During my last role, I managed my team remotely from the UK. We were spread across seven different geographical locations, four different time zones, and were as diverse a team as you might expect for a region encompassing 78 countries. During my 3.5 year tenure we were able to be together as a whole team on only one occasion – for an organisational off-site.

Despite the distance between us, I am proud to have fostered a close and collaborative team culture during that time, one which respected and celebrated our diversity.

This wasn’t without its challenges, however. Maintaining an inclusive environment and ensuring connection required both attention and intention. Managing a team remotely and from home was a great learning experience for me as a people leader. I am keen to share some of my thoughts, learnings and mistakes that were made along my journey in the hope to help you with yours.

Here are my top five tips for managing remotely and from home.

1.      Make sure you are prepared

First things first – make sure that you are ready and set up to productively lead and manage remotely when at home. I remember sharing a particularly embarrassing incident with my team early on in my remote working experience. I was on a call with a senior leadership team when I noticed I was losing WiFi signal. In an attempt to regain the signal, I sprinted with my laptop to another part of the house and tripped over the dog. I accidentally unmuted myself at the exact point in time when I let out a loud expletive aimed at said canine. The leadership team were especially forgiving, although I think the dog still holds a grudge! It was a valuable lesson in the importance of getting set up to credibly and productively manage remotely:

• Prepare your workspace. Make sure you have a reliable connection and you have what you need to be productive.
• Figure out when you really need the focus time. Not all calls and meetings are equal in this regard. We all have distractions when working from home such as partners, kids, pets etc. If I had an especially important call, for example, with a customer or if I was required to present, then that was the time I found a way to create calm, e.g. asking my husband to take the dogs out, putting a movie on for the kids, or asking the builders (yes really) to hold back on the pneumatic drilling for an hour or so.
• Embrace the quirks. For those other calls which are a more informal catch ups like 1:1s and team meetings then my view is that we’re all adults and nobody really cares if a dog barks, postman arrives or a child comes in. I was once on a call where my bosses partner appeared in full view in swimming trunks behind her on a Teams call. In a fully remote team some of these moments provided the best social moments of connection.
• Set your boundaries. It is important that you still maintain a healthy separation between home and work life even if you are working from your home. Be intentional about your working hours and setting expectations for availability. This is especially important if working in a global company and across cultures and time zones.

2.      Prioritise the relationships

In my previous roles I had been used to managing people with a rhythm of 1:1 meetings on a monthly basis in order to review progress and check-in. Being based in the same office if there was ever a requirement for an interim chat, decision, or catch up we knew we would see each other and so there were plenty of other opportunities to connect – normally in a corridor, in the kitchen, or just wandering over to someone else’s desk.

Managing remotely however is different and these are some of the learnings I discovered as a result:

• Frequent contact is important. In order to maintain connection and build the manager-direct report relationship, I consciously doubled the frequency of 1:1 meetings or check-ins with my direct reports as I had done with my local office based team. I had catch ups every other week for most of the team, but for new joiners or where we had business challenges, I did a weekly meeting. These connections were invaluable for keeping in sync with the team and it was the frequency, rather than the length of these connections which was important.
• Welcome the ‘ping’. I made sure my status was accurate and welcomed the informal ‘pings’, quick asks for help, and kept a close eye on this throughout the day. It’s important that you are accessible to your team when they need support.
• Maximise opportunities for connection. Whenever possible I prioritised an informal ad-hoc Teams video chat over sending an email when I could to encourage relationship building and make sure things we’re taken out of context.

3.      Running inclusive remote meetings:

I have found the phrase “if you don’t intentionally include you unintentionally exclude” to be so true. In the early days of remotely managing my team it became obvious that only a few voices were being heard. It took deliberate attention to foster a feeling of inclusion on our calls where every voice could be heard. Over time we found what worked for us and these are my top tips:

