How to create a connected workplace
As your employees are responsible for the product’s success, it’s essential for you as the boss to care about their work satisfaction levels. However, although the perks and bonuses are helpful, it’s the meaningful connections that promote feelings of gratification.
Therefore, you should create a connected workplace where all the company’s employees, assets, physical locations, and services are centralized by using one platform. This way, you’ll enable a free flow of information and collaboration between departments, which will boost the whole system’s efficiency.
To create a connected workplace, you should look for different strategies. You might use collaboration software and create communities of practice or establish peer mentorship programs. Furthermore, you should encourage social interaction between employees by forming communities of interest or organizing social events.
Create a connected workplace by following the strategies from this article and keep your employees happy!
Use collaboration software
Collaboration software keeps all the employees, assets, physical locations, and services connected. You can use one platform to send messages, share files, schedule meetings, exchange information, and ask questions. This way, you can enable collaboration between departments, regardless of their location or job function.
Collaboration software provides a lot of benefits to both employees and employers. It facilitates the free flow of information and allows you to connect with people at different times and from different places. When combined with High Performance Computing, it can do wonders for every R&D team.
Create communities of interest
Communities of interest are unofficial groups aimed at sharing knowledge and gaining insights. They usually consist of people interested in the same topics or with similar skills or work experience. If you’re interested in creating a community of interest at your workplace, you have to think about its name, purpose, and goals.
The idea behind communities of interest is to create a safe space where people can contribute to the company’s success by developing their skills and sharing what they know with others. This is why you should encourage your employees to form such communities, where they could ask questions about something that’s bothering them, get feedback from peers, receive support when they need it the most, and find answers.
Encourage cross-functional collaboration
Your employees will be more productive if they know how their role contributes to the success of the whole organization and see the bigger picture instead of focusing on what they do every day. To do this, you should encourage cross-functional collaboration between your workers.
On the one hand, this will enable them to understand what others do at their company and communicate effectively with them, which will enhance teamwork and reduce communication barriers between departments. On the other hand, it will help them develop their skills by learning from others who are doing different jobs than theirs.
Here are some tips for encouraging cross-functional collaboration:
- Create cross-functional teams: Create teams consisting of people from different departments who work on specific projects together and report to the same manager. These teams will have to work together closely to accomplish their goals, so they’ll learn to communicate effectively and solve problems. They’ll also have to respect each other’s roles and be open-minded towards new ideas and perspectives.
- Make cross-functional rotation mandatory: Have a policy in place that requires your team members to rotate between departments by fulfilling specific criteria that you set. This way, all your employees will get familiarized with different jobs within your organization and understand how they contribute to its success. They’ll also have an opportunity to know all of their colleagues better as they’ll be able to learn more about them during their rotation period.
- Try cross-training: Host training is where different departments teach each other about their roles and responsibilities within the company. It can help them learn about their colleagues’ ideas and thought processes and make sure that everyone is up-to-date with what’s happening within the company.
Create social events
Social events help build a strong relationship between the employees and create a vibrant culture in your workplace. They usually involve some fun activities intended to bring people together outside the office.
For example, you can organize a company holiday party or a summer picnic in order to boost teamwork and relieve stress. You might also want to organize an off-site event for the employees that are working on a project together or organize a seminar for the whole team.
Think about the future
Technology changes rapidly and brings new opportunities in every business sector. If you think about the future, you might see how technology will affect your business and what kind of changes you need to make to adapt to new technologies. Use the advantages of connected workplaces to create a beneficial workplace for both your employees and your business as a whole.
Conclusion
As the leader of an organization, you should always look for new ways to bring people together in a single collaborative workspace. This is why it is crucial to find out how to create a more connected workplace and use them to your advantage.
To boost your employees’ performance and make them feel appreciated, you should provide them with the necessary tools to foster connections with each other. Doing this will increase their collaboration and allow them to get up-to-date with what’s happening in the company. Besides, you might want to create social events, create communities of interest, and encourage cross-functional collaboration.
By following the steps we mentioned above, you can ensure your employees will have access to all the information and people they need. Good luck!