Having productive employees is important in business, ut it’s not quite as simple as just finding people that work hard. If you really want to push your business forward, you need a team that works well together and collaborates effectively on projects.

You will get better results if people are sharing ideas and taking advantage of one another’s skills in the workplace. That’s why it’s so important that you encourage a culture of teamwork and collaboration in the office, but that’s harder than people realize and a lot of business owners don’t get it right. If you find that there is a lack of collaboration in your office, these are some of the best ways to encourage people to work together.

Redesign the Space

The space that people work in has a big impact on the way that they work. If you use an old fashioned cubicle system, for example, you are boxing people in and separating them. They’re far less likely to collaborate with other people in the office if things are set up in this way, which is why so many businesses are moving away from the cubicle. Instead, when you are setting up your office, you should consider something open plan, which puts everybody together. Bring down those barriers between departments and create a space that makes it easy for people to move around and work together.

Introduce the Right Tools

When it comes to collaboration, you can make things so much easier if you invest in the right tools. It’s always important that you put money into business technology solutions to make things easier for your employees, and one area that you should always focus on is collaboration tools. Project management software and live chat systems improve communication and foster collaboration amongst your employees, and when you implement them, you should see a big increase in teamwork.

Improve the Company Culture

The company culture is so important when it comes to encouraging teamwork and collaboration. If you create a strong culture of community and shared responsibility around the office, people will be far more engaged and invested in the overall success of the business. That means that people will be more likely to pull together and collaborate on projects that help the business to thrive.

Encourage Socializing

Not everybody wants to be best friends with the people that they work with, and that’s fine, but you should try to encourage some socializing amongst employees. If people have a good relationship outside of work, that translates to a good working relationship when they are in the office. They will feel more comfortable around one another and they will get to know who they work well with. Sometimes, people will be reluctant to socialize and if you try to force it too much, it won’t work. But if you arrange work outings from time to time, you can encourage people to build strong working relationships.

These are all simple ways that you can improve collaboration around the office and push your business forward.