Episode 6 | M365 Digital Workplace Updates with David Francoeur

Episode 6 takes a look at all the amazing M365 Digital Workplace Updates that have been released since Microsoft Ignite in November.

Why Intranet Navigation is so important for end users and IT

Navigation should not be static and curated but dynamic, personalized, and contextual. Poor navigation creates unnecessary inefficiencies and dependency on overburdened resources to fill the navigation gaps with their time and effort directing requests, linking workspaces, and more. 

This is due to unmanaged or poorly designed navigation. Often this stems from end users not knowing what's possible with navigation, or IT not knowing how to best design navigation for the optimal user experience.

Looking at navigation from both perspectives

The tools and design patterns are there for you to take advantage of, but it does require focus and effort to implement them the right way, configure them optimally and extend/enhance where appropriate.

In this blog, we will look at the impact of navigation on the end-user and IT.

End-User Navigation Experience Challenges

70% of people start their journey by navigating, and it is a vital focus area for an effective digital workplace. The most visible challenge of unmanaged and poor design is poor navigation. Reliable navigation is crucial to the user experience. Without it, new users and existing users will never find anything efficiently or learn how to work with a broken system instead.

When new employees begin their employment, navigation issues should be the last thing to actively occupy their thoughts. Not only that, but poor navigation also increases the handholding required. 

The start of a new employee's journey can be anxiety-riddled in any environment, at any job. Suppose the employee cannot fundamentally do their job due to their inability to navigate your digital workplace. In that case, you may have inadvertently made their journey to success a lot more complicated.

Good navigation design enhances users' understanding and gives them confidence using your organization's digital workplace technology.     

Today, one of the significant challenges is that the navigation landscape is fragmented across many apps, services, and experiences employees use to do their jobs. Users have to learn navigation patterns per app or experience. When they want to perform searches or navigate across these, even in Microsoft 365, it can be a challenge. This is due to how organizations have implemented competing vendors, poorly integrated or non-integrated systems. 

The good news here is that proven designs and investments can overcome these end-user experience challenges. By investing in tailoring, configuring, and enhancing the navigation experience across the digital workplace, you can significantly improve employee efficiency, productivity, and related business outcomes.

IT Navigation Experience Challenges

One thing is inevitable; if the UI/UX is a mess, you can bet the backend is worse. Your IT department can provide reactive support all day. However, navigating the sprawl of Teams, SharePoint Sites, Yammer communities, and more, takes more effort since they don't always have the business context or seeing the mess left behind by end-users that had to learn by necessity.  

The need for IT to support management, leadership, and end-user navigation is clear. While out-of-the-box (OOTB) has a great set of experiences that are necessary to understand, they are not sufficient for the volume and complexity of your expected (or existing) digital workspace sprawl. Take a look at the video below for an overview of how far OOTB can take you.

IT needs to support the business needs of today. 

Larger organizations require more than what is available out-of-the-box in Microsoft 365. These needs include more personalization and better experiences navigating hundreds of curated links and multiple organizational intranets or portals. 

The good news is that proven solutions like the digital workplace directory can serve as a basis for unified governance, lifecycle, provisioning, and navigation of digital workspaces. There are proven enhancements that organizations have implemented across thousands of Intranets that go beyond the out-of-the-box navigation patterns while maximizing what is already there. By investing more time into navigation, IT greatly benefits in reduced cost of ownership, better visibility, and a more cohesive platform to provide technology services and experiences.

Still confused about why you should spend more time on navigation?

The success of your business relies on your employees' ability to get their job done efficiently. Navigation is an important element that can negatively impact their daily lives when done poorly. Fixing this issue can save them countless hours of headaches and frustration whether they are end-users or IT.

For help and guidance on the next steps needed to improve navigation in your Microsoft 365 digital workplace, rely on our team of Microsoft and Digital Workplace experts. Or, if you're looking for more information on Microsoft 365 navigation, download our awesome eBook!

5 Work Culture Principles that Led to Our Great Place to Work...

We are honored to announce that we have been certified as a Great Place to Work after a thorough, independent analysis conducted by Great Place to Work® Canada. 

It is our pleasure to share what helped us achieve this accomplishment, but first, a little about the GPTW Institute and a quick thank you.

