Measuring the success of a new tool like Microsoft Teams doesn’t just mean looking at how many people in your workforce are using the new service. Now more than ever, companies are beginning to recognise how much employee wellbeing impacts performance.
During 2020, businesses throughout the world struggled to maintain their efficiency levels following things like office shutdowns and social distancing. Ion this new environment, employees were exposed to new sources of stress, as they tried to adapt to an unexpected remote work lifestyle. As we move into the new age of hybrid work, organisations will need to think carefully about how they can support and empower their workers, without paving the way for burnout.
Tools like Microsoft Teams are excellent for keeping staff connected and reducing feelings of isolation. Teams also offers the added benefit of being able to track and monitor wellbeing in a hybrid or remote-work environment, with useful tools and insights.
So, where do you begin?
Allow Teams to Monitor Themselves
Sometimes, encouraging wellbeing starts with supporting your staff in tracking their own wellness. Microsoft Teams has various tools available to help staff aware of potential risks, and signs of impending burnout, such as Viva Insights and Personal Insights.
Microsoft Viva Insights represents the latest tool focusing on wellbeing and health in the Microsoft Teams ecosystem. Created to help companies create a culture where hybrid workforces can evolve, Microsoft Viva Insights in Teams provides personalised recommendations to help everyone work at their best, while looking after themselves.
Insights is intended to support employees in building better working habits. For instance, team members can protect “focus time” in their schedule when they need individual and uninterrupted working periods. Other Viva Insights features include suggestions from AI on how to manage tasks, and the ability to send praise to employee and team members.
The “Reflect” service in Viva Insights helps you to reflect on your feelings, while “Take a break” encourages backing away from the workplace when needed. Other features include to-do lists, virtual commuting, headspace meditation and more.
Microsoft also offers Personal Productivity Insights through MyAnalytics. The personal section of the productivity insights supports workers in strengthening relationships in the modern workplace by scheduling time for more 1:1 conversation and helping to manage discussion time. The MyAnalytics dashboard provides AI-powered suggestions to support how people work and improve their day-to-day patterns. For peace of mind, MyAnalytics is also only available to the individual using it.
The combination of personal insight options within Teams should help staff members to see where their own wellbeing is suffering. At that point, the best thing businesses can do is to check-in with their staff regularly, through one-on-one conversations and group meetings. You can even download apps to integrate with Teams that offer daily check-in services, and issue polls to learn more about how people are feeling.
Get Better Business Insights
Managers and business leaders have a variety of tools available to help them track usage and adoption of Microsoft Teams. However, these tools also offer overviews for team leaders hoping to better understand their workforce. Manager and leader insights within the “Workplace Analytics” section of Microsoft Teams can provide overviews of working patterns that may cause burnout.
Through these insights (which are designed to protect individual privacy), business leaders can learn more about how their staff are operating in the age of hybrid and remote work. For instance, you might see that your hybrid team members are having a harder time maintaining work-life balance when working from home. Manager Insights can track things like “after-hours collaboration” and focus time within the workspace and determine when intervention is needed.
The more business supervisors and managers can see the balance of productivity and wellbeing in the workforce, the easier it will be to avoid problems with wellness and good health in the modern world. With tailored views in Teams, managers can launch and track change programs that even remind their team members to avoid working too hard with after-hour meetings. Weekly summaries also provide an overview of progress towards better wellness.
On a wider level, organisational insights into Teams should provide leaders with more visibility into how the workplace is evolving from a wellness perspective. The technology answers questions about a team’s likelihood to experience burnout and shows you whether your staff are maintaining strong internal connections to reduce feelings of isolation. Leaders can track metrics and indicators of employee wellbeing and respond to issues with research-based support from the Teams environment.
Microsoft’s Productivity Score system also comes with a business continuity report, to provide visibility at the organisation level, and determine how different workflows impact your staff. Sometimes, simple overviews of things like productivity and adoption levels can also help to demonstrate just how positive your staff really feel at work.
Tracking the Pulse of the Company
Running a successful business in the age of hybrid work doesn’t just mean tracking productivity and efficiency metrics. Today’s employees need to focus on their wellbeing more than ever before, particularly when they’re dealing with the transition to new styles of work. Aside from checking the reports above, and encouraging staff to monitor their own wellness, business leaders should be building a culture of better work/life balance.
Supporting your staff with guidance on how to avoid burnout, what they can do when they need extra emotional support, and how to stay healthy at home is crucial. There are plenty of tools in Microsoft, like the Microsoft Viva environment, where business leaders can share content to support and empower their employees.
All the while, regular meetings through Microsoft Teams leveraging features like Together mode can help to make people in the team feel more intimately connected to their colleagues. The more connected we feel to the rest of our workforce, the less likely it is that we’ll suffer from experiences of burnout and overwhelm.
Keep your finger on the pulse of your company’s wellbeing, and make sure that excellent work doesn’t get in the way of good health.
This helpful article has been reposted from UC Today’s Blog. See the source article here: https://www.uctoday.com/collaboration/monitoring-the-health-of-your-microsoft-teams-users/
