Every individual might be different in their mental structure and ideologies. But when you are looking at a generation exposed to similar conditioning, there are evident traits that fall beyond the rules of idiosyncrasy.   

In case of a Millennial it is vitamin T! T for technology.

Given the fact that they bloom well in the presence of technology, they also think along the same lines when it comes to choosing a workplace.

If you believe you can treat a millennial employee just like the way you deal with Baby Boomers, you need to think again!

With the world being more connected in the present age, ambitions have evolved to become more purpose centric and not just some means to accumulate wealth. Millennial workforce craves a culture rich work environment!

And Brands are yearning for millennial attention.

Here is how you can tweak your work culture to meet millennial standards.

Managing Millennials At Workplace

Every time, there is a discussion about employee engagement in a company, you get to hear two sides of the story. The discussion revolves around the need of having an employee engagement software.

While it is good to have such discussions, you should know that software assists seamlessly in terms of goal tracking, surveys, employee feedback, analytics, recognition and a lot more.

With a reliable employee engagement software, you get all the benefits to enhance your work culture and productivity.

Here are more reasons why you shouldn’t stop yourself from investing in employee engagement software.

Read Also: 10 Competent Steps to Improve Employee Engagement

1. Saves money and time

Most modern-age engagement software types include administration facility from a third-party. This way, you receive proven and trusted support to manage employee engagement.

The template designs and survey models become available in a customizable manner. So, you don’t have to worry about aligning software with your business model.

Anayse productivity with wifi attendance ad banner

Apart from that, you receive educational resources, customer support for employees and admins as well. Instant messaging, email and other integrated facilities help you save money and time altogether.

2. Protects data and increases usage

With correct software selection, you won’t be feeling worried about the confidentiality issues. Advanced software solutions provide complete protection to your data.

At the same time, you can receive proven and validated strategies for employee engagement. Employee demographics become available, which assists in increasing the engagement quicker, in an effective manner.    

3. Lets you customize content again and again

Content customization becomes extremely simple with reliable software. You receive phone, paper, and online survey choices to pick from. Similarly, the design and questions become customizable.

You can design your content towards brand recognition or make it about individual engagement, depending on your business needs.

In fact, the whole performance strategy of your company gets aligned with the content. For instance, you can utilize language translation to make your content effective in all branches and useful for all employees.

4. Dynamic reporting

Most employee engagement software solutions also provide custom reporting. You can slice and filter reports in different ways to evaluate the success rate of your engagement strategies.

The reports inform about the usage rates, real-time response and other forms of results, which help you upgrade your strategies from time to time.

5. Increased productivity of your employees

Beyond the communication aspect of such software, your employees receive reactions from each other and all the clients quickly through online connectivity.

This allows them to quickly resolve problems, collaborate efficiently and have clear communication. This increases the feeling of working as a team. Employees learn to see the vast overview and feel motivated to work in the right direction.

When you engage your employees like this, it naturally increases their productivity. People in your company begin to feel valued and needed. They contribute more and feel satisfied with the responsibilities you put on their shoulders.

Read Also: How To Build Great Work Relationships

6. Helps you hear employees’ voices

With the ability to receive feedbacks, conduct surveys and provide support, you will be able to hear the voice of your employees. An employee engagement software induces co-working, which becomes beneficial for new hires.

At the same time, you understand the problems faced by the employees and find solutions for them. Their suggestions and feedback give you the ability to enhance your management approach.

7. Helps new employees feel comfortable

Entering a huge organization, a new employee feels intimidated for an initial period. This feeling restricts the ability to learn and implement the skills that they already have. At the same time, you wish for the new employee to quickly become a part of the team and start making valuable contributions.

All these scenarios make employee engagement furthermore important for the new employees you hire. Getting feedback from them is important and software allows you to ensure that. You convey that their personal opinions and past experiences matter.

A newly hired employee decides whether he or she wants to work for your company in the long run. So, you need to plan and implement an engagement strategy for them.

8. Employee Retention

Employees don’t leave a job just for salary increment, health insurance, and other traditional reasons. The lack of recognition, diminished value, and bad relationships are the reasons why your company also loses employees.

If people feel they have no place in company’s goals, they look for a new job. An engagement software for employees can open new gates for team members and business leaders to connect with each other.

This connection increases the numbers of feedbacks and also enhances recognition. Hence, employees feel satisfied with their position in your company, which increases employee retention rates.

9. Higher attendance and profitability

Disengaged employees don’t think twice before asking for leave. They don’t feel connected to the goals of your organization. So, spending time with friends seems more exciting.

But no employee wants to feel let down. You can make them come to work with a positive attitude, using a modern-age engagement strategy.

When your employees come to work every day in a happy mood, they make customers happy. This increases leads and sales, which enhances your organization’s profitability.

Read Also: How to Build a Better Company Culture

10. Improved company culture

Adding a modern-age employee engagement software conveys your care for the employees. Job hunters look for companies that make efforts to improve the quality of work culture. Highly skilled candidates make their decisions by comparing the work culture in various organizations.

When you know all that, it is logical to improve your company culture by implementing an employee engagement strategy, using a reliable software technology. 

Now, you know all the reasons to invest in software for employee engagement. After this, you can spend time evaluating your options to choose the best software.

The solutions should align with your business model, company policies and also with the requirements of your employees. So, conduct discussions to come up with a clear strategy.

When it comes to conducting exit interviews with candidates, it is more about finding out the reason as to why the employee wanted to terminate his relationship with the company than about getting him or her to stay on.

It is widely recognized that a properly conducted exit interview can provide you with actionable data, and useful information that you can use to streamline your business and even help you take effective measures to retain talent in the form of other employees at your office. 

Read Also: 15 Employer Interview Techniques To Find The Best Employees 2019

A properly conducted exit interview can provide you with valuable feedback on the company and what you can do to improve it further – but keep in mind that exit interviews are done to gauge the reason behind the resignation rather than to force an employee to stay on. Here are a few tips on how to conduct an employee exit interview –

The Interview

The first question that should pop into your head is as to who conducts the interview. Generally speaking, it is always advisable for the HR head to conduct the interview and from a logical viewpoint, it makes perfect sense.

The HR head was the one who vetted the employee when he joined up, based on his abilities, strengths and would indeed be the right person to conduct the exit interview as well.

The HR would be more than familiar with the employees’ file, his performance at the office since he joined up, and if the size of the company is quite small, then the CEO himself can conduct the interview.

The point is that the employee feels comfortable in sharing honest feedback regarding the company with someone in charge, someone he knows who may listen to the same.

Anayse productivity with wifi attendance ad banner

In the same vein, it would not be a good idea to let the employee’s direct head conduct the exit interview as the employee may not feel inclined to be either frank or honest regarding the feedback or his reasons for leaving the company in the first place.

The questions to ask

Remember that an exit interview is where you gauge the real reason that the employee is quitting in the first place and get him to communicate his views regarding the company. This feedback assumes importance since you can use the same to improve the performance of your company.

And when it comes to the exit interview, it is always good to prepare beforehand and have a template of questions that you can ask the employee.

Of course, the first one also happens to be one of the most common questions that are asked at every employee exit interview, “reasons for leaving?”

In addition, the last one is often quickly followed with “have you shared your concerns regarding the company with anyone”. The point here is that most of the questions are engineered to obtain you a real picture of events, the real reason as to why the employee is leaving and whether he is not comfortable working there any longer.

In fact, you can question the employee as to whether there has been any single event at the office that had caused him to resign, as that should give you a good idea.

And remember to design your questions so that it covers the key areas that you value in your company. And to round things up, you can ask the concerned employee for his feedback by asking him for advice/ suggestions regarding the company and how it currently operates.