• Don’t try to pack too much into the meeting agenda. Whilst it’s tempting to get everything crammed into the meeting, this might not leave enough space for discussion amongst the team. Put lower priority items at the end of the agenda so if you happen to overrun then you can start with those next time.
• Allow time for social connection. Whilst you are waiting for everyone to join, rather than sitting in silence, use the time to catch up on what happened at the weekend, the weather, family life, etc. Anything to build those social connections in the group.
• Turn on the camera. It makes such a difference to the engagement of a remote team when they can see each other on the call. You can do this by putting a fun slide/reminder at the start of the call as a quick prompt and as a manager, modelling the way by being the first to turn your camera on.
• Consider a ‘check-in’. A check-in usually takes the form of a quick update from each of the meeting participants and is perfect if you have a relatively small team. This could be to see how they are feeling, whether they are facing any challenges, and what they are looking forward to amongst other things. The important factor here is to engage all participants from the outset of the call.
• Let your team build the agenda. Another trick to get participation is to ask everyone to input topics they’d cover in your meetings.  Once you have a list of topics from everyone, you can prioritise by having everyone “+1” on the topics they care about, and work through them in that order to maximise coverage of interest in the topics during the time you have. Carry over any items which were not covered to the next meeting/call.
• Notice who is speaking and who is quiet. Try to encourage active participation of all on the call. Invite other opinions if some of the team are not contributing and don’t feel comfortable jumping in every time there is silence on the call.
• Rotate meeting ownership. Ask other members of the team to present content on the call, or even organise the agenda for the call on behalf of the team.
• Record the meeting. If team members are unable to attend this means they can review the content later. Recorded meetings also come with the audio transcript so team members can easily go back to review meetings and get actions.
• Turn on live captions. Teams uses AI to put live captions onto meetings in real-time. This is useful for members who might be joining from a busy environment, or are hard of hearing.

4.      Promoting collaboration

When a team is remote, and not just remote but working in isolation and/or outside of the office then the chat functionality of Teams really becomes important. However, if this is new to an individual – either because they are used to working in an office or are new to a team then here are a few tips to promote collaboration.

• Promote an open and supportive culture. Create a safe space where your team are empowered to share problems and challenges in your Teams channels (as well as ideas, best practices, and offers of help. Using the power of your community to support each other should enable faster resolution to issues and everyone’s knowledge benefits from seeing the conversation. As a manager you can ‘like’, @mention someone and recognise with thanks both the question and the contribution of the team.
• Get to the point in Team chats. Some organisations and Teams are promoting a ‘NoHello’ approach to chat conversations. Although we love to be polite, share a greeting and wait for a response which might take minutes to come, you may have joined your next meeting before you get what you need. Make it a practice in your organisation, by all means to share a greeting – but follow this straight away by the question or request. Much quicker and more respectful of time.

5.      Don’t forget the Fun

We all have a limited attention span in meetings and in particular, on remote calls. That’s why it’s important to keep the engagement, attention, and energy up. Some of the great ways we found to do this were:

• Use the chat function. On our Teams meetings, we encouraged equal levels of engagement and participation in the chat window as we did in speaking on the call. Everyone loves a GIF or a meme. Typically, alongside any speaker or presentation there was a constant stream of chat, feedback, questions, comments, and activity throughout the session.
• Use the full functionality of Teams. You could use the whiteboard to brainstorm ideas (or for a quick round of Pictionary), and the poll functionality to gauge opinions (or for a quick trivia quiz). Being mindful to inject some lighter moments of fun into the meeting will create deeper levels of engagement and participation when used during the meeting.

Find out more

Tips for effective remote work

Join our virtual Microsoft 365 Training Day: Journey to Microsoft Teams

About the author

Georgina is Delivery Management Leader in Microsoft Services, where she helps customers realise their full potential through accelerated adoption and productive use of Microsoft technologies. She leads a high-performance team of seasoned service delivery professionals well versed in cloud adoption, delivery management practices, and technology trends. Previously, she was Head of Talent Acquisition for Middle East and Africa. Georgina is passionate about coaching and developing individuals to achieve their potential, with an interest in diversity and inclusion.

The post 5 tips to keep your remote team engaged and motivated appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

So what does teaching look like when our students aren’t sat directly in front of us? What does it really mean to teach remotely? How do you inspire, manage, care for, and engage your students whilst you’re sat in your own home and they are in theirs? It can be difficult and daunting to find new ways of working in these times of change, especially when you are pushed out of your comfort zone and regular routine.

To help you deliver an uninterrupted experience for your students through virtual and remote learning, four of our top Microsoft Innovative Fellows have begun to explore these questions within their own schools and have kindly shared their insights with us.

1. Take the first step

Jimmy Edwards from St. Hele’s School in Plymouth recounts his first attempt at remote learning with Teams, what he learned and his tips to get started when you and your students are brand-new to Teams and remote learning.

