The most direct approach to Office 365 migration would be to just set up Office 365 and tell people to start using it. But that’s not the best strategy if you want your technology investment to result in savvy end users and productivity gains. Employees might dutifully learn the bare essentials they need to do their work, but they’re unlikely to dig deeper and get more out of these productivity tools.
Helping employees get the most from Office 365 doesn’t mean handing them all the new tools at once. It’s an ongoing, educational process that deepens over time. Ideally, you’d want to introduce each new tool or function gradually, demonstrating how to use each one and showing how it improves individual and organizational productivity.
Here are five ways to help employees get more from your Office 365 migration.
- Think of user adoption as a process: A lot of effort and strategy goes into choosing to use Office 365 before the first person logs in. Similarly, helping employees unlock the potential of these tools requires ongoing training and education.
- Solicit input from end users: Talk with different groups of people who are most likely to be affected by the Office 365 migration, and ask for their thoughts and feedback. Involving these end users early helps cultivate their sense of ownership and curiosity about the new technology.
- Aim for incremental learning and change: Look for ways to incorporate new technologies into existing workflows. Find out how different employees work and incrementally introduce new tools within those routines.For example, most people use email throughout the day. For heavy email users, Outlook might be the best starting point for introducing new functions in Office 365, such as how to link to SharePoint sites from Outlook. Just like you have access to folders in Outlook, you could also have SharePoint folders in the same place, allowing you to quickly access SharePoint while you’re still in Outlook.
- Communicate the business rationale: The management team that decided to invest in Office 365 understands the business rationale for the change, but that’s not enough. Make sure to communicate the value of this change to end users, so that they know they’re part of a smart strategy, not an arbitrary whim.
- Avoid overwhelming employees with big changes: If you jolt people too far out of their routines, you create anxiety and resistance — and that’s not going to help them get the most out of new technology.
How you approach your Office 365 migration has a lot to do with the success or failure of the implementation. Good processes and a planning roadmap help you avoid certain obstacles in user adoption, and make sure your employees get the most out of Office 365.
Learn more about how to leverage today’s enterprise content management tools by contacting Portal Solutions.
The most direct approach to Office 365 migrationwould be to just set up Office 365 and tell people to start using it. But that’s not the best strategy if you want your technology investment to result in savvy end users and productivity gains. Employees might dutifully learn the bare essentials they need to do their work, but they’re unlikely to dig deeper and get more out of these productivity tools.
Helping employees get the most from Office 365doesn’t mean handing them all the new tools at once. It’s an ongoing, educational process that deepens over time. Ideally, you’d want to introduce each new tool or function gradually, demonstrating how to use each one and showing how it improves individual and organizational productivity.
Here are five ways to help employees get more from your Office 365 migration.
- Think of user adoption as a process:A lot of effort and strategy goes into choosing to use Office 365 before the first person logs in. Similarly, helping employees unlock the potential of these tools requires ongoing training and education.
- Solicit input from end users:Talk with different groups of people who are most likely to be affected by the Office 365 migration, and ask for their thoughts and feedback. Involving these end users early helps cultivate their sense of ownership and curiosity about the new technology.
- Aim for incremental learning and change:Look for ways to incorporate new technologies into existing workflows. Find out how different employees work and incrementally introduce new tools within those routines.For example, most people use email throughout the day. For heavy email users, Outlook might be the best starting point for introducing new functions in Office 365, such as how to link to SharePoint sites from Outlook. Just like you have access to folders in Outlook, you could also have SharePoint folders in the same place, allowing you to quickly access SharePoint while you’re still in Outlook.
- Communicate the business rationale:The management team that decided to invest in Office 365 understands the business rationale for the change, but that’s not enough. Make sure to communicate the value of this change to end users, so that they know they’re part of a smart strategy, not an arbitrary whim.
- Avoid overwhelming employees with big changes:If you jolt people too far out of their routines, you create anxiety and resistance — and that’s not going to help them get the most out of new technology.
How you approach your Office 365 migration has a lot to do with the success or failure of the implementation. Good processes and a planning roadmap help you avoid certain obstacles in user adoption, and make sure your employees get the most out of Office 365.
Learn more about how to leverage today’s enterprise content management tools by contacting Withum.
