How Technology Affects Collaboration in a Business
Technology has transformed the workplace over the years in remarkable ways. It’s never been easier to collaborate with your team, and in recent years we’ve seen a shift in how people work, with technology providing solutions for this.
Connecting teams globally and remotely
Collaborating can be a challenging task outside the workspace. Traditionally, we rely on meeting rooms and spaces to facilitate this in-person. Advances in technology have meant teams can collaborate on almost anything, anytime, providing they have an internet connection and a suitable device like a smartphone or laptop. Investing in a secure collaboration solution for business allows teams to work together on projects outside the office, freeing up time for different tasks.
Familiar interfaces allow collaboration to flow more naturally
With social media and digital communication platforms, collaboration for business is a natural way to use technology. People are globally connected with social media and use it to communicate and discuss ideas. Groups are used to allow people to connect over shared interests, and hashtags bring ideas together from people across the globe. With instant access to the web at our fingertips, digital communication is second nature for people nowadays.
Collaboration platforms for businesses that use similar interfaces and offer equivalent convenience and user experience to social apps tend to provide more effective communication. Teams can adapt quickly and use it with ease which means it’s far more engaging.
Collaboration is easier to monitor with progress tracked
When teams collaborate in person, it’s hard for a business to track individual contributions and improve meetings. It’s also hard for individuals to monitor each other when collaborating on group projects. For example, if one person feels like they put in the most effort than others, it isn’t easy to track this.
In contrast, technology allows supervisors and managers to track effort and monitor progress on all collaborative work. An excellent example of this would be Google Docs. With the history and comment tools, it’s easy to see who has been contributing to the piece the most. Checking the progress of collaboration-based projects means managers and supervisors can intervene more frequently to ensure fair workloads and contributions among teams. Many professional collaboration tools have built-in tracking tools, which businesses now look out for when deciding on collaboration tools for their teams.
Can technology hinder workplace productivity?
Technology is praised for its ability to impact workplace collaboration in positive ways. However, there are concerns about ways it can negatively affect collaboration. As much as technology can make collaboration more manageable, it’s also at risk of hindering it.
Nowadays, businesses can use many different technological solutions for various tasks. It’s favourable for companies to manage their workload and communications from a single centralised point. However, the more that is used, the more likely workers can lose momentum and time swapping between them during the working day.
In conclusion, technology has improved business collaboration in more ways than one, from increasing engagement and improving communication efficiency. However, time needs to be given to choosing the right technologies for the most effective business collaboration.
