Efficient team communication and team collaboration are the most important traits of successful teams. However, hybrid and remote work make team communication much more challenging, and organizations need to find ways to make it work. 

New work arrangements are here to stay. So many teams had to switch from synchronous to asynchronous communication and find ways to make the most out of the new ways of working.

In this blog, we will talk about the increasing importance of team communication in the workplace and the best ways to make it more efficient.

Team Communication Defined

As defined by Baden Eunson in his book Communicating in the 21st century,

A team is a collection of people who must work interdependently to achieve a common goal or output.

Today, teams are a typical form of organization in companies. In fact, teams are considered one of the most effective and efficient methods for achieving organizational tasks and goals. According to research, 86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.

a quote from salesforce

Instead of individual work, teams are focused on solving problems together. They work interdependently.

Furthermore, communication is defined as the exchange of information and transmission of meaning. So when such an exchange happens between teams, this is called team communication.

Now that we have defined team communication let’s dig deeper into why team communication is crucial for business success and how to make it more efficient.

💡 Before we move forward, check out our employee engagement guide!

👀 Also watch our Masterclass to learn about how to tackle the biggest communication barriers in the workplace. 

Make your teams interconnected with the best internal comms platform!

5 Reasons Why Team Communication In Crucial for Business Success

Effective team communication is the most important prerequisite for successful team collaboration. And team collaboration is considered one of the most important drivers for business success and healthy organizational culture.

Furthermore, the new work arrangements have resulted in more teamwork than ever before. According to research, employees now spend about 50% more time engaged in collaborative work. Yet, many employees say that communication and collaboration are their biggest struggles when it comes to remote work.

a quote from goremotely

Employers need to find ways to enable their remote workers and keep them engaged. For that, they depend on the latest technology, which we will cover later in this blog.

So what are the biggest benefits of good communication between and among teams in an organization?

Let’s take a look.

1. Better productivity and profitability

When teams communicate efficiently, they are able to better understand each other and are more efficient in achieving common goals. As a result, extremely connected teams demonstrate a 21% increase in profitability.

Teams with good communication also tend to be more agile. They are more productive because they are faster to adapt to new business challenges, daily obstacles, and bottlenecks. It is particularly beneficial to have at least one highly engaged employee in a team because individual engagement often drives team engagement.

Furthermore, teams that rank among the top 20% in terms of connectedness benefit from a 41% decrease in employee absenteeism which has a direct impact on team productivity.

2. More successful projects

Poor team communication and collaboration are usually the main reasons why projects fail. Employees, managers, and executives all agree that effective teamwork in the workplace exists when employees have their visions and goals in alignment.

Teamwork statistics specify that 97% of workers and employers believe that the lack of team alignment influences the success of a task or project.

a quote from forbes

If you have a team working on a collaborative project, pay attention to how they organize work and solve challenges. Successful teams understand the importance of taking different perspectives and opinions into consideration.

They possess one of the most important communication skills: listening.

3. Increased employee retention and loyalty

Teamwork and good relationships within a workplace can be the most powerful weapon to fight high employee turnover. One research showed that 37% of employees say “working with a great team” is their primary reason for staying. In the era of great resignation, keeping employees has become a real struggle for many employers.

Leveraging best internal communications practices to promote and praise teamwork is crucial here!

Furthermore, 54% of employees say a strong sense of community (great coworkers, celebrating milestones, a common mission) kept them at a company longer than was in their best interest.

4. Improved employee morale

Continuing the previous section, more connected teams with better communication also show higher morale levels. According to research, 33% of employees said a lack of open, honest communication has the most negative impact on employee morale.

a quote from recuiter

In general, the sense of teamwork impacts employee experience, happiness, and the overall level of job satisfaction and employee motivation.

Make sure that your teams are highly functional. Make sure that they have the means to communicate efficiently and stay connected regardless of where they are located.

5. More knowledge sharing and innovation

Good workplace communication drives knowledge sharing among workers. Today, teams can’t work in silos anymore. They can’t work as individuals, and they are required to share their knowledge continuously and provide frequent employee feedback.

Knowledge workers are as beneficial to an organization as their ability to share their knowledge with others. For that, team communication needs to be highly efficient.

One of the most valuable benefits of knowledge sharing in the workplace is innovation. When knowledge and information in a workplace flow seamlessly, it is much easier to acquire new knowledge and come up with relevant solutions and ideas for improvement.

💡 Learn about how to enable knowledge workers for success!

Making Team Communication More Efficient With the Right Technology

Working from home requires companies to build new digital workplaces and adapt to the new technologies designed to ease the way employees communicate and collaborate with each other.

Since 2019, Gartner has seen a 44% rise in workers using collaboration tools. According to the analyst’s Digital Worker Experience survey, 80% of workers use collaboration tools as of 2021, up from just over half of employees in 2019.

Though demand for hybrid work is growing, companies need to also ensure they’re implementing collaboration tools correctly if they want to avoid overwhelm and fatigue. Too many tools is also not a good idea as juggling between them can be very frustrating and counterproductive.

Gartner found, with the right collaboration technology, hybrid teams were 70% more likely to be agile, 66% more likely to feel comfortable in their role, and 67% also agreed their team was skilled at working asynchronously.

a quick stat from gartner

Another survey found that nearly 83% of professionals depend on technology to collaborate. 82% of the participants felt that they would feel impacted if this technology to collaborate was lost.

However, 59% of employees experienced challenges while working on their collaboration tools.

Therefore, technology is reshaping teamwork as we know it, and organizations need to understand their workforce before choosing the proper technology.

It is crucial that you understand your employees’ nature of work and their generational and cultural differences. It is important that the technology is mobile-first, intuitive, yet flexible enough to scale with you as you grow.

Another crucial thing to consider when choosing an internal communications platform for your organization are integrations. Make sure that the software integrates with various social and communications channels as well as other tech stacks your organization has implemented.

Modern employee communications solutions offer features and functionalities necessary to enable your employees to collaborate and communicate more efficiently.

Some of the must-have features to look for include:

  • Robust audience segmentation that enables targeted communications based on employees’ job functions, locations, languages, and interests
  • Private and public channels
  • Meeting recordings
  • Document sharing functionalities to boost collaboration
  • Organized knowledge hubs to ensure everyone has the right information
  • Mobile-first interface for the best digital employee experience
  • Active directory integration for seamless user access and management
  • Easy-to-use surveys and polls for continuous employee feedback
  • Push notifications to alert employees about emergencies and data that provides insights about message readership
  • Seamless integrations with other internal systems such as intranets, instant messaging apps, file sharing tools, and other
  • ISO and GDPR certifications to protect your organization’s data
  • Advanced AI-powered analytics and actionable recommendations about how to improve workplace communications efforts

If you are looking for the right technology to optimize asynchronous communication in your workplace, schedule a Haiilo demo!

Curious to learn more? Check out our report on IC trends in 2023

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