6 Strategies to Boost Team Productivity

As organizations navigate the ever-changing business landscape, they face a growing number of challenges, such as the digital future of work, the great resignation, and the impact of the metaverse on businesses. These challenges are not likely to go away soon, and with the rise of the borderless economy and the future of work, companies must be more agile than ever before. With more employees wanting remote or hybrid work options, organizations must provide the right tools to enable teams to communicate and collaborate effectively, regardless of location, in order to encourage collaboration across teams in different locations.

This article will delve into 6 ways you can make your teams more productive by using collaboration tools and implementing strategies such as aligning productivity with business objectives, fostering a collaborative workplace culture, and providing the right tools to your teams.

Booming Collaboration Tool Market

Collaboration technology is a vital tool for companies of all sizes to improve productivity, get work done faster, and increase cross-team alignment. This is reflected in the market for collaboration software, which was valued at USD 36.24 billion in 2020 and is expected to register a CAGR of over 10.7% during the forecast period of 2021-2026.

(Image source: SignalFire)

While many collaboration software companies have been established for years and were available pre-pandemic, the rapid adoption of these tools due to the pandemic has led to some challenges such as collaboration software overload, app fatigue, and employee burn-out as our lives have shifted to a more digital space.

The challenges faced by businesses in 2020's have highlighted the growing need for providers of team productivity analytics, cross-team collaboration analytics, and workplace culture analytics. In order to effectively address these challenges, it is crucial for companies to have a more consolidated and standardized approach to using collaboration tools. Reinventing the wheel team by team will lead to issues and inefficiencies.

At the forefront of collaboration tool analytics is Flowtrace, providing assistance to a wide range of technology companies from start-ups to scale-ups to enhance collaboration and productivity. Our analytics-based business approach focuses on analyzing various aspects of your company's tools and habits, including calendars, meetings, information sharing, core process cycle times, sales pipeline momentum, and more, to offer insights and recommendations for improvement.

Improving Productivity with help of collaboration tools

Here are 6 proven ways how to improve team productivity with the help of collaboration tools. These are sure to boost your business performance:

1. Aligning Team with Business Objectives

Objective Key Results (OKRs) are a powerful tool for aligning the goals of an organization and ensuring that all team members are working towards the same objectives. When setting OKRs, it is important to ensure that they are clear, measurable, and attainable. This means that they should be specific, time-bound, and have a defined target that can be tracked and measured. It's also important to ensure that OKRs are understood by all team members and that everyone is aware of their individual responsibilities and how they contribute to the overall goals of the organization.

Lack of well-defined goals and objectives can lead to confusion and misalignment within an organization. When team members are not clear on what they are working towards, they may not be as productive or motivated. This can lead to project failure and lost team productivity. According to a survey by the Project Management Institute, 37% of failed projects are caused by poor alignment of team productivity and business objectives.

2. Create a collaborative workplace culture

Creating a collaborative workplace culture is essential for driving business performance and team productivity. When team members are engaged and empowered, they are more likely to foster innovation, take calculated risks, and collaborate effectively with their colleagues. When this together leads to an increase in deep work time and ultimately, improved productivity.

According to a major long-term study by Forbes, companies with collaborative and productive workplace cultures experience significantly higher revenue growth. In the study, companies with thriving workplace cultures saw revenue growth of up to 682% over an 11-year period, while those without a strong culture only grew 166%. This illustrates the significant impact that a productive and collaborative culture can have on a business's bottom line.

It's important to note that workplace culture, cross-functional collaboration, and employee engagement all go hand in hand. By fostering a positive culture that encourages collaboration and engagement, companies can improve team productivity and drive business performance.

3. Give your teams the right collaboration tools

When it comes to collaboration tools, having the right ones in place can make a significant difference in team productivity and business performance. Even if your team members are highly engaged, they may struggle to be productive if they don't have the right tools at their disposal.

One of the biggest challenges facing teams today is app fatigue and burn-out. With so many tools and apps to choose from, it can be easy to end up using multiple tools that do the same job. This not only dilutes team productivity but can also lead to confusion and frustration among team members.

To avoid this problem, it's important to choose tools that are specific to the tasks and projects your team is working on. Rather than using multiple tools that have overlapping features, select one tool that does the job well and provides all the features your team needs. This will help to streamline workflows and make it easier for team members to collaborate and share information.

4. Measure productivity metrics and reduce the negatively impacting behavior

Measuring your team's environment and identifying harmful habits that hinder productivity is essential for improving business performance. One key aspect to consider is the level of multitasking among team members. While it may seem like juggling multiple tasks is a sign of productivity, research suggests that multitasking decreases productivity. By measuring multitasking metrics and providing education to your team, you can help to reduce this harmful habit and improve overall productivity.

Another important factor to consider is out-of-hours collaboration. Allowing team members to collaborate outside of regular work hours can lead to poor planning and burnout, negatively impacting productivity. By using team productivity metrics, you can identify patterns of out-of-hours collaboration and make changes to improve efficiency and reduce burnout.

5. Reduce distractions for your teams

Distractions and constant device notifications can have a significant impact on team productivity. By analyzing team productivity metrics, you can quickly identify the source of these distractions and take steps to improve employee focus time.

Research has shown that the average employee only has 11 minutes of uninterrupted time between distractions. Additionally, studies have found that employees are interrupted about seven times an hour, adding up to 56 interruptions per day, with 80% of these interruptions considered trivial. By identifying and addressing these distractions, you can improve overall productivity and reduce the negative impact on employee focus.

6. Improve your meeting culture effectiveness

Meetings are often seen as a productive use of time, where employees can discuss important points and move the business forward. However, the reality is that the quantity of meetings does not always equal the quality of meetings. In fact, statistics have shown that the number of meetings has been on the rise while the quality of meetings has dropped.

According to various sources from Doodle, Ovum, AskCody, ReadyTalk, Atlassian, Forbes, HBR, Gallup and WSJ:

• Time spent in meetings has been rising by 8% to 10% annually in the last decade.
• 51% of the surveyed employees agreed that the number of meetings are rising.
• 41% of employees reported their average meeting length to be between 30 minutes and an hour.
• 39% of employees reported average meeting length between 16 to 30 minutes.
• 13% of employees reported average meeting length between 61 to 90 minutes.
• 8 meetings per week across all employee seniority is the average.
• 47% of employees complained that meetings wasted their time the most at work.
• 45% of employees felt overwhelmed by the number of meetings they attend.

To improve the productivity of your company's meetings, you can read our 'Meeting Best Practice Guide' to establish best practices and ways to make your company meetings more productive. We have developed a meeting toolbox as part of our platform and this could be of interest to you too.

Conclusion: Measure, and benchmark to improve team productivity

By measuring and analyzing team productivity metrics is crucial for organizations to improve business performance and create a culture where employees thrive. With the right collaboration tools and strategies in place, organizations can effectively align team with business objectives, foster a collaborative workplace culture, and provide the right tools for teams to communicate and collaborate effectively.

Flowtrace is a company analytics business that helps tech companies from start-ups to scale-ups improve collaboration and productivity. By analyzing various aspects of your company tools and habits, such as calendars, meetings, information sharing, core process cycle times, and sales pipeline momentum, we provide insights and recommendations for improvement.

Don't let workplace distractions, device notifications, and ineffective meetings hinder your team's productivity. Take the first step towards a more productive and efficient workplace by measuring productivity metrics with Flowtrace. Start today and see the positive impact it can have on your business and your employees.