Just How Advantageous Is Good Team Working?

Again, following on from one of our previous blogs highlighting the top five trends and themes to open questions in employee engagement surveys, we’d like to discuss the topic of team working.

The majority of organisations recognise that having good teamwork in the workplace is a crucial element of a productive company, so here are just some of the benefits that can be of value to your organisation.

Efficient and Productive Teamwork

When a team works together in unison, they are better equipped to achieve more than its individual associates can do alone. A team coming together can apply different and varying skills enabling more effective solutions to be found. Every individual has fields of expertise and experience, and co-operation allows each member to concentrate on what he or she does best. Having mutual support brings encouragement to people to accomplish goals that they may never have otherwise realised. Teams often need time to build on their working relationships before any real benefits can be gained, but in the early stages of team building, any group that perseveres and discovers a healthy team partnership will accomplish greater efficiency and productivity. A team which are enabled to focus on what they do best and empowered to get the job done without taking on tasks beyond their capabilities will also produce higher quality work or improved service.

Competency Building

Although collaborative and cohesive working enables team members to concentrate on their main competencies and skills, it can also be broadly educational. In working in partnership with others, it is inevitable that you will learn more about what they do, and you gain a more comprehensive understanding of the organisation you are part of.

Teamwork Develops Trust

It’s essential that every team has a rock-solid foundation of trust. Relationships are built on trust and without the confidence and belief in your team members, staff morale can be adversely affected. A strong team fosters trust from top to bottom, preserves open lines of communication between all team members, and functions with honesty and transparency.

A Stress Buster

There are negative consequences on an individual’s productivity and well-being if they try to do everything themselves and without support, not to mention their mental and physical health. Even though most of us can handle a certain level of pressure at work, it’s beneficial to have team members around to provide support and take some of the load off when things get too intense. Having your teams backing helps prevent a burnout and gives individuals much needed time to destress and unwind.

Management Can Focus On Job In Hand

An organisation will not achieve success if its leadership groups are required to spend hours each day handling inconsequential administrative or operational problems. Having a solid team to carry out these tasks will allow a manager to guide and control the overall course of the organisation without getting lost in the details.

Creation Of More Innovative Ideas

Good, effective team working has been the driving force behind innovation and advancement. You’ll find that a good team is made up of a range of diverse employees.  When these people come together and apply their varying skills to the same problem or project, they can often come up with a more effective and innovative answer. Innovative ideas don’t always come in flashes of brilliance, but more often from many years of hard work by a team of people rather than just one person. Longer lasting innovations tend to have many stages to their fruition, starting with the creative, process, then development, fine-tuning, implementation and revision phases.  Therefore, there is the opportunity for input from many team members.

Service Improvements

In any successful business a strong team spirit will present itself in interactions with its customers. When there is a sense of positive teamwork, everyone in the organisation will have a positive attitude and a strong sense of advocacy in favour of the organisation, and this will result in them representing the organisation in a positive way.

All in all, it pays to promote and encourage your employees to work together, collaboratively and cohesively to a common end. Strong teams encourage employee engagement and a likelihood that people will be happier in their work.

If you’re interested in finding out more about your team engagement levels, then please contact us on +44 (0) 1255 850051.