How to build a successful team? Follow these 6 tips

The team is of utmost importance to organizations, especially in today's highly digitized world. Experience shows that organizations that emphasize teamwork innovate faster, correct their mistakes faster, find better solutions to problems, and achieve higher productivity.

Improving teamwork aims to increase productivity and efficiency. This builds strong relationships between employees because the more they work closely together, the more they get to know and develop a liking for each other. The more they work together, the more they learn to live with each other's strengths and weaknesses. When they work together for a long time, team members naturally get along better, which leads to a more pleasant work environment for everyone. Higher productivity and faster realization of organizational goals follows.

6 tips for building a successful team

Create good working conditions

Good workplace conditions improve productivity, help retain good employees and most important of all, create a positive atmosphere because every employee comes to work with enjoyment. In addition to so-called hygiene factors, such as workplace security and safety, there are dozens of other factors you can improve to attract and retain top talent in the market.

These include salary, fringe benefits such as meal vouchers, reduced workplace stress, freedom and opportunity for self-expression, a positive company culture, additional rewards for performance, training and development. All of this creates very good working conditions that are hard to compete with others in the market.

Make communication effective

Effective communication is fundamental in every aspect of life, but especially in the workplace. It's integral to business success - it improves relationships within the company and with customers and increases employee engagement and overall team effectiveness. On the other hand, when teams fail to communicate effectively, the results are detrimental to the business. Research from US firm Gartner shows that as many as 70% of business mistakes are due to poor communication. This statistic proves just how critical communication is in the workplace and why we need to invest more in employee training to improve it.

How can we improve team communication?

• Encourage an open door policy - even symbolically, open doors mean an opportunity for employees at the lowest level to communicate with top management.
• Incentivise open feedback - let everyone feel free to give feedback, no matter what level they are in the company hierarchy.
• Organize trainings on effective communication - how to communicate verbally, how to communicate through emails, or other electronic communication channels, how to conduct meetings, etc.
• Stimulate fun communication - don't let employees feel restricted to talk only about work among themselves - jokes, funny pictures, free conversations stimulate team development.

Support teamwork and collaboration

When employees work collaboratively on a job duty, they are more productive and things get done faster and more efficiently. The main reason is that valuable time is not wasted on resolving squabbles and conflicts between employees and management. When disputes and quarrels prevail, the workplace is not pleasant and people come with dissatisfaction. By fostering collaboration among employees, managers can make their workplaces more welcoming and inviting, which increases the enjoyment of time spent at work. Purposefully encouraging collaboration can also help managers reduce peripheral problems, such as arguments and conflicts, that leave employees dissatisfied or anxious to leave work.

How to foster collaboration?

• Teamwork should become part of the work ethic and culture
• Provide opportunities and incentives for employees to work together instead of separately
• Incentivise the team to socialise outside of work
• Clarify roles and expectations before each project or task
• Quell any workplace conflict quickly, honestly and openly
• Stimulate commitment from every employee

The term employee engagement refers to an employee's level of commitment and connection to an organization. It has emerged as a key driver of business success in today's competitive marketplace. High levels of it encourage talent retention, increase customer loyalty and improve organizational performance. Here are six factors that have the greatest impact on engagement:

• The organization's leaders are committed to making it a great place to work.
• Level of trust. The organization's leaders have set and are following the right course for the company's success.
• Belief that the organization will be successful in the future.An understanding of how the employee fits into the future plans of the organization.
• Organization leaders value people as their most important resource.
• The organization makes investments to make employees more successful.
• Employees enjoy a good relationship with their supervisor.
• Employees have the necessary equipment and facilities to do their jobs well.
• Employees have the authority they need to do their jobs well.
• Employees have freedom to make work-related decisions.
• Emphasize good coordination

Coordination is the most important aspect of good management. Coordination is needed to carry out all the functions of management, ranging from planning, organizing, personnel management, implementation and control. Teams often underperform due to lack of coordination. If objectives are not well defined or communicated clearly, it becomes difficult to work as a team. It is important to define the expected goals and outcomes before starting work on a project or task. It is also important to define in advance the roles of everyone on the team and what their personal tasks are. Planning ahead and communicating the plan well to all team members is another important element of coordination. As also mentioned above, timely feedback and good two-way communication for an integral part of good coordination.

Strict monitoring and tracking of progress

Making continuous monitoring is essential for your business because it helps to check mistakes and implement corrective actions, reducing deviations from standards and keeping your business management on track.

Planning without control is useless. Undoubtedly, control also helps managers monitor changes in the environment and the effects of these changes on the organizations progress.

Looking for a partner to help you motivate your staff with benefits? You can take a look at how Pluxee products can help you attract and retain employees.