3 business collaboration tools for a high performance team

Collaboration is a major pain point for almost every organization.

Actually, that’s an understatement. Workflows and processes are among the top reasons why all human potential goes to waste, and why people become frustrated at work.

What businesses need to keep in mind is that today’s employees are more empowered than ever. They’re constantly learning, hungry for new knowledge, and able to stay productive from anywhere in the world. In recognizing these trends, organizations are becoming increasingly open to flexible schedules, work-from-home options, and geographically-distributed teams.

As game-changing as these new ideas may be, they’re also experiencing some growing pains. Teams are encountering difficulties in sharing information, in being able to execute and act quickly, and even in getting to know one another. That’s why you need to implement a core set of tools and technologies to streamline workflows and keep your team members connected.

Here are some business collaboration tools to help get your team started.

1. Slack (group chat)

Slack is a group chat platform that helps distributed teams stay in contact with one another throughout their workdays (and beyond). Of all the business collaboration tools out there, Slack is one of the most intuitive and user-friendly platforms, and is mobile-friendly and completely customizable to an organization’s communication patterns.

Your teams can build integrations with their transaction platforms, analytics — even spreadsheets — to set up automated reminders and alerts. This ‘stream of consciousness’ capability helps team members stay connected, no matter where they are in the world.

Think of Slack as your team forum. You’ll likely need to appoint one or multiple moderators and create communication guidelines for how to use the platform. Your managers should also think about encouraging teams to participate by sharing photos, posting updates and communicating as frequently as possible. Make sure to be attentive to the work styles of each individual team member — for instance, some employees would prefer to lurk than speak.

2. Unified communications systems

Video conferencing can get clunky, fast — especially if there are multiple team members involved. As your remote teams grow bigger, you need to carefully plan out their business collaboration tools and general infrastructure for how meetings are going to take place.

The challenge with many video conferencing systems is that these tools tend to be designed as a one-size-fits-all type of system. In finding the right communications system for you, consider a resource that can meet multiple needs at once, such as a system that can work in multiple locations to help you keep in touch with a mobile workforce.

3. EveryoneSocial (employee advocacy)

Social media is your brand’s communication channel into the world. As companies build up high-performance content programs — and more employees get involved with company blogs — social media managers will want to share these stories with the community at large.

The problem is that employees aren’t always thinking about sharing their company’s content — and pinging them with an email reminder is the polar opposite of an efficient process.

EveryoneSocial is a tool that facilitates this brand lift by making it easy for team members to share official company content (and related industry content) with their personal and professional social networks.

Adapt your business collaboration tools

As remote teams get bigger, processes often get clunkier. Choose technologies that can accommodate scale, and always give them a try before you commit to a long-term contract. There are many options available to make your workflows easier — do some exploring to determine what’s right for you and your team.