Read more: 3 tips to get started with Microsoft Teams for remote learning

2. Prepare your workspace

Paul Watkins from Ygsol Bae Baglan in Port Talbot gives us his top tips for preparing your work station at home to be ‘teacher-ready’ even if you are wearing your fuzzy slippers. He shares his tips on how to take the fear out of being on camera with you students and how you can embrace Teams to help you reach your students remotely.

Read more: How to set up a remote learning workspace in 4 easy steps

3. Encourage student collaboration

Elaine Topham from Grimsby Institute outlines a variety of tools you may want to consider to foster communication and collaboration while in a remote learning situation. She has compiled a view of Office 365 tools that can help you with instruction and assessment.

Read more: Tools to support teachers with remote learning

4. Equip your students for the future digital workplace

Sarah Clark from Queen Anne’s High School in Fife shares with us a differentiated approach to remote learning. Making reaching your students accessible even if you are a novice at Teams or a seasoned technologist. Modelling a growth mindset with your students, sets them up for success in their future careers- particularly if they are using the same remote working technologies they will be using after they leave school

Read more: How to use Microsoft Teams for remote learning: tips for all abilities

While you may not need to utilise remote learning at this time, it is an excellent option when you consider your contingency planning for emergencies and disaster recovery. Floods, snow, fire, or other incidents that can prevent students from attending school require a thoughtful approach to remote learning.

Find out more

Explore resources to support remote learning

Discover how Imperial College London used Teams to connect and engage remotely

About the author

Jennifer King is an award-winning, international thought leader in Education with 20 years of experience in the education sector from classroom to corporations. She is passionate about the success of students and their teachers and how the power of technology can transform the way they work and learn. Jennifer was previously the Head of Film and Media at Strode’s College in Surrey before starting her own education consultancy. JKES was a Microsoft Education Partner with a focus on digital transformation, project based learning, and teacher professional development. Jennifer is also the creator of the Student Teacher Education Program. She has recently returned from Microsoft Corp in Seattle, where she was the Director of Education in 21^st Century Jobs, Skills, and Employability.

The post 4 tips to make the most of remote learning and deliver an uninterrupted student experience appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Here are a range of ways I have used Microsoft Teams in my secondary school classroom when I have needed to implement remote learning in the past to help guide you on how you can make the most of technology in these challenging times.

1. I’m a Microsoft Teams newbie

If you don’t have much experience with Microsoft Teams and are looking to use it to communicate with your pupils when they are not in school, the ‘Files’ section is a great place to upload documents for the pupils to access.

I use the ‘Files’ section in Teams when I want pupils to complete past exam paper questions by uploading the past paper as a PDF to the class materials folder. Pupils cannot edit files in the class materials folder. I then post a comment in the chat to let them know the file has been uploaded and tell them which questions I want them to complete.

My pupils will complete the work and later that day, I post the file with the answers so pupils can self-assess their work.

Pupils can also upload a picture of their work and ask for help at any point during the day.

Here are some other things you could do:

• • In your class Team click on the ‘Files’ tab and upload files from your computer/OneDrive.
  • In the ‘Chat’ tab at the top, post a comment to tell pupils what file you want them to access and what you want them to do.
  • Pupils can respond by commenting in the chat or uploading a photo of the work in their notebook

2. I’ve mastered the basics

If you have mastered the basics of using Teams and have been sharing files with pupils, you may want to start setting assignments for them using Teams too.

For me, this is an easy way to distribute a file to each pupil in the class and have pupils work on a task with a specific deadline. The file could be a Word document, PowerPoint, Forms quiz,  or even a OneNote page amongst other formats.

My senior pupils recently had to complete a lab report for an experiment they did in class. In the assignments tab in Teams, I inserted a blank Word document, added the headings for each section (aim, method, results, conclusion) and sent this out for pupils to complete within 2 days.

Straight away I could see who has viewed the assignment and who had completed it. I could view each pupil’s work without leaving Teams and was able to give them feedback with next steps. Pupils were then able to make changes and resubmit their work.

By setting assignments in Teams your pupils will be able to easily check when their assignments are due, you’ll be able to see who has viewed and completed their assignments, and you are both able to check on progress and feedback throughout. You will also only have to upload one copy of the file which can then be distributed to all pupils.

Here are some other things you could do:

• • In your class Team click on the ‘Assignments’ tab
  • Select ‘create new assignment’ and add your file
  • Add a date and a time for the assignment to be completed
  • You can view the progress of your students at any time by clicking on that specific assignment
  • Once pupils have submitted you can look at each one and return it to the pupil along with your feedback.

