Workplace productivity isn’t all about working harder to squeeze as many jobs out of each spare minute. There’s a lot more to it than just that. True workplace productivity means that everyone is able to bring their unique personal style, insight, talents, and creativity to the table, contributing to the overall success of their team.
Everyone’s personal habits, too, are a huge part of workplace efficiency. While you may have a different position and set of responsibilities from your co-workers, their work and personal habits inside the workplace can significantly affect yours.
That’s why productivity improvement is so important. People aren’t going to be able to deliver their best work unless they’re all getting their tasks accomplished efficiently and promptly. With the help of technology, companies can boost their efficiency and productivity using online workspace applications like Microsoft Teams.
What Is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams, or MS Teams, is an online, chat-based productivity workspace created by Microsoft. MS Teams belongs to the Microsoft Office 365 family of products that is specifically designed for businesses and workplaces. Much like any elaborate software and applications in the market today, starting out with MS Teams can be confusing and overwhelming. Because of the myriad of tasks that you can use it for, it can be tough to figure out how to use this platform for the first time.
Increasing Productivity With Microsoft Teams
To increase your productivity in your school or business workspace, considering a Microsoft Teams migration today can be a worthwhile investment for your organization, because of the following productivity features, tools, and actions that you can do with it:
- Work Efficiently With File Collaborations
There are different ways of collaborating using Microsoft Teams, the first of which is by optimizing project workflows through creating the appropriate document types. The document types that you create in Microsoft Teams may be of many different kinds, however, it’s important to use the right document types when working with Microsoft Teams.
When looking at how to share and work on the same files in MS Teams, your team should learn about how to use the right tool and features that are available in the platform. Microsoft Teams allows for collaborative editing, where one user can edit a document in Microsoft Teams while another user edits the same document in another device.
This feature is an effective way to create collaborative working environments for team members, because one person can see when and how another person is editing the document. In this way, your teammates are guaranteed to be working on the up-to-date version of your document, minimizing file duplications.
- Save Time and Keep Away Distractions With Functional Features
Being productive at work shouldn’t only reflect how much work you can make in an hour. It’s also about how you can maximize the time in completing a task, given all the resources that you have. For this purpose, MS Teams can offer a big hand, thanks to its time-saving features that your team members can access anytime.
For instance, you can use the ‘mention’ feature, where you can type @mentions of a team member’s name in your message to let them know that you need their attention. In the top search bar, you can type a slash mark “/” to see a list of commands that you can do, such as see someone’s activity, send a quick message, call someone, search a recent file, and more.
If the white interface of the app distracts you while working at night, you can change your theme to dark mode. If you’re accomplishing an urgent task and wants no distractions, you can manipulate how you’d like to receive notifications in Settings > Notifications.
- Discuss Major Projects Using Channels
As an online collaboration and team communication tool, which is part of Microsoft Office 365 suite, it would be a disappointment if the platform didn’t have any avenue for discussing projects and tasks. Whether you’re part of a small business or a larger organization, you can reach your teammates in an instant through dedicated, customized channels in Microsoft Teams.
Moreover, MS Teams has collaborative features such as integration with other Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Outlook and Dynamics GP, which can be used for all types of collaboration from simple document sharing to complex project planning. One can be creative in the way they use this tool by making a custom channel that suits their needs perfectly. Aside from these extensions, you can also incorporate bots and make your own tabs.
Channels can either be public or private within the organization, where the latter limits communication only to a certain group of employees. With the help of channels and integrated app extensions, you can create, edit, save, and share your work without being distracted by unrelated messages. Using these channels, your coworkers can easily access files, presentations, and reports, which can speed up your productivity.
- Plan Your Commitments Ahead Using The Calendar
MS Teams is labeled as an “all-in-one” platform for good reason. It also allows you to set your daily, weekly, and monthly schedule, and share them with your teammates. Typically, the events arranged in the calendar include meetings and discussions that get assigned to the calendar of individual members. When it’s time for the meeting, one can jump right into the video call by clicking the ‘join’ button on the calendar.
With the help of this scheduling system and, you’ll never miss an online meeting because of failing to remember them. If everyone is on time and present at the meeting, you can immediately start with the team’s agenda, which makes your goal more attainable faster and more efficiently. For a more in-depth guide in using the MS Teams calendar, check out this how-to guide.
If you’re fond of customizing your work for a boost of motivation, you can personalize the calendar as well. The customizable features of this calendar include:
- Change the view to work week, entire week, day, month, and schedule view
- Categorize your events with colors assigned to each event
- Overlay or show calendar side-by-side
- Meet Anytime, Anywhere
For essential meetings requiring video calls, MS Teams also has your back. As mentioned earlier, you can join a scheduled meeting with one click, and you can video call one person or start a group chat as well. Whenever you need to schedule a video conference, you can simply arrange a sudden meeting on a channel, and the team members will be alerted about this event.
Within this video conferencing feature, there’s also a share screen option where you can let your teammates see what you’ve been working on. This feature is perfect for reports and presentations that need to illustrate key statistics, processes, and the like.
To eliminate any distractions during the video conference, the participants’ mic are automatically muted if there are too many people in the event. When turning your camera on, you can choose from a plethora of background effects
- Save Other’s Time Through Recordings
Waiting for a team member before starting your video conference, only to realize that they can’t attend the meeting, is such a huge waste of time. These little moments can cause a great delay and inconvenience in your project. To prevent these instances from occurring, there’s an MS Teams feature where you can record the meeting.
To start recording your video conference, find More Options > Start Recording. After the meeting is ended, the recording will be automatically uploaded so it can be played by anyone in the channel. In case anyone has missed an important point during the meeting, they can go back to this recording anytime. However, take note that these recordings expire in 20 days, so make sure to download it if you’re going to keep coming back to it.
- Gather Feedback and Assessment From Employees
Last but not least, Microsoft Forms can also be accessed through the Microsoft Teams app. If you’re a team leader, you can take advantage of these forms and questionnaires to assess the knowledge of your teammates, ask insights and feedback, and have a place where they can express themselves anonymously, depending on the form configuration.
Moreover, MS Forms can also be utilized in taking quizzes, surveys, and polls within your company and even for measuring customer satisfaction.
Navigating MS Teams
Since the platform can be quite confusing for new users, it’s ideal to, first and foremost, read up on Microsoft Teams and get familiar with the software before you start trying to figure it out. You’re going to have to learn how to use the system, how to create templates, and even work with your team to make it a productive environment.
Another way where you can learn more about MS Teams is by taking a class or two with discussions focused on how to use the platform. You could take a one-day course and take a couple of practice tests. That way you’re able to understand what Microsoft Teams is all about and how to use the system to its fullest potential. This also gives you the opportunity to see how you’re doing against other people in real scenarios and make sure you’re not doing things differently to make sure that you’re consistently creating quality work.
Bottom Line
With MS Teams, there’s no doubt that you can do so many tasks in only one platform. If you’re noticing a drop in your workplace’s efficiency and productivity, it’s time to assess your collaboration strategies and look for better ways to enhance your teamwork, with the help of Microsoft Teams. Upon signing up for an MS Teams enterprise plan for your organization, you can increase your business’s productivity using the functions and features discussed above.