Nearly every day brings news of a collaborative agreement with companies in the natural products industry. For example, ChromaDex Corporation, a natural products company that provides ingredients to the dietary supplement, food and beverage, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, and Phenomenex Inc, a leader in the research and manufacture of separation science technologies, recently announced a collaborative project to provide faster quality control solutions that will help customers more readily meet increased FDA scrutiny of the supplement industry.
Such a venture often requires teams of scientists, marketers, and managers from different companies with different cultures to work effectively together toward a common goal. This is one reason why you must find employees with strong collaborative skills for your natural products jobs. Further, effective teamwork is increasingly important for internal company projects as well. Though the 'lone wolf' can bring a valuable skill set, most employees need to be able to work across functions and with outside business associates.
Collaboration basically means the ability to work effectively with others, including those from diverse groups and with opposing points of view. Workplaces lacking collaborative employee skills tend to waste time and resources, say some management consultants, who note that these companies also tend to have higher turnover, longer lead times and lower employee satisfaction.
To institute an effective collaborative atmosphere in your company consider the "4Ps of Effective Collaboration" approach:
1. Purpose
What is the collaborative effort trying to achieve? How should the team measure success? It's very important to clearly define why the team exists and what the common goals are.
2. People
Who needs to be on the team? What roles are needed? Which departments or functions need to be represented? Consider who is needed for each specific project and don't necessarily use the same team each time.
3. Processes
What is the overall process that should be used to define the problem, analyze the situation, gather data and gain the support of others in the organization? It's important to define whether the project needs to be fast-tracked or more deliberate and whether it should be driven from the top down or from a bottom up method.
4. Place
How will the team manage the logistics of their project interaction? Decide how often the group needs to meet face-to-face and when virtual collaboration is OK. Look at the project time goals and evaluate if slower interactions such as email and messaging will work with the project goals.
When seeking top talent for your natural products jobs, the interview process is very critical and is often where executives find they could benefit from the services of a professional executive recruitment firm. One question that is often helpful in assessing an applicant's collaborative skill set is to ask who they've worked with and what they've done on other projects at other organizations. If the person can readily tell you about what other people have done on projects they were involved in, then you get a better sense of their ability to collaborate with others. On the other hand, if an applicant goes on about the things that "I did and I accomplished and I achieved," then this person may not be a good fit. Those who aren't good at sharing accomplishments likely won't be good in situations where the team gets the credit for a successful project.
How can we help you find employees with excellent collaborative skills for your natural products jobs?