Collaboration tools empower employees to work together regardless of physical location, but what is the cost to a business and its people when those tools work against professional goals?
Workplace collaboration tools such as Slack, Zoom, Trello and Dropbox have enabled employees to engage with their places of work easily and effectively from virtually anywhere in the world.
Ranging from simple email functions, to robust and complex project management features, collaboration tools empower teams to work together and stay connected, as they work towards their common goals.
But what happens when those technologies aren’t suited to a company? Businesses and employees have unique ways of operating and what works well for one group might be the antithesis of progress to another.
According to Dr Rebecca Hinds, the head of Asana’s Work Innovation Lab, research has shown that knowledge workers and leaders spend 85pc of their time using collaboration tools via meetings, emails and mobile phones, “yet organisations haven’t been able to measure or optimise this effectively”.
“Our team works daily with companies, using network science and AI to uncover aspects of their collaboration they didn’t know existed, silos, super-connectors, inefficiencies,” Hinds explained to SiliconRepublic.com.
Collaboration woes
For Hinds, the decision to neglect collaboration tools to the point that they are hindering the workforce is a costly one. “Inefficient collaborative tools are taking a significant toll on today’s workforce, with impacts ranging from wasted time to decreased morale,” she said.
She cited research conducted last year by Asana, showing that workers lose 57 minutes on average each day, switching back and forth between too many collaboration tools. An additional 30 minutes tends to be lost as employees struggle to decide on the best tool for the task at hand.
“It’s not just inefficient tools causing problems, too many tools can also negatively impact the employee experience. Estimates suggest that the average enterprise juggles more than 300 SaaS tools, many of which are for collaboration. This digital clutter significantly drains employees’ time and focus.”
As the employee experience continues to evolve through digitalisation, she noted the combination of too many tools to choose from and inefficiency will likely lead to frustration, reduced productivity and significant consequences for businesses should they fail to address the problems at hand.
“To mitigate these effects, leaders need to understand which tools are most impactful for their workforce. By streamlining and simplifying collaboration technologies, they can help ensure that more time is dedicated to valuable work rather than navigating between tools,” said Hinds.
It just makes sense
Equipping your business with a fleet of intuitive, streamlined and in-demand collaboration tools just makes sense, so why would a company neglect to capitalise on the assets at their disposal?
According to Hinds, there is often a disconnect between leaders and their teams, citing Asana’s research which indicated that more than one-third of respondents believe their companies have collaboration technology that they do not know how to effectively use.
“This highlights a critical opportunity for leaders to involve their teams in the tool selection process, invest in adequate training to empower workers to use these tools effectively and ensure employees have the autonomy to leverage these tools in managing their workload.”
The deployment of carefully curated collaboration tools can uplift a company, improving project outcomes, team work, lapses in communication and morale, fostering a content and productive working environment.
In companies that decide against better integrated collaboration tools, Hinds noted the risks could be severe, for example Asana has found that 32pc of employees would consider new employment if it offered collaboration tools better suited to their role.
Partnering with AI
There is nary a topic that can be broached in this day and age that doesn’t somehow involve AI, and certainly this technology has a role to play in fostering the better implementation of company collaboration tools.
Rather than viewing them as simple productivity tools, Hinds said that “forward-thinking companies are exploring how AI can enhance creativity, decision-making and problem-solving across their workforce. This holistic approach to AI integration is where we see the most exciting potential for people-focused innovation in the near future,” she said.
Looking ahead, she expects significant innovation in human-AI collaboration, which she believes must be approached through a human-centred lens, treating AI as a teammate rather than just a tool.
“This mindset shift is essential. It encourages employees to think more deeply about developing human-in-the-loop workflows, moving beyond simply considering what AI can do for them to exploring what they can accomplish with AI as a partner,” said Hinds.
Ultimately, for Hinds, the message to upper management and business owners is clear; “ignoring the demand for better collaboration tools and practices is a risky gambit”.
“In today’s competitive talent market, where the ability to collaborate effectively can make or break a company’s success, addressing these demands isn’t just good practice, it’s a business imperative. The choice for leadership is simple, adapt and thrive, or ignore and risk falling behind.”
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