3. I’m an advanced Teams user

Once you have mastered ‘assignments’ in Teams, you may want to host a live lesson for your class. You can use the ‘meet now’ feature or you can schedule a meeting at a particular time. This may seem daunting at first but it is a great way for students to know lessons will carry on, with the expectation of everyone attending in a virtual classroom.

The first time I tried a live lesson, I turned off my camera before joining the live meeting and shared my desktop with the pupils. I was then able to take them through a PowerPoint presentation, work through a biology question in OneNote, and even show the pupils how to create a graph.

Offline, I have used my phone as a visualiser and uploaded the video to the files section in Teams so pupils can watch on demand at a time that suits them. This worked very well when pupils were unable to meet at the specific time. You may even want to record the live lesson so pupils can watch later.

Here are some other things you could do:

• • In the chat section, select ‘meet now’ (the small video camera button at the bottom of the page)
  • To schedule a meeting go to your calendar and select ‘new meeting’ then a specific time.
  • Once in the meeting the toolbar has various option (share desktop, record meeting and blur background, live captions and there is a chat panel for students to type questions)

Whether you are an experienced Teams user or not, there are a variety of options available to you to ensure learning doesn’t stop because you and your students cannot be at school. I have found these tools very beneficial in my science class and pupils have found them easy to use on a computer or on their phone.

I would recommend testing it out with students first if you can.  Have them join the Teams site and download the app to their phone so they can receive notifications. My students us the join code (generated in settings) to access the site initially and I task them with taking a photo of their work on their phone and uploading it to the site so I can check they are comfortable using it.

There is a wealth of resources available online to help with remote learning and the product teams are always on Twitter to help when needed, check them out using #msftedu and @DominicWillit

Find out more

4 tips to make the most of remote learning and deliver an uninterrupted student experience

Remote teaching and learning in Office 365 Education 

About the author

The post How to use Microsoft Teams for remote learning: tips for all abilities appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

If your organisation uses a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) or Office 365 and Microsoft Teams, then you already have the tools available to deliver quality teaching and learning remotely.

Improve communication

Microsoft Teams provides the perfect platform for you to communicate effectively with your students. If you don’t already have a Teams site setup, it’s quick and easy. If you setup a Class Team, you will have the ability to set assignments via Teams. Teams allows peer-to-peer or teacher-to-student chat, collaboration, video calls, and online meetings. It stores chats and files securely and the search bar allows the user to quickly find what they need.

If you don’t have Microsoft Teams, then email could be used to enable communication with your students. Depending on your school, college, or university policy regarding teacher-to-student communications, you may also be able to post updates and links to students and/or parents using a social media platform.

Create remote and on-demand lessons

PowerPoint Recorder allows you to record audio, video, and digital ink over your PowerPoint presentations. These can then be published to Microsoft Stream or exported as a video to upload to another video hosting site. You can then use your chosen communication method to send these out to students or post them to Teams or VLE.

Learn more

Flipped instruction with PowerPoint Recorder

Encourage collaboration

In traditional classrooms, students would work together on documents, sometimes digitally but often on paper. When working remotely, Office 365 can provide the tools needed to enable students to work together collaboratively across a range of devices. It updates in real-time, meaning collaboration and feedback is instant.

Other tools you could use to allow your students to collaborate include Sway and OneNote. If you’re using a Class Team then you will already have a Class Notebook area. Class Notebook helps you be more organised with a personal workspace for every student, a content library for handouts, and a collaboration space for lessons and creative activities.

Visually striking digital stories can be created with Sway. These can also be built by a group of students via a collaboration link.

Learn more

Streamline efficiency with Office 365 apps

Digital Storytelling with Microsoft Sway

Getting Started with OneNote

Digital questioning and assessment

There are many tools you can use for questioning and assessment but depending on whether you’d like to review the understanding later, or get more creative, you could use Quizzes in Microsoft Forms or Flipgrid videos.

Flipgrid is quick and easy to set up, you create a Grid and Topics and share these with your students. Leave instructions and link resources on the topics, so students understand what they need to do. You can even create advanced rubrics for assessing your student’s contributions.

Microsoft Forms can be used to create multiple choice quizzes, which can then be added to Teams or shared with students to complete. You can view the summary of responses for the class or view individual student results. The form settings allow you to change whether the students can have multiple attempts and they’re quick to create and share.

