Small businesses rely on small teams to get work done, win over new clients, and create and implement an effective business strategy. But none of these goals can be met without collaboration and communication. While all businesses face challenges when it comes to collaboration, small businesses face even greater hurdles. Small Businesses are less likely to have a strong internal brand carried by hundreds or thousands of employees, staff may be positioned across multiple locations, and the business might not have the budget for fostering layered team culture initiatives like large enterprise.
If you own a small business, that doesn't mean there is nothing you can do. Employ these four cost-effective strategies for inviting, encouraging, and initiating collaboration across your business.
Strategy #1: Create a Flexible Work Schedule with Overlapping Windows
First, consider periods where collaboration happens in real time. For basic work, you can leave comments in documents and instant messages that are responded within 24 hours. Though true collaboration and a productive back-and-forth of ideas require everyone to be present. This presence can be physical or virtual, but it needs to be in real time.
Even companies with flexible remote work terms can make this happen. For fully remote teams, have them schedule their preferred work windows—but require set periods where there's overlap. It may be that everyone on the same team is present on Tuesday afternoons or everyone on a particular product line is available Thursday and Friday mornings. Deliberately creating these windows means meetings have live attendance, certain projects can have dedicated work times throughout the week, and collaboration is simply more practical.
Strategy #2: Pay Workers for Attending Team-Building Activities (Or Host Them During Work)
Most workers are unenthused about team-building activities—and there's good reason for that. After-hours dinners and cocktail hours take away from their personal time. Any extra activities add to their workload, making a rush to leave on time or even making them stay working outside their normal windows.
Remove the shadow of unenthusiastic obligation by truly setting time aside for team-building. Make it part of everyone's roles and responsibilities, and if you have a Monday morning collaborative exercise, the workload should be adjusted to accommodate this. If you have hourly employees and contractors, the answer is even simpler: pay them for the hours spent attending team-building activities. These events should set the tone for collaboration and internal communication, and they should have a high ROI. If they do, then paying for them or accounting for the hours they take is a no-brainer.
Strategy #3: Choose Your Coworking Space Carefully
Coworking spaces are a tremendously valuable investment in your company. They offer the in-person face-time and productivity-focused settings of a custom-designed office—but without the high lease costs and heavy commute times of a conventional office. There are also many types of coworking spaces available, so you can choose the right fit for your unique business.
Consider factors like:
- Location: Metroplexes like Miami and New York City are big—too big for teams to always travel to one location. Look for coworking spaces with subscriptions and lots of localized in-town locations in their networks.
- Hospitality-driven coworking space features: Spaces that offer free coffee, easy access to meals and snacks, lobbies for chatting, and other aspects of hospitality make the work environment more pleasant. (It also means your employees will take fewer off-premises breaks that last too long.)
- Variety of spaces: Everyone works differently, and even the same person needs different types of workspaces. Opt for coworking environments that have public work tables, private meeting spaces, conference rooms, and single offices.
Strategy #4: Use Tech Tools That Foster Collaboration
Finding the right tools is the icing on the collaboration cake. Make sure your tech stack includes secure options for instant messaging, group chats, video calls, and more. Creating a knowledge center with modifiable documents, forums, and FAQs can make collaboration even simpler.
Make Quest Workspaces a Key Component of Your Internal Collaboration Strategies
Collaboration is a key best practice for businesses. Create the right physical environments that make collaboration easier. This includes conveniently located coworking spaces where employees can settle in, get to work, and meet in person.
Reach out to Quest Workspaces to learn more about our Miami, Tampa, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Broward, and New York City locations.
