering their suggestions when making decisions, you boost engagement, productivity, and job satisfaction.
• Identify a suitable communication channel: While there are so many communication tools available, it would be wise to adopt a suitable one for your team, whether email or face to face.
• Touch base: Your team should feel comfortable sharing information and holding informal meetings. They shouldn’t have to wait for the end-of-week session to catch up.
• Utilize collaboration tools: Collaboration tools promote team agility, participation, and dynamic workflows.

3. Take teamwork into account during the recruitment process

If your company is serious about effective teamwork in the workplace, one way to display this would be through the recruitment process. Therefore, while hiring a skilled candidate matters, hiring an individual who is a team player who will share their knowledge and motivate team members is a huge plus for your company.

It would be a good idea to partner with a reputable staffing agency with experience in assessing teamwork ability.

4. Make teamwork part of your company culture

Here are the practical steps for increasing team spirit in the workplace.

• Learn what other companies are doing—research other companies’ workplace culture to see what they are doing to build unified teams. For instance, Udacity, a U.S. for-profit education organization, has successfully created collaborative teams through weekly team-building activities such as Fancy Fridays.
• Establish a team vision. One surefire way to improve teamwork is to identify a goal and share this with your team. Ensure every team member understands their role as this helps to keep them motivated.
• Schedule routine team meetings. Earlier, we emphasized the importance of team communication. Regular meetings ensure everyone is on the same page and also creates rapport.
• Celebrate team members’ successes. Celebrating your employees’ achievements increases engagement, morale and builds supportive teams.
• Make teamwork a shared company value by empowering them to make independent decisions, encouraging them to create informal teams and cross-training them.

5. Establish teamwork guidelines

Finally, to succeed in getting employees to work together, you’ll need to develop clear guidelines. Below is a step-by-step guide to creating an effective teamwork environment.

• Analyze your organizational structure. Does your company follow a top-down approach or a flat one? This analysis helps you identify gaps.
• Determine which teams your company needs. We recommend examining your company’s growth and vision before identifying the units suitable for your business.
• Review the existing teams. Assess whether the current groups contribute towards your business goals and decide whether to merge or eliminate them.
• Assemble departmental heads. Share your “dream team” list with departmental heads and ask for their thoughts.
• Capacity building of team leaders. Once you’ve settled on the teams, you’ll need to identify the leads and train them.
• Evaluate your company policy and amend it where applicable.
• Provide teambuilding tools. Provide your employees with the tools necessary for encouraging teamwork. In remote workers, ensure every member has the connectivity and equipment to participate in team meetings and other collaborative tasks.
• Monitor and update your team-building strategy every year

Well, there you have it! How to promote teamwork using five strategies. It takes effort to create a culture of effective collaboration at work. And as mentioned above, considering teamwork ability during the hiring process can make all the difference.

Fortunately, PrideStaff Fort Lauderdale staffing agency has the relevant experience to perform assessments to determine which candidates are a good fit. We are also well versed in all call center, administrative and clerical staffing needs. May we be of service to you? Feel free to call us at 754.800.2850 today.