Online/offline

Companies these days trend more towards collecting all and most information online. For one, it makes it easier to store data and for another, it enables most companies to utilize and access the same at a later point and even run complex algorithms on it to understand various aspects of the same.

But when it comes to exit interviews, it is always a good idea to conduct it in person rather than through an online form.

As pointed out earlier, an exit interview can provide you with valuable feedback regarding your company and its performance and conducting the same through an online form is going to cause a lot of angst and frustration for the employee.

An employee needs to feel valued and his opinion heard and conducting an online interview is going to cause him to feel ignored and he would be averse to sharing his honest feedback on any online form.

Given this, you may want to conduct the interview in person as the employee would feel validated to an extent and would be keener to share his experiences and feedback with those in charge.

All of this would lead to a positive departure and the employee is more than likely to recommend your company to others as well.

Read Also: 17 Strategies to Improve Communication at Workplace

The approach

This can be a little harder, but generally the most advisable way is to approach the interview confidently and assure the employee that anything and everything he states would remain strictly confidential.

Most employees are often scared, to be frank since they immediately assume that too much frankness can cost them their future prospects elsewhere.

You need to reassure them that any information will remain confidential and will not affect them or their future prospects in any way whatsoever.

You also need to inform the concerned employee and let him know that any feedback he shares will not be communicated directly with his boss or his last team.

Moreover, that any feedback he provides would be shared with the top leadership, as a way to help them perform better and to get them to iron out the kinks (if any).

Summarize

One of the most effective ways to get an employee to share his or her feedback lies in getting them to summarize their working experience.

You can get them to write it down and that should provide you with a good idea as to their current state of mind, reasons that they feel they cannot work in the same company as before and their feedback on their current manager and the rest of their team.

It is always a sound idea to get them to summarize everything and it should provide you with a honest feedback on your company and its current operational setup.

Discard all documentation:

In order to assure the employee that all information would remain confidential, you may want to discard all documentation regarding the interview at the conclusion of the same.

Of course, you may want to retain your official jottings on the interview but the other papers you can discard and even shred the same.

You may want to do this in front of the employee to assure them of the confidentiality of the exit interview itself and that they need not fear any adverse impact on their future careers because of the interview.

Assessment

Once the interview is complete, you need to assess all the information that you were presented with and see if there are ways that you can improve your current organization.

For example, if the employee had valid concerns to convey earlier on but could not do so as there was no official recourse, and is quitting as a result of the same – you may want to make some changes, starting with enabling employees to raise any issue they may come across in the office with the personnel department.

You may also want to check and see if the exit interview provides you with ways as to how you can streamline your business. For example, the employee may have suggested a direct management role in marketing – that is something that you may want to think about, as it affects your company directly.

Read Also: 10 Challenges Faced by HR Managers and How to Tackle Them

Exit interviews are important as they can help provide you with valuable information on how your company operates now.

Please remember that an exit interview is not about determining the truth behind what the employee had to add but in finding out the real reason he is leaving and to determine whether there is anything you can do to help improve your company.

In fact, a well-conducted exit interview can even help make you more competitive.

Working as a team is important for any organization to reach the goals within minimal time frame. However, all members of a team may not be working from a single office but may be scattered in many parts of the globe.

This can be really challenging when it comes to collaboration including team communication, work flow and project management. There are many online collaboration tools available now which can be really handy during these times.

Whether it is file sharing, documentation, design or even organized remote communication, there are specific tools that can make the job easy and more organized.

Are you looking for amazing online collaboration tools to enhance your team productivity? Then have a look at this huge list of the top rated tools for the job.  

Read Also: Top 26 Apps For Internal Employee Communication in 2019

1.Yammer

Collaborating across locations, departments and business apps is no more a problem as this private social network can be handy. You can create groups and share posts. All what you need to access your venture’s Yammer network is an email id from the particular company’s domain.

2. Asana

All employees of your team can log on to this cloud platform, provided they have a WiFi connection. This project management tool lets you have an overview of all current projects and the three panel dashboard lets you access any data of a particular project.

3. Slack

Remote teams can make use of this power house messaging app to improve their communication. It comes with numerous bots and powerful integrations and operates in channels. Tracking and archiving conversations will be easy through channel options.

Anayse productivity with wifi attendance ad banner

Remote teams can make use of this power house messaging app to improve their communication. It comes with numerous bots and powerful integrations and operates in channels. Tracking and archiving conversations will be easy through channel options.

4. LiquidPlanner

This project management tool is particularly designed to help technology teams. Tool’s flexibility is the key and team can use it to collaborate seamlessly, organize projects in a better way and track time taken for completion of projects.

This project management tool is particularly designed to help technology teams. Tool’s flexibility is the key and team can use it to collaborate seamlessly, organize projects in a better way and track time taken for completion of projects.

5. Skype

This is one of the most common communication tools used by business professionals for its awesome features and free accessibility. Audio and video calls can be made despite the type of devices used on both sides. Group call feature can be a good help during group discussions on projects remotely.

6. Airtable

Creating and editing of databases can be done in a better way with this project management tool. You can easily sort out project elements by organizing information in tables. Collaboration is well supported as it allows creating and saving custom views.

7. Hipchat

Your team collaboration can be made more efficient with this private hosted chat service. Unlike group chat, this tool allows for collaborating tasks and docs by uploading it according to individual convenience. Video chat feature can be initiated from any device allowing you to communicate with the team on the go.

8. Basecamp

This project management tool is ideal for smaller business teams to manage their work decently. This very affordable software is powerful but comes with simple and easy to use features. The tool has a very minimal learning curve.

9. Google Hangouts

If your venture is on a budget, you can go for Google Hangouts to help you move on. Hangouts on Air allow you to record the Hangout so that you can view it later on your convenience. The privacy feature lets you to hide the public display of Hangouts.

10. Confluence

This wiki platform lets you to share and upload documents and create pages for your team. It features an internal documentation library and an easy-to-use interface. It also features good storage and search capabilities to effectively manage data on past, present and future projects.

11. GoToMeeting

Hosting a meeting with your customers or colleagues is a lot easier than you think if you choose to use GoToMeeting.You can simply launch a meeting from anywhere despite whether it is instant messaging or emails and features one click recording.         

12. Soapbox

It is a user friendly screen recording tool known for its ease of use. Its option to simultaneously do webcam recording and screen recording makes it a unique option. During editing, you can add transitions and share video via a thumbnail in any web page through a link.

It is a user friendly screen recording tool known for its ease of use. Its option to simultaneously do webcam recording and screen recording makes it a unique option. During editing, you can add transitions and share video via a thumbnail in any web page through a link.

13. Invision

The design collaboration with your team can be made easy with this enterprise grade prototyping tool. From uploading designs to gathering feedbacks, everything related to design can be made remotely. In fact, projects can be managed from a single dashboard.

14. GanttPRO

This is a user friendly web-based project planning tool which is designed to work on the basis of Gantt charts. Its intuitive UX/UI design makes anyone an advanced user of the software in merely few minutes. It comes with a resource management feature and you can create and assign task to individuals.

15. LastPass

This online password manager lets you track the many numbers of passwords and usernames needed for your project with ease.  There is no limit for number of passwords that can be stored and provide syncing option across devices

16. Concept Inbox

This is a comprehensive visual design collaboration tool that helps to manage project designs remotely. It keeps track of versions and enables everyone to keep up the speed. With email notifications and in-context annotations, the app allows real time feedback on prototypes.

17. Filestage

This user friendly collaboration application is a good option to streamline the review and approval processes and improves internal and external communication. The tool helps you to get feedback from clients on desired documents and enhance the quality of conversations based on feedbacks.

