Want to minimise workplace conflict and improve team performance?

With a continuing battle to not only retain scarce skills, but also create optimal working environments, a new platform has been created to minimise workplace conflict and improve team performance.

Software development house, Global Kinetic, launched its TeamFirst platform with bespoke algorithms that were tested and refined over six years. It is a cloud-based solution that uses anonymised data from the people and teams themselves about their experiences, relationships and outputs, combined with project KPI information, which is then analysed by the software. 

“Using terabytes of data produced in an organisation, TeamFirst can isolate areas of potential conflict before they escalate. The outputs of the product, while certainly useful to HR departments, are devised specifically for team leaders and project managers who are involved in the day-to-day team management,” Martin Dippenaar, CEO of Global Kinetic, says.

After all, he says, these are the individuals who are ultimately responsible for ensuring delivery. “By pinpointing niggles before they even become issues, companies save hundreds of hours that would otherwise have been spent on conciliation.”

More importantly, maintaining harmonious working conditions and avoiding workplace conflict is the most effective way of nurturing high-performing teams without the disruption and cost of high staff turnover, he says.

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Conflict in teams

When teams experience conflict, they lose focus, Dippenaar explains. “Individuals find it difficult to work in disharmonious environments and companies can spend hundreds of thousands of rands replacing team members who quit as a result of conflict.”

Added to the direct costs, management time and focus required to deal with interpersonal issues quickly stacks up and can have very real consequences for companies working on tight delivery deadlines, he says.

While quantifying the cost of disputes is not an exact science, the UK public body that helps companies with conciliation and arbitration, Acas, published a report last year in which it estimates that workplace conflict costs UK employers £28.5bn (R618.3bn) every year. This amounts to an average of just over £1 000 (R21 696) for every employee, every year.

The TeamFirst algorithms can detect points of potential conflict in real time and between six weeks to two months before a human would. The early intervention from TeamFirst slashed the software developer’s own staff turnover by 50% in the first year.

Companies can currently choose from three levels: a free-for-60-days trial version, a per-seat subscription-based model or the TeamFirst Enterprise offering. The company is also currently working on some exciting AI additions that will be available in coming months.

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Performance metrics

“Most companies implemented some type of performance metrics or measurements for individuals, but most do not have insight into how their people work together in a team. Even the best people put together in a team will have conflict and insight into team dynamics is imperative for consistent, high-quality output, as well as a clear view of the current work reality.”

Dippenaar says post-pandemic businesses, especially those using hybrid or remote working, depend on outcome measurements based on how well teams perform. “Using tools geared to optimise the efficacies of those teams will help businesses meet targets and hold on to their critical skills, which, in this economy, will hold the key to growth.”