As an employer or team manager, the number one thing you need to be striving for is a cohesive team who get along and work well together. It sounds simplistic in nature, but there are a lot of factors that go into creating a team who work together is a uniform, respectful, and productive manner.
Firstly, you need to look at who you’re hiring. If you have two dominant characters on the team, there’s a good chance they won’t get along because they’ll clash. With this in mind, you need to seriously consider the hiring process to ensure you’re setting the foundations for a good team off the bat.
Even then, there’s always a chance your team won’t gel or get along with each other. In this case, you may need to step in and assist them in building good relationships with each other. It can be hard for new members of your team to settle in, specifically if the rest of your team are already established, so it’s even more important that you put in motion plans to help your team work better together.
If you’re struggling, here are some tips you can implement.
Organize a job swap day
One of the greatest discords amongst teams is when people don’t understand what other people on the team do. For example, you might find that your sales and marketing teams don’t necessarily gel because certain members of the team might not understand how does marketing help sales and vice versa.
With this in mind, it’s a good idea to organize a job swap day. This involves different team members taking on different roles to better understand what their colleagues do of a day and what the pressures are that they face. The benefit of a job swap lies in the fact that it can help employees understand what their colleagues need from them, and this can result in improved efficiency across the workplace. It can also help members take accountability for their actions when they can see how it impacts other people.
Invest in team building
A lot of people shudder at the thought of team building, but it can really help. Doing a challenge that gets people out of the office and working together is a good way to build trust and relationships in a neutral environment, and it’s always good to get out of the office every now and then.
Arrange out-of-hours gatherings
Your team spend the majority of their week together, so It’s important there’s an element of friendship between them. With this in mind, we recommend arranging out-of-hours meet-ups. This could be a meal, it could be bowling, or it could be a night out. Whatever you choose, it allows your employees to get to know each other on a personal level, and this can help them better understand how each person works and can ultimately result in workplace efficiency and productivity.
Have team meetings
Our final tip to help your employees work together better is to host team meetings. In a similar manner to a job swap day, team meetings can give everyone an idea as to what each person has going on each day, helping them to manage workloads and improve communication. A lot of workplace conflict comes from a lack of understanding and communication, but team meetings at the beginning of each day can help to improve both of these things and minimize potential disagreements.
Summary
You could find that some colleagues simply don’t get along, but implementing the above tips can better the chances of everyone working together better.
