The Future Of Teams

Leanne Buhler, September 13, 2018

The way teams operate is changing and you’ve probably seen or experienced how first-hand. Organizations are leveraging access to a global workforce to fill talent shortfalls within their teams and with innovative technologies, workforces can collaborate despite their physical location in the world. In the 2018 Future Workforce Report by Upwork, results showed that “52% of managers cited shortage of talent as the top driver for adopting a more flexible workforce model” (1) and that there is an overwhelming trend toward freelance, temporary or agency workers.

Decentralized workforces and teams present new challenges and opportunities for organizations.

Building culture and engaging teams:

Although working from home either as a full-time employee or as a contractor can be isolating. In a study performed on Ctrip, China’s largest travel agent by Harvard Business Review of the effects of working from home, half of the individuals who worked from home decided to return to the office after the study, primarily because they were lonely (2)! In an environment where talent and skills are already in high demand, culture and engagement can be a critical lever in retaining a workforce and impressing company values and strategy upon your team in order to gain alignment (3). So as the workforcechanges how is your organization going to reassess culture and engagement to meet the demands of a decentralized workforce?

Removing technological barriers:

Technology is already a pain point for most organizations whether it’s figuring out how to print on the correct side of a sheet of labels or navigate advanced security protocols to share documents. As organizations move toward decentralized workforces and teams, it becomes even more critical to ensure that data is available, accessible and secure. There is a variety of new and existing programs available to collaborate remotely. One of our favourite communication tools is Yammer. Yammer has been described as the “Facebook for business” (4)and allows for instant and dynamic communication across teams. Yammer includes file and photo sharing, categorization and search functions, and of course group and private chat to facilitate agile conversations and collaboration. Which tools will your team require as you move into the future workforce? Check out how Microsoft 365 offers a variety of tools to help your organization make the transition into the future.

1. https://www.upwork.com/i/future-workforce/fw/2018/
2. https://hbr.org/2015/01/a-working-from-home-experiment-shows-high-performers-like-it-better
3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikekappel/2018/01/04/how-to-establish-a-culture-of-employee-engagement/#67de4ea58dc4
4. https://www.pcworld.com/article/260517/what_is_heck_is_yammer.html