Working from Home, Still Connected: Microsoft Teams Empowers Your Employees to Work Remotely

Remote work is increasingly popular, and it’s no wonder why. Working remotely has many benefits for employers and employees alike. Still, there are some challenges that often need to be addressed, both within the office and its technology.

Remote workers can begin to feel disconnected from other employees, and they may have some difficulty working effectively with in-office workers. MS Teams can help.

The Advantages of Remote Work for Employers and Employees

Over the past decade, both employers and employees have seen the growing advantages of remote work. Employers can pull from a global pool of talent. And employees are able to work from where they feel most comfortable and productive. Today, offices can be entirely decentralized.

The advantages of remote work for employers include:

• Gaining access to a wider talent pool. Employers are no longer confined to their geographical limitations. They can get employees from anywhere, including other countries. Employers may be able to acquire more affordable and specialized talent, as well as workers that fit best in their company culture.
• Saving money on large, brick-and-mortar offices. Rather than having large physical offices, employers can instead maintain smaller offices and allow employees to work from home. That drastically reduces their costs.
• Drawing in better talent. Remote work is highly desirable. High value employees are more likely to work with companies that provide remote work. Employers don’t just get access to a wider talent pool: they also get access to an even better talent pool.

The advantages of remote work for employees include:

• Achieving a healthier work-life balance. Employees are better able to take care of their home and their family when they can work from home. They don’t need to spend additional time getting to the office and getting settled. Work-life balance is more important to today’s employees, and it’s important for an employer to support.
• Avoiding stressful commutes. Commutes can be upwards of an hour for some employees, and they dig into an employee’s personal time. Employees who commute to work end up stressed by the time that they arrive, and they become frustrated and upset when they’re at work. A stressful employee isn’t a productive employee.
• Being more productive overall. Studies have shown that remote workers are more productive than in-office employees. When employees have complete control over their office space and are able to work as they desire, they can get more done. Likewise, when they don’t have to worry about things like a lengthy commute, or office hours, they can better focus.

Working from home is a win/win situation. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some challenges that have to be addressed before a company can begin remote initiatives.

Counter the Challenges Remote Work Creates with MS Teams

Microsoft provides a breadth of work from home productivity tools, including MS Teams. Teams can connect employees seamlessly, regardless of whether they’re in a cubicle down the hall or on the other side of the country. With better Microsoft Team collaboration, teams will be able to work more effectively with each other, and they will be able to maintain a healthy rapport.

A few of the major features of MS Teams:

• Consolidated calendars. MS Teams integrates with the Exchange Calendar system. Employees can easily see their deadlines, meetings, and other events, so they’re never caught off guard. Meetings can even be launched from within calendars, and scheduled seamlessly through the MS Teams platform.
• Video conferencing. Remote workers can feel disconnected because they don’t have the type of face-to-face interactions that other employees do. Video conferencing allows for direct communication, including non-verbal cues. Through video conferencing, employees can feel closer to each other.
• Group chats. A group chat makes it possible for all employees to remain on the same page, regardless of where they physically are. All employees are updated at the same time, and there’s always the option of one-on-one instant messaging for things that aren’t applicable to the whole group.
• One-on-one instant messaging. Often, messaging is a fast, non-disruptive way to communicate. Employees working remotely are able to get answers quickly without having to disrupt the work of in-office employees, while in-office employees can get answers from remote workers without having to track them down.
• Project management. Through project management integration MS Teams makes it possible for employees to quickly check a dashboard of their current projects and tasks. Employees will be able to review the tasks that they have yet to complete while also seeing what other employees are currently prioritizing.
• Document management. One of the highlights of Microsoft Team collaboration lies in the Microsoft ecosystem. MS Teams makes it easy to trade information, such as sending documents to each other as attachments. Through Microsoft integration, documents such as PowerPoint files and Word files can be worked on together, and better collaboration can achieved.

Through MS Teams, employees are able to work out of the office as though they are still in the office, gaining all the advantages of working from home without any of the negatives. They are able to better communicate and collaborate with other employees, while also getting easy access to the information, application, and other tools they need.

Are you ready to think about MS Teams? Contact Red River.