Teamwork can be the pillar of innovation and productivity in any business, but only if company culture allows for a healthy team environment. We wanted to hear from people about their experience working in teams—where do they experience frustration, what tools do they use to help them work better as a team? We sponsored a third-party survey of 500 full-time workers living in the United States to find out. What we found was interesting. The results show that team dynamics are a source of frustration for many and that negative team interactions drive employees to leave their jobs. We also found that the tools that can be initiated by businesses to improve collaboration are rarely applied.

Key finding include:

A majority of employees work in teams, and a negative team environment can drive an employee to leave their job:

• Most survey respondents reported that they work in teams either sometimes (28.6%) or often (28.8%)
• The largest ($1.2%) reported that they sometimes feel friction while collaborating.
• Less than 10% of survey respondents prefer to work exclusively in teams, while 43% prefer to work individually. Nearly half prefer to work in some combination of individual/teams.
• Almost 1/3 of respondents have previously considered leaving their job because of negative team environments and 1/6 of survey respondents are currently considering leaving a job for this reason.

Motivating others, executive changes, and company expansion cause stress and productivity issues:

• Employees reported experiencing the most frustration when trying to motivate others (35.1%), executing on plans (27.4%), and during the planning phase (26.9%).
• Major changes at the corporate and executive level, as well as company expansion, compound team stress and productivity issues. Thirty-five percent of respondents reported feeling less productive during executive changes, and 27.1% cited rapid company growth as the root issue for lack of team efficiency.

Companies are using collaboration tools but employees aren’t applying them:

• 41.5% of respondents’ companies are using a variety of tests and tools to help understand the working styles and behavioral preferences of their employees.
• However, 85% use and apply these tools only sometimes, rarely, or never in their work environment.

For the full survey results, visit our Resources section here.