Team culture can often take years to build and can also be lost quickly. Turning around a poor team culture is a practical challenge. The more diverse and disparate the team is (different backgrounds and skill sets / full time and part timers) the harder it is to get everyone on the same page.

The question: Can a messaging application at work help foster team culture?

Anyone who’s worked in a company with multiple locations that has diverse roles knows the challenge. Different people, different tools, different devices, and old functional software which was never designed for team culture development. It can be hard to connect together easily.

There are various factors that impacts team cultures (these can be viewed at an individual level, team and group wide):

- Psychological safety
- Trust and interpersonal respect
- Shared purpose and clear goals
- Effective communication and information sharing
- Role clarity and accountability
- Inclusive leadership and participation in decision-making
- Recognition and positive reinforcement
- Support for learning and growth

This is a lot to manage, even with a small team.

Good bosses know that a happier team means better output, lower costs, longer retention. So having an emphasis and mission to create a workplace culture where everyone feels valued and engaged is a win win for everyone. It’s impossible to fake - employees always know better than anyone what the culture really is, and often the boss is the last to know when things are not as they seem.

Above: “You will never work in a place like this again. This is brilliant - fact! Yeah? And you’ll never have another boss like me. Someone who's basically a chilled-out entertainer, yeah?” - David Brent.

It makes sense why many contemporary companies do not have an ‘HR Department’ -opting for a People and Culture Department. It’s a reflection of the modern age, generational changes and the greater complexity of strategically managing team culture and nuances. 

In some sectors, it can be challenging keeping your team together. Lower unemployment levels means people have more freedom to leave when things aren’t right or job fatigue has set in. Platforms like LinkedIn promote career movement and it’s become easier to get a pay increase by switching companies than working internally for a promotion, so keeping your team together has never been a bigger challenge. When retention is poor, the team culture drops. When team culture is low, retention becomes harder. It can be a death spiral.

Understanding the Main Challenges

• Differing Work Environments: Office staff might typically work in a more structured office setting, while frontline workers setting ranges from retail stores, factories, or even without a fixed location. Casual workers often have flexible schedules. These varying work environments can create communication and collaboration barriers.
  
  

• Communication Gaps: Different work locations and schedules can lead to communication gaps, hindering information sharing and team building. This can be compounded if there are multiple time zones.
  
  

• Unequal Access to Resources: Office staff may have greater access to resources, training, and development opportunities than frontline or casual workers, leading to feelings of inequity.
  
  

• Varying Work Cultures: Each worker group may have its own distinct work culture, with different norms, values, and communication styles. A business may have many micro cultures within its overall culture.
  
  

Strategies for Fostering a Cohesive Culture

1. Open and Transparent Communication

• Regular Communication Channels: Establish regular and consistent communication channels. Team meetings, announcements, newsletters, and forums, help keep employees more informed and engaged.
  
  In remote working environments consider virtual spaces/rooms for more personal, less work related cultural activities. Virtual Rooms for ‘Thank You’ ‘Fun and Games’ ‘Off-Topic’ ‘General Interest’ ‘Sharing life’ can help keep noise out of work spaces whilst giving others a place to ‘get together’ and bond around things other than work. Like anything - virtual rooms need an owner/leader/admin to keep it alive and pumping!
  
  
  

  

  
  Above: Some commonly used 8seats “room setups” for internal work cultures
  
  

• Technology-Enabled Communication: Tools like video conferencing, instant messaging, and collaboration platforms to facilitate communication across different locations and time zones. Platforms like 8seats can significantly reduce email and meetings and boost morale and productivity.
  
  

• Inclusive Language: Use of inclusive language and communication styles that resonate with all worker groups.
  
  

• Authenticity: Keep it real. Some of the most trusted brands give a voice to their team members. Their stories and their efforts are your real culture. Offer environments to say thanks and celebrate wins with others.

