3 Ways Corporate Photosharing can Improve Team Collaboration

Everyone and their pet raccoon have seen Avengers by now. Assuming you have too, let us pose a question: 

Do you think we would have gotten more than one movie if the heroes gelled together once they realized the importance of team collaboration? 

Sure, each hero brings something shiny to the table, but they didn’t trust each other deeply enough until much later. Like losing half the Earth’s population to a megalomaniac later. Trust and understanding make teams work better together.

But you’re smarter than Thanos and Fury put together. You already know cohesion and collaboration can take businesses to the heights of success. But do you also know you may be overlooking one of the best team collaboration tools that could aid you in this endeavor? 

We’re talking of course about corporate photo sharing! (because sharing is caring). Sharing photos can give a Hulk-sized boost to boost communication, streamlining workflows, and building a stronger sense of teamwork!  

But before we elaborate on that, let's assemble! 

Why is Collaboration Important for Businesses?

Aside from making your team photos look Avenger-esque when they come out (thank you, Photoshop and Canva), collaborative efforts have many other uses. 

• When your employees share their knowledge freely, it can lead to them discovering useful yet unconventional solutions. In other words, working in groups can improve problem-solving
• The more they communicate, the better they'll be at it and the stronger the relationships will be
• In addition, they’ll learn more about each other’s strengths and competencies. Divvying up work can be easier this way when everyone knows that their teammate has their best interest at heart
• Effective communication makes the workplace a safe place for employees. And when that’s the case, you'll see lower rates of turnover and absenteeism
• Positive interactions should make work an obligation that makes employees more productive
• By communicating, they'll get a clearer picture of how they fit into the bigger picture. Employees will be more likely to own their work and complete tasks

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Now we’ll show you how corporate photo sharing can be a great source of ideas for collaboration:

Benefits of Using Corporate Photo Sharing for Team Collaboration

Happy, motivated employees are beneficial for business (of course). And by collecting team photos, you show how proud you are of them, the work they do, and that they’re a part of your organization. But what else can corporate photo sharing do for your business?

Let’s find out:

1. Improve Communication and Collaboration among Team Members

The basis of most kinds of interactions is commonality. If we believe we have something in common with the other person, we’ll be more interested in talking to them. 

Imagine two employees, John and Susan, who work for you. They probably pass each other daily but since they work in different departments, it’s likely neither even knows the other’s name. So, Susan wouldn’t know John loves iguanas while John has no idea Susan shares his love of reptilian things–or that she has a pet iguana!  

On Share Pet Photo Day, Susan shares a photo of Igloo, her iguana, on the company-wide digital photo sharing community. John sees it and uses it as an icebreaker the next time he passes her in the hall. And suddenly, Igloo’s why those two are talking.

In other words, pet photos can serve as points of commonality that help employees build relationships and foster trust. And, sure, John and Susan may not become instant friends, but similar interactions will boost trust levels which will in turn...

2. Increase Productivity and Efficiency

Most employees waste a major portion of their work day, close to 2.5 hours, gathering info. Two reasons why it takes them so long to track down the pertinent data are:

• Inaccessibility due to insufficient interdepartmental collaboration
• Data itself is now out-of-date because of siloing

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That would be less likely to happen with effective and efficient digital team collaboration online.  

Close to 90% of executives think business failures and ineffective collaboration are linked. And it’s not hard to see why. For one, teamies will learn from each other. Secondly, they will propose multiple inputs for resolving queries and issues. This can result in better problem solving and improved creative thinking. Consequently, such organizations will adapt to changing market conditions more easily and quickly.

As you can see from the above image, it’s crucial each person should feel like they’re contributing on some level. It prevents incidents of the Hulk smash! variety from happening and creates an engaged workforce. The former is good for…everybody. Engaged and collaborative workforces are 50% more effective at task completion. 

3. Enhance Ability to Share and Access Information

Necessity, such as the pandemic and hiring the best talent from all over the world, have increased the demand for remote team collaboration tools. Besides, these are increasingly data-driven days. That means even if employees’ work doesn’t require direct interaction, it needs access to information from other departments. 