18. Google Docs

Collaborating, editing, sharing and publishing any kind of documents with remote teams is easy with Google Docs. Creating spreadsheets, presentations or blog posts are a lot easy with this tool. All these can be done free of cost.

19. Cage

This tool for smaller business and teams allows sharing of files with customers in an easy and more organized way.Assigning and managing tasks are made simpler and visual comments can be made on the design making the project more interactive.

20. Sketch

It is a comprehensive tool for UX design deliverables aiding web design professionals. Designers can simply create a design once and use it whenever needed in future. Flexible design elements can be made with nested symbols.

21. Prevue

Creating beautiful presentations with your clients or customers is no more a big deal if you use Prevue. In fact, presenting the project and getting the client feedback is almost possible in real time with this app.

Creating beautiful presentations with your clients or customers is no more a big deal if you use Prevue. In fact, presenting the project and getting the client feedback is almost possible in real time with this app.

22. WebEx

Managers who host the meeting with their remote employees can use this tool to share their desktop with them easily. It features face-to-face live video option and even the control of keyboard and mouse can be transferred to any presenters if desired.

23. Office Online

Startups looking for a quality tool for basic documentation and editing can go for this free version of Microsoft’s original Office suite. Even when there are some limitations when compared to paid version, you can get the best out of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Onenote for free.

24. Usersnap

This bug tracking software enables your team to report bugs in the browser. The time for communication can be reduced as it can be seamlessly integrated with existing workflows. Feedbacks for website prototypes and design drafts can be easily made.

Read Also: 15 Tools for Improving Employee Productivity

25. Etherpad

This is a comprehensive collaborative editing tool that works in real time which is available for free. This Open Source online editor is highly customisable and clients and customers can write and edit the documents in same time.

26. SugarSync

In addition to taking back up of your file, SugarSync allows you to maintain even the folder structure unlike many similar tools. This helps to know exactly where your desired files are and access it pretty easily.

27. Google Drive

Easy and quick organization of files is possible with this awesome tool and you can share the desired files with your team anytime. You can store up to 15 GB of files for free including any digital files and team can access it from any device.

28. Nimble

With this tool, your social media contacts and address book can be combined into a CRM solution for sales and marketing. It features group messaging options and provide insights into who has clicked or opened the messages.

With this tool, your social media contacts and address book can be combined into a CRM solution for sales and marketing. It features group messaging options and provide insights into who has clicked or opened the messages.

29. OneDrive

This is one of the top class file sharing tools from Microsoft which offers 5 GB for free and another 50GB if you pay. This comes pre-installed on Windows 10 which is compatible with all devices. Accessing and sharing files is allowed despite PC, Mac, Android, and iOS.

30. ProofHub

This comprehensive tool enables your team to stay more productive at work as it offers anything and everything required to plan and run the projects. You can even set dependencies on tasks in addition to adding people and assigning roles of team members.

31. Dropbox

Syncing your work is a lot easy with Dropbox despite the type of device used or where you are. The business version of the tool offers 1 terabyte space and comes with additional features like higher sharing limits and priority email support.

32. Red Pen

The visual teams can find RedPen as a really handy fast feedback tool. It allows you to receive feedback from your team and your thinking can be explained through clicks and points. Feedback from clients can be received through private links.

33. MediaFire

This is one of the simple storage and file sharing platforms with user friendly features. Even when it doesn’t offer any high end features which makes the tool complex, it serves the purpose of the actual file sharing needs to run a project decently.

34. Zoho

This is a mixture of project collaboration tools allowing clients or customers to come together and execute planning and related works all from a single place. The tool enables you to create project workspaces that help to work as a team despite their geographical location. 

35. Chanty

Seamless collaboration and communication is practical with this business messenger which is powered by AI. The handy file sharing and unlimited searchable history with instant messages can make small teams to go more productive. It features voice transcripts and audio and video calls.  

36. Podio

This powerful project management tool lets managers to run their businesses smoothly despite whether their team members belong to which all countries or time zones. They can easily have a look on their daily tasks or even see how productive their working days are.

37.Zoom

This awesome tool lets managers to perform online training and demos and collaborate virtually. It enables you to share your screen, web pages or photos and cloud content. It even comes with a white board feature and group messaging options.

38. Trello

This web-based project management tool lets managers to organize the projects using cards. The cards are organized on a board and each column signifies a part of the project. This lets you to have a glimpse on the board and check on project status.

39. join.me

This simple online meeting tool is a great option to work with remote teams with file sharing and screen sharing options. It is browser-based and so assures user friendliness and features audio and video conferencing options. All you want is a session ID on join.me to join a conference.

40. Wrike

With Wrike, you can take project management to a different level as it lets you to effectively break heavy tasks into simple goals and manageable units. Data reading is possible for analysing the time and money invested on each project and lets you easily track individual performance to the team.

41. Teamviewer

It is a comprehensive tool for telecommuting, collaboration and IT support. With just a password, admin program can even allow reverse sharing so that client can access admin computer. One can even run a portable version of TeamViewer without installation.

42. Stormboard

The digital workspace of this tool let you to minimize the number of meetings and track the progress of projects seamlessly. The tool enables you to do anything from planning a project, assigning tasks to employees, holding a meeting to setting goals, deadlines, and milestones.

43. Zipboard

Teams handling web related projects can use this visual platform for easy collaboration. Automatic updates are sent to team if a problem is reported or resolved. Screenshots of prototypes can be uploaded and feedback can be provided by team.

44. Bitbucket

This is one of the large and software repository platforms for effective project management. The tool was designed by Atlassian which justifies its popularity and it offers unlimited private repositories. With this tool, collaborating on projects is really easy for developers within enterprises.

45. GoVisually

This tool for designers is particularly meant for freelancers and small business teams to share their creative work. Receiving recommendations and feedbacks from clients is possible without the need of any logs. It lets you design files and work on multiple projects with your team from a single place. 

46. SimpleMDE

This free to use simple markdown editor is flexible to suit your specific needs. It comes with a subset of the HTML features with all the basic editing options needed during the project processing.

47. Codepen

This awesome software tool comes with the tag line “A playground for the front end web.” You can just start off the tool for free and may upgrade to higher versions for pro features. Finding inspiration or design pattern examples for your project and try building a test case for a bug is practical with this tool.  

48. Clickhelp

This browser-based documentation tool enables project managers to set up and publish FAQ tutorials or user manuals with ease. It comes with a range of pre-built templates with diverse themes. It allows integration with Google Analytics and offer support for Meta tags.

49. Mailbird

This email client for Windows makes your online communication more seamless. Other messenger platforms can be managed well as it allows third party integrations. It is known for its ease of use as the app can be learnt within 5 minutes.

50. Gitlab

This web based git repository service lets teams to secure projects on a more minute level and assures safety of projects while team is working on it. It is written in the Ruby language and comes with stand out branch protection, permissions and authentication features.

51. Moqups

This web-based wireframing solution is flexible in nature and allows managers to approach a project in a better way. The project workflow can be revolutionized using its powerful prototyping features. The interaction between assets and elements of a project can be done without switching apps.

Read Also: Top 20 Parental Control Routers to Use in 2019

Keep this awesome list of online collaboration tools as a check list which might help you whenever you are finding it challenging to collaborate with your team.

Even when a good collaboration tool can add a lot of value to your team success, choosing the right tool that serves your actual purpose is the key.

For that you will have to spend some quality time on discussing the pros and cons of the tools in question and analyze how it will help you in betterment. 

Even when a good collaboration tool can add a lot of value to your team success, choosing the right tool that serves your actual purpose is the key. For that you will have to spend some quality time on discussing the pros and cons of the tools in question and analyze how it will help you in betterment. 

Always consider tools that offer multiple features so that your team can use tool in various possible ways.  And a Cloud-based technology can be preferred as you need not worry about the version controls.

