Teamwork can be defined as the combined action of a group, especially when effective and efficient. It is often a key component in business and I am going to explain why. I will highlight some of the reasons teamwork is so valuable in the workplace so you know why you should exercise it and highlight your ability to work well as part of a team, in an interview.

Support

Teamwork offers the chance for members to support each other in achieving a task or goal, rather than leaving the responsibility on one person’s shoulders. Individuals benefit through mutual support and a combined sense of accomplishment.

Shared ideas

Teamwork allows people to share and combine ideas. This can not only enhance the business as they are getting a selection of ideas rather than just one individual’s, but it can also help with your professional development as you gain exposure to other ways of thinking and doing things. It encourages innovation in the workplace and an atmosphere where it is encouraged to share your ideas and thoughts.

Delegation

Teamwork allows people’s strengths and weaknesses to come to light. The goal of an efficient team is to delegate tasks based on people’s strengths so rather than having one person taking care of everything you would have individuals play to their strengths. This would mean each individual task would be completed by the person best suited to complete it. Teamwork allows organisations to recognise their employees’ strengths.

Efficiency

By playing to everyone’s strengths the organisation will be run much more efficiently as tasks will be completed by the right person. For example if the team were given the task of producing a Power Point presentation on a certain topic there may be one member of the team who loves conducting research and can do so quickly, while another member could be very skilled at Power Point and could whip up an impressive looking presentation in no time.
For the organisation it is much more efficient to have these individuals working on these tasks rather than one person trying to do everything when they may not necessarily be good at all areas. When a team works well together as a unit, they are able to accomplish more than the individual members alone.

For many reasons, including the above I have listed, teamwork is vital in most organisations and therefore an ability to work well as part of a team is something employers look for. You can give many examples of where you’ve displayed this ability from successful completion of group assignments at university to playing on your local football team. You will often get asked questions around this in an interview and now you know some of the reasons why.

Teamwork makes the dream work as they say. If your team are looking for students skilled and brimming with new ideas and enthusiasm, contact us about hosting an intern today.