As you saw in our post from last week, there are some really unique and interesting features within Microsoft Teams that you should be leveraging for your business. Well, we’re back with even more features you can utilize, so let’s take a look. 
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Teams lets you format your chat anyway you need it.
Many chat services have limited text formatting options, such as allowing you to make the text bold, italicized, or underlined. However, in Teams, you can add a bulleted or numbered list, insert a table, insert a quote or hyperlink, or even insert a snippet of HTML code. It’s essentially a powerful word processor in a chat box. And although you might not see a need for this right now, each of your users will utilize this tool in a different way, and by providing such a robust method of formatting text, it allows each user to really customize the way that they use Teams.
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With Teams, the whiteboard is right there.
One of the most effective tools in business is the whiteboard and the ability to draw or illustrate your point more effectively than you could with a video conference or prepared PowerPoint. With this technology, you can use your mouse or stylus to draw on a virtual whiteboard, which will allow you to use drawings, pictures, or additional illustrations to really emphasize your point. Additionally, this tool can be used with customers or outside entities to illustrate your core business principles, and you can do it all in real-time. The whiteboard also allows more than one person to draw on the same whiteboard, so it brings a new level to collaboration.
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Teams makes scheduling meetings effortless.
How many times have you had to schedule a meeting with several people, only to find yourself involved in an endless email chain while everyone debates what times work best for them? It can be extremely frustrating and lead to a significant decrease in productivity. With Teams, you can schedule a meeting right inside the Teams application, and you can immediately see the availability of every team member. You can also attach all pertinent documents and even have a chat for that specific meeting. The best part is that you can do all of this within Teams, so you don’t have to utilize multiple applications to schedule a meeting with your team.
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With Teams, you can control all of your messages.
We all know that keeping track of emails or messages can be a pain, especially when it’s something that you need to follow up on or remember for future projects. With Teams, you can save messages and conversations, and even mark them as unread if you want to make sure you follow up on important interactions. Conversely, you can easily edit or delete messages, even after the fact, simply by clicking on the ellipses next to the message. While this may not seem like a hugely helpful tool, think back to the last time you had to dig through your inbox or Teams chats trying to find that one piece of information that you need for your next project. With Teams, all of that information is right there and completely within your control.
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Teams allows you to give recognition to your team, even when you’re working remotely.
One of the biggest motivators for most employees is knowing that their work is appreciated and that they are recognized and valued for the part they play in their company. With the Praise feature, you can send badges to employees when they’ve done a great job, or you just want to spread positivity to your team. Additionally, there are multiple integrations that take this even further. One of the most popular integrations is called Bonusly. With Bonusly, you can post messages recognizing team members for promotions, for exceptional work, or for anything else that you want to highlight. This also allows other team members to congratulate that person, and it can lead to a huge boost in team morale. With the new remote working environment, many people may feel that their contributions aren’t being noticed being they’re not physically in the office, but with these tools, you are able to ensure your team that their hard work is not going unnoticed. Additionally, you can utilize the built-in stickers and memes tool to add a little fun to your chats. With everything so serious in the world, there’s no better time to bring a little levity into your daily work.
As you can see, Teams is a key tool in your work from home arsenal, and it just keeps improving. And recently, Microsoft has made Teams a free tool so even if you don’t use Microsoft Office 365, you can still utilize Teams and all of its features. So, give it a try, and see all of the ways that Teams can make your work life much easier. And as always, if you have questions about how to implement Microsoft Teams into your organization, the experts are TAG Solutions are here to help!