Feedback can’t ever be negative if you know how to present it in the right way. Each employee achieves something, while facing troubles in some areas of his or her work.

Feedback should help employees positively acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses. That is what positive feedback means.

With a few efforts, you can give positive and meaningful feedback to your employees.

Read Also: 35 Leadership Skills Every Manager Needs To Master

1. Go beyond “Great Job”

When an employee spends hours and hours working on a presentation, you can’t motivate just by saying a Great Job. 

It does convey that you liked the work. But you need more words to encourage that same employee to keep working with the same determination.

Adding details to your feedback and becoming specific increase the value of your feedback. You can say-

Your competitor evaluation in the presentation was exactly what we wanted to clarify our point. Amazing work!

If you see, detailing your feedback it not about saying more stuff. It is about becoming specific with what you want to convey. This clarifies the confusions in the mind of your employee. He or she will know what you expect in the future as well.

Simply saying “You did a great job” won’t tell an employee what he or she has done right. You need to clarify what you liked and which areas require more work.

2. Create a comfortable environment

Positive feedback can have some point, in which, an employee has to work on. To positively represent your feedback, you need to create a comfortable environment first.

No need to publicly advertise a feedback ever. Feedback should be a private, one-on-one conversation between you and your employee.

A one-on-one conversation gives more meaning to your praises and criticism. You create a calm and relaxed environment where your employee can think about everything you say right at that moment.

This conveys your support to employees in growing their skills and abilities.

Even praising in private is better than advertising it. Many people don’t want to stand in the spotlight. They simply want to do their work right.

Such people want you to give your feedbacks personally in a one-on-one communication setting. However, you can judge the needs of your employee and praise some of them in front of others.

3. Merge three strengths with three concerns

You or your managers can work on creating balanced feedback with three strengths and three concerns. The strengths should contain the accomplishments of an employee, while the concerns should include areas where that employee can grow.

The strengths motivate and encourage an employee to work on the concerns and improve consistently. At the same time, the strengths also tell how to do things correctly in future. It is as if you offer a list of “what to do” and “what not to do” with your feedback.

This way, you offer positive feedback to each employee without putting too much pressure on them. Your praise makes them value your suggestions regarding the scope of improvement. So, they put more effort into improving their capabilities.

4. Give it a positive ending

The key to positive feedback is to encourage employees. For that, each employee should leave your office with a smile on his or her face.

You should end every feedback with a positive comment. Present all the scope of improvements in the beginning. Use your second half of the conversation to describe how an employee has impressed you.

Your closing comments should convey that you appreciate your employee’s contribution to the growth of the organization. Put positive thoughts into words and let each employee know how much you appreciate his or her presence in the company.

Your employee will leave your office with a positive thought and motivated mindset. This feeling will stay fresh in their mind even if the words get blurred after a few months.

Read Also: How to Improve Policy Implementation at Workplace

5. Talk about performance, not someone’s personality

When constructing statements of your feedback, make sure you don’t judge the personality of an employee. You need to comment on how they perform instead of attacking their personality characteristics.

So, instead of saying- “Your arrogance has become a problem.”

Try saying- “When you oppose my ideas during client meetings, it sends a wrong message.”

Remember that you are not there to attack your employees. You want to help them improve their capabilities in a positive way. So, don’t target their hearts, try to appeal to their minds with your feedback.

6. Give a purpose to your employee

Your feedbacks should have a forward-moving tone. It should inspire an employee to work better and improve regularly.

Which is why you need to outline your feedback with clear objectives. Sit with your managers to describe a few objectives for each employee. Then, shape those objectives in positive statements.

Convey your feedback as an outline for the future. This saves employees from regretting about what they have done wrong in the past. Their minds immediately go into an action mode. They feel they have a chance to make things right.

At the same time, you should clearly convey that all the possible support is available at the expense of the employee. Make sure each employee knows that you are there to guide and support in the process.

7. Link your feedback to an organizational impact

The strength of your feedback increases a thousand times when you align it with an organizational impact. Suppose an employee has delivered his end of work on-time for the last 6 months.

This surely has helped other departments performing better, which has increased the growth rate of the whole organization.

Simply saying that an employee is punctual with his deadlines is not effective enough. But when you describe the organizational impact of his support, it motivates him to keep working with the same determination.

To give such in-depth feedback, you first need to recognize organizational impacts of the behaviors and efforts of your employees.

Then, you can outline each individual characteristic in connection with a large organizational impact. It conveys to each employee how their small actions decide the fate of the company. So, they become more responsible.

8. Document and prepare your feedback approach in advance

The preparation of feedback should be an ongoing process for managers and higher authorities. It would be wise to keep developing performance reports consistently for each employee.

Create a list of positive assets each employee brings to the table. This way, you will know what to say when the time of giving feedback comes. Also, you can use the same reports to decide on appraisals and promotions.

Using the prepared reports, you can practice your feedback in advance. If you want, make a list of bullet points for each employee.

These bullet points can have every factor you want to talk about such as performance, achievements, job behavior, and others. This helps you choose the right words and cover everything to offer comprehensive feedback to each employee.

9. Choose the right time to give feedback

When you have some positive and constructive things to convey, find the right time. Giving positive feedback right after finishing a project or before the beginning of a project seems logical.

Your positive words further motivate your employees to improve their efforts.

Just after finishing a project successfully, you can offer your positive feedback to appreciate employees’ contributions. This allows each employee to know that their hard work has been noticed.

If you choose to give your feedbacks right before a project, your appreciative words can trigger the sense of improvement in employees. This allows each employee to use your feedback right away on a new project.

You can choose a time that suits the mindset of your employees.

Read Also: 20 Skills Required For Effective Team Management

10. Make your feedback session interactive

Your feedback session should be as interactive as possible. It will allow employees to convey their work approach, performance capabilities and the challenges they face.

At the same time, you can learn more about the reasons why some employees succeed while others struggle to perform optimally. The interactive approach also leads to some ground level ideas and plans, which helps in improving the work system as a whole.

The interactive approach becomes easier to achieve when you outline your feedback in a positive tone. Even the concerns are presented as a scope of work, which allows employees to express their conflicts.

Along with all the mentioned tips, you should also try to be as direct as possible. Give your feedbacks personally without using a messenger or a communication channel.

Also, include observations instead of interpretations. If you can accomplish all of that, it will create a growth mindset in your whole organization.

Positive feedback to your employees is fuel to perform better in the coming future. Genuine praise and genuine concern are taken positively by everyone. You just need to choose the right words without judging an employee.

You can accomplish a lot with positive feedback. So, use the mentioned ideas to improve your ability to convey them.

 

Beyond your education, your designation, and your experience, a work relationship is also career-defining factor. Despite all the professional guidelines, a workplace is ultimately about many people working together.

So, we all make an image of the people around us and they do the same about us. Your relationship with your colleagues, seniors, and juniors decides your productivity, promotional opportunities, goal achievements, pay increase and job satisfaction as well.

You can’t be too reserved or too interfering. There has to be a balance in your work relationships, which comes with effective interpersonal skills.

Read Also: How to Build a Better Company Culture

What if you avoid building work relationships?

Not working on your work relationships burns a lot of bridges professionally. A person, who simply uses his designation to put pressure on others, doesn’t earn any respectable place in a company.

Putting blame on others without offering support or a solution is another problem. These kinds of habits make you an unwanted person in your office.

People avoid working or collaborating with you on projects. This immediately impacts productivity. And eventually, you can feel left out and not appreciated in your company.

So, the question is- how to build great work relationships to obtain a satisfactory work environment?

Ways to build great work relationships

The core basis of building a great work relationship is your ability to bring positivity even in a negative situation.

