Welcome to the second of our three-part mini-series on technologies for the Modern Workplace, where we share how to solve common business headaches with Microsoft 365.
You can catch part one here. Here, we show you how to:
6. say goodbye to time-wasting, inefficient meetings
7. help everyone in your company feel like they belong
8. make your employee communications more engaging
9. ensure the right information is shared with the right people
10. get more value from your data
Let's go.
The average knowledge worker spends nearly a third of their week in meetings. Managed well, meetings are a force for good. Done badly – well, you’re probably recalling some as you read this. *Shudder*
Microsoft Teams meeting functionality, which includes audio and video capabilities. In Teams, collaboration begins the moment the meeting is scheduled. Attendees connect on 'persistent chat' to share documents and prepare. Unfamiliar with some of the participants? Hover over their name to see their organisational profile and LinkedIn background.
Of course technology will help make your meetings more efficient, but you know it takes more than this: The 6 Golden Rules of Meeting Management.
In many large organisations, especially those with multiple locations, employees can feel disconnected from one another and from what’s happening in head office.
Use Yammer to connect your employee community in an open and transparent way. Yammer is an enterprise social network that allows you to bridge organisational silos and drive company-wide initiatives. Hold town hall meetings to discuss changes and get in front of concerns. Yammer lets you take questions before, during and after the meeting. Yammer groups are ideal for managing questions relating to a specific meeting or topic. People can join your meetings in person or remotely. Record them for viewing later with Skype Meeting Broadcast or Microsoft Stream.
Our brains process video 60,000 times faster than text. This makes video one of the most effective ways to communicate with your employees.
Adopt video for internal comms, training, and engaging with remote workers. Town Hall meetings are great for keeping scattered teams connected. Microsoft Stream enables everyone in your organisation to create, discover, and share videos securely. You can integrate Microsoft Stream with collaborative apps like Teams, OneNote, SharePoint and Yammer.
Despite the explosion of alternative communication channels, email remains the first port of call for many of us. Creating distribution lists helps ensure the right comms are shared with the correct groups, but this has its limitations. For example, how do you let new members get up to speed by reviewing older emails?
Modernise your legacy distribution lists. Groups in Outlook lets you do two things. Firstly, create a shared inbox. It works like a traditional distribution list, except new members can view prior discussions too. Outlook Groups integrates with OneNote (for shared note-taking) and SharePoint (for cloud files). Use a group in Outlook to help your leadership team or direct reports keep up-to-date on core projects. Secondly, use Outlook groups to send a meeting invitation to everyone at once.
You’ve probably heard that data is the new oil. Despite this, it’s estimated that less than half a per cent of digital data is analysed and used to enhance business performance.
Microsoft 365 includes powerful capabilities to help you make better, data-driven decisions.
The Microsoft Modern Workplace is your integrated, secure ecosystem. It simplifies life for your users and makes your business agile and scalable. Catch the final part of our mini-series on M365 technologies that support the Modern Workplace.