Using a range of features in Microsoft’s leading collaboration platform, businesses can optimize their experience of their hybrid workforce.
The hybrid work model has taken hold throughout the business world, favoured by businesses that want to support their workforce’s wellbeing. Hybrid working gives employees the flexibility to work however they are most productive – which, for most people, constitutes a split of home and office-based days. Successful hybrid work relies on technology, and we spoke about this with IT support companies based in London. One provider of small business IT support London SMBs relied on during periods of remote work stated that the technology needed for hybrid work is quite similar – in particular, they recommend Microsoft Teams as an optimal platform for hybrid collaboration.
Why is Microsoft Teams Needed for Hybrid Work?
Microsoft Teams is an excellent platform for both communication and collaboration, which are the two most important pillars of hybrid and remote work. Having a singular platform that connects workers across multiple locations makes things easier, and the features of Teams have been developed over the years to make the experience of working virtually, or semi-virtually, as seamless as possible.
Better Hybrid Experiences with Microsoft Teams
So, what are some of the best features in Teams for hybrid working? We reached out to one London-based managed IT services company, that has a great deal of experience with Teams. Below are five useful features to consider…
- Better Synchronous Collaboration with Loop
Microsoft Loop is described as a ‘co-creation platform’ that allows users to create adaptive, synchronous assets for collaboration – such as checklists, tables, bulleted lists, or paragraphs. Loop integrates with Microsoft Teams, allowing users to create these types of assets (known as Loop components) with chats and channels. This feature is useful because it streamlines information sharing, as it eliminates the need for re-sharing of assets (because once a Loop component is shared to a chat or channel, any changes made to the original version will be synced across all endpoints).
- Better Employee Engagement with Viva
A challenge of hybrid working is ensuring that all users have access to the same resources. Within Microsoft Teams the solution to this is Microsoft Viva – a collection of applications dedicated to improving digital employee engagement. For example, Viva Learning is an application that curates’ digital courses and lessons, which can be assigned to teams and individuals. Viva Topics keeps content from different apps and outlets organised according to topic, making it easier for users to search multiple sources of information.
- Seamless Content Sharing in Meetings
The meeting experience is one of the crown jewels of the Microsoft Teams platform. It has been developed extensively over the last few years. We spoke with a company providing IT support Croydon businesses relied on heavily during times of enforced remote working due to COVID-19, and they said that the innovations in content sharing made the Teams meeting experiences one of the best in business. For example, Teams has a number of integrations with other Microsoft 365 products that provide seamless content presentation experiences:
- Share Windows – This feature allows you to share any window that is open on your computer as content; for example, one can share a web browser window, or a third-party application that doesn’t already have Teams integration.
- PowerPoint Live – This integration provides the world’s most intuitive way to present PowerPoint decks in a virtual meeting.
- Excel Live – This allows users to present Excel workbooks in a Teams meeting in an adaptive and intuitive way.
- Microsoft Whiteboard – This application gives users in a Teams meeting an interactive way to share ideas and brainstorm.
- Content from Camera – This feature allows users to share video feeds from external cameras, without interfering with their personal video feed.