Your approach to working with colleagues should be empowering and motivating for others. That is how you can unify everybody working around you.

To help with that, here are some great ways of building great work relationships:

1. Always present a problem with a potential solution

No one likes a person who only points out issues without giving any effort to solving them. You must have seen such people in your work environment.

They always know what the problems are with a team, a project, a deadline or anything else. But they never use their abilities to find even a potential solution.

This one habit can make you a bundle of negative energy at work. Your co-workers and seniors will start neglecting your point of views. This decreases professional reputation and harms future opportunities in the company.

Every time you feel the responsibility to point out an issue, present it with a clear solution. Put genuine efforts into finding actionable ways to resolve that problem. This will enhance your importance in the eyes of your bosses and co-workers.

2. Never blame publicly

When you work in a team, projects face some problems. So, you try to find the source of that problem. Sometimes, it is the system that creates an issue, while in other situations it is a colleague.

Identifying the source of a problem is necessary. However, so many people do this just to put the blame on others to hide their own mistakes.

Even if you have genuinely found the right person to blame, it would be wrong to publicly announce their mistakes. You need to make sure that only the most relevant people know about the mistakes of a colleague.

If possible, you should try to have a one-on-one with the person in a private meeting. This way, you can present the facts and also offer your support to help that person fix the problem.

Putting blames and calling out colleagues publicly create a lot of enemies in the work environment. And you don’t want that.

The more allies, the better chances you get to grow with the support of others. You can’t be a lone wolf when there are a hundred wolves working in a pack.

3. Use your verbal/nonverbal communication capabilities wisely

Using a sarcastic tone when talking to certain employees, looking away when a junior is trying to convey his or her point of view – These are negative communication signals that ruin your reputation.

We all act like a radar when it comes to reading verbal as well as nonverbal communication signals.

If a colleague hears a sarcastic tone in your voice, he might start talking bad things about you to others. If a junior feels you don’t care about his or her point of view, you won’t be able to motivate them to maximize their work efforts.

Shouting and giving an angry face to people are other two big communication issues at the workplace. You should know that there is absolutely no right time to scream at people at work.

If your personality is all about dignity and respecting other people, you won’t feel the need to scream in any situation.

4. Be a trustworthy team player

From a football field to an organization, a team runs smoothly with mutual trust. Your team members should be able to trust you. But that won’t happen if you constantly blindside your co-workers, reporting staff or your boss.

Very often, employees hide facts knowingly or unknowingly, which can put other team members in a bad spot. A work system is about a collective resolution of problems to achieve a common goal.

You need to understand and apply this in daily work approach. Always make sure that every relevant persongets information directly from you. These relevant people are everyone involved in a work system.

If you are transparent in your work approach, co-workers will trust you and bosses will believe in what you say. This is key to building a reputed image in your workplace.

5. Commit to what you can actually deliver

Work in any organization is interconnected. Your failure to deliver begins a chain reaction of failures in multiple departments.

Which is why you have to be very clear and practical when giving commitments. Setting deadlines is not a formality. If you constantly fail to deliver work on-time, it puts you in a bad light in front of your co-workers and seniors.

They eventually stop believing in your capabilities, even if you deliver the best work.

For all these reasons, you have to choose your commitments wisely. Never take a responsibility you can’t fulfill. And if you take such a responsibility, present the potential delays or issues in advance.

This is way better than not delivering the work and harming the stream of work flow.

When you get responsible about your commitments, it doubles the importance of your work. It is true that your ability to meet deadlines can get interrupted by other people. Which is why you need to factor in all the aspects in the first place and choose a deadline you can follow.

Anayse productivity with wifi attendance ad banner

6. Share your credit for contributions, ideas, and accomplishments

Do you remember the time when you accomplished a work goal for your company?! Now, try and remember all the help you received directly or indirectly to achieve that goal.

If you have been managing a team, think about the ideas you created only because of the inputs offered by your team members.

Realizing the impact of co-workers and juniors in your accomplishments the best positive change you can bring. People think that sharing credit reduces self-importance. But no. It actually increases your value in the eyes of your bosses and colleagues.

Every time you are presented with a credit, take some time to think about everyone involved. Who gave you a small idea?! Who contributed to the process of working on that idea?!

Who supported your ideas till the accomplishment of your goal?! Think about all these questions, recognize and thank people.

Even a simple thank you creates a big impact in motivating people who work with you. And your relationship gets stronger, which helps in accomplishing more goals.

7. Help colleagues and juniors improve their skills

Every individual brings something to the table in a company. The work culture in a company should allow individuals to improve their talents, experience, and skills.

This happens when employees start helping each other. It is not just the manager who can motivate and encourage employees. One employee can also help another employee find the true potential of talents.

When one employee grows, it improves the capacity of the whole team, which boosts the growth of the whole organization. Your help in this process puts you in a positive light in front of your colleagues, juniors, and seniors as well.

Noticing talents, giving genuine compliments and praising the efforts should be an ongoing habit in your work life. These are really simple things, but they have a big impact on your relationship with everyone who comes in contact with you at work.

8. Keep your work relationship expectations in check

You responsibly manage your work relationships and expect the same from others. But others won’t necessarily start behaving responsibly right away.

Your behavior brings a gradual change in work relationships. Every individual is different, so you can’t expect them all to behave the same way.

Instead, you should keep your expectations in check when it comes to how other people behave around you at workplace. Otherwise, you will end up feeling frustrated or lose your ability to stay calm and responsible.

That being said, it is uttermost important that you convey your expectations in a respectable manner. Tell what you expect from your co-workers, juniors, and seniors as well.

Don’t give too high expectations to your co-workers. Give small suggestions or request, so your colleagues can gradually improve their relationship building abilities.

9. Initiate positive conversations

You build relationships when you start knowing other people at workplace personally and professionally.

It happens gradually, but you can make efforts by initiating positive conversations every time you come in contact with an individual or a group of co-workers.

A positive professional conversation can take place during a meeting. Similarly, you can have a personal one-on-one with a co-worker during lunch breaks. The conversation should be positive and shouldn’t be forced at all.

If you are new at your workplace, initiate conversations by asking questions. You need to find a window of opportunity when a colleague is open to conversation.

This means you can’t bother when someone is busy. Also, the topic of conversations depends on how closely you know that co-worker. Just ask yourself how comfortable you feel starting a conversation. This way, you will find the safest way to initiate conversations.

Regular interaction allows you to know the point of views and personality traits of others. This gives a framework for building work relationships.

10. Listen and observe

Apart from talking, you also need to actually listen and observe. This process should involve people working in your company and the organization as a whole.

Listening and observing allow a chance to understand work culture as well as the personality traits of co-workers, juniors, and bosses.

Understanding other people’s point of views let your brain design a strategy on how to work with each individual. The process is automatic usually, but you need to take control in order to avoid being judgmental.

Getting control of your observations is about respecting the point of views and evaluating your own personality at the same time.

Read Also: How to Improve a Toxic Work Environment

Conclusion

All in all, you need the mentioned ten habits in your professional life to build great work relationships. The process is easier said than done, but you can achieve this goal with determination and self-assessment.

Be truthful to yourself and understand the complexity of working with hundreds of people.

Hopefully, this article has helped you gain some great ideas to improve your work relationships.

One would think that the office would remain free from the rough and tumble of politics and one could almost be forgiven for thinking along these lines.

The reality is quite different, you are bound to come across politics more often in the office than you would, say during a friendly get together.

The fact remains that you head over to your office, 5 days a week and no one to date, has managed to avoid any political talk in an office setting. So what do you do when you encounter such heated discussions in your office?

For example, the last US election which was also one of the most polarizing ones to beset that nation managed to divide husband and wife, son and father, and even made its impact felt in the boardroom.

