Effective collaboration fuels engagement and productivity. It streamlines cross-functional initiatives. It reduces human error and duplication. It makes enterprises more focused and efficient. 

There’s just one problem: right now, the global workplace is facing a collaboration crisis. 

More than four in ten employees have quit or are considering quitting their jobs due to poor collaboration tools. That’s one of the many jarring takeaways from our recent global collaboration survey. 

How did we get here? 

The abrupt shift to remote work at the onset of the pandemic forced enterprises worldwide to adopt haphazard, stop-gap solutions to ensure that people could continue working. Unfortunately, too many of those enterprises never leaned into the permanent remote/hybrid workplace. If they had, they would have onboarded tools designed to facilitate easy, location-agnostic collaboration. 

This might not sound like a big deal, but your employees want you to know that it is a big deal. 

This survey paints a dire picture of the consequences of lackluster collaboration. In the ongoing wake of The Great Resignation, leaders are scrambling for ways to attract, retain, and engage employees. While they’re investing millions in perks and incentives, employees are speaking clearly: we want it to be easier to do our jobs well. Shoring up collaboration might be one of the biggest untapped strategies to get there. 

Disconnected…and discontented 

The message is clear enough from the fact that poor collaboration tools are driving away more than four in ten employees. Here is what else survey respondents had to say: 

of employees agree that poor collaboration is limiting their productivity and wasting their time.

of employees claim that poor collaboration is wasting at least 3-5 hours of productivity per week.

of employees claim their company’s leadership could be doing more to promote collaboration within the organization.

Even if your employees aren’t quitting due to poor collaboration tools, nearly two-thirds of them are wasting at least 3-5 hours per week due to poor collaboration tools. A quick math exercise: How many employees do you have? What’s 64% of that number? Now multiply that times five, and that’s a snapshot of how many hours are wasted weekly. You could multiply that number times a breakdown of your average per-hour, per-employee dollar investment (and don’t forget to repeat that figure every week), but that might have you breathing into a paper bag. 

The bottom line: collaboration is foundational to the future of work. Employees feel every day how much it matters. Particularly in the new remote/hybrid work landscape, it’s imperative that leaders take steps to foster collaboration. Business depends on it. 

To learn more about the results of the Collaboration Survey, visit: https://www.corel.com/en/newsroom/news/data-insights/virtual-collaboration-tools-report/ 

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