How many times has a great idea gotten lost or buried in the avalanche of communications between employees at your company? The truth is it's nearly impossible to know that number without browsing through endless blogs, emails, meeting notes and audio/video files of project and group gatherings. Yet this is often what team members find themselves doing in order to retrieve that next big idea from a previous meeting or correspondence.
The underlying problem in this chaotic scenario is lack of centralization and lack of organization - and that isn't a knock on employees. That's just how business is conducted unless there's a better way.
Well, now there is a better way to manage projects and actually increase productivity among team members - thanks to technology, of course. This is the dawn of the social business age where a collaborative, socially powered platform can provide all the tools a project team needs any time, from any device.
The power of social collaboration platforms
When each member of a team has the power to contact other members instantly, share ideas, update progress and coordinate efforts all within a single platform, ideas spread and projects advance more quickly. Enterprise social collaboration enhances communications by creating a space for out-of-the-box brainstorming that can be captured and shared with everyone. No idea is ever lost. Even better, those ideas become searchable entities, with tags to categorize by subject, project or theme.
Imagine no one ever having to waste time again searching for old meeting notes, document iterations, status updates or feedback on a project. With a consolidated and searchable platform that organizes all of a company's assets and information, employees and workflows become more productive!
Employees at the front lines charged with project deadlines have always looked for new ways to optimize efficiency. They've realized the value of using LinkedIn, Dropbox, Google+ and Skype to organize and speed up communications to get a job done faster. However, managing multiple platforms can just as easily hinder productivity, because employees have to manage multiple log-ins, have dozens of browser tabs open and waste time trying to figure out what information is in which platform.
An enterprise social collaboration tool brings all of these features and capabilities together in one location. With everything available in a single, consolidated platform, operations are streamlined and productivity gets a boost. One browser tab. One password. No worries.
The age of empowered employees
Using a social collaboration platform helps workplaces stay organized with a centralized and accessible information repository dedicated to solving your organization's communication and collaboration challenges. Even better, implementing this type of culture reduces micromanagement. Employees are empowered to self-organize, share ideas, communicate with one another and add input to improve processes.
In traditional, non-social, non-collaborative work environments, employees frequently feel limited by information silos and structured hierarchies. With social collaboration platforms, all employees can feel equally confident participating in conversations and idea threads where they can share their expertise and voice their opinions. This results in more innovative ideas, suggestions and comments for improvement can be added to the mix, which will ultimately improve an organization and its offerings.
Gone are the days where being social at work was seen as a productivity buzz-kill and a waste of time. Now, 'social time' in the workplace doesn't mean hanging around a water cooler gossiping - it has taken its rightful seat as a catalyst of improved collaboration and increased efficiency. Don't miss out on everything that a social collaboration tool can bring to your business - and next time you see a team of employees socializing at the office, join in the fun!