The last several years have changed the way companies around the world operate. Now, as ways of working continue to evolve, so do the communications tools that businesses use.

According to Indeed, lack of appropriate communication tools is one of the seven most common communication problems in the workplace. To overcome this wide-reaching challenge, organizations need to consider three key tactics.

1. Streamlined work systems

Using a variety of applications stitched together piecemeal is no longer sufficient or sustainable. Workforces need deeply integrated platforms that remove the effort required to create cohesive working environments. Why should an employee use one platform for messenger, another for meetings, and another for creating documents?

Instead of a user hunting through a calendar application and pasting virtual meeting details into a collaborative webinar portal, the demand for high-quality customer experience (CX) has driven expectations: apps will simply work together, allowing users to focus on what’s important to them in their roles. Disparate platforms have to unite to form coherent workflows, adaptable to changing needs.

2. Open, yet secure collaboration

Every company has a unique set of goals, and tools needed to achieve those goals. So why is it that so many are using standard technology to complete day-to-day tasks? Organizations need platforms that account for common sense scenarios, and intelligent presets for sharing and collaboration based on a smart combination of user behaviour and templated access control mechanisms. Establishing whether documents and resources are shared by default and to what level – read-only, suggest, edit, delete and so on – is critical.

For example, a confidential document should not be accessible to broad audiences by default. And employees who resign should automatically be removed from all work groups upon their departure. On the other hand, if someone accidentally sends a message to the wrong person or group, they should be able to recall it, to prevent the spread of confidential information.
As workers interact with colleagues and other parts of the business, smart, collaborative systems should be able to learn and adapt, creating intelligent defaults that take the administration out of making collaboration work. Each pain point leads not only to meeting unique business needs but to providing a secure platform for organizations of all sizes.

3. Putting productivity first

To develop highly productive teams, how work is achieved has to be largely in the background. As soon as end-users (your staff) think about how they can achieve simple, powerful collaboration and communication, productivity takes a hit.

Ensuring smooth and seamless workflows across the different tools used in the modern workplace is the key to success. With a single platform on which to communicate, collaborate, and create value for the organisation, employees are freed up from the details of how to get their work done and can enjoy excelling at the work they do every day.

Integrated experiences on a single technology platform are the key to quality end-user experiences. And the experience has to retain its standards for different working models, in different geographies, and across different time zones.

At the forefront of the new generation of integrated, smart working platforms is Lark, which brings together communication, collaboration, messaging and success-focused processes in one central platform. Instead of changing from an application to a web browser to a mobile app and manual process, users put all of their energy into producing results that drive success for the business.

Today’s workplaces thrive on intelligent, deeply integrated tools built on the principles of safety and security. To learn more about how Lark is changing the way modern teams work, reach out to a representative.