How to Evaluate Teamwork in a Business

Your business's employees are like a team - if they're willing to work together, rather than against each other, your business is more likely to succeed. Evaluating teamwork your business's teamwork means finding existing problems in communication and workflow and resolving them as quickly as possible. Start evaluating the teamwork of your business's employees today. You'll find detailed instructions below the jump, along with some suggestions for retraining salespeople as needed.

Steps

Evaluate what your expectations are and what your requirements are. It may be any number of valuable goals, such as making internal processes easier, increasing sales, to reducing staff turnover and improving the morale of your staff. It might also include making your company better known in the market by developing an efficient and professional team. Write down all ideas -- while being noncommittal, not judging, or laughing off suggestions.
Keep a confidential checklist of your considerations of changes, at this stage to see whether there are ways to improve processes as required, such as to find ways to implement better technologies. Later, consider the various ways you feel that you could implement some of these ideas. Refer to them after you take the following steps.

Be pragmatic so that -- if, ideally, the team works fine already, customers are happy and there are no evident problems, then there is no real reason to change for the sake of change.
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Talk to team members (1) as a group, and then (2) as individuals to find out their feelings, concerns, goals and ambitions about their progress and their obstacles in jobs and roles, in their work environment and their experiences.
If you feel that you're apparently not being told the full story, then go back to meet individual staff members for their opinions, an example approach might be: "I've been told there could be a problem with the stock control software, has this caused you any headaches?". If the answer is similar to: "The software is fine, but people just aren't entering the data right!" -- then you have found that there is a problem, as well as where the problem may be -- so re-training and quality control of data is required.
Listen carefully. Sometimes you may read between the lines when an employee is trying to remain "diplomatic" about something out of fear of recrimination or even of losing their position.
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Identify challenges that the employees are facing. There can be many obvious, expected factors but also very subtle ones. And be conscious that while some problems are likely to be within the company, others are likely to be occurring in the private life of the employee and have a "spillover" effect into the workplace, being tired, irritable or preoccupied. Common internal problems can be: Office politics with gossip, low or outdated product or company knowledge, low or poor "customer-care and proper handling" skills, or experience, old or outdated systems and hardware, faulty service equipment or sales stock and poor lines of communication or lack of needed/useful information.
- For low product knowledge, organise a product training seminar. If you're selling products, many manufacturers and suppliers will be willing to host such training for you free of charge if it will strengthen the mutually beneficial business relationship.
- For office politics, this is the hardest element of workplace relations to deal with. The most damaging ways one employee may harm another is through the use of very "soft" negative actions or omissions with the goal of making things difficult for other members of the team. For the person or people on the receiving end of obstructive or difficult behavior, it can eventually drive them to extreme frustration and even cause them to start looking elsewhere for work. In such a case, it is better to separate the relevant team members so that they're not in the same environment; if that's not possible, deal directly with the source of problems and see whether counseling, retraining or a warning are appropriate responses. If your company doesn't already have a code of conduct in place, now is the time to develop one; indeed, the process of developing it can be a cathartic experience for staff who see it as an opportunity to explore ways to prevent and deal with obstructive behaviors. Office politics is something that it is best to act on as quickly as possible because it's highly contagious.
- For new employees or for those who have a low level of skills, such as being slow to process quotes or to return calls, or for those who have an abrasive customer service manner, organise training meetings. Choose training that contains frequent role playing activities which can be one-on-one or in a group environment. Role playing will help those participating learn new ways to approach things that they find challenging. If possible, assign the less experienced members to work with a more experienced partner, so that the knowledge of one is transferred to the other.
- For personal problems outside of the work environment, there is very little that can be done about them apart from offering any services that your company already has in place, such as employee assistance counselors. It is best to support workers experiencing difficulties as much as possible and to find ways to make their work hours more flexible to reduce strain at home and at work. A staff member who is given flexibility and support to get through the initial stages of activity will be loyal and hard-working when they're back on their feet properly again.
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Take a regular opportunity to check if existing procedures and systems are being used and that they actually work. Sometimes systems can be in place but not work -- so that team members work around them rather than "make a fuss" to management. Yet, this can reduce productivity massively and will increase levels of frustration (ingenuity, team goodwill and resourcefulness can only be taken so far). For faulty communications or operational systems that can hinder co-workers from doing their job, or at least prevent them from doing their job enthusiastically, such problems are best fixed as soon as possible.
- If it does not look like the hardware is at fault, ask team members individually what concerns they have about the system or why communication does not flow freely. This might even need to be to take them off-site to a local cafe or some other neutral territory to ask discreetly.
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Invest in improving the layout of the building and equipment. Small poky corridors and aging facilities can be a drain on team morale as well as frustrating and turning away customers. While this may not seem like a priority, it is money well spent – a small cost to fix a small problem is better than a huge cost fixing a huge problem.
- Check the ergonomics of all member's stations and work spaces.
- Check the interactions between staff and customers. Are the interactions aided or impeded by furniture, counters, building layout, etc.?
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Install a system for staff members to make fair suggestions or comments. Any suggestion (such as a refurbishment request, a design idea or something else) should have feedback whether it is possible to act on or not. Encourage team suggestions as well as individual suggestions, as these may indicate prior discussion and compromising that can be a good result for your business.
- Naturally, for various reasons it is not always possible to implement all ideas. But giving feedback means that firstly you are listening, can be approached with ideas and by responding you're demonstrating your openness; it also shows that the system is to be used on fair terms. And you might be able to implement a modified version of any suggestion rather than doing nothing at all.
Consult customers wherever possible, whether you have an online or other survey method, or if they do not oblige being asked directly. Consult with various team leaders and team members. Consult with independent advisors such as your accountant, business development mentor or other people familiar with business management. Getting feedback from everyone is an important measure of your teamwork as a whole and the general direction your business is taking. While it is impossible to please everyone, this is the best way to find new ideas and new solutions.
It's quite likely that your old expectations are no longer relevant, but you may see some parallels. This is most useful for a manager to know exactly how well they knew their team members, staff and company before they looked closer.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most teamwork methods fall flat simply because there is no following up, leadership and/or monitoring to make sure it happens and that it works as well as it should. You may need to create a position for a person to be responsible for this if you cannot keep contact directly. Such a person can act as a go-between for you and can keep all team members updated on management happenings while bringing back team issues to you direct.
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Tips

For a manager, there are two extremes to avoid. One is to be so removed or "hands-off" that it is not always possible to find out any problems as information does not always filter through. The other is being so in the midst of things so it is not always possible to be unbiased or emotionally uninvolved. For the latter case it is recommended to use a different manager to oversee or be involved in training.
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Warnings

Beware "enabling" people. This means just talking to them in order to enable them to carry on, but without actually doing anything to fix the problem. This is a common method used by many people with the idea that enabling them to express their feelings will fix the problem. It may help in terms of venting, but it doesn't fix the issue on its own. At the end of the day, your employee is likely to experience a mental burnout and simply not discuss their problems.
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Quite often it is not possible to re-train any team member who feels they are entitled to work as they see fit, regardless of what the customer or other co-workers may feel. If it's not possible to encourage improvement, see what areas this team member may be able to work in a back-of-house role, or whether they are really a person who wants to be in their job as it is.
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Going undercover, using a "mole", false customers or any covert operation and secret agents is a considerable risk in a small company environment, as it can alienate staff members once discovered. However, it is sometimes the only way to get a genuine, unrehearsed insight. Only use it as a last resort, because it is more often than not unreliable if an antagonistic staff member portrays a false character in order to "escape the radar".
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