Learn more

Flipgrid – Educators Getting Started Guide

Creating Authentic Assessments

Whichever selection of tools you choose to use, there is support available to help you transition from teaching in the class to teaching online. It may seem daunting at first but remember the first day you stepped into the classroom and how you felt then and this is no different to that, but now your classroom is virtual!

Find out more

4 tips to make the most of remote learning and deliver an uninterrupted student experience

About the author

Elaine has worked for over 10 years in education, delivering ICT qualifications and training in Further Education, Higher Education, community learning, and apprenticeships. She now works as a Senior Learning Technologist at the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education. In the role, she helps more than 400 academic staff implement technology solutions in the classroom, as well as fully integrating Office 365 technologies into the work processes of support staff. As a MIE Expert and active member of the Microsoft Educator Community, Elaine drives the adoption of learning technologies throughout the Grimsby Institute and provides Microsoft Office Specialist training and support for staff development. Dedicated and passionate, Elaine recognises the growing need for digital capabilities within teaching, and believes that with the right support, technology creates better learning experiences.

The post Tools to support teachers with remote learning appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Whether you are planning to live-stream your lessons online through Microsoft Teams or record your them with the Recorder option in PowerPoint, the environment and location of where you deliver this from is important. When we set up a classroom, we always consider the environment that our pupils are going to be taught in and we strive to ensure that is it conducive to learning with engagement at its core.

Here are some practical tips to help you establish your remote learning area at home:

1. Set up the room

The location that you choose as your remote learning workspace is really important. Ideally, you need a clear environment that will enable you to be productive throughout the day. Try and find a room where doors can be closed to reduce background noise as much as possible. ASD pupils may find it difficult to focus on your voice if there are noise distractions so this is a crucial step to create an inclusive remote learning environment for all your students.

If you are going to be recording learning content, you need to make sure your room is well lit and that you have a good balance between both natural and electrical lighting. Test out different options before you start to record and make sure the video picture is clear for your students.

2. Test audio and video quality

Whilst devices have a mic built into them and it is often sufficient, it can always be improved with the help of an external microphone. From previous experience, I have found a headset microphone is the best at noise cancellation to minimise distractions from your lesson. If you are using a webcam, I’d recommend testing the quality and positioning of it before your lesson. You may need to use the external webcam if the quality of the internal one is poor.

3. Consider how you will deliver the lesson

If you are planning to record lessons via PowerPoint to ensure it can be accessible for your student at any time of the day, try and avoid sitting with your back to a window or wall that is full of distractions. The students need to be focused on you, not the things behind you.

For those of you who would prefer to use Microsoft Teams to live-stream your lessons, make sure you have uploaded all of the files to the Teams site prior to the lesson so you can easily show students where to find the work when you share your screen. I’d recommend trying to keep the video to screen sharing where possible to keep pupils focused on the work but if you do need to be on camera, make sure that background blur is enabled. This will ensure background distractions are minimised and is a reminder to your students on why the connection is taking place.

4. Set some ground rules

Make sure you set expectations with your pupils the same as you would in a classroom environment and familiarise yourself with how to mute pupils if they are interupting the lesson. Encourage students to ask questions through the chat panel. This way even your quieter students will be given a voice and everybody will have a chance to be heard. Just make sure you monitor it throughout the lesson.

On a more practical note, if there are other people at home, make sure they know you are delivering a lesson and ask them not to disturb you during it.

For many teachers this is a real step out of their comfort zone but we have these wonderful tools available to us, and our pupils, that can help us through a difficult time, whilst ensuring that every effort is made to help pupils achieve the best outcomes they can. And remember, there is a wonderful community of teachers available to help and support you during this time.

Find out more

Using PowerPoint recorder for your lessons 

Introduction to Microsoft Teams

4 tips to make the most of remote learning and deliver an uninterrupted student experience

About the author

Paul ‘Lanny’ Watkins is an IT/Computing Teacher at Ysgol Bae Baglan, a Microsoft Showcase School. He is a Microsoft Innovative Educator Fellow, Master Trainer, Skype Master Teacher and Flipgrid Student Voice Executive Board Member. Recently acknowledged in the 2020 EdTech 50, Paul is also a member of Welsh Government’s National Digital Learning Council.

