Smart Ways You Can Use Microsoft Teams During Covid-19 (and Beyond)
The last several weeks have meant a complete transition for companies in Orlando and the rest of the country. Many have had to send all or most of their employees home to work remotely due to COVID-19.
This has created a unique challenge with employees feeling stranded and without the support they need to be as productive as they can while working from home.
“Stranded employees” was listed as a problem by 40% of companies surveyed after the pandemic began.
Using the right cloud solutions can help companies avoid isolated employees and keep the entire team connected and on track no matter where they’re working from.
One of the top team connectivity applications in use today is Microsoft Teams. The platform is much more than just an employee chat tool. It includes several powerful features that promote collaboration. It’s also fully integrated with Office 365/Microsoft 365.
Even before the outbreak, Teams had approximately 13 million daily users, which is a testament to the fact that the app can keep teams productive inside or outside of the office.
We’ll go over several ways you can use MS Teams both during and after the coronavirus pandemic to improve your staff’s effectiveness.
How to Facilitate Teamwork No Matter Where Your Employees Are
Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based teamwork application that includes multiple collaborative functions. These include things like:
- Channeled team chat
- Audio/Video calls
- File sharing
- 3rd party app integration
- Online meetings
Microsoft Teams is available with or without an Office 365 subscription, but using it with Office 365 unleashes more collaborative benefits.
Here are several smart ways your company can use Teams to empower employee productivity during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
Encourage Use of Video Calls
Through Teams, you can video chat at the click of a button, which makes it easy to do meetings face-to-face anytime. There is no need to pre-schedule a conference or go through a difficult setup process.
95% of businesses surveyed say that video conferencing increases productivity.
Regular use of video calls prevents the “stranded employee” feeling and can help your team feel just as connected with each other and with clients as they do at the office.
Capture All Important Company Communications
When employees are working remotely and using email, texts, or other methods to communicate back and forth, a lot of crucial information can get lost.
Using the dedicated chat channels in Teams, you can ensure that all Marketing communications are logged in your marketing channel, all HR communications in your HR channel, and so on.
You don’t run the risk of losing important details or information trails, because Teams captures it all, whether it’s by chat, audio call, or video call.
Set Employees Up with a Work Launchpad
One way to ensure that telecommuting employees have the apps and files they need at their fingertips is by using the Tabs feature in Microsoft Teams.
You can add tabs for multiple third-party programs that your team might use (like Trello or Salesforce), as well as other workflow items like:
- Files
- MS Office Programs
- Websites
- Company Wiki
- PDFs
This transforms Teams into a workflow hub, where employees can access multiple pieces of their workflow in a single place.
Keep Your Departments Connected
Groups that work closely together, like a sales department, can feel disjointed when they’re no longer working side by side in the office. Using Teams with SharePoint allows you to provision a Team Site for your departments.
That, along with giving them a dedicated chat channel, allows them to freely communicate within their group and feel connected. Teams also gives you the ability to keep these department-focused channels private so that any sensitive shared information is protected.
Host Web Events for Clients
While visiting clients may not be possible at the moment, you can still support those relationships via video events.
Teams has a powerful video event feature that allows you to host and record events for as many as 10,000 attendees. This allows your team to continue to support and nurture your client relationships virtually if they can’t do it in person.
Easily Share and Collaborate on Documents
If everyone is working on a document on their PC, cut off from everyone else, that can lead to version nightmares. Keep everyone connected with a single document that allows co-authoring using Teams and Office 365 together.
Your staff can work on the same document at the same time and even use chat to comment back and forth, making for a much more collaborative effort. This also eliminates problems with multiple file versions on different employee computers.
Get Set Up with Teams and Power Your Productivity
Our C Solutions cloud experts can get you set up with MS Teams in no time, including company-specific customizations. Power your team and keep everyone connected!
Schedule a free MS Teams consultation today! Call 407-536-8381 or reach us online.