{"id":5161,"date":"2024-07-15T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=5161"},"modified":"2024-10-28T10:57:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T17:57:12","slug":"how-microsoft-enables-its-employees-to-work-remotely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/how-microsoft-enables-its-employees-to-work-remotely\/","title":{"rendered":"How Microsoft enables its employees to work remotely with Microsoft Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Microsoft employees choose to work remotely, they are empowered to stay productive and connected by using Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past few years, employees have embraced hybrid work and enjoy the balance that it brings to their lives,” says Claire Sisson, who leads the internal deployment of Teams at Microsoft in her role as a principal group product manager. \u201cMicrosoft Teams has been key to enable that empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s empowering your employees to do their best work no matter where they’re working.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving the right tool to enable boundaryless collaboration, asynchronous work and meetings that scale from 1:1 to large events make all the difference for our employees,\u201d Sisson says. \u201cWith the recent Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities added to Teams, the AI infused experiences will make hybrid work even more seamless. We\u2019re very excited about the journey we\u2019re on to enable everyone to reach their goals however they wish.\u201d<\/p>\n Microsoft relied on Teams to support remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic, including in China, where company employees were among the first to work from home. To learn more, read this blog post from Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, and Lily Zheng, director of Microsoft China<\/a>. You can also go here to read Spataro\u2019s post on the company\u2019s commitment to customers during COVID-19.<\/a><\/p>\n Sisson says there are many other examples of how Teams helps employees tackle all the different types of work they need to do in a day, including this one on a snowstorm that hit company headquarters in Redmond, Washington, shortly after Microsoft upgraded from Skype for Business to Teams<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNinety-five percent of our Redmond-area employees worked from home during that massive snowstorm,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were interested to see how Teams would hold up, and it did so with flying colors.\u201d<\/p>\n The larger Employee Productivity Engineering team also used Teams to hold a 500-person live global meeting that connected employees from 48 different countries<\/a>. \u201cThat one also went very smoothly,\u201d Sisson says.<\/p>\n [Discover how Microsoft uses Signature Microsoft Teams Rooms.<\/a> Explore how Microsoft is rethinking the hybrid meeting room experience with Microsoft Teams.<\/a> Learn more about advancing your meetings with the Microsoft Teams Meeting Guide.<\/a><\/em>]<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Microsoft wants employees working in Teams to feel like they\u2019re not losing anything from working away from their office.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Microsoft\u2019s commitment to flexible work<\/a> (and teams spread across the world), face-to-face connection isn\u2019t always possible. We want everyone to feel heard and included,\u201d says Sarah Lundy, senior content program manager in MDEE in charge of communicating to employees about how to get the most out of Teams. \u201cWe have a set of tips that we share with employees when they need to work remotely in large numbers\u2014things like turn on video to help everyone feel connected, pause to give people on the call a chance to speak, and remind people to mute themselves when they\u2019re talking to cut down on distracting background noise.\u201d<\/p>\n Sisson added to that list, saying remote meetings are much more effective when you record them for people who are not present if that\u2019s acceptable to the team. Also helpful, she says, is to send an agenda in advance, and to identify a facilitator for the meeting that can monitor questions and make sure everyone’s voice is heard.<\/p>\n<\/a>
Guidance for working remotely<\/h2>\n