How can you use collaboration platforms to motivate your employees?

When productivity drops, what can you do to motivate your employees?

Although a much over-used term, motivation means you need to provide opportunities for a person to be excited and inspired about their work.

It sounds simply enough, however, creating an atmosphere in which your team feels empowered and engaged takes time and energy.

Motivation is a topic that leaves many businesses cold, those businesses that follow the lead of hard-pressed managers who believe they already know the proven ways to motivate a group of people to work better and harder.

But a successful business is a family of satisfied workers. Tweet

Providing constructive feedback, listening to your employees, and giving them a plenty of opportunity to grow, develop, learn and create, is what the best managers are already doing intuitively.

But what if this isn’t enough?

Knowledgeable and organized leaders can still fail to motivate their employees. Today’s modern business environment calls for new tools, such as collaboration platforms. Small and middle-sized businesses reap many benefits from collaboration tools.

The advantages of collaboration platforms stem from the fact that communication is their key benefit. The ways of communication we once knew have changed radically, now, we employ different technologies to convey the message.

When we think in terms of motivation and business, communication is the foundation of a professional relationship. 

Some might argue that only face-to-face communication is fostering motivation, however, although necessary in times, for remote workforce, communication happens on a different, yet equally powerful, level. 

But what communication has to do with motivating your employees?

When and if communication flows freely, employees feel free to express their ideas and to ask and give feedback.

Supporting employees and supporting their ideas is one of the most powerful ways of motivation.

Even if their suggestions and proposals aren’t acceptable at the given moment, the effort must be noted. It is equally important for managers and employees to know they can freely express their ideas or give and receive a negative feedback. Such atmosphere eliminates tension and creates a pleasant working environment and creative spirit.

Clear communication is key to successful teamwork and collaboration platforms have great tools, such as online meetings, that cultivate open dialogue, which, on the other hand, can encourage a culture of open two-way interaction.

If you wish your business to move forward, embrace the concept of freedom. Tweet

Every business establishes accepted “norms”. Having a clear set of rules and defined roles is an asset; however, you have to allow your people to experiment with new ideas or to take small risks even if those ideas could fall outside of their roles.

To unleash capabilities, a person needs passion and initiative, and without freedom, creativity is locked. Another great advantage of collaboration platforms is a chance to experiment with the working method, to test the roles and have a clearer idea whether your accepted set of rules should change and how. 

For each employee, there is a different way of working method and practice.

As we have different learning methods, we also implement different working methods. Each team member will likely have a different way of working and approach. Some may be better team members and some may accomplish more when working alone, thus, it’s important to inspire the team spirit in every member.

Apart from the fact that you should invest in the right collaboration technology, it’s important to understand and realize how your employees work.

Different working methods and routines can quickly turn communication and collaboration into a messy, time-wasting process.

Collaboration platform helps bring structured working approach, the approach that each member of the team can understand and work accordingly.

The best collaboration tools are those that allow flexibility and help people work in their style while maintaining the structure of the project.

The best technology is easy-to-use and intuitive. The possibilities are endless, and such approach to work, productivity and motivation is set on rise especially because we are becoming more mobile.

A collaboration platform is a modern workplace and make sure you use all its benefits.