The hybrid work model not only helps employees become more productive, but also promotes a better work-life balance. Microsoft wants to further enhance the experience through the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity tools. Let’s take a look at how Microsoft 365 can improve hybrid working.
Metaverse for Immersive Meetings
The metaverse is a virtual world that mimics aspects of the physical world using technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence (AI), social media and digital currencies.
To enhance hybrid work environments, Microsoft is integrating its metaverse platform Mesh into its business communications platform Teams. With Mesh, Microsoft makes it possible for in-office and remote employees to be together in 2D and 3D virtual meetings. Businesses will also be able to create immersive spaces that resemble physical spaces such as conference rooms, design centers and networking lounges. Also users can create personalised avatars to mix and mingle, collaborate on projects and have encounters that fuel innovation.
Improved Teams meeting experience
Microsoft is also updating teams to promote more inclusive and productive hybrid meetings. When setting up a hybrid meeting, the host can use the scheduling form to assign roles to participants. For example they can assign one employee as a timekeeper, while another can be the facilitator. Teams now also has a feature that allows the host to see the order in which participants raised their hands during a meeting. This ensures that everyone is called and heard.
Easier collaboration between organisations
With Teams Connect, employees can share private and shared channels and files with anyone, including outside their organisation. With a recent update, you can now schedule a meeting, collaborate on apps in real time, and share channels with up to 50 teams and as many organizations as needed. In the future, users will also be able to chat with third parties who have personal Teams accounts.
Better collaboration with Microsoft Loop
When you’re planning for example a team outing, you want employees to send photos of their suggested locations. Then you would want everyone to vote for their favourite location. This may require multiple apps, however MS Loop allows your team to do it all in one place.
The goal of Loop is to centralise all tasks to improve a team’s collaboration in real time, even if employees are in different locations.
Loop has three elements: Components, Pages, and Workspaces.
- Components: These are small productivity units that allow you to collaborate and complete work while conducting chats, meetings, emails, documents, and more. You can build your own components or use pre-set components
- Pages: These are canvases where you can organise your parts and retrieve elements such as links, files, or data that are relevant to your project.
- Workspaces: These are shared spaces that allow your team to see and collect everything important to your project. Workspaces also make it easy for you to catch up on what everyone is working on, respond to others’ ideas, and track progress toward shared goals.
Enhanced digital experience for employees
Under the hybrid work setup, the employee experience is not limited to a physical location, but also extends to the Internet. In this environment, employees also need to learn and stay engaged. That’s where Microsoft Viva can help.
MS Viva is an employee experience platform that brings together learning, insights, communication and resources in one platform. MS Viva includes four categories: connections, learning, insights, and topics.
- Connections: Uses AI to deliver innovative engagement experiences to keep all employees informed about company events
- Learning: Allows team managers to assign courses or lessons to particular teams or individuals, fostering a culture of development and learning in the company
- Insights: empowers companies to make data-driven improvements to their processes and policies to improve employee wellbeing and productivity
- Topics: Organizes content in the organisation so employees can easily find the information they are looking for
Tech-Wales – Implementing MS Teams
At Tech-Wales we are experts in MS Office 365 consultancy. We can provide you with you with essential support and advice when you want to set up MS Teams for your business or want to streamline MS Teams. Combined with our excellent business IT support and Business IT Consultancy Services we can provide your organisation with the complete package. Feel free to contact us to discuss.