Google collaboration tools are extremely accessible and a great way to easily collaborate with your team.
There are a plethora of tools to use to keep your projects on track and moving quickly. With the tools provided in Google Workspace, you can encourage teamwork and bring employees together whether they are in the same office or thousands of miles away from one another. Make the most of Google Workspace and use the tools you have access to wisely.
While collaboration is inherently tied to personal communication, in the modern age good interpersonal communication depends on technology.
Cloud technology is not created equal, and Google Workspace is designed to aid in collaboration, and smooth out the creases that once hindered a team’s ability to push projects to completion.
In today's article I'll explain some of the ways Google collaboration tools help modern businesses work better, together.
The best part of Google Workspace being hosted in the cloud is the ability for multiple team members to work on the same document in real-time. Users can add comments, resolve comments, and work on the same draft simultaneously, without having to send anything back and forth and worry about missed revisions or the integrity of the document's core purpose being lost.
Not only does auto-save protect you from losing your work, but all versions are saved, so you can always restore the best edit of all or part of your document or file.
This means that in case that one team member makes edits that everyone disagrees with (I'm looking at you, Kevin), it is possible to take steps back and reclaim an old version.
This method of real-time collaboration allows each team member to work individually, but at the same time be able to give access for quick notes, feedback, or idea-sharing. The document then becomes a vessel of communication similar to email or messaging.
In essence, the work that may have once done by gathering together around a conference table to collaborate on a paper document has gone virtual.
Related: Getting Started with Google Docs Collaboration Tools
Without effective communication, everyone in your organization could be working on the same issue at the same time. This is not efficient. All communication should be easy and coordinated to improve productivity across your business - whether you're a small business or a large enterprise.
By using Google Workspace you are essentially streamlining all of your communication tools.
That means your email (Gmail), video chat (Hangouts), Word processor (Docs), and messenger (Hangouts Chat) are all in one place.
Google Meet even allows for conference call live streaming for up to 100,000 users at one time! This replaces the need for large conference rooms or auditoriums, and with the ability to record meetings, you can make the recording available to team members who were on vacation or unable to attend - ensuring everyone is on the same page.
When you are ready to share your documents or projects, Google Workspace has built-in permissions that allow you to decide who sees information and who cannot. Decide whether or not you want to share with anyone on the internet, anyone who has the link to said document or project, specific users, or no one.
You can set expiration dates for any files saved in Drive, Doc, Sheets, and Slides. Additionally, FIDO security keys can even be added for extra protection.
Staying organized is one of the most important aspects of teamwork. It ensures that everyone has everything they need in order to do the best job they can do, by the deadline required. Without organization, an enterprise will fall apart and become one of the many businesses that fail each year.
Maintaining organization has never been easier than with Google Drive. Teams can easily put documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in different shared folders according to specific projects or clients.
Folder and file access can be specified to teams, specific people, or the entire organization. Using this feature makes it easy to centralize materials and documents that are needed in order to complete a project.
Related: Learn About Google Team Drive Pricing and Features
Sometimes collaboration is needed outside of your specific team or department to push a project to completion. Google Workspace allows you to form Google groups that include everyone involved in the project.
This creates the opportunity to attain new insights and to streamline all workflows, as well as promote transparency between departments.
Additionally, you can add clients to specific folders or documents which creates more trust from client to organization. This makes it very easy to gain insight from your client. You will know exactly what they are looking for and how you can better implement their ideas.
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With the rise of remote workers and working from home, it can be hard to connect your team together. Teams can use Google Sites to share information about themselves or projects they are working on. Google Sites is similar to social media platform, but one that is within the work organization. It adds a bit of personalization to a professional setting.
Users can post accomplishments or finalized projects as well which creates a feeling of mutual success and being more connected as a whole team rather than separate departments or entities.
With the many tools provided in Google Workspace such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Calendar, your Project manager can keep everyone on task at all times.
Docs, Sheets and Slides provide as a new method of real-time draft communication, while Calendar keeps everyone on the same schedule.
Employees can share and update timelines, calendars, budgets and reports in real-time. Google Workspace also provides email, instant messaging and video conferences located centrally from Gmail and Hangouts / Meet.
Hundreds of third-party add on applications are also available in the Google Workspace Marketplace for any additional wants or needs.
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The traditional process of hiring talent can be exhausting and take up an incredible amount of time. By using Google Workspace, it is possible to do so much more in a shorter period of time. Add multiple outside users to the same Drive files, or BCC a multitude of users on one email.
Use Google Docs to create a list of the qualities you are looking for in new talent and all recruiters can make notes or comments. You can even include a candidate’s skills such as writing or coding. The interview process has never been easier to track and complete.
Google Hangouts offers a solution to remote individual and group interviews or a personalized way of offering someone the position without ever needing them to step into the office.
Using Google Workspace can also attract the best talent - workers who see the value in Google's productivity tools - and onboard them seamlessly.
Many highly qualitified candidates already use Google Workspace or are familiar with Google's productivity apps from using them in their personal lives. This makes it appealing to continue working with the same platforms in their professional lives as well.
Although measuring and comparing “good” to “great” collaboration can be tricky, the difference can be observed through the ease of the tools used.
Internal collaboration can also be measured visually, and Google Workspace also contains tools to do so. The activity dashboard allows users to see who, and how often other users have interacted with their documents.
Work insights allow IT admins a view of Google Workspace usage within the organization. This allows companies to identify patterns and understand how collaboration is actually exercised in their organization.
It also allows managers to support their team by providing training and tools to encourage employees to use the tools you're providing more effectively.
With quick responses from the Google or Suitebriar support team, your issues will be resolved quicker than ever before.
This is important in regards to collaboration because if one person is having issues and cannot resolve them, this will hurt the entire team.
Whether you are a Google Workspace small business team of 5 or an enterprise team of 2,500, if you have one solid team or a distribution of many, collaboration is always the key to teamwork and workflow.
Collaboration can be achieved no matter what tools or productivity apps you use, but quick, digital and easy collaboration is easier with Google Workspace. Your enterprise can work together seamlessly no matter where your team is located, and you may see an increase in productivity.