It becomes vital to know what to do, when you come across any such political decisions and remember, that people can get quite animated when discussing politics and that’s all the more reason for why political discussions should be actively discouraged in any office as it can change and alter your focus.

Read More: Why Employee Engagement Matters?

1. Be diplomatic

While the common consensus has always been to avoid talking about politics or for that matter religion, it can be a tad difficult to ensure that your office remains sacrosanct, especially if there happens to be some breaking news, related to either one or both.

In such situations, you are bound to come across such lively discussions right here in the office.

And when you do, the first thing that you need to understand is that you need to avoid taking a clear-cut position.

For example, if your colleague asks you what you think of X or Y, you can always come back with a non committal reply.

If you are asked for your opinion on a political matter, you can always respond saying that you need more time to come out with a firm response since you have just heard the news.

The point is that you do not exacerbate the situation any further, and by being diplomatic, you are avoiding any unnecessary arguments and in the same line of vein, you are ensuring that the current discussion soon dies down.

You may be under the assumption that it is safe to hold discussions with those who agree with you but if history is any indication, you would know by now that the above statement is not true.

Either way, a little diplomacy goes a long way to retain the peace at the office and in the process, ensure that the focus is directed towards the project at hand, rather than a political debate.

2. Do not conform

When it comes to avoiding political discussions at the office, the one thing that you need to do is to avoid conforming.

Granted that’s easier said than done and you are more likely to conform to those around you; chalk it up to human nature.

But when you conform to your colleagues’ political opinion, you are just encouraging them to continue with more discussions on politics.

But keep in mind that the more such discussions you are involved in, the less you end up getting done at the office.

Chances are that your job satisfaction is going to take a beating as well as your overall performance.

What’s more, these political discussions can often prove to be too distracting so much so that you may find it harder to concentrate on simple matters which are why it is always better not to conform to the opinion of others, just for the sake of agreeing with the prevailing political opinion and instead focus on your work at hand.

Anayse productivity with wifi attendance ad banner

3. Seek out common ground

Granted that you cannot avoid political discussions with others but in the long run, it is always better for your work and for the concerned office, to seek out some commonality.

For example, you may find that you may have more in common with George from accounting – both of you may feel that humans need to do more to avoid climate change.

So, if George or someone else should initiate a political discussion, you can always guide it along to another topic and in this case, climate change.

This can help you avoid political discussions at the office and direct you towards a more meaningful conversation. By discussing the common issues affecting you both, you are able to guide the conversation into something that’s productive.

4. Changing people’s mind

One of the reasons that people often indulge in political discussions is that they are always under the impression that they can change the minds of all those who disagree with them.

That’s easier said than done for it is not that easy to change the political affiliations of others or get them to change their minds, based on a single discussion.

This is also one of the reasons why most political discussions are always heated, and people have been known to even come to blows for the same.

So should you become part of a political discussion at the office, then you need to realize that there is little hope of changing the other person’s mind and that you need to agree to disagree with the other person.

Simply put, there’s extremely little you can get out of the discussion and instead of needlessly extending the political discussion; you need to accept that others have a right to their opinion, and then walk away from it.

5. Dissenting

It may surprise you to know that if you ask others permission as to whether it is okay to dissent with them and their views on any topic, they are almost always going to say “ok”.

Psychologists all over the world have used this tactic to good measure and it works wonders in any conflict-ridden situation.

So if you are dragged into a political discussion at the office and you hold a differing point of view, then you may want to ask the other person as to whether it is okay for you to dissent with their views.

And once you get the affirmative, just state your position and that you respectfully disagree with their views and walk away from the discussion at hand. This should help nip the political discussion in the bud.

Read More: 10 Competent Steps to Improve Employee Engagement

6. Change the subject

This can be a little harder than most of the other points listed above, depending on how heated the discussion is getting.

For example, the UK referendum on Brexit, or Prime Minister May’s Brexit vote caused heartburn for many rights across the UK.

Brexit often featured prominently in political discussions at offices in the UK just as Donald Trump’s policies did at various offices across the US.

The point is that when it comes to important news or breaking news, discussions cannot be avoided forever at the office.

Chances are someone or the other would want to discuss the same, and given the situation, you may just want to go ahead with it.

But if the discussion is becoming too heated with tempers flaring wide, then you may want to come up with some excuse to walk away from it and in the process, preserve your own sanity. If that fails, then you are left with no option but to change the topic.

But before you can do that, you need to ensure that you are able to calm the waters by validating the person/s that you are having a discussion with.

Just tell them that you think that their views are important enough (irrespective of whether you agree or disagree with them), validate the same, and then tell them that the current discussion is too important to be had in the office and that you all need to get into it in detail later on.

Or you could tell them, “ I think it took guts to put that on the table”, and then tell them that the discussion has to be shelved for now, since you would not be able to discuss it openly.

In other words, you are letting them know that their views are important and valued; now, you can use this gap to change the topic of discussion to something more sedate.

This is how you get to change the topic of conversation without stepping on anyone’s toes.

Conclusion

The points listed here should go a long way to helping you avoid political discussions at the office. You may not agree with the political views of others, and you may even want to contribute something to the discussion at hand but just keep in mind that both politics and religion are not meant to be discussed at the office.

Moreover, participating in such discussions at the office has the tendency to alter your focus and even your performance. Given this, it is better to avoid all political talk or discussions and focus more on your work.

The organizations are looking beyond just phone calls and emails for effective communication within the team and clients.

The advancement in technology is offering a lot of options to take the communication to the next level and make the collaboration more efficient, dynamic, and engaging.

A lot of tools are available at the moment for enhancing the in house office communication and to tackle the communication with the remote teams connecting from across the globe.

Of course, new technology demands a lot of learning to use such tools which might be a headache for beginners.

However, there are some advanced learning tools that give importance to user convenience and have a minimal learning curve.

Here we have put up a list of some of the most advanced but user friendly employee communication apps that can take the productivity to a more impressive level.

1. WiFi Attendance

wifi-attendance

This tool was basically designed an attendance tool for helping employees to clock-in and out through their phones, but the latest rendition of this app has all the features of a communication app.

It is powered with considerably prominent features like notifications, announcements, document sharing thus making it more than just an attendance and leave management app.

2. Slack

Slack

This is in fact a next-generation management system. Its communication style covers a range of options like messages, files, comments, videos, audios and even automatic notifications.

Unlike other tools, the speciality of Slack is its internal help robot, Slackbot that guides you through every process and enables you to instantly program automatic responses.

3. Ryver

Ryver

It is a free team communication tool which unites a team of any size easily. It features unlimited data storage and premium service can be accessed for free in first two weeks.

You can connect to more than 500 apps as it can be easily integrated with Zapier. Other pros include unlimited message history and built in task management.

4. Smartsheet

Smartsheet

This is an extremely powerful but a simple communication tool for office communication. Apart from basic communication, the tool can offer a helping hand with scheduling, resource management, file-sharing, task allocation and even sale tracking.

Easy and consistent communication is the key as it lets you share anything across mobiles and desktops. The employees are easily connected to any updates or changes through customizable alerts.

5. Microsoft Lync

Microsoft-Lync

This awesome tool from Microsoft lets you efficiently communicate with clients through chats and instant messaging. Microsoft Lync can be integrated with other Microsoft tools (including Skype) thus enabling flawless communication through a quality platform.

 

6. Biba

Biba

It is renowned as an all-in-one mobile communication tool that can take your office communication to a different level.

A lot of communication areas such as conference calling, business messaging, video conferencing and online meetings all from one place can be managed with this app.

It is even backwards compatible with a local dial-in phone connection. The tool can offer desktop screen-sharing options and comes with a one-click group chat feature.

