Achieve interdepartmental alignment

When business departments are unaware of how other teams are working, and
what they are working on specifically, it’s easy for strategies to become disjointed
and non-cohesive. For example, a sales team might not be aware of specific
messaging being used on marketing materials, or the marketing team might not
know if certain creative ideas are even possible in IT terms. With more
interdepartmental understanding comes a more streamlined and efficient service
in general.

Avoid conflicting goals

When departments don’t work closely together, the lack of awareness of the
different work can end up causing problems. In most businesses, targets and KPIs
are broken down from the top level, to department heads, then on to teams and
eventually individuals.

Where communication is lacking later on in the chain, it’s easy to end up putting
in place goals which do not align with other teams. An example of this could be a
blogger being tasked with achieving x number of ‘click-throughs’ on a blog. This
might not be achievable if they then find out that the channel in which said blog
would usually be pushed out – for instance an emailed newsletter – is being axed,
replaced or reworked, leaving no room for the blog.

Build mutual respect

Another key benefit of implementing cross-functional collaboration is to ensure
all employees have mutual respect for one another. It’s not until all staff members
are aware of the hard work that goes into maintaining the business as a whole,
that they can be entirely respectful of each individual cog. So often there is
animosity between different departments, when there is a lack of awareness of
what actually goes in to their day to day.
Educate staff on the bigger picture
Making sure that all team members are aware of the overall goals of the business
will have positive effects on both productivity and morale. When all departments
know how they all fit together to achieve a bigger picture, all employees should
find it easier to feel valued and respect one another.

Host frequent open meetings

While department heads might not be entirely conducive to this at first, they
should hopefully see benefits when it comes to morale and the stimulation of
ideas after just one or two meetings. The meetings should be seen as an idea-
exchanging platform in which all employees are invited to speak up and voice
their opinions and concerns. It also allows them to find out more about the
company’s work as a whole.

Offer job-shadowing opportunities

A very effective way to facilitate collaboration, conversation and overall
understanding is to enable employees to job-shadow their colleagues. So as not
to drastically disrupt the day-to-day, this could take place on a quarterly or
monthly basis – for instance the last Friday of the month. The idea behind this is
that those who job-shadow a colleague will receive a thorough window into that
person’s work. With fresh eyes can come new and innovative ideas, plus the
experience is likely to lead to increased understanding and respect.

Provide adequate collaboration tools

To help facilitate collaboration, HR teams should spend time researching
appropriate collaboration tools. By implementing shared boards, folders, and
apps, co-workers can easily access each other’s work, communicate, and share
ideas. Before putting such software into place, HR teams should facilitate training
on these and make sure everyone knows how to access them.
Achieving successful cross-functional collaboration in a company is likely to have
considerable positive effects for any business. With interdepartmental
understanding, respect, and teamwork, all employees will become motivated to
work together in alignment with company goals. Achieving cross-functional
collaboration should, therefore, make HR easier, as there are likely to be fewer
conflicts and problems between staff.