A number of studies over the years suggest that effective collaboration in business can increase employee motivation and retention and contribute to high performance, among other benefits. Unfortunately, for SMB owners who must be ruthless in their time management, often the potential of various collaborative tools goes unfulfilled in the smash-and-grab nature of what an SMB owner faces every day.
Fortunately, Microsoft Teams is one such tool that many businesses began to use in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdowns (user numbers grew over tenfold from 2019 to 2023, from 20 million to over 300 million). Most SMB owners likely feel like they are “old hats” at Teams. Yet, it’s possible this common tool is not being fully utilized. In fact, instead of merely being a virtual meeting space, Teams can operate as a business’s “central hub” in order to promote smooth, efficient collaboration across the organization.
There are, of course, the standard features like Chat and Call. While email is still King for sales conversions and other kinds of communication, the efficiency of the Chat function can be superior to email under certain circumstances due to the ease of layout and additional features. Those “reply all” fails that we all experience no longer need be an issue. When chatting in team channels, each new entry populates at the bottom of the page, preventing messages and team members from getting left behind in the reply all free-for-all. Chat features are also more robust and real-time than email; for example, “loop components” allow users to create lists, tables, and checklists that are editable by other team members. Users can also post attachments, Approvals, and Workflows all in one spot visible to the whole team.
Teams Call video conferencing is also easy to use and allows “face-to-face” interaction with both colleagues and clients. But Call also offers features that offer SMBs flexibility and creativity in interacting with customers and potential customers. Besides standard meeting spaces, Call also allows users to conduct town halls or webinars, which can enhance an SMB’s reach and brand. Moreover, users have options for how to control the Call environment. Many of us don’t think twice about hopping on a live stream of some important event; however, this can lead to nightmares, as hacks and human error can cause catastrophes. However, these threats can be reduced in Call with your ability to control the lobby (who gets in and who doesn’t), as well as the presentation and chat features.
Collaborating with colleagues on projects and presentations is also made easier by Teams. Files posted within individual teams are accessible via Sharepoint, allowing team members to view and edit Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheet, or other types of files. This level of collaboration can prevent the “silo-ing” which happens so often in organizations and can allow team members and managers to keep track of multiple teams’ progress all in one spot. This is particularly helpful in our “on-the-go” environment where team members are in and out of the office. In fact, traditional phone systems can integrate with Teams through apps like Webex, allowing team members to field those landline calls from clients and colleagues while working remote or on-the-go away from the office phone.
Even the basic Calendar feature also helps smooth out daily tasks time management, allowing users to create their schedules, arrange recurring or impromptu meetings, and organize agendas. But beyond this, colleagues and clients can schedule meetings with SMBs via the Bookings app, for example, preventing the “when are you available” back-and-forth. In addition, organizations that require significant schedule management are aided by tools like the Shifts app. Again, these are not earth-shattering features, but having Teams as a kind of center of operations for your organization can save time and effort on mundane scheduling related issues.
In order to maximize our efficiency, sometimes it is helpful to spend the effort to learn how to use a good tool. Teams is a very common tool, but it is uncommon for users to maximize all that Teams has to offer. While the above are merely a few of Team’s features, these basic ones alone can improve team collaboration, make communication smoother inside and outside a business, and help organize the myriad of daily tasks that test our time management skills.