A Little About Great Place To Work Institute

Since 1980, the GPTW Institute has evaluated employers based on direct feedback from employees, provided as part of an extensive and anonymous survey about their workplace experience.

Along with certifying employers, they work with publications in 49 countries to put together recognized 'Best place to work' lists with Fortune and the Globe and Mail. 

Thank You To Our Incredible Team

We wanted to share and acknowledge that our team is a huge reason why we are a great place to work. From all our hearts at 2toLead, this is a massive shout-out to our employees for continually sharing feedback to help us improve and helping us continue to be a great place to work.

We could list any number of work culture investments we have made as a company, and they wouldn't mean anything if our employees didn't respond and aid us in finding the right fit or the best way to implement and improve upon them. We asked our employees if they would like to say something about working at 2toLead and help you understand why we have received it.

More on the individual clips in the coming weeks, but right now, take a look at our Great Place to Work montage.

5 Examples Of Work Culture Investments We Believe In

The following are a few of the important investments we have made that have improved the way we work together, enabling us to be a better place to work.

• Generous-First Culture
• Radical Transparency
• Manager & Mentor Rhythms
• Being A People Business
• Meaningful Development Support

Generous-First Culture

We believe that it's essential for employees to feel like they can pursue the right course of action and support one another. In our business, self-direction is paramount, and that means by design, we trust the judgment of our employees. Instead of having overages approved (to enable someone to do a few hours of work that would help a customer - or support a struggling peer), employees know they can help first and worry about reporting second.

We have systems to create visibility and review to highlight these extra investments to our customers (for transparency and acknowledging our team's efforts) and our peers (to represent the 'total value better' someone is driving versus their work assignments).

This approach has other implications as well. We can't be generous first if we don't compensate employees fairly and generously or if employees aren't satisfied working here. We can't be generous to our customers if we don't deliver above expectations or have achieved high customer satisfaction.

Another thing we do here is that we donate a percentage of revenue every year to important (and team-directed) charities. We also have an extensive bonus+ program that enables all of our employees to distribute "micro bonuses" across peers that have helped them or whom they see as having contributed positively in some way. This micro-bonus program paired with generous quarterly bonus rhythms for all employees (even contractors) helps us to recognize and acknowledge effort meaningfully.

Radical Transparency

We have created a culture of sharing often and clearly. For customers, things like estimates have ranged values with low and high numbers as very little in our business is perfectly predictable (we work with emerging technology and complex problems and are a people and services business, after all). Our culture of sharing takes a lot of pressure off estimates and is something we do that helps with communication of risks or gaps in dependencies or missing insights that might help the estimator.

Also, this changes how we make changes, discuss ideas, and more. For example, we have an offsite (though the last few were virtual) for each fiscal half. All employees have multiple days dedicated to discussing how to improve the company where data and insights often reserved for executives are openly shared and leveraged across teams. As a remote-first organization, we understand that trust-building is more accessible in person, so we fly our team in together from all across Canada to connect in person, collaborate, and have fun while working on the best ways to continue improving and innovating.

During this offsite and throughout the year, we make our operations backlog, actions lists, and ideas transparent and accessible to the whole organization. We even have a team of volunteers on culture who help prioritize and understand the many ideas we have on improving how we manage, work with one another, or work with our customers.

We have translated this transparency into meaningful operating rules that stop us from making money (and thereby being biased) towards motions that discourage transparency. As an example, we don't obfuscate our work or our source code. All of our excellent consulting and design work product is freely available to our customers. This means our team doesn't have to worry about 'fake billing' where many others in our industry overcharge for re-use, or "IP Hours." Instead, we only charge for real value (hours/effort spent) implementing what has proven to work with other customers. We do this for internal solutions and products, but we also maintain this in working with partners. As another example, we provide service vouchers for the commissions or discounts we receive from vendors, ensuring there is no financial bias towards our IP or our partners' IP while enabling customers to do more with the investments they do make. What is best for the customer motivates aligns with how we make our revenue.

Manager & Mentor Rhythms (1:1's, Quarterly Connects, Yearly Reviews)

Every employee has a monthly 1:1 with their manager. Every employee (based on their preferences) has a monthly 1:1 with at least one mentor/peer (in addition to their manager). These 1:1's provide consistent motions that are important to ensure we regularly discuss what's working well, what's not working well, and how the connecting individual might be able to help. They are great opportunities to discuss professional development questions/challenges and foster growth in the individual.

