Maintaining high employee productivity is an essential component to a company’s profitability and long-term success. But the past few years have seen a rapid adjustment to the work-from-home lifestyle, with the pandemic exploding demand for tools for remote working.
While it’s harder to keep employees feeling driven by goals and connected to their coworkers when they’re working from home, this can be an issue even in the smallest and most intimate office too. Luckily, Microsoft 365 Business offers Standard and Premium editions for companies seeking to boost connectivity, efficiency, and productivity for any type of workforce.
How To Get the Most Out of Microsoft 365
Connecting the Classics
Microsoft 365 Business offers many valuable apps to boost efficiency. But the classics deserve the first honorable mentions as they’ve been around for over three decades with updates making workflow automation management even more effortless. While Word remains hands down one of the most popular writing apps, Excel remains a top choice for calculations through formulas and data organization, which can then be clearly presented in a PowerPoint presentation. Today, users for these three apps are spoiled for choice with a myriad of keyboard shortcuts that can speed up processes for simple and advanced users alike.
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Microsoft 365 Excel
Microsoft 365 PowerPoint
But these apps provide numerous other tools too, such as templates. Word’s 12-month profit and loss statement template automates workflow by helping the track of company expenses and income. Excel provides help in tracking deadlines with its project timeline template, while PowerPoint also offers templates like the product roadmap timeline, which lays out the process up to a product’s launch, highlights key events, and tracks them.
However, Microsoft 365 Business is greater than the sum of its parts, with the ability to connect apps to further increase productivity. It’s possible to link spreadsheets to presentations, so that graphics are automatically refreshed when the data is updated, or embed a PowerPoint presentation in a Word document, to name just a few options. This interconnectivity results in time saved and efficiency gained.
Creating Rules To Maximize Productivity
We can all agree that as wonderful as Outlook is, it can be stressful if you receive non-stop email notifications. Users can avoid these unwanted distractions by assigning rules to emails. To do this, just select the message and right click to create a rule, such as a notification for only the most urgent messages or redirecting all messages from a particular address into a specific folder.
Test Microsoft 365 Business for free for 30 days, with no limitations. The subscription price is automatically charged once the trial ends.
It’s also possible to teach Outlook which messages should be directed to the ‘Focused’ inbox, helping you prioritize essential emails. By using these simple tricks, you’ll save a lot of time and notice an increase in productivity due to fewer distractions.
Teams: Facilitating Collaboration
The new remote working standards have shifted the playing field regarding online internal communication. Teams is an essential communication tool that helps coworkers engage and stay in touch via individual and group chats.
Teams allows people to convey more in less time via its video conferencing. With the ability to see facial expressions and body language, as well as hear tone of voice, this collaboration and communication is more efficient than a phone call or a series of emails. There’s less room for miscommunication and directives are clearer, which saves time all round and boosts productivity.
Optimizing Secure File Sharing With OneDrive
OneDrive allows each user to safely store up to 1TB of data in the cloud. Documents are automatically backed up, synced, and are accessible by numerous devices simultaneously.
OneDrive employs Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) so that each connection between the systems of the client, its customers, and Microsoft’s cloud services are encrypted with unique keys. It also uses 2048-bit RSA encryption and Transport Layer Security (TLS) for message privacy, strong authentication, and detecting security breaches. The combination of these three defenses makes it near impossible for someone to intercept and access user data in transit.
To Do or Not To Do: Task Management
Microsoft 365 Business really does contribute to the organizational needs of any type of business. Microsoft To Do is a helpful tool with a simple interface that’s included in both the Standard and Premium editions of this all-encompassing business software. Clients can keep track of and organize tasks by numerous categories. Microsoft To Do also syncs with Teams and Outlook to list meeting times and flagged emails.
3 Best Productivity Best Practices
Get Your Priorities Straight
All professionals find themselves at some point wondering: where do I even begin? With to-do lists growing instead of shrinking, and more deadlines and meetings on the horizon, it’s no wonder people find themselves increasingly stressed, which in turn decreases productivity.
A fantastic visual tool for organizing your workday is Planner, included with both the Standard and Premium plans of Microsoft 365 Business. It’s an intuitive task-management app for collaborating across your business that also syncs with Teams. Planner allows users to create boards using content-rich tasks, which can include files, checklists, and labels.
Overcome Distractions
While it’s true that the rapid advancement of technology means distractions are increasingly prevalent in our daily lives, this doesn’t mean we have to be slaves to it. Our computers, phones, and social apps all offer ways of minimizing these pesky interruptions.
It may be worth starting a jam-packed workday by turning off unnecessary notifications to help you stay productive. If you worry about getting distracted by coworkers, establishing a ‘do not disturb’ timeframe can also help. Most apps and devices offer options of these kinds, such as Teams, where it’s possible to set a do not disturb status for a certain duration, and Outlook’s mobile app, which lets you snooze notifications.
Choosing which apps can send alerts during focused work time can be done through mobile and computer settings.
Your Mental Health Comes First
Finding the proper balance between work and personal life is essential for mental health. It’s important to understand what time of day you’re most productive, as well as when you’re the busiest with meetings. Review your day in Teams or Outlook and assign time for breaks, plus encourage others to do the same to avoid burnout. Additionally, list your most important tasks for each day in To-Do or Planner.
Remember that a less stressed team is a more productive one so make sure everyone turns off alerts and notifications during downtime – helping them truly relax when they’re off the clock.
A Happy Workforce is a Productive One
Time is precious, both in our personal and working lives, and Microsoft 365 Business helps make sure the hours your team dedicates to work is as productive as possible. This requires organized collaboration, through file-sharing in OneDrive as well as SharePoint, and clear communication, through Teams and Outlook.
Prioritizing tasks with To Do and Planner provides your employees with control and transparency about what there is to do each day, alleviating stress and increasing job satisfaction. Encouraging a harmonious working environment results in a more successful business in the long run, with high employee retention rates and a more efficient workforce.
Microsoft 365 Business' standard and premium plans lay it all out on the table when it comes to boosting productivity in your company. To dip your toe into this diverse software with no risk, sign up for a free trial of Microsoft 365.