Collaborate like your work depends on it
Why is everyone talking about online cooperation these days? Is it because 86% of employees say that better communication between the teams could fix most issues? Or perhaps it’s because 75% of the workforce regard communication as a crucial aspect of their work? One thing’s for certain; it’s always fun to throw some numbers around!
How many times during the last two years did you forget to turn your webcam off while wearing Winnie the Pooh pajamas or calling from the bathtub because it was the only quiet place in your apartment? Scenarios that we couldn’t imagine in the past, like working remotely at a full-time job, quickly became reality, and we had to adapt.
You probably have a friend or colleague who recently learned the ins and outs of online event management. Maybe you even helped your mom set up a conf call so her book club could meet and discuss the latest thrilling pirate story. Either way, we all learned the importance of having the right tools and camera angles to live online.
Be honest now – would you ever leave your home without a smartphone? Probably not. That small, magical gadget can do everything. No more visits to the bank, spending ages in queues buying toilet paper, or meeting friends in real life. Everything we do in our spare time can be done online. So why should your work-life be any different?
Collaboration Platforms FTW
What is the single biggest advantage of a collaboration platform? It connects people even better than Nokia. Your employees work from anywhere and can still easily connect with the whole team. Lisa the Account Manager, sitting in the LA office, has an online meeting with her clients from Bangkok, while Tim and Sara, the Graphical Designer and Copywriter, respectively, joined the meeting from a coffee shop in Oslo. You know the drill. The only thing to actually pay attention to is the timezones.
According to Klaxoon, over 75% of millennials believe that a work-from-anywhere setup or remote work is an important company policy. And the number one thing we should learn from the last two years is the importance of a work-life balance. That way you can have those cool notebook-on-the-beach pictures up on Instagram.
Let’s Talk Productivity
Research shows that business collaboration platforms improve productivity by as much as 10%. That means employees save around two to four hours every single week! Imagine what you could do with all that free time. Maybe answer all your emails for once.
The right communication channels go hand-in-hand with productivity. 86% of business owners and employees attribute workplace problems to inadequate or poor communication tools. A string with two plastic cups for a telephone is technology long forgotten. Collaboration tools such as Conferences or Teamwork and Instant Messaging apps keep you in the loop 24/7. Forget about weekly Monday standups in the office. Simply assign tasks to your colleagues or discuss last night’s baseball match while sipping a Martini on a beach (you just pictured it, right?). Effective communication systems help retain the best talents by as much as 4.5 times.
These tools help you to stay efficient, sociable, and professional but also informal. 73% of employees perform better when they collaborate with others. And the market reflects this notion. Looking at the Collaboration Growth Segments in 2020/2021, 60% goes to Teamwork Apps.
Don’t Worry Be Safety?
Data protection is a hotter topic than Britney’s lawsuit and it’ll keep being important for the foreseeable future. With Collaboration Platforms, you know exactly who has access to your files, who shares them, and who they’re shared with. Basically, you see the file’s life journey right there on a screen. Hopefully, it’s a happy one.
Instead of having your passwords on a post-it note or trying to figure out which files you’ve actually shared with that one employee who is leaving, it’s better to rely on safeguards like encryption, password protection, firewalls, and two-factor authentication. You’ll find these in most collaboration solutions . So make your life a bit easier, it saves you a lot of time in the long run.
With Love, Your Money
Let’s save some money, shall we? Although Collaboration tools might require an initial investment, it’s money well spent. We already explored how collaboration improves the productivity of your teams, so we’ll just recap:
- Increased productivity and happiness (we quoted a lot of research above)
- Higher retention rate (because people feel satisfied with their work)
- Easier recruitment and onboarding (work with anyone, anywhere)
- Cost savings on office fees (rent, utilities)
- Reduced travel costs (just meet online)
- Lower communication fees (like using Conferences instead of actual phone calls)
And now you can start thinking about how to spend the money you save on things that actually matter, like a proper team building event featuring paintball and lots of good food.
Let’s Work Together
Emails started our journey 20 years ago, but we never stopped there. With our team of developers, who really enjoy working remotely, we are constantly improving our Collaboration Platform.
TeamChat is a great tool for communication with your colleagues, business partners, and clients. Chat in teams organized around projects, upload files, mention co-workers, comment on received emails, pin important posts, flirt… You can do anything that you would in the office.
Conferences run in a browser, you don’t even need to install it. Manage conferences for up to 200 participants and record the parts you didn’t pay attention to, or even whole events with the unlimited recording option. And, of course, handy gadgets like screen sharing, real-time chat, and moderator are at your disposal as well.
And collaborative documents editing received the highest score of 57% in the “Tools preferred by teams using message-based platform research”. Understand that this is such an important part of collaboration – your whole team can work together on Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations using IceWarp. Millennials know how to set their life-work balance. Be like millennials.
Try IceWarp and increase your productivity by at least 10%!