7. VeriShow

VeriShow

This awesome tool comes with almost all options expected out of a comprehensive communication tool. It features online communication options like file sharing, video conferencing, chat, voice, whiteboard and screen-sharing.

It even allows live annotation capabilities. Its customer-facing features make it an ideal tool for team meetings. As this is a web based app, downloading it in your device is not a concern.

8. Skype

Skype

The app’s business version comes with powerful video and audio call functionality. The Skype for business communication tool allows real time collaboration for up to 250 people. The innovative radical redesign allows storage up to 1TB. It features integration with Microsoft Office 365 apps.

 

9. Yammer

Yammer

It serves the need of a full-service private social network which can easily connect decision makers and employees of all levels within the organization.

The tool promotes flexible collaboration with advanced knowledge sharing. Yammer can be easily integrated with Skydrive, SharePoint and Skype and helps with seamless sharing across teams.

It offers assistance for clearer communication with notes and comments and the contents are easily searchable.

 

10. eXo Platform

eXo-Platform

This open source social solution can be an asset for your office communication. The app can be customized to meet the particular needs of an organization.

The stress-free collaboration is the key speciality of the app and it enables the team to use productivity tools set as well as generate and share files and polls.

11. Campfire

Campfire

This web-based communication tool has taken team communication to the next level through password protected group chats.

Any vendor, colleague or client can be invited to join this chat and take part in the group communication. During communication, one can share text, file and code to convey the matters clearly. Unlike other apps, account setting has not many hassles.

12. CardBoard

CardBoard

This communication app is known for its unique visual approach which is both engaging and intuitive. Easily collaborating with anyone with an email id is possible through this app.

It even serves the role of a work flow manager and online whiteboard and allows collaboration on story mapping.

13. StaffConnect

StaffConnect

The internal communication within the team can be made easy and efficient through this professional app. The colleagues can be connected easily through this app as it encourages two-way dialogues.

The news can be delivered and broadcasted and the managers can easily share any data or updates in the form of texts, images and videos.

14. Stride

Stride

It is a novel team communication app which is an ideal option to organize company workflows. It features 10 integrations, 5GB storage and allows up to 25K messages.

The usage simplicity is the key for stride and team communication is allowed in private and public rooms. Stride provides audio and video call features and the workflow can be managed well with ‘Actions’ and ‘decisions’.

 

15. Twoodo

Twoodo

Organizing and streamlining team communication has taken to a different range with Twoodo by using the power of hashtags.

It comes with a Twitter-like interface and conversations within team can be made effective by integrating tasks, reminders and events.

The posts are shareable and searchable and easy integration with Skype, DropBox, and BitBucket enables comprehensive communication from a single place.

16. Flock

Flock

This is an awesome team communication app that features multiple integrations, instant messaging and built in to dos.

By integrating with Appear.in, you can even make audio and video calls with your team. Even its Freemium plan is limited with 10K message history.

The other highlighted features include deep integration with Google Drive and inbuilt polls.

17. Fuze

Fuze

A comprehensive and effective internal communication environment can be triggered through Fuze app. You can connect with the team easily through video conferencing and HD video calls.

The app’s features make it easy to set up a meeting with the team almost instantly. You may even integrate it with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Lync and Box for a better usage experience.

18. Bluebeam Revu

Bluebeam-Revu

This amazing app enables users to collaborate on PDF markup, by editing tasks and making comments. The app allows real-time communication which makes the collaboration on design approval process easy and flawless.

It is considered as a major time-saver for project coordinators. Its key features include intuitive controls, simple menus, and easy document comparison.

19. Redbooth

Redbooth

It is a comprehensive app that is designed to improve team communication and easily transit the project management activities.

It comes with a chat room and provides options for file sharing, HD video calls, text documents, charts, and reports.

The project task and chats can be merged to trigger quality communication among employees and they will always be up to date.

 

20. Glip

Glip

Everyday activities of an employee in an organization can be effectively handled with Glip. This is designed for seamless communication and collaboration which can be handled through notes, calendar, tasks, to-do lists, and chats.

The app can save your time which you spend for checking emails in the middle of your work. It comes with built-in video calling functionality and connecting on the go with co-workers and clients is really easy.

21. Bitrix24

Bitrix24

The small enterprises as well as start-ups can make use of this communication app. It is a lot easy to use and up to date with user friendly features.

Its ability to create plans is what makes it special among similar office communication tools.

22. BlogIn

BlogIn

BlogIn is an effective internal communication tool; think of it is a platform to exchange ideas with each idea, to share feedbacks and even peer review concepts.

Essentially, it is a platform which employees and team members can use to keep themselves informed, to communicate ideas and concepts with the whole team and centralize information resources, as applicable to a project in a single platform for ease of use.

23. Trello

Trello

You can use Trello to keep track of the progress made by your team, review their work and even monitor their performance in real time.

It should be pointed out that all the tasks on Trello come with additional features such as file uploads, comments, checkboxes and much more.

24. EXo platform

eXo-Platform

EXo platform is an open source social solution that you can utilize to streamline your team’s performance.

This app enables you to share files, polls with others in your team, instantly communicate with others and even share ideas and feedback with the rest of the team.

Best of all, you can customize this app to suit the needs of the team and that of your company.

25. Hipchat

Hipchat

Hipchat allows you to chat instantly with the rest of your team and you can also use the app for private chats – but other than this, the app also makes it possible for you to make HD video calls, transfer large amounts of data without any hassle, and secure gated access and much more.

It comes with a reasonable price tag and there is a free option as well – just what every small enterprise or startup needs.

26. Wrike

Wrike

Wrike is an easy to use platform that you can use to collaborate with others, share files, hold discussions, and even assign tasks.

What’s more, anyone can communicate with others on any aspect of the project, share their thoughts, feedback and this should definitely help your team perform better in the long run.

Additionally, you can use this platform to assign tasks and monitor the progress on the same, to date.

Conclusion

Have a look into these amazing office communication tools whenever you are looking to find a solution to the collaboration concerns.

The right use of these tools can take your business to the next level as proper communication within and outside team is the key for progress.

These tools can not only enhance the productivity but also boosts up the overall efficiency, employee morale, and customer experience.

However, the organizations have to make sure that the right tools are chosen which exactly meets their actual purpose.

If you choose a tool of advanced level but with complex features, make sure that you give proper training to make its usage comfortable for the team.

Working as a team towards a goal is always exciting and at the same time very productive. However, the way you mould your team and how fast they connect with each other reflects on the team success.

The team might keep on changing for different projects and building a good bond among the team members is vital for the organizational success.

Read Also : 10 Competent Steps to Improve Employee Engagement

Games are always a good option to know each other, challenge each other and bring out the best in everyone. That is why successful organizations always invest some time in exciting team building games once in a while.

Each game is designed with different objectives each of which is essential for team success. Here let us have a look at some of the awesome team building games which can be tried at your office to build a strong, dedicated and exciting team.

Anayse productivity with wifi attendance ad banner

1. Talking in Circles

This game is designed to enhance the coordination and communication among team mates. First, the group stands in a circle in a long piece of string tied at the ends.

The task for the team is to create shapes like square, triangle, rectangle and figure 8 with these strings.  The difficulty level of the game can be increased by blindfolding the team mates. The level of trust and leadership within the team is tested through this game.

Read Also : Do We Need Employee Assistance Programs at the Workplace?

2. Spider Web

This activity is very effective to learn and experience cooperation, persistence, leadership, trust, and support within the team.

A web is formed with strings which are tied to fixed pillars or trees at both ends. Each team gets a point when their team member passes through holes of weaved web without touching them.

The best part is that each hole gets closed for entry once it is used. So this demands a lot of planning from the team to strategize team members suitably for different holes.