For instance, the company’s finance team will steer better with access to data generated by non-finance departments, such as:

• Marketing
• Supply chain
• HR

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Similarly, knowing these might have helped the Avengers compensate for each other’s weaknesses more accurately:

• Iron Man’s predilection for shawarmas
• Cap’s hang-ups with swear words
• Natasha’s preoccupation with conserving water (see below)

Fostering digital collaboration results in faster and smarter work. The different teams can streamline individual tasks on their own. As for the rest, they can use real-time communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Drop Event in Spotlight–Use Cases & Features that Improve Team Collaboration

Think about issues important to you and your organization when evaluating different media gathering and sharing options. For instance, you may prioritize ease of use over any other features or a concern for security or privacy may be your preference. 

Other issues to consider are:

• The size of your contributing circle
• Whether you’ll also be uploading videos besides images
• Total storage and individual file size capacity
• If preserving full-resolution of video/images is important
• The ability to annotate

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Fortunately, DropEvent is one cross team collaboration tool that can take care of all that and much more! Some of its best features include:

• Quick and easy bulk uploads that don’t require an app download or for all contributors to sign up for an account. All they need is a QR code and the uploading can begin anytime, anywhere, and with any device!

• A user-friendly website and great customer service always up to assist users
• You get 45 days to keep uploading to a gallery–sufficient time to gather media from multiple contributors, such as corporate event attendees
• Downloads and shares don’t affect media resolution negatively

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Below, we mention the three features companies expect to get out of their corporate photo sharing apps most commonly and how DropEvent ticks all those boxes:

1. Team Photo Albums for Easy Sharing and Collaboration

DropEvent is perfect for continuous collaboration. For one, it’s easy to add multiple contributors. Once that’s complete, they can access galleries containing photos and videos. This is great for corporate occasions with different events planned on different days. That way, your contributors can keep uploading content as the events take place. 

Similarly, content from ongoing games, matches, and tournaments–that’s right, in real-time– can continue to be uploaded for 45 days straight. 

You can also keep creating behind-the-scenes content and upload it to your DropEvent galleries for use later on. You can also organize your gallery content into several albums, which makes it easier to view and sort out for reuse or social media shares. In addition, you can decide to display the contents as thumbnails or large-sized images. 

2. Shared Image Annotation for Real-Time Feedback And Collaboration

The option to add captions and meta tags to individual images is another great DropEvent feature. This makes it super easy for you and your contributors to manage the content in the galleries. You can move around the images to different folders based on the tags. But more than that, you can also have your team members collaborate and give feedback instantaneously.

3. Customizable Album Permissions to Control Access to Sensitive Information

You decide which users can access particular galleries by activating the password protection option. So, for example, limit the number of contributors for a folder containing the Sales’ teams images to just those team members. They may add more media or comment on what’s already in the folder. 

Conclusion

Smart business owners know too well that collaboration benefits can be game-changing and boost profits. So, now that we’ve gotten you thinking on how to best leverage a corporate photo sharing app, like DropEvent, don’t limit your business to just these uses. For example, boost virtual team collaboration by uploading scans of documents and conceptual videos explaining a department-specific or company-wide process. Smooth out wrinkles in your remote team brainstorming sessions or in your company’s onboarding processes. It’s time you got to thinking what else you can do with DropEvent–or have us tell you all about it! 

FAQs

1. How do you improve team collaboration in the workplace?

Experts recommend the following team collaboration best practices:

• Make sure the workplace is a supportive environment, where brainstorming and collaboration are encouraged
• Create overlap zones that bring your workforce together, but also allow individual members to play to their strengths
• Provide the right tools for collaboration, such as an online photo sharing app like DropEvent for remote and hybrid teams

2. What would you suggest to increase team collaboration?

If you want to boost team collaboration skills within your organization, start by fostering open communication. Hold brainstorming sessions after clearly stating that they’re taking place in a psychologically-safe zone. That should get the contributions and unique inputs flowing. The safer your workforce feels, the more likely they will be to offer ideas and collaborate.

3. What are the three opportunities for creating collaboration on a team?

Managers looking to generate effective team collaboration should invest in collaborative tools and platforms where conversations can happen. They can also move things along faster by clarifying the kind of input, goals, and expectations they hope to achieve. Finally, data-driven teams shouldn’t work in departmental silos, so managers should encourage cross-team dialogue.

4. What movies from Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) Avengers would you suggest I see before I watch The Incredible Hulk?

The four movies that take place before The Incredible Hulk (chronologically) are Captains America & Marvel and Iron Man 1&2.

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