The post How to set up a remote learning workspace in 4 easy steps appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

For small and medium businesses, having a remote workforce can make a lot of sense. You’ll widen your talent pool as you’ll be able to hire for skills over proximity. You’ll save money on paying for office space and all the trimmings. And if you or your employees work with customers or partners offsite, it’s easier for them to access the information they need when they need it.

But how can you easily ensure your remote workforce has the same dynamic and trust as an in-house team would? By making use of technology to build trust, connections, and empower them to work in the best way. We take a look at our top 10 tips to managing a remote workforce.

1. Do more in the cloud

To be able to be flexible and access documents anywhere, the first step is become a cloud-first organisation. By moving to the cloud, not only does it mean your employees can easily access documents, data, and information from anywhere, but it also lets you use new cloud-only tech such as AI.

With Azure, you pay only for the cloud services you use, it means you save money on your operation costs, and scale as your business grows. Plus, Azure is built on a secure foundation, with built-in controls to customise your user and data management. But more on that later!

2. Modern devices

It’s great to give your employees laptops to make it easier to work flexibly/remotely. But what will really make their workday even easier? By giving them devices that encourage them to work naturally.

Modern devices that are built with accessibility in mind, such as the Surface, encourage the best work and creativity out of your employees. By making it easier to work, your employees will be more productive and innovative. When you add the Surface and other Microsoft tools and apps such as Windows 10 and Office 365 together, you’ll get a powerful future-ready workforce.

3. Stay secure

It can be a fine balance between making sure your business is secure and compliant and the productivity and flexibility of your workforce, right? But it’s possible to be secure while letting your employees get on with business – you can even increase productivity!

With built-in security built into devices and apps, cybersecurity will become so seamless your employees won’t even realise they’re being protected. And it’s easier for your IT team to manage, protect, detect, and respond. For example, signing into a Surface is linked to an employee’s work account, so they can then instantly access their documents, email, or other apps.

Azure helps protect your data with built-in intelligence, controls, and services that work across identity, data, networking, and apps. The Azure Security Center helps further strengthen your security posture, giving you the ability to detect and protect against threats.

4. Bring your own device (BYOD) policy

We’re all about making work easier for employees. We want them to be able to access what they need, when they need it. And sometimes their phone is going to be quicker than pulling out their work device. That’s why you need to ensure you have a sufficient BYOD policy that let’s your employees use their phones without comprising on security.

Everyone has a different smartphone – whether it’s iOS or Andriod. But what should stay the same is their ability to access what they need and how secure it is.

Azure Active Directory works to create a seamless secure access across a range of devices, cloud, and mobile apps. This means your IT team is in control of your business information while your employees have smooth, instant access to their documents wherever they are. And if that device is missing, stolen, or compromised – your IT team can quickly solve that issue.

5. A powerful intranet

SharePoint empowers your organisation to collaborate, share information, and use applications to help make your employees more productive and transform business process.

You’ll have the ability to make sites for every project, team, or department. On these sites your teams can share documents, data, resources, and news securely and efficiently. It also has powerful search and intelligent ways to discover information and insights to guide action. Using SharePoint lists and libraries alongside Microsoft Flow and PowerApps, you can easily create rich experiences with forms, workflows and customise apps. This means you can simplify and transform processes, helping accelerate productivity.

And when you create a SharePoint and document library, you can immediately make a space for it on Teams (and vice versa), making it even easier and quicker to collaborate.

6.       A virtual workspace

Teams makes it easy to communicate and collaborate on work. It works across all devices and with group chat, online meetings, calling, and web conferencing, you can stay in touch easier than ever. And it’s not just for work, create channels for general water cooler chat and make use of the gif function!

Customise your workspace with the tools you and your team use daily. Add a SharePoint page, or library, Microsoft apps, or even your third-party favourites. With built in Office 365, it makes it easier to collaborate, share documents, and edit. Plus, you benefit from end-to-end security, admin control, and compliance.

7.      Planner

Keeping up to date on projects can seem chaotic when your team is spread out across the country. Luckily, there are online tools to help you with that. Planner makes it easy to create new plans, organise and assign tasks, and share files.

Best of all, it makes all tasks visible and transparent. You can see a comprehensive view over employee’s tasks so you can see what stage a project is at and who is on hand to complete it. You can even see the number of tasks each employee has. This makes it easier to improve workloads and help make sure employees don’t feel too stressed or overburdened.

Planner can link into SharePoint and Teams and works across devices so makes it easy for you to see the progress of projects.

