Researchers show that 86% of executives and employees cite poor team collaboration as the key reason for failure in the workplace.
This percentage is well-justified. After all, recruitment teams alone link effective team collaboration with the following benefits:
- Easier onboarding;
- Improved team culture;
- Innovative problem solving;
- Facilitated knowledge sharing;
- Better productivity and work performance;
- Higher engagement, motivation, and morale.
- But, challenges such as silo mentality, information overload, outdated tools, and resistance to change often stand in the way of such effective team collaboration.
Yet, as much as 39% of workers still believe that their teams can collaborate better.
So, how can your recruitment team overcome challenges and collaborate better?
In this article, we’ll talk about 6 strategies that will help you improve collaboration in your recruitment team.
1. Define clear team goals
To establish effective team collaboration, you’ll first need to understand what you are striving for. In other words, you’ll need to clarify your team goals:
Do you want to find top-notch candidates?
Do you want to decrease the new hire failure rate?
Do you want to improve candidate engagement during recruitment campaigns?
Whatever your goals may be, it’s always best to make them S.M.A.R.T. — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound:
- To make goals Specific, ensure you understand what you want to accomplish, and why;
- To make goals Measurable, ensure you can measure your progress towards the goals;
- To make goals Achievable, ensure you have the power to achieve them;
To make goals Relevant, ensure they are important for the success of your organization;
To make goals Time-bound, ensure it’s possible to create a timetable to compare progress with expectations.
When everyone understands what you are striving for as a team, it will be easier to direct the right efforts towards the expected results.
2. Define clear team roles and responsibilities
Once you understand what you are striving for, you’ll need to understand who should be in charge of what. In other words, you’ll need to clarify the roles your teammates play and the responsibilities they have in pursuing team goals:
Who will be in charge of writing job descriptions?
Who will be in charge of screening candidates?
Who will be in charge of interviewing candidates?
Who will be in charge of extending offers to candidates?
It’s best that you assign roles and responsibilities based on your teammates’ strengths. After all, everyone has specific skills and talents that fit in with the specific roles and responsibilities relevant to your recruitment team. Playing to those skills and talents not only places the right tasks into the hands that will produce the best results, but it also makes your teammates feel valued for their unique qualities. This, in turn, decreases employee turnover.
When everyone understands what they need to do, you reduce unnecessary repeat work and increase productivity.
3. Foster the right team collaboration skills
To foster effective collaboration, your recruitment team will need to foster 5 crucial team collaboration skills: effective communication, open-mindedness, organization, adaptability, and respect.
Effective communication is the backbone of effective collaboration. This skill helps teammates:
- provide clarity and direction;
- build trust and transparency;
- solve or even prevent problems;
- increase productivity and engagement.
Open-mindedness is the key to team growth. This skill helps teammates:
- is the key to proper team time management. This skill helps teammates:
- coordinate interdependent work;
- organize work by importance and urgency;
- organize work in accordance with available time.
Being adaptable is the key to dealing with challenges. This skill helps teammates:
- shift focus as they shift priorities;
- stay on track with innovations;
- think and act in the moment.
Being respectful is the key to maintaining team equality. This skill helps teammates:
- overcome prejudices;
- facilitate group discussions;
- avoid or reduce conflicts;
- reduce stress.
Teams can learn and practice these skills in dedicated meetings and training sessions.
4. Foster clear and open communication
We‘ve already highlighted effective communication as a crucial collaboration skill. And, to make communication effective, you’ll need to invest active effort into making communication within your team open and clear.
Make it a habit to provide direct, honest, and constructive feedback. Also, aim to attentively listen to, understand, reflect on, and follow up on the feedback you receive.
Recognize accomplishments publicly to help teammates understand their hard work is appreciated and to motivate them to continue working with the same quality.
Introduce several appropriate channels of communication to facilitate effective communication and ensure everyone stays well-connected — even if your team operates remotely.
Your solutions may include an internal blog you’ll use for company-wide announcements. A chat app you’ll use for instant messaging. An employee feedback system you’ll use to gather feedback. A project management system you’ll use to communicate project details and deadlines.
In the end, facilitate clear and open communication by clarifying that there are no stupid questions or ideas. Everyone in your team should feel safe to reach out to any other teammate, without the fear of judgment.
5. Accommodate different collaboration styles
People in your recruitment team will likely have different ideas about what good team collaboration means. Because of this, it’s important to understand personal preferences and work with these differences in mind.
The differences in collaboration styles you’ll need to account for include:
- people’s priorities while working in a group;
- people’s key motivators;
- how people handle conflicts;
- how people approach discussions;
- what people refuse to compromise on in work.
Based on these parameters, we recognize 4 different collaboration styles you should accommodate: Directors, Harmonizers, Initiators, and Analysts.
Directors prioritize getting things done as fast as possible. Their main motivator is excelling past competition and achieving success. They deal with conflict by asserting their opinions, but they still let the best idea win. They are direct and decisive in discussions. They refuse to compromise on results.
Harmonizers prioritize democracy in teamwork. Their main motivator is appreciation from others. They deal with conflict by looking for compromises. They are patient and cooperative in discussions. They refuse to compromise on the relationships they build while working.
Initiators prioritize exploring new ideas. Their main motivators are interesting tasks and experiences. They deal with conflict by seeking opinions from third parties. They are lively and energetic in discussions. They refuse to compromise on ideas.
Analysts prioritize details. Their main motivator is gaining knowledge in areas of interest. They deal with conflict by processing the situation and approaching it with logic. They are systematic and thoughtful in discussions. They refuse to compromise on quality.
Once you understand what types of collaboration styles apply to your teammates, you’ll have the knowledge you need to plan group work and pair up complementary teammates for specific tasks.
6. Organize team-building activities
The final strategy you need to implement to improve the way teammates work together is — to enable them to have some fun together.
Team-building activities are a great solution to help teams socialize, connect, and build the motivation to strive towards common goals. The highlight benefit of team-building activities is improved communication. Namely, researchers at MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory have found that teams who socialize improve their communication patterns by 50%.
Team-building activities may focus on vital skills such as:
- communication;
- planning;
- time management;
- solving problems;
- making decisions;
- adapting to change;
- building trust.
You can organize these activities in the office or conduct them online. So, it’s easy for both on-site and remote recruitment teams to organize some fun team-building activities at any time.
Conclusion
Efficient team collaboration is crucial for team success. And, to improve collaboration within your teams, you’ll need to implement the right strategies.
So, establish clear goals, roles, and responsibilities. Strive to facilitate open and clear communication. Work on improving key collaboration skills, and accommodating different collaboration styles. Let your teammates bond through team-building activities. As a result, you’ll improve collaboration within your recruitment team, and enjoy the benefits of great teamwork.
