Today, teamwork has become more important than ever. Teamwork, as mentioned in the Harvard Business Review blog post, leads to increased productivity, innovation as well as job and customer satisfaction.  This is particularly important because a large part of the work force today is comprised of millennials. As we learned in class 18, millennials are known for switching and searching for new jobs a lot more than their preceding generation. This causes many problems for their employers, because they are not fully engaged in their everyday work, if they are constantly looking for other options.

The blog post suggested this lack of commitment and engagement can be resolved by moving away from individual based incentives towards team based ones. By doing this, a company can make their employees think and act like a team, making them more motivated and accountable to accomplish their work. Also, an article in the Huffington Post said that working in teams can make someone feel as though they are a part of something greater than themselves. This means that they are driven by an even higher level of achievement, so they are more motivated and committed than if they were working alone.

We learned in class 17 and now 19 that it is very difficult to measure employee performance which in turn makes it hard to reward it as well. Employers today need to get creative in measuring how there employees preform to properly reward them in an effective way. By measuring how well they work with others and the team success they can effectively do this.

Teamwork not only benefits the employers and employees, it also benefits the customer. Employees who are more motivated to work, are going to produce better output, therefore increasing customer satisfaction. It is very similar to how Zappos has introduced the Holacracy approach to business.  They are increasing the felling of community and equity among employees, who in turn work harder for their customers.

The transition from individual focused workplaces to team centered ones is a very important change that businesses need to make today in order to maintain success. The increased teamwork not only motivates the employees to be more efficient and productive, but also makes them more satisfied with their jobs. It also benefits the employers because they have more dedicated workers and higher customer satisfaction. Overall, as the blog post from the Harvard Business Review said teamwork can solve many of the problems employers are currently facing with their employees.

 

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Quick Links:

http://www.businessinsider.com/zappos-ceo-tony-hsieh-on-misconception-about-holacracy-2016-2

https://hbr.org/2016/11/keep-employees-from-leaving-by-emphasizing-teamwork

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mequilibrium/mindfulness-practice_b_4683073.html

https://www.mapconsulting.com/blog/adopt-a-teamwork-mindset