Microsoft 365 & Teams for Internal Communications

Our latest webinar “The Silver Bullet for Internal Communications” covered a pertinent topic with the prevalance of remote working and how your organisation can unleash the most powerful, yet under-utilised tool in your internal comms arsenal – Microsoft 365 & Teams.

Face to face communication can be a challenge in the easiest of times, yet it is vital in helping colleagues feel valued and part of an organisation. As more and more businesses find themselves working remotely, either as a result of the pandemic or normal business practice, maintaining the connection between colleagues, managers and leaders intensifies. A cost effective and fit for purpose digital solution is crucial.

With special guests Sarah Edwards, Fabrica Group and Clare Milsom, Ocuix, our focus for this event was delivering targeted communications to a range of audience groups, based on the fundamental principles of engagement, experience and motivation.

We demonstrated how a blend of interactive Microsoft technologies, strategic internal communication planning and dynamic aesthetics will enable you to connect and engage colleagues with business goals, activities and programmes.

Whatever the mix of working arrangements you have in place – home-based, field, office locations or a combination – we can explain how to communicate effectively with your teams and colleagues, through a continuous, engaging and integrated stream of content hosted via Teams.

Specific Microsoft technologies to be covered:

• SharePoint Online
• Microsoft Teams
• Teams Live Events
• Microsoft Stream

The Silver Bullet for Internal Comms

About Hugh Valentine:

Over 10 Years deploying Microsoft & Cloud Technologies for Customers & Partners. Loves cycling and raising money for charity. Managing Director of Valto.

Areas of expertise:

modern workplace IT, digital transformation, Microsoft services, technology adoption, IT strategy, flow, cloud roadmap, cloud automation, cloud security and much more.

About Sarah Edwards:

An accomplished internal communication, engagement and change expert, and founder of Fabrica Group, Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in helping businesses piece together strategy and objectives with people and the way they work.

Areas of expertise: Strategy development and deployment; Internal communications; Employee engagement; Cultural analysis and change; Coaching and facilitation; Leadership and employee events and conferences; Certified Myers Briggs practitioner; Accredited change management practitioner; Certified Hogan practitioner

About Clare Milsom:

Clare is an award-winning Producer working in the corporate communications and events industry. Having started her career as a graphic designer in the late 90s, Clare has evolved a particular talent for understanding complex technical information and communicating it by developing strong creative message architectures with visual clarity. Clare has a thorough understanding of the creative tricks and broadcast technologies that turn a video call into a digital event.

Areas of expertise: Graphic design; video and event production and delivery.

Microsoft 365 Services for Internal Communications

Valto provide a range of services including:

• SharePoint Online Intranet
• Microsoft Teams Setup & Planning
• Microsoft 365 Training
• Microsoft 365 Security and compliance

Using SharePoint for internal communications

Using SharePoint for internal communications can take your business collaboration to a whole new level. SharePoint has been designed with innovative collaboration in mind. With content management and teamwork applications, utilising SharePoint to the fullest will connect all your Microsoft tools and encourage easy file sharing and communication.

This powerful software makes it easy for your team to co-author documents and connect with remote workers and those in other offices. The expert SharePoint consultants at Valto can offer remote IT support for SharePoint and all other Microsoft products. Read on to discover our top tips for using SharePoint for internal communications.

Gather around the discussion board

The Discussion Board found within SharePoint is the perfect place to promote discussion and teamwork. This intuitive program allows you to start a conversation and discover the opinions of your staff in real time. Discussion Boards only take minutes to set up and can save time in place of an in-person group meeting.

Develop a shared Wiki Library

Creating a Wiki Library is a fantastic way to connect your staff and organisational information using SharePoint. A Wiki Library is a shared database of documents that users can access and edit. Your library will grow organically as you link more documents together. This is also an excellent way to see what information you lack. You can then create the pages that you need.

Be heard with the Announcement List

The Announcement List in SharePoint allows you to make important announcements to your staff with absolute simplicity. By setting expiry dates, you can also pre-plan your monthly announcements to save time. Putting your group Announcement List on the landing page of your SharePoint Intranet makes it easy for every member of staff to see your announcements.

Create a SharePoint Survey

Creating surveys is the quickest and easiest way to get the opinions of your team. With question branching, stored answers and Excel exportability, managing your findings is also incredibly easy. Anonymous surveys are a perfect way to encourage interaction from shy and quiet members of your team.

Use a SharePoint Community site template

Using a SharePoint Community Site Template to create a centralised social media style network allows you to connect with your staff in a familiar way. Whether it’s for team discussion or around a specific topic, this is a great way to encourage engagement. You can use the SharePoint Community Site Template to implement and encourage Microsoft gamification.

Contact Us

We hope you found our “Microsoft 365 & Teams for Internal Communications” blog post useful. Valto are here to help with your Microsoft 365 Internal Communications Challenges. Get in touch via 03335 779 009, [email protected] or Contact Us.