3. Blind Drawing

This is a simple but effective game which encourages and tests the listening and communication skills. The game is played in pairs where both of team mates sit back to back.

One team member will be given an object and the other one gets a piece of paper and pencil. The person with the object can describe it without giving clear hints of the object. The task for the other member is to draw the object according to the description and his own interpretation.

wifi attendance

4. Scavenger Hunt

The teams are encouraged to collaborate creatively with this team building activity. The judgement authority can make a list of items to be found or the actions to be completed. The team which does this in the minimum possible time are the winners.

This game can foster teamwork and creativity and team members are supposed to find tricks and techniques to complete it on time. The activity can be made more exciting by including clues, riddles, and twists.

5. Let Us Guess

A fun game which helps your team to relax in the middle of stressful work space. The team is divided into random groups of 4-5 persons.

An object will be given to a randomly called team member and he has to hide it from rest of team. He has to describe the object and the team has to guess it right. The activity is repeated for all teams and the team that guesses the object right in the minimal chances wins.

6. The Barter Puzzle

This is an interesting game that tests the skills of negotiation, cooperation and speed of decision making. Jigsaw puzzles with same level of complexity are distributed to teams. The team which can solve the puzzles in the least possible time wins

However, the challenge is that the pieces of puzzles will be mixed with other team’s puzzles. You have to trade, exchange team members and negotiate to get the pieces right.

7. Three Truths and a Lie

This is a simple game which needs no materials and can be played anywhere. Three of four members can sit in a circle and tell 4 facts about themselves. Three of them must be true and 1 should be a lie but your job is to present it like a truth.

Other team mates take their turn to figure out the lie in the list. It helps introverts to open up and get a chance to know better about their team mates.

8. Egg Drop

This is an exciting game that can change the floor into moments of fun and laughter. Each member of the team is given an egg and some office supplies like cardboard, cotton, tapes, balloons etc.

Their task is to wrap the egg with these supplies in the best possible way in the given time frame. The objective is to drop the egg from the specified height without breaking. For each egg that survives the break, your team earns a point.

Attendance App

 

9. Team Birthday Line Up

This is a simple icebreaker team activity. The team is asked to form a line at first and their job is to rearrange themselves so that they stand in order of their birthdays.

The challenge of the game is that they cannot talk to each other during the game. They can use sign languages, nudges or some techniques to convey the birthdays and arrange themselves. This game in fact improves the communication, cooperation and problem solving skills among the team members.

10. What’s my name?

The instructor will give you a list of names who are celebrities in diverse fields like sports, cinema, politics etc. It will be written in post-it notes.

Each member gets a note placed on his forehead in such a way that he can’t see it. They can then ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions to their team to identify the person. The individuals who complete the task within the specified time earn a point for their team.

11. Zoom

This is an interesting team activity that can be completed in half an hour. 30 pictures are distributed to 30 members of the team. Their task is to form a story out of it by arranging the pictures in a sequence.

The challenge is that one member is not allowed to see the picture of others. They have to describe the picture so that others identify it and thus form a sequence. The key to game success is intelligent communication with patience.

12. Human Shapes

This exciting game can be played by groups of 8 to 12 members each. The task is to form shapes of letters and words using their bodies. The level of the game can be made tougher step by step.

Firstly they can be asked to make letters and then small words, phrases, and sentences in the final phase. One of the members will stand out and guess the formations. This game fosters planning, creative thinking, support, and trust.

13. Grab Bag Skits

This is one of the best ways to let team mates come out of their comfort zones and perform together. Goodie bags containing random items are distributed to different teams.

The task is to perform a skit by making use of the objects in the bag creatively. This game demands good planning and collaboration, watching the skits can be entertaining, relaxing and fun.

14. Swift Swap

This is a really exciting activity for teams who have not interacted for so long. The team forms two lines in such a way that one member faces a member from the next line.

30 seconds will be given when both of them can glance at each other to observe everything about them like dress, jewellery, shoes etc.

After that, they go to some corner to make some changes in their appearance like an untied shoelace, a different hair style etc.

They come back to the same position and another 30 seconds will be granted. Their task is to figure out the changes they made during the interval.

15. Sneak a Peek

Utilizing the strength of individuals and communicating effectively is what matters for good team work and this is what the game is about. The instructor gives a structure of building block or Lego to the team for 30 seconds and then takes it back.

The task of the team is to rebuild the structure again. Each member of the team gets a chance again to take a glance on it for 10 seconds and describe it for 25 seconds.

16. Earth-ball

In order to create highly functional teams, the prime importance is for goal setting and this game is meant for that. This, in fact, is a group task and needs unity and strategies of togetherness to succeed.

The task is to keep the balloons or beach balls in the air without touching the ground. Each team can challenge a specified number of hits to keep it in the air and each member gets only one chance to hit.

Each person of a team might come with a different personality and games are the best way to connect them in the best possible way without losing the fun element.

As the objective of each game is different, take some time to choose the best game for your team and experience the assured success over the period.

Know the pulse of your team and throw in the most exciting games which they would love to crave for more. In fact, most of these games are not only educational but also enjoyable.

Even a well set team can have some exciting games once in a while to keep aside the stress, refresh themselves and have fun.

The updated version of WiFi Attendance app was launched on 10th December 2018 and it is vivacious.

We have implemented some amazing new features to make the app completely employee friendly.

The WiFi attendance was originally designed to make it easy for the employees to mark their attendance through personal mobile phones.

It aimed at making the employer’s job simple, thus helping him, easily monitor employee productivity and performance.

wifi attendance

The latest edition includes the following features

Deductions

The deductions menu is set to keep tab of unplanned leaves, early punch outs and missed punch. With this function, it is easy for the HR manager to check the number of hours the employee has not worked. This comes very handy especially while calculating monthly payroll.

Rewards

Employee rewards are an innovative approach to foster employee engagement at workplace. There are three different stages of rewards- gold, bronze and silver.

The rewards can be assigned based on the clock-in clock-out time, performance, contributions to a certain project, overtime hours etc.

Documents

This feature makes it is easy for the manager and team mates to share documents with their respective teams. Personal documents specific to each employee can be shared in the personal section.

Notes

A trove of important details is discussed in stand up meetings every day. How often do we carry a notepad in such meetings?

Hardly! At times like these, the notes feature of the updated wifi attendance is at rescue.  Employees can take notes of important things like points discussed at the meeting, weekly tasks etc with this new functionality.

Attendance App

Announcements

The important notifications like holidays, events, company policy re-enforcements can be broadcasted using this feature.

Again in this case, the announcements can be shared between members of the team in a separate section and company announcements can be pushed into a different space common to all employees.

Notifications

Any updates, documents and announcements received through the app will now be notified to the users in the notification panel. This ensures that none of the important notifications are missed out by any of the employees.

Other Face-lifts

The punch details page is revamped to give it a fresh feel and a vividly comprehensive look.

The summary features an overview of clock-in and clock-out information of an employee for a month. It includes number of working days, on time punch in, late punch in, early punch out and missed punches.

The Apply leave page is revamped to showcase a calculated account of the used and remainder of the number of casual leaves.

How our new features will be a boon to your business?

  • Comprehensive exhibition of details drive a higher adoption rate
  • Fosters team bonding and co-ordination for superior output.
  • The on the go available details of daily work hours call for a constructive utilization of time.
  • Keeping tab on the productivity and other dynamics affecting business is easier.
  • Boost in employee engagement owing to implementation of persuasive “Rewards” feature.
  • The HR workforce can now resort to other planning tasks instead of continuously dwelling over redundant employee monitoring.

To experience a whole new level of business benefits try our new WiFi attendance app at https://www.wifiattendance.com

Get complete overview on the pricing of the app at https://www.wifiattendance.com/pricing/