8.      Analytics

Analytics are used for everything these days. Even tracking workloads.

MyAnalytics gives you a personal overview of your work patterns and suggests ways to work smarter. Powered by AI, you’ll get insights to improve your productivity, collaboration, and wellbeing. MyAnalytics is private by design, so each employee will only be able to see their personal insights and take action.

However, viewing a complete overview of your workplace analytics can give you insight into daily collaboration patterns. Insights from these will help your business be more agile, improve employee experience, and help you identify where to focus to create value.

9.      Online learning

Re- and upskilling is a vital part of employee engagement. Not only are skilled employees 8.4 percent more productive, but 70 percent of employees are more likely to stay at their workplace if they have training and development opportunities.

For remote teams it can be hard to organise training, but online learning is a great option for on-demand training and development.

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7.      Make time to meet

While we have all the tools at our disposal to communicate and collaborate online, including video calling, sometimes we have to go old-school. Organise team meetings a few times a year where everyone can get together in-person. Use this time to discuss the organisation’s future, strategy, or as a chance for team building and skill development.

Using technology to empower

These tips will help SMBs empower their remote workforce. By using the power of technology, you can create seamless across-device experiences that encourage communication and collaboration.

Teams that work together well, stay together and achieve great results. These tools are there for your team to find their path to success.

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Business leaders should be doing all they can to make things easy for their teams – and themselves – to drive productivity in the workplace. But where’s the best place to start? And what effect does office space have on productivity? Giving employees the choice of how and where they work can make all the difference, helping you foster a culture of creativity.

Imagine it’s Saturday night and you’re going out for dinner with your friends. In your group, you’ve got a vegan, a steak-lover, someone who fancies a salad, someone who loves their carbs, and someone who just wants dessert. You arrive at the restaurant, only to find that there’s no menu. You all have to eat exactly the same thing and sit exactly where the waiter tells you.

How successful do you think this restaurant would be?

Everyone has different tastes. Your business is no different.

Some people might thrive in a busy office, while others need peace and quiet. You’ll have employees who like to white board in a group, while other individuals prefer to present projects to a smaller team. There will be those who like bean bags and laptops, and those who’d choose a full desktop set-up.

It’s up to you to provide them with different options for working, so they can make the choice that’s right for them. Because only when people can choose how they work can they be truly productive.

Building productive office spaces is something I have a lot of experience in. Over my career, I’ve led a number of businesses to success, often setting them up from scratch. These are the questions I’ve asked myself over the years, and ones you should ask yourself next time you’re in the same situation:

• First off – open plan or not?
• How many meeting rooms do I need? Think bookable and unbookable
• Where will my employees relax?
• How will I enable collaborative working?
• Music versus quiet spaces – how will I give employees a mix of both?

Of course, I understand that it’s impossible to cater for everyone. But if you give your people the option to work their own way, they’ll be more productive and want to keep coming back.

Physical meets virtual

Once you’ve thought about the physical layout of your office, consider implementing virtual working. Why? Because if you’re looking to attract the very best people for your team, you need to cater for their working preferences. Some employees really struggle with background noise in an open plan office and find it hard to concentrate with the background noise. I’ve seen this become problematic, where by asking others to be quiet, the office atmosphere was destroyed for those members of the team who gain their energy from being around other people.

Virtual working for those who need to focus doesn’t have to mean lower productivity. With tools like Microsoft Teams, your people can communicate as easily as if they were all at their desks, while also being able to tune out to concentrate. Whether people want to work from home, on a client’s premises, or on a train; Teams pulls everyone together.

Virtual working is just another choice. One that your employees will appreciate being given. When you offer it, what you’re really saying is: “I trust you to be productive, no matter how you choose to work.”

Concentration x creativity = work done

If you give your people the space to concentrate and the tools to get creative with the way they work, they’ll do just that. In turn, you’ll deliver projects on time, hit targets sooner, and do even better business.

So, now you know how office space affects productivity. If you take anything away from this article, make it this. My five-point plan for setting up your work space so your people can be as productive as possible:

1. Understand the emotive nature of offices – people have preferences, like they do at restaurants.
2. Think about the diversity of your team and the different choices they’ll want to make.
3. Consider offering remote working to supplement the workspace available to your employees.
4. Get the right technology in place to enable seamless working, in and out of the office.
5. Involve the whole team in making it work.