What's more, we have structured quarterly connects that feed into a final annual rhythm which, when combined with monthly 1:1's, there are no surprises, and it's easier for us to improve together. Quarterly and more formal motions are vital because they guarantee that we connect on essential questions like "how effectively are your skills (including all your prior experience) put to use within 2toLead?". Question's like this one might highlight how an individual could do more if we tailor responsibilities or create opportunities that better enable them to bring their whole self and value to their work. These also help us (along with peer reviews) better understand how our team members are working with one another as collaboration is a core part of our work.

Discussing compensation, supervisor satisfaction, job security, peer feedback, and more multiple times a year also lets us track trends to see if things are trending positively earlier and more often (and creating opportunities to escalate when they aren't). It makes the 'annual' rhythm far easier since it's arguably just one more quarter where we review the prior quarterly connect outcomes/highlights, but there are few (if any) surprises on both sides as a result.

We Are A People Business

The business should be as flexible as our people need it to be. Our employees trade their time for money, growth and more. That means we need to always respect their time and contributions. For us, this means investing in additional company-wide holidays or days off. We provide additional sick days for all staff. We honor more holidays (so there are more days off for all staff more regularly). We work hard to give extra days off around offsites to enable more celebration.

Additionally, during the pandemic, all of our employees had mental relief or covid relief days where they were treated as free vacation days for all employees. On many occasions, staff (especially in the pandemic period) needed extreme flexibility or more time away. We have been extraordinarily generous and done whatever we could here to help (investing a considerable amount) and wanted to thank our team for their flexibility in enabling us to support these motions.

Sometimes, even when there isn't a pandemic, people need time to pursue something important. On multiple occasions, staff has had supported sabbaticals or even part-time arrangements (and our support) to pursue developing a mobile app, building a business with a friend, teaching at a college, focusing more on family or more while still being employed at 2toLead.

Meaningful Development Support

For some staff, development support might be having dedicated days for training to hone or grow their skills and expertise. Today we provide five days for focused training each year (in addition to offsites, project-related learning, and more). We cover the cost of all Microsoft exams (failure doesn't matter) and have covered the tuition and courses outside of our technology focus for many that help someone become more well-rounded or excellent in professional or personal areas of focus.

What's more, we actively encourage employees to pursue their passions - often paying for trips, hotels, and provide team members opportunities to speak at user groups, conferences, and events. The latter is a great way to help their brand, improve their speaking/communication, and help them establish their reputation for their future career. This isn't limited to in-person speaking events; it could be for virtual events, an employee writing content important to them (books, articles, etc.), or exploring a passion. We both support time back from work, monetary investment, support services and can introduce valuable connections that help that employee for decades to come.

Are you looking for a great place to work?

Our team continues to grow, and if you're the right fit, we would love to add you to our team of passionate and hard-working individuals. 

For more information on open opportunities, click the button below. 

3 Ways to disconnect from work over the holidays

While we all love our digital workplaces and how they enable a new hybrid or fully remote workspace, working environments have become 'always on', now more than ever. While the pandemic and working from home have caused this culture shift, I think it is safe to say that we would all love to flick that 'always on' switch off during the holiday season and unplug from work.

As a company of award winners and Microsoft 365 experts, we are pros in maximizing technologies like Microsoft 365. However, today, we're here to help you escape the sweet allure of Microsoft 365 digital workplaces over the holiday season.

3 ways to disconnect from work

Each of the following actions is accompanied by three alternatives actions based on your digital dependency level. Since it's the holiday season, let's have some fun with these.

The different options are, "I hope you have a little self-control," "Ok, you may have a problem," and "Seek professional help."

1. Put Microsoft Teams on pause

I know, you've never enjoyed digital communication and collaboration with colleagues as much as you do through Microsoft Teams! However, you know what they say, "Absence makes the heart grow founder," and so it shall, as you make time to dig into the delicious servings of new and old holiday dishes.

Now, if you find the task of not opening Microsoft Teams on your phone and computer over the holidays a difficult one, I hope one of the following three methods helps.

1. The "I hope you have a little self-control" Dependency Level
   Mute your notifications