Sometimes we don’t have the luxury of being at the office, with our familiar productivity-focused setups and the convenience of face-to-face meetings. That doesn’t mean working remotely should be tough.
There are plenty of things you can do to keep ahead of your workload, no matter where you’re logged in. However, the right productivity software will give you the perfect head start when working from home. One of the best programs to communicate with your team and collaborate on projects is Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Teams is ideal for all kinds of work, because it moves everything about your daily work routine into one place. Your colleagues (or contacts), your work, your diary, they’re all there. And navigating from between your projects and team meetings is easy.
Here, we’ll show you how to get started:
Add your team
One of the great things about using Microsoft Teams as a remote working hub, is that you can organise your team however you like.
Each team you set up has subsections called ‘Channels’. You can connect your whole department as a big team and make Channels related to separate departments like sales, marketing and HR, or just add your immediate team and add Channels to split the kind of work you do.
To start your team, open the program and head to the Teams’ tab on the left. Click on ‘Create a Team’ and follow the instructions. Add team members from your existing Office 365 group or from scratch, by email or phone number.
Set up a chat
If you can’t meet in person, the next best thing is a video call. Microsoft Teams makes this a key feature of the program, so you can collaborate on projects even when you’re not together.
Just new instant messaging chat with any of your contacts, and you’ll see icons in the top right for both audio and video call. You can add as many people as you like to a chat, so it’s ideal for team planning and project management. And when you have your weekly catchup, you can all meet up face-to-face from home.
All your work in one place
Here’s what we think is the best thing about working remotely with Microsoft Teams. Because Office 365 programs like Word, OneNote and Outlook are all integrated, you don’t have to flick between two or more windows to find the files or emails you need.
Simply head to the files tab on the left side panel and open the file you want to edit or send. If you save your projects to OneDrive, you can quickly retrieve projects and folders without needing to save anything to your laptop’s storage.
With shared work in Microsoft Teams, you can collaborate on a spreadsheet together and comment on the changes you make in real time. You can send timesheets, reports, assignments and briefs, and then talk your colleagues through them. Whatever your industry, whatever files you need to send, collaborating with Office 365 makes Teams even better.
And if you think you could do with a refresh on Office 365 software, take a look at these handy Office cheat sheets.
Add your most used software
Not every business runs the same way. Even teams within a single business can work differently, and that’s why Microsoft Teams is so flexible. You can build on your Teams experience by adding the Apps that you most frequently use. All you have to do is click on the three dots at the bottom of the side panel, and find your most useful apps.
For example, if you work in customer relationship management, or want to send out a newsletter to clients, you can add either Salesforce or MailChimp to your Microsoft Teams interfaces. Or, if you and your team are creating a customer-friendly app, you can download PowerApps and work on it together.
You can even improve your own Microsoft Teams experience by downloading the App Studio on Teams and creating your own apps. That way, you can add the finishing touches to an all-in-one program that works for you and your colleagues.
For more information about OneDrive and working together, check out this article!
