Teams Champions is one of those simple ideas that can make such a positive difference for your organisation. Not only will it cost you next to nothing but, done well, it can lead to increased productivity and a rise in employee morale.
Teams Champions are ordinary existing employees who are selected to take on the additional role of Microsoft Teams ambassadors. We say ordinary, but popular, tech-savvy, and proactive individuals are the ones who make the best Champions, and they don’t grow on trees.
A champion is a person, primarily motivated by helping others, who is naturally interested in new technology (Teams, in this case) and enjoys encouraging colleagues to use all the features of the platform too.
These individuals don’t need to work in the IT department (in fact, it’s better if they don’t) and they could just as easily be junior employees as senior ones. Bearing in mind the need for digital knowledge, millennials will often make the best Champions.
It’s simple really, they create a groundswell of enthusiasm for Microsoft Teams that increases adoption, just by being themselves. Bringing new ways of working to the people around them, they help their colleagues make the most of this highly versatile platform.
The better they are at the role, the more likely they are to fulfill other functions, such as identifying business challenges and possible solutions, providing feedback to the project team, and reducing strain on the IT team through active, ongoing engagement.
At a time when many organisations are being forced to trim costs, your training budget is one of the things likely to be under the closest scrutiny.
You can save valuable resources by only offering formal training to your Champions. As long as you support them with bespoke or Microsoft-branded materials, you can leave your tech experts to spread the word and enthusiastically unlock other uses and benefits for the rest of your employees to take advantage of.
Champions can help bridge the gap between the digital experts and the technophobes in your business. Without their help, it can be difficult for you to engage with the ‘bottom 10%’ and improve their digital skills.
Teams Champions also play an important role as vocal advocates of your product. If someone moans about Microsoft Teams, for any reason, they can be there on the spot to provide a different opinion, as well as much-needed enlightenment.
Champions are essential to driving awareness, adoption, and education in your organisation. The new ‘working from anywhere’ culture and the urgency with which Teams has been adopted during the pandemic makes their active contribution more essential now than ever.
Even employees who have had no formal training are now happily using Teams to meet their video conferencing needs but, not surprisingly, they are only using a fraction of the platform’s full potential. That’s where your Champions can provide ongoing support, day-in-day-out, just sharing some of the other features that will help make their working lives easier.
Champions can also provide valuable insight, to management and senior management levels, on how Teams is being used at the ‘coal face’ and where the easiest wins going forward might be. Your champions will tell you what’s working in terms of Microsoft Teams and what isn’t. It’s like having an ear to the ground in several different departments, all at the same time.
Being an integral part of the workforce, Champions can spot where opportunities are being missed or best practice Teams solutions can be replicated and upscaled for the benefit of everyone. This kind of practical insight will never be accessible to your senior executives or external trainers in the same way simply because of the nature of the relationships.
If you’re thinking about a change of system or software, you can use your Champions as a research group to test the viability of untried ideas. These advocates are likely to be much more forgiving and helpful with feedback than others.
Teams Champions are in a unique position to help you make the most of your versatile Microsoft Teams platform. They are ideally placed to encourage your employees to change their behaviours, adopt effective practices and use timesaving features they never knew existed. With the help of the Champions, even your late adopters will soon be coming to the party.
Get in touch to find out how Resonate can help you structure, deliver and support your Teams Champions network.