In its recent “State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report,” Gallup explored the interdependency of operations and the human experience. The report describes the measurable impact of employee disengagement and its connection to stress and burnout. The report also found that engaged employees feel less stressed, which contributes to trust, innovation, and process improvement.

If feeling engaged at work can help prevent burnout, how can associations encourage collaboration? The five practices below can help organizations not only foster engagement among employees but also improve productivity.

1. Develop Organizational Awareness

Consider using your organization’s intranet (e.g., SharePoint, Staffbase, or Knowledge Architecture) to educate teams about what is happening association-wide.

For instance, create separate portals for each department, community, or service group, and add a thorough description of their work. List projects, the group’s success metrics, and key staff with contact information so that when collaborative opportunities arise, teams know who to contact and how to start the process.

2. Promote Professional Development and Training

Create a “Quick Link” on your main intranet page that directs users to current learning opportunities available to them. When workers feel well-trained, they’re more likely to cross out of silos to develop collaborative relationships.

For example, if your association has a LinkedIn Learning subscription, provide login information on your training page. Also provide training on common apps and tools that your staff regularly use, such as Office 365 and your project management software and association management system.

3. Build a Collaborative Work Culture

Encouraging collaboration can help associations develop trust among staff. Here are some ways to get started:

• Promote your training and professional development participation. Employees value working with peers who are well-trained and who understand the mission.
• Cross-train individuals within the workflow to clarify the gates of responsibility. Workers need to understand their piece of the process, what the work product should look like when they receive it, and the next steps.
• Encourage teams to work together on small tasks so they develop a form of shorthand that allows them to depend on one another.
• Make your intranet your knowledge repository and keep it well-maintained.
• When leadership models collaborative behavior, it influences staff to follow suit. When employees collaborate with decision-makers, it shows staff that this behavior is encouraged throughout the association.
• Create a “Spotlight” series where individuals are elevated, and their accomplishments, interests, and strengths are featured.

4. Engage in Work Sprints

Work sprints approximate the hallway chat or water cooler moments we’ve lost in our distributed work world. It’s an activity that pulls everyone on your team in one virtual space at the same time, encouraging collaboration and breaking down silos. You can customize these activities to suit your team-building needs.

Distribute the rules as you launch this activity, which should include the following:

• This is NOT an all-staff meeting; it is a virtual workspace, like a bullpen.
• Assurance that this activity is not about monitoring productivity.
• Participants can leave their camera or mic on or off depending on what they are working on.
• Encourage individuals to talk or work collaboratively in breakout rooms like they would in a conference room.
• People can do their usual work but should use the opportunity to connect with others in spontaneous, useful ways.
• The host will call a five-minute stretch or entertainment break once or twice per meeting.

If your workforce might be reluctant to participate, get creative and curious. With input from your team, you can develop additional strategies to create buy-in.

5. Create an Effective Internal Comms Strategy

An internal communications strategy outlines how teams and departments communicate with each other to support an association’s goals.

To build an effective strategy, it’s important to know how staff prefer to receive information. With that information in hand, you can then create a communications policy that clarifies what types of information belong on each channel (e.g., video, email, etc.), gives guidance related to style (emojis, all caps use, etc.), defines folder and file organization and document nomenclature, and expressly states any commitments you have related to email communication such as response time.

Engaging in these best practices ensures your staff has the opportunity and the incentive to work together with fewer bottlenecks and greater efficiency.