The Everywhere Office with Microsoft Teams
There is a significant shift taking place in the workplace, and with this shift comes the need for companies to re-valuate how they communicate, collaborate and inspire their changing workforce.
At Microsoft, we pride ourselves on being a leader in business productivity. We believe it is fundamental for businesses to understand and adapt to the changing nature of teamwork in today’s workplace. We’re excited to bring you a new solution that will help you do the same, but first, it is important to understand some of the workplace shifts we are seeing in Canada and why now, more than ever, it matters most:
- Cross-generation: There are significant generation and demographic shifts happening in the workforce. Millennials are now the biggest generation in the Canadian workforce with the boomers and Gen X trailing closely behind[1]. Leaders are tasked with managing teams that cross three generations and are challenged to find new ways to motivate people with unique beliefs and principles.
- Increasingly diverse: Organizations who see the incredible benefit of a diverse workforce are hiring people with different backgrounds, and cultures. The ability for these teams to collaborate openly and transparently is key to success for any organization.
- Flexible and mobile: Employees are continuously seeking out employers offering mobility as a necessary part of the job – In a recent poll of 1,500 technology professionals, 37% stated they would take a pay cut of 10% if they could work from home. Creating an environment that celebrates mobility in the new workforce is critical to the success of your workforce.
- Cross-functional: The amount of time that employees spend engaged in “collaborative” work – in meetings, on phone calls or answering emails – has increased by about 50% and now takes up 80% or more of employees’ time.[2] Finding a solution that streamlines employee cross-collaboration is fundamental to fostering employee productivity.
While this is no small feat for companies, we are confident we can help. At Microsoft, we are deeply committed to our mission of helping people and organizations achieve more. That is why we are excited today to announce the general availability of Microsoft Teams as part of Office 365.
With Teams, we saw an opportunity to create a more open, digital environment for teamwork – one that fosters easy connection and conversation to help people build shared awareness around their work. An environment that makes work visible, and helps build a team culture that is inclusive and ensures everyone has a voice and can express his or her views.
In short – Teams is the digital translation of an open workspace. It provides companies with many valuable features including:
- Central hub for teamwork– It is a single place where work gets done – no matter where employees are. A place to chat, start a video call, access your documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and notebooks, search for contacts, or tap into other cloud services.
- Chat for today’s teams – Its a modern conversation experience. One that is as open and transparent as social media, so everyone is in the know. Microsoft Teams provides threaded, persistent chat so everyone is engaged but also have the capability for private chats. Voice and video calling, 1:1 or for a small group, are seamlessly integrated into the chat experience and emojis, GIFs and custom memes allow employees to be more expressive and less formal.
- The ability for each team to customize their experience -Teams can pin first- and third-party content to channels, or integrate bots and connectors – providing the customization that many employees require to be productive.
- Secure and compliant – Microsoft Teams delivers enterprise-grade security, with multi-factor authentication for enhanced identity protection, that meets the broadest set of global compliance and data protection requirements.
At Microsoft we know that every group is unique and has its own functional needs and workstyle. We also know that when it comes to collaboration, one size doesn’t fit all. There is no single universal tool for collaboration that can enable every team to accomplish everything they need to get done. But while there is no universal tool, we see Teams and Office 365 as the universal toolkit for businesses to foster collaboration in the everchanging workplace.
Microsoft Teams is now generally available to Office 365 customers in 181 markets and 19 languages. For more information on how Teams can assist your diverse workforce to thrive and drive strong business results, visit aka.ms/startteams
Explore the art of Teams. Register now for this exclusive event!
[1] http://www.canadianbusiness.com/innovation/the-millennial-majority-workforce/
[2] http://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/resources/costs-benefit
