Microsoft Teams: Developing skills for the flexible working boom

Investment

Attensi developed the Gamified Microsoft Teams Training app to help businesses make the most of their investment: It shows people how to use Microsoft Teams in a fun, engaging way that ensures the training will stick.

The challenge: Responding to the Microsoft Teams boom

Businesses have invested heavily in Microsoft Teams as they moved to more modern, flexible, and collaborative ways of working. According to BusinessofApps.com, Teams generated $0.2bn in revenue in 2018, $0.8bn in 2019, and an astonishing $6.8bn in 2020.

There’s no doubt that the pandemic provided the catalyst for this surge in revenue, as businesses across the globe scrambled to adopt more flexible ways of working.

But the investment itself created an issue: technology that allows more flexible, collaborative, multi-location working is fantastic, but if nobody is in the office to take part in traditional training methods, then how do you show people how to use Microsoft Teams?

"The reason this kind of training works so well is because users are active. They actually have to click in order to progress in the training, make choices, and be a part of what is happening on the screen.

“Finding new and innovative ways of engaging people is the single most important thing to have them learn something new because learning itself is becoming such an important piece of retaining talent and developing company culture."

Silje Gulbrandsen
Product Marketing Manager @ Microsoft

Helping people understand how to use Microsoft Teams

Attensi Sales Director, Ellen Vrålstad, says taking a gamified training approach is the answer.

“We began talking to Microsoft Norway in 2020 to explore opportunities to work together on this new gamification tool that would make it easier for managers to help their teams upskill,” she added.

“Following several meetings with Microsoft during which we discussed what issues their clients were facing and what we could do to help, we created the training programme in around six weeks,”

“Microsoft Teams is one of the most popular communication apps on the market. However, the increase in remote working due to the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted an urgent need for training in using this kind of technology more effectively,” she said.

“While video kept us all in touch with one another during lockdown, it meant many people were experiencing conferencing tech for the very first time at home and in the workplace.”

How did we gamify Teams training?

Attensi’s custom-built simulation uses voice-acted 3D avatars and gamified mechanics to guide Teams users through a step-by-step process on how to communicate and conduct virtual meetings more effectively. Users are presented with a series of typical work communication scenarios to solve, with points scored for correct answers and real-time feedback offered on how they can improve should they get stuck.

The technology has now been rolled out successfully via Microsoft’s commercial marketplace and Attensi has become an official partner.

The new simulation challenges users to complete a number of realistic, gamified tasks based around Teams. They can then repeat the game until they are fluent in using the technology.

Teams training successes

Following an Attensi survey of people using the new technology, 97.5% said they liked the training and that it was relevant for their work. Another 95% said that they have become better at using best practice behavior in virtual team meetings.

Ellen said: “So far, six of our clients are now using this solution and we have around 2,000 users on the training program. Some of them have even built custom-made modules on top of the training because they are seeing the cost-saving benefits that a video first strategy can offer.”

“What we discovered from the survey was that there is a huge appetite for this kind of training across the entire Microsoft Office package. There is more we can do with Microsoft Teams too and that is something we are currently exploring with them. We’d like to build on the training going forward and include the whole collaboration part, such as how to share files and work in different channels.”