  
  

2. Shared Goals and Values

• Clear Organizational Goals: Clearly communicate organisational goals and values to all employees, ensuring everyone understands their role in making it happen.
  
  

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Encourage collaboration across different worker groups on projects and initiatives, fostering a sense of shared purpose and teamwork.
  
  

• Recognition and Rewards: Recognize and reward employees from all worker groups for their contributions, reinforcing the value of their work and promoting a culture of appreciation.

  
  

3. Equal Access to Resources and Opportunities

• Training and Development: Provide equal access to training and development opportunities for all employees, regardless of their work location or employment status.
  
  

• Career Pathing: Create clear career pathing and advancement opportunities for all worker groups, demonstrating a commitment to their professional growth.
  
  

• Employee Resource Groups: Establish employee resource groups that bring together employees from different worker groups based on shared interests or backgrounds, fostering a sense of community and belonging.

  
  

4. Inclusive Leadership

• Lead by Example: Leaders need to be part of inclusive behavior and actively seek out diverse perspectives. Listening and engaging fosters respect and loyalty.
  
  

• Cultural Sensitivity: Leaders should be culturally sensitive and aware of the different needs and communication styles of diverse worker groups.
  
  

• Employee Feedback: Regularly seek feedback from employees from all worker groups to understand their experiences.

  
  

The role of communication platforms in culture

Whilst email is a mainstay for many businesses, it comes with various challenges when used as the primary tool for communication. Email is much slower to complete tasks than messaging platforms and inboxes can become cluttered and unmanageable. For GenZ email is no longer the first choice, many shunning email unless it is a requirement. Smartphones are now the primary device for 75% of employees globally. Email is gradually becoming a legacy product, one reason being that it was never designed with small screens in mind or as a productivity tool.

Messaging tools for business is a more effective solution in many instances. Research has shown that messaging platforms can boost productivity by as much as 45%. It has also been shown to increase morale. Productivity can be impacted according to research:

• Fewer meetings (up to 35% less)

• Fewer emails (up to 60% less)

• Faster workflows (up to 30%)

Known challenges with messaging apps

The wrong messaging app in your business can cause problems so choose carefully. What looks like an easy choice, may also be a poor choice.

Consider the following questions when implementing messaging within a workplace:

• Is Business data being held on personal devices? (sms or personal chat apps)

• How quickly can workers learn and adapt to the platform? Some platforms are complex and can be impractical

• Do workers have the ability to install the app? Eg: What if they have phone numbers but not email addresses (casuals, frontline workers)?

• Does the app cater for a healthy work-life balance?

• Will the app create noisy groups and too many notifications?

• Do I know how and where the data is stored and managed?

• How secure is the data?

• Will my businesses own the messaging data? 

• What happens when a worker leaves? 

• How much management of the system is needed?

• Is the messaging app workplace compliant? (For example, the workers right to disconnect in Australia)

• What’s the ongoing cost to the business? Note: Free messaging apps may be costing the business in other ways.

Optimal Team Structures

Teams that are too big or too small affect productivity and team morale. Most of us belong to a core team of people who we speak to daily. It’s common to belong to several teams in a business, but most of us speak to the same 5-8 people on a constant basis. Good communication with your core team is essential.

Some tips:

• Have clear departments or team names and mirror this in your software (obvious, but not always practiced!)
  
  

  

  
  Above: ‘8seats Tables’ can reflect internal team structures and enable faster and clearer team collaboration
  
  
  

• Breaking larger departments into collections of smaller teams - helps productivity.
  
  

• The ideal team size for productivity is 5-6 people. (Max 8-10)
  
  

• Larger communities of people are important for overall morale, but should be kept relevant and contextual. Do not add everyone to every large team community and keep it optional in many cases.
  
  

• A company wide communication system is very important but must be managed appropriately. Safe spaces for town halls, company updates, rewards and recognition. Overuse of ‘big groups’ can reduce their effectiveness and importance. Underuse can result in team disengagement. It’s critical to monitor and have good owners of these larger environments.

What apps/tools are available for business communication?

1. Email:
   

   Pros: An industry standard and simple to use. Good for record keeping.
   
   Cons: Very slow compared to messaging apps and for general productivity. Can be costly to deploy to part time, frontline, and casual workers. Can be costly setting up entire workforces with company email and the ongoing management costs. Limited interface options. Harder to use on mobile phones. Lacking many features. Users complain that email wastes a lot of time.
   
   

2. WhatsApp:
   

   Pros: Free and widely available.
   
   Cons: No business tools or controls for the management of workspace messaging. Data lives on personal devices and is not owned by the business. Groups can become very noisy. Cannot message people within groups without creating new groups. Data exists on personal devices which may become an issue as employees leave the business. Banned in many professional workplaces.
   
   

3. Slack:
   
   

   Pros: Has more advanced functionality and many integrations for professional companies. Used by many enterprise and large businesses.
   
   Cons: Can be hard to learn for low skilled workers, requires all workers to have email addresses. Pro features and data retention require monthly subscription. Limited number of guests in workspaces.
   
   

4. Microsoft Teams
   
   

   Pros: Widely used and compliant for large businesses. Integration with Office365. Many features for screen sharing and video meetings. Collaborations tools with the Office suite.

   
   Cons: Heavily tied to Microsoft ecosystems. Requires a Microsoft account. Learning curve can be too overwhelming for some people. Limited interface and graphical customisation. No cross integration with other messaging platforms.
   
   

5. 8seats
   
   

   Pros: Very simple to set up and use. Accessible to anyone with a phone number (no emails required). Advanced messaging functionality and better user interface. Business controls for managing teams. Full business ownership of data and highly customised graphical UI. Can be used with customers and guests at no additional cost. Includes advanced features like AI team members. Free plans available. Highly cost effective paid plans versus competitors.
   
   Cons: Not an enterprise tool. English version only available at present. Less integrations and APIs compared to Teams and Slack at present.
   
   

8seats as your communications solution

At 8seats, everything is about removing complexity in messaging for business and staff. It’s faster, more flexible, and more fun to use …with no learning curve. All you need is a phone number.

We provide a complete toolset on mobile and desktop to help companies foster better cultures regardless of who/where the worker is or what their skills are. The environment is highly graphical and customisable to create spaces where your team belongs. Group noise is reduced massively using 8seats dynamic messaging system inside tables.

As long as a worker has a phone number they can use 8seats. This makes it easier to onboard casual workers, volunteers, suppliers and customers. Everyone in your team can be included, and that is the first step in creating a whole of workforce culture: "Everyone can play a part"

Our mantra is to mirror the real world so we use familiar terms in the 8seats product (Seats, Tables, and Rooms) to help you understand who goes where. Less technobabble! A faster and easier interface will have new workers up and running in minutes.

With 8seats you are able to structure your teams in a more ordered fashion compared to traditional chat apps.

• Tables : Are for up small teams who speak regularly. Tables improve on old style group chats allowing any possible conversation in a single interface, which means less noise, less messages, and always the right people talking together.
  
  

• Rooms : For up to 10,000 people. Perfect for town halls, announcements, staff handbooks and small or larger communities.
  
  

• DMs: Think of this as a replacement for emails. Compose a subject line, invite participants, and use 8seats dynamic messaging system to work much more fluidly.
  
  The above system enables team cultures to be managed by clear spaces for sharing and communication between only the people that need to talk, whilst having all the options for broadcasts, announcements, town halls and internal communities etc.

8seats can be used freely with guests and customers outside your organisation. No logins or passwords to remember. It’s all encrypted too and your business data stays with the business.

With many cool features on the way, 8seats is here to help you foster your team culture and get more stuff done.

Download or use 8seats today on Mobile or Desktop. iOS, Android, Mac or PC for free.