20 Reasons Team Collaboration Matters

What is your most valuable asset as an organization? Is it your manufacturing equipment. Your tools or raw materials? Is it your cash reserves or perhaps your fleet of custom service vans? Maybe the title gives it away but we believe that your people are far more valuable an asset than anything your organization owns. Without your teams, your company can not effectively utilize any of that manufacturing equipment. Without drivers, your vans sit empty. Without your employees tools and raw materials sit stagnant in storage. Beyond that, they are a costly resource: employee turnover, recruitment, and training can sap your resources and productivity. If your employees don’t feel valued, you are leaving productivity on the table. Gallup research indicated that in the US, disengaged employees cost their companies between $450 and $550 billion every year due to poor performance and absenteeism. [1] Want to know how much engagement could be costing you? We built a calculator that can show you the impact on your bottom line. The numbers might surprise you.

One key component of empowering your people is to create healthy opportunities for collaboration. People aren’t created to operate in isolation. Collaboration allows for them to leverage their gifts and enable them to be more engaged and productive. Here are 20 reasons your team dynamics really matter:

The workforce and collaboration:

1.Employees with the ability and technology to collaborate on the job are 17% more satisfied with their job and culture.

Your team will be happier if they are able to collaborate, which will require collaboration technology and the opportunity to actually do so.

2.To optimize employee performance, 45% of their time should be spent working individually, 45% of their time should be spent working collaboratively, and 10% of their time should be spent learning and developing social bonds.

Data suggests that for optimum performance, your teams need to strike a balance between individual contribution and collaboration that is far too uncommon in most organizations.

3.Individuals who work collaboratively at work are over 50% more effective at completing tasks than those who work independently.

Stanford research revealed that collaboration was a key element in performance rates. Employees that collaborated were 64% more likely to stick to tasks than their counterparts.

4. 52% of employees in the U.S. rate teamwork as “very important”.

Across the board, from top level executives to technical employees, responses indicate that most believe their job success relies on collaboration.

5. Most employees feel that collaboration is lacking in their organization.

A Deloitte study revealed that just 9 % of employees thought their company had very effective sharing and collaboration tools. Only 39% said that they would rate their company collaboration methods as “somewhat effective.”

6. 39% of employees say people at their organization don’t collaborate enough.

Across the globe, research indicated that 39% of people found collaboration in their organization inadequate, and that many did not feel confident communicating at work.

7. 75% of people value workplace collaboration as being “very important.”

Most value collaboration and teamwork, but many feel it is lacking. Seeing a trend?

Benefits of collaboration

8. Deloitte’s global study found that collaboration and idea sharing created a value of $1,660 per employee annually and that the innovations due to collaboration were valued at $2,517 per employee each year.

9. Frost & Sullivan research revealed that cross the board, teamwork and collaboration have a positive impact on metrics:

• Sales up by 27%
• Customer satisfaction up by 41%
• Product quality improves by 34%
• Product development process improved by 30%10. Employees who work for collaborative companies are 22% more likely to believe that their employer cares about their morale.

10. Effective collaboration initiatives have a direct impact on your team’s morale. Employees working in a collaborative environment are 22% more likely to believe that their employer cares about morale and are more loyal to their employer than their peers

11. When compared to the competition, companies that are highly collaborative are 5 times more likely to be high performers.

12. Collaboration will have a positive impact on employee stress levels. 80% of employees find their work stressful, and team dynamics have been found responsible for 92% of work-related stress. Improving collaboration has a positive effect on perceptions of team dynamics, and consequently can improve stress levels.

13. Successful collaboration at work improves innovation by 30% and productivity by 36%

Collaboration in a virtual world

14. Especially prevalent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, full-time work from home positions collaborate almost 50% less than they would if they were in the workplace.

15. When working from home employees spend much more time focused on work (62%) and far less collaborating (27%). While at first glance this may seem like a boost to productivity, just rewind up the page to the benefits of collaboration.

16. About 45% of employees across Boomers, Gen X and Millennials find social network collaboration to boost their productivity levels.

17. Workplace collaboration has numerous benefits, but online collaboration research is less conclusive. 41% of distractions are caused by personal requests while another 39% are caused by requests coming in through tools and distracting from current tasks.

18. 90% of businesses use some kind of online collaboration tool internally:

• Microsoft Teams (31%)
• Skype for Business (27%)
• Google Chat (21%)
• WebEx Teams (15%)
• Zoom (13%)

19. Naturally, with the rise of closed offices, in 2019, 48% of employees used video conferencing at a higher rate than in the prior 2 years on the job combined, with 25% using it on a daily basis.

20. Two out of every five employees want additional rules about online collaboration at work. 60% believe it would improve work-life balance (no evening work requests) and almost half thought rules would set a clearer expectation on how to use the tools.

Collaboration is a vital component of your strategy that is often ignored. The benefits are clear, but when you examine the workforce today the picture becomes much cloudier. Most employees feel collaboration is lacking. Businesses we work with often focus on profit, but putting people over profit often is the path to improving the bottom line that leaders are searching for. For good measure, add in the complications of a workforce perhaps permanently affected by COVID-19 and virtual collaboration, and you are left with a real challenge. How can you drive a culture of collaboration in your organization? We will examine this question in a future blog post, but if in the meantime you have any questions about collaboration or culture we would love to get to know you and your organization. Just head to www.ledgestone.com/contact and we will respond as soon as possible!

1. Forbes. “New Study Finds That Collaboration Drives Workplace Performance.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
2. Fortune. “How Companies Can Reinvigorate Collaboration Post COVID.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
3. Deloitte. “Digital Collaboration: Delivering Innovation, Productivity, And Happiness.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
4. Queens University Of Charlotte. “Communicating In The Modern Workplace.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
5. The Future Organization. “The Impact Of Collaboration On Enterprise Business Performance.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
6. Harvard Business Review. “To Reduce Burnout On Your Team, Give People A Sense Of Control.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
7. Statista. “Collaboration Software Market Revenues From 2015 to 2024.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
8. ZDNet. “Employees Crave Stricter Rules Around Collaboration App Usage.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
9. TechRadar. “Generational Differences In Collaboration At Work.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
10. Globe Newswire. “Lifesize 2019 Impact Of Video Conferencing Report: More Collaborative Workplace Cultures Have Led To Spike In Video Communication.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
11. Wrike. “Wrike Survey Reveals Communication And Collaboration Challenges Are Leading Sources Of Stress At Work.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
12. Wharton University Of Pennsylvania. “Too Much Togetherness? The Downside Of Workplace Collaboration.” Accessed on 8/8/2021.
13. Gensler. “U.S. Workplace Survey Summer/Fall 2020” Accessed on 1/26/2022.