A Hybrid Workers Guide to
Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is one of many apps that have taken the world by storm throughout the pandemic. Due to people being unable to get into the office, Teams was one of the few apps that needed to be downloaded by many workplaces and employees across the country. If you haven’t yet taken advantage of Microsoft Teams, read on to learn exactly what features are available to help hybrid workers make the most of remote employment.

Improve Internal Collaboration with Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a powerful tool that is primarily used within organizations to help to increase collaboration levels and increase the efficiency of in-work interactions. Specifically, the Calendar and Shifts features play a significant role in staffing workplaces and assigning members of the team to tasks that require close attention.

Without productivity tools, a manager is required to keep track of which members of staff are working in a particular section of the business and which tasks are going to be completed in the right timeframe. Implementing Microsoft Teams simplifies this process, allowing members of management to resolve more important issues which cannot be automated and designated to technical solutions, such as in-team conflicts.

Improve External Collaboration with Microsoft Teams Calling

In addition to working with members of your team, you may need to extend beyond the boundaries of your own staff. Having meetings with suppliers from around the world or clients that you are looking to onboard can be a very difficult task, however, the Teams Calling features available on Microsoft Teams mean that you can improve your collaboration with external parties.

Unlike a standard VOIP phone system, which primarily works within a company, Microsoft Teams operates a Calls system that accounts for both video and audio calling requirements. You simply need to send the external party a link to the call and accept them upon their entry. From this point, somebody external to your team can gain all of the benefits of Microsoft Teams. This includes screen sharing in the case of presentations and pitches, and file sharing if you need to share projections, drafts for branding designs or contracts. You can make external parties a part of your space by inviting them to Microsoft Teams calls and making the most of the collaborative features on offer.

Make Projects Easier with Integrated Office and Cloud Sharing

Making the most of your file storage and working collaboratively used to be an impossible task, marred with having to save the document before the next person opened it, and a corrupted file could ruin the work of dozens of people all at once. With the expansion of cloud storage and associated technologies, these issues have been resolved and working collaboratively with your team has never been an easier process.

Microsoft Teams makes full use of its integration with Microsoft 365, linking collaborative workplaces to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and a range of other Office systems, opening them up to a workplace that engages with collaborative and communicative features. Users are able to place comments on files that offer help and advice to improve their coworker’s progress, and (dependent on access permissions that have been granted) are able to contribute their own paragraphs and enter their own data into databases. In this regard, Teams can encourage a never before seen level of cohesion in the workplace.

Improve Communication with The Chat Function And Send Fewer Emails

Anyone who has worked in an office knows the influx of emails you can expect to receive. Whether it’s an email about a project that is due in a week or a more sociable email about the five-a-side work football team that plays in your lunch break, emails can very quickly stack up and feel overwhelming. Microsoft Teams plays a key role in clearing inboxes and moving discussions to the Chat function, leaving your email accounts available for more important work.

The Chat feature also allows you to create groups. For a large workplace that needs to expand into working groups, it is far simpler to create a group in which to chat than manage a large email chain. Employees are also able to share files and collaborate in a Chat, helping to bring further efficiencies to the workplace where previously you could expect to see clumsy solutions put in place by the employees themselves.