Why staff training on collaboration tools is essential

  • Gildas Jones
  • Gildas Jones
  • 4 min read

Tools like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are two of the best collaboration tools you can use in your office.

They give your team access to a huge suite of tools they can use to collaborate with ease, stay connected when working remotely, and maximise productivity overall.

At least, they do if your team uses them correctly. Because the best features of these tools aren’t always self-explanatory. There can also be reluctance to engage with them or only minimal use of what they offer.

The key to getting the most value from collaboration tools you’ve invested in is proper staff training.

Signs you need staff training on collaboration tools

Your default setting for staff training for collaboration tools should be “on”. But some specific signs make it clear that you desperately need training to get return on your investment:

  1. No one asks any questions – Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are incredibly powerful suites of apps. But they offer heaps of interlocking functionality between systems. If no one is asking questions, it’s a sign that the new tool is not being used to its fullest extent.
  2. Email is still being relied on – both of those collaboration tools include a wide variety of options that are better than email for communicating thoughts and ideas. If email is still being used, it’s a sign that transitioning to 365 or Workspace has hit a blockage.
  3. Errors are creeping in – when team members transition to new systems, it’s common for mistakes to happen if training hasn’t.

Why is training your team so important?

1) Return On Investment

To get the high ROI that collaboration tools like these can deliver, your team needs to know how to use them efficiently.

Knowledge gaps in your team where certain features aren’t used or known about can cripple your efforts to adopt the new tools.

2) Hidden tools within a suite

Okay, these tools aren’t exactly hidden. But they’re the sort of things you might not be able to see after a casual pass over the UI.

In Microsoft 365, for instance, everyone knows about Word and Excel. But what about Delve or Yammer?

Maybe not. Even if they’ve heard of them, most of your team will have vastly less experience using and getting value from them.

3) Tools get updated

Every so often (quarterly in the case of Microsoft 365), collaboration tools get updated. These updates are needed for security reasons as well as improvements to the apps themselves.

You can’t afford to turn these updates off. But they often come with changes to the way things work that you need to update your team’s training on too if you don’t want to be caught out or left behind.

4) There are different packages

Microsoft 365 has different packages – and more options and more apps are added all the time.

Even if a team member has used the apps available in one package before, it’s no guarantee they’ll know how to use all of the options in the package you currently have.

5) Growing and collaborating externally

Not only will you continue to grow and expand your team – necessitating onboarding and collaboration tool training for new hires – you will also work with suppliers, partners, and clients that use these tools.

Any hold-ups in these interactions can cause interruptions in projects and processes that will soon start to add up.

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace training – where to start

  1. Inform and engage – even before you adopt Microsoft 365 or Workspace, it’s important to start getting buy-in from your team. Inform them about your planned transition date and take questions.
  2. Show off – more precisely, demonstrate what these tools can do for your team to excite them about the possibilities (or, at the very least, show them it’s not something to be afraid of).
  3. Encourage questions – make it clear that you will provide training and that questions are a good thing if you want your team to be brought properly on board with your transition.

Even these simple steps can help you ease the transition into using collaboration tools. But full staff training is a must if you want to get a full return on your investment.

Need to train your team to get the best out of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?

Let’s talk. Dial A Geek helped nearly 1000 businesses in the Bristol area and beyond get the most from the tech they use.

Set up a cost and commitment-free consultation with Chief Geek Gildas Jones today to talk through maximising the return on your investments.

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