In any given organisation, there are employees with different job responsibilities, or rather meant for handling specific roles. Coming together however, as employees with different skills or responsibilities and working towards achieving a common goal or solution is what is referred to as cross-partment collaboration. According to Indeed.com website, cross-department collaboration means strong teamwork, which is a vital component of successful businesses and companies, and cross-departmental collaboration. Also, the website identifies that partnering with teams across a company helps an individual or companies find new ideas, solutions, or opportunities to enhance productivity, earnings, or employee satisfaction. As an individual, Fred Omondi, an engineer with a construction company in Muhima-Kigali believes that being aware of cross-department collaboration is not only enough, rather, understanding how to apply it in your domain or area of work or in your career is vital. For instance, he says he has a chain of workers with different skills and knowledge, working in different departments such as designing, master planning, quantitative surveying among others. “When we all come together and bring different ideas together, it eases our work and most importantly, leads to achieving a certain target or goal depending on what we want to achieve at any given time,” he says. Besides, Omondi highlights that with collaborative teamwork, people get to share more ideas, and get to know how and where to improve, thus enabling each individual to continuously learn in the fields they are in. Annonciata Ingabire, a communication specialist working with a non-governmental organisation says when it comes to collaboration; it’s more of cooperation and more. She explains that this is so because it’s more of coming together as a team with a shared vision, which would lead to understanding each other's roles and responsibilities, thus being able to work towards a common goal. She notes that from her understanding when you collaborate as people from a different department in one organisation, people get to be comfortable with each other regardless of the department they are in. “This skill or aspect helps all employees to learn how to communicate with each other, and most importantly, learn to respect everyone’s responsibilities and who they are in general,” she says. Indeed.com also identifies that this kind of collaboration also fosters innovation. For instance, creative ideas and thoughtful solutions often come from fresh perspectives, offered when there is a diverse group of people working on a project. In addition to this, a collaborative environment can challenge the standard way of doing things and find efficiency improvements, cost savings, or revenue opportunities. When it comes to helping the organisation thrive, Omondi says when you get to learn how and what your company can offer, it gives you an opportunity to come up with relevant ideas that add up to its development or growth in general. This, he says is beneficial to an employee and it keeps them updated on what they can offer or be capable of when they get to land other opportunities in the future. He adds that this also improves teamwork as it encourages all ideas, regardless of titles, and can strengthen team building within a company or business. Other studies also reveal that cross-department collaboration can also support team and company morale by showing employees you value their input, ideas, and work ethic. When employees view their workplace positively, it can increase job satisfaction and improve retention rates. Meanwhile, experts advise that for the growth of the company and the employees, leaders in any given organisation should strive at employing cross-functional collaboration regularly and visibly for others to see.
