How collaboration can improve workplace culture and attract top talent

These days in business, it takes a village. The pace of work has increased and with it, the volume. According to Harvard Business Review⁠(opens in a new tab or window), in the last 20 years, collaborative activities have increased by over 50% – and so have the benefits. It turns out, working as a group is as good for employees as it is for business, helping to build a positive, inclusive culture.

While every business is different, examples of collaboration include:

• Brainstorms
• New business pitches
• Driving innovation
• Planning and delegating tasks
• Creating detailed reviews and reports
• Launching new products
• Content creation
  

Collaboration is at its most powerful when everyone is aligned on the goal, has a clear role, and has an equal voice. This in turn, provides employees with new opportunities to learn, which is great for career advancement. But that’s just one benefit – let’s take a look at a few more.

A study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity found companies promoting collaboration were five times more likely to be high performing. It’s not surprising when you see why.

It makes sense that multiple people produce more work. But being surrounded by others – sharing skills, ideas and perspectives – can increase attention and improve task performance⁠(opens in a new tab or window). In addition, employee productivity increases through direct communication (rather than in meetings or via email), having conversations that everyone is privy to, and sharing data and resources. The collaboration process also helps distribute work evenly, relieving the burden and bottlenecks that can build up.

Working together requires teams to exchange knowledge. This in turn, encourages more open and transparent conversations. It also enables attentive listening and interpersonal skills such as building trust and resolving conflicts.

Organizations with high employee belonging are linked to a massive 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days⁠(opens in a new tab or window). Bringing people together from different departments, different backgrounds and with different levels of experience creates happier, more motivated and more connected employees who benefit from broader perspectives and personal growth.

Since team cohesion produces more and often higher quality work, this naturally leads to an increase in the satisfaction of a job well done. In addition, it increases engagement and that itself leads to positive business outcomes. After all, who wouldn’t want employees who are passionate and motivated to succeed? Regular employee review⁠(opens in a new tab or window) sessions can further strengthen this by recognizing contributions and aligning individual goals with team success.

Making valued contributions and being part of a supportive team are a big part of employee satisfaction. In fact, collaborative companies can reduce employee turnover rates by 50%⁠(opens in a new tab or window). What’s more, talented individuals are drawn to organizations that provide opportunities to learn and expand their horizons – good motivation to promote your workplace as a collaborative one.

In a world of remote work, not only are business collaboration solutions helping us connect but they are also drastically improving the way we work together. It’s even more beneficial if tools can be accessed from one, easy-to-use platform. To get started, here’s a list of collaboration tools you can implement right away.

Collaboration platforms like Canva for Enterprise⁠(opens in a new tab or window) make it easy to bring teams together, even for large-scale or international organizations. Teams can communicate in real time or work seamlessly across time zones. Plus, you can effortlessly translate presentations, pitch decks and design into 100+ languages.

Shareable strategy or planning templates⁠(opens in a new tab or window) help teams map out entire projects, without wasting time designing documents – simply choose your template style, invite your team and get started. It’s easy to assign tasks with timelines and check-ins so everyone is accountable and stays on track.

Get ideas flowing with virtual whiteboards⁠(opens in a new tab or window) where anyone can add perspectives, opinions, or ideas. Plus, they can do so in a variety of ways – great news for the less vocal members of the team. With infinite space, you won’t run out of room and once you’ve captured the team’s best ideas, share the deck and delegate tasks so it’s easy to action.

Centralizing your assets⁠(opens in a new tab or window) is a great way for everyone to access things like files, documents, images and everything else you need to work as a team. This smooths out a lot of frustrations plus teams will be less likely to double-up on work already created. In addition, setting up a brand kit⁠(opens in a new tab or window) with your brand fonts, logos, and colors means the work of the team product will look cohesive.

Help teams work faster by setting up branded templates. These are documents – such as presentation decks or product videos – with locked key elements like your logos, brand colors and backgrounds. It will speed up the creative process, help teams stay on brand, and save time by avoiding repetitive design tasks.

Sending files back and forth between various decision-makers can get messy. That’s why Canva has powerful brand features to keep projects moving. Centralized brand assets, team templates and streamlined workflows mean anyone can create on-brand content with ease. Setting up approval workflows⁠(opens in a new tab or window) is the easy way to ensure work is reviewed, approved and out the door fast. Having these team collaboration tools online also make sign offs easy, especially when decision makers are working remotely, are with clients or are in transit.

So there you have it, just some of the ways you can harness collaboration tools to cultivate teamwork, improve team communication, foster belonging and inclusivity, increase employee satisfaction and boost productivity. Keen to get your organization collaborating right away? See how Canva Enterprise⁠(opens in a new tab or window) can help.