HOW TO WORK

Flexible, fast, intuitive, collaborative tools are very successful thanks to the massive telework caused by the health crisis. Collaborative work is also a matter of management, willpower and corporate culture.

Since the confinement, Teams, Drive, Trello, Slack, Zooms, Hang out, etc… have no secrets for anyone. Working together and simultaneously on a single document, developing a strategic thinking remotely, all this is possible thanks to collaborative tools. In fact, according to an OpinionWay study conducted before confinement, 40% of employees consider that collaborative work is essential to design and advance projects. For 95% of them, collaboration between individuals promotes creativity, but also productivity and the well-being of employees. We still have to work together well! Beyond the necessary learning of tools, collaborative work also requires an evolution of working methods.

Fewer meetings, more collaboration

Collaboration means meeting. However, it seems that both do not go so well together. An employee attends an average of 2 minimum meetings per week, for a total of 4.5 hours per week, or nearly 3 weeks each year. And this double duration for executives!

Unfortunately, barely half of these meetings (52% exactly) are considered productive because they do not have a well-defined agenda or a formal decision-making process. 15% of participants are also not always convinced of the need for their presence. 44% also take advantage of the meeting to work on another file, or to send emails.

The good news is that collaborative tools have a positive impact on meeting the meeting. Shared workspaces allow you to work together on the same document, remotely, simultaneously or in a non-synchronized way. Everyone can intervene, consult the progress of the work or participate in a reflection at the time that suits them best, without disrupting their own work schedule.

More collaboration for more confidence and productivity

Well-controlled, collaborative tools have many advantages. For example, 69% of users believe that collaborative work has a particularly positive impact on knowledge sharing. 65% also saw greater productivity, but also greater team motivation (60%).

In addition to saving time, collaborative tools also have the merit of building trust and transparency. Indeed, since several people have, for example, a right to edit a document shared in the cloud, it is essential that trust is there. The quality of communication, but also a certain form of benevolence are the prerequisites for a good use of collaborative tools.

As Xavier Ginoux, CEO of OpenMindKfé, points out in a study on collaborative work with the Ipsos Institute, “the whole point of collaboration is to humanize the relationship between the company and its employees. For the latter, it is the way to no longer be a cog but a real stakeholder, whose knowledge, ideas and aspirations are in account.” In a nutshell, collaborative tools promote inclusion, which is no less of a paradox for tools primarily designed to encourage remote work.

For collaborative management

To be fully profitable, collaborative tools require managerial support. “When accompanied by a cultural and organizational transformation of the company, the impact of collaborative work is seen as largely positive on day-to-day work,” says Julia Pironon, Customer Manager at Ispos Lead. This is especially true on the sharing of knowledge but also of productivity.”

The provision of collaborative tools is not seen as the main issue. In fact, 74% of employees feel that they have enough. For 43% of them, on the other hand, the lack of involvement of employees or management (35%) is the main obstacle to collaboration. Finally, 34% of employees consider inadequate managerial behaviour to be a powerful barrier to collaborative work. Certainly, these figures come from studies done a few weeks or months before containment occurs. The trend they express is nevertheless valid and deserves to be taken into account in the perspective of a return to normality once the health crisis has passed.

Several innovative solutions can now be used to streamline collaborative processes and create synergies. For example, it is possible to change the size of the teams. A maximum of 4 to 6 people would be the ideal number to create the conditions for collaboration. Unfortunately, the majority of work teams now have more than 7 people.

Well collaborate doesn’t require constant sharing of a common workspace! On the contrary, creating disruptions in the work environment, promoting internal mobility or opening teams to the self-employed are excellent ways to maintain a collaborative mindset. The persistence of telework is also not a hindrance. Moreover, for 93% of employees, working remotely is entirely compatible with the challenges of collaboration.