Containment linked to the coronavirus crisis has put telework in the spotlight. Working remotely does not mean working separately from each other, without consultation or coordination. On the contrary, the development of the culture of sharing and collaboration is the condition of a successful telework experience.
Working well does not require a constant sharing of a common workspace. 93% of employees believe that working remotely is entirely compatible with the challenges of collaboration. Provided you follow a few well-established principles.
Promoting a culture of sharing and collaboration
According to an OpinionWay study dated February 2020 , 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. The challenge is therefore to encourage exchange and sharing between teams, whether they are physically present in the office or in telework.
Taking advantage of collaborative tools
We still have to share well! In this respect, and against all odds, the massive use of telework is probably more of a solution than a problem. Containment has made it possible to democratize the use of collaborative tools. Teams, Drive, Trello, Slack, Zooms, Hang out, etc… have no secrets for anyone, or almost anyone. With them, everyone was able to learn new ways of working. Working together and simultaneously on a single document, developing strategic thinking, all this is possible remotely, often with better information sharing.
Well used, collaborative tools are valuable in limiting the effects of silos between departments. They participate in the dissemination of a common corporate culture. They promote emulation, disseminate an open business model and mitigate the counterproductive effects of too much competition between services.
Promoting knowledge management
It is not enough to make available all the best collaborative tools, because cooperation and sharing are not decreed! However, it is necessary to democratize its use and create a habit of use. This is the whole issue of Knowledge Management, or knowledge management, which aims to value, preserve and disseminate in-house the knowledge and know-how of employees.
Encourage in-house webinars! The trainings run by the employees themselves allow you to capitalize on the expertise of your employees. They promote team cohesion, strengthen a sense of belonging and facilitate collaboration between services. They also have the advantage of being perfectly in line with your company’s business, processes and culture. In addition to encouraging mutual aid and valuing your employees, they reinforce their motivation and involvement. They also identify business experts and capitalize on their expertise.
Developing mentoring
Thanks to collaborative tools and video conferencing software, mentoring is also perfectly compatible with telecommuting. The exchange inherent in mentoring is an opportunity for employees to better share their business reality and better understand each other’s issues. It’s a great way to encourage cross-cutting, create synergies and unite energies, but also to make your organization more agile and transparent.
For example, containment has not prevented many companies from continuing to hire. To succeed in their onboarding action despite the impossibility of welcoming their new recruits to the premises, they have set up a remote mentoring composed of at least 3 mentors: one responsible for following the newcomer’s journey within the company, the other accompanying him in his taking up position, the third to expose him the culture of the company.
Streamlining the use of emails and meetings
Let the one who has never felt like he was drowned under the emails raise his hand! Over the years, the massive use of e-mail has been a drag on productivity. Too abundant, they encourage the loss of information. Against all odds, working remotely helps to reduce the use of e-mails to the bare minimum. With tools like Spark, they are automatically sorted and classified. For their part, instant messaging, like Slack, allows you to exchange simply and with several people. The thematic channels that characterize these messages allow users to focus on their own folders, without scattering.
The same is true for meetings. 88% of employees now feel more productive in telework thanks to the calm that accompanies it. Provided you don’t overload with too many meetings or exchanges on Zoom. For consultation and sharing to be optimal, it may be useful to reflect on the channels and frequency of communications, as well as on the number of participants in a video conference. 4 to 6 people gathered around the same project is probably the ideal number to create the conditions for collaboration. In this matter, it’s all about dosage: a pair can sometimes be more effective than a team with a plethora of staff; other times, a reflection can gain in wealth if it is conducted by a collective, for example on a channel Slack or teams. And if one of the guests was not able to attend a particular meeting, it will still be possible for him to consult the exchanges afterwards
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