Learn more

Overcome 3 common productivity barriers

Surface creativity in your workplace

Keep your employees engaged

The post How office space affects productivity: 5 tips to transform your workplace appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

After graduating in 2017, Laura-Jane (LJ) Ellard joined the Microsoft Aspire Experience as a Marketing Communications graduate. LJ now manages all campaigns across Modern Workplace, with the aim to reach customers with content and messages that provide genuine value to them and their business. As someone who thrives on bringing people together and helping others to reach their potential, LJ is passionate about supporting customers on their transformation journey towards a diverse and inclusive culture that fosters better collaboration, communication, and employee experience.

There’s no shortage of information around millennials. How they’re shaking up the workplace with new ways of working, the expectations they have from the companies they work for and the roles they do. But as a millennial myself, I can safely say that there’s more to us than you can read about online.

My generation varies as much as any group of people. We’re not all the same and whilst we might be changing the workplace, we’re not doing it alone.

The importance of work-life balance (for everybody)

Yes, we want to have a positive work-life balance, but doesn’t everybody? According to a 2017 flexible working survey, 67% of employees wished they were offered flexible working – an unsurprising statistic when you see that 45% of people spend over an hour commuting each day. Think what else you could be doing with that time if you were able to log into your meeting on Microsoft Teams within a second from the comfort of your home. No longer would you have to battle train delays in heavy snow or sit in standstill traffic to wind up missing your meeting.

It’s not a new conversation. It’s one people have been having for years as they precariously try to balance the school run, kid’s homework, and quality family time, in addition to meeting the demands of their jobs. Technology makes these challenges easier by giving valuable time back to everybody, regardless of whether they’re a millennial or not.

The benefits are there for everyone.

The impact of technology on the workplace

No, most of us don’t want to do the same role throughout our whole working lives. But with the pace of change and new technology like AI transforming the way we work, the ability to re-skill for the new working world is becoming increasingly important. And it doesn’t discriminate. This changing world of work will impact everybody, across every role, in every industry. In fact, 46% of UK leaders believe it’s worth investing in re-training their current workforce for the AI era.

“AI will make us re-think what it means to be human”

– Matthew Griffin, Futurist & CEO, 311 Institute.

As millennials, we’ve grown up with technology. Whilst we may be digital natives, we’re not the only ones embracing technology. I challenge you to find a friend or family member who doesn’t own a mobile device. When we look at how different generations prefer to work and the different technologies they use, Generation Z are most comfortable using online chat services than any other age group. But 61% of all employees prefer shorter methods of communication over long ones. Studies show we’re on twice as many teams as we were five years ago, so perhaps this change is simply due to the volume of work we have to do rather than a generational difference. After all, the amount of time we all spend in collaborative work has increased by 50%, and takes up around 80% of our time now. It’s unsurprising then, that we prefer short, easy ways to communicate. We simply want to get stuff done.

Ditching generalisations to celebrate your diverse and inclusive culture

Generational difference shouldn’t define who we are and how we like to work. We’re all unique and have our own ways of working. Ultimately, age doesn’t define that. The most important thing is that you have a diverse and inclusive culture, and you celebrate it. Every one of your employees is different and that’s what makes them so great. It helps them challenge ideas and be creative.

I love the idea of reverse mentoring where it’s not always the millennial that’s new to the workplace who gets shown the ropes. There’s a lot your other employees can learn from millennials too.

No two millennials, or members of any other generation are the same. That’s why understanding them doesn’t start with online research. It starts with a conversation about what they want and how they work best as an individual. Only then will you be able to understand, engage, and lead your employees successfully.

Workplace psychologist, Ian MacRae wrote a great book called Myths at Work which explores what holds us back as a business, including the generalisations we make about millennials. You can listen to his podcast interview here.

Come as you are, do what you love

Starting my career in Microsoft, I’ve been very lucky to be part of such a diverse and inclusive culture that really embraces everybody’s unique working style with our “come as you are, do what you love” culture. Technology can enable us to do some amazing things and it’s time we embrace our differences and focus on creating a great experience for everybody, no matter what their age or background is.

There shouldn’t be a 101 guide on engaging millennials. The same concepts apply to most of your employees and we shouldn’t be treated any differently. We should instead focus on how to leverage the unique strengths of each of your team members as individuals and provide them with the tools and space they need to collaborate and deliver their best work.

Learn more

Listen to Ian MacRae’s podcast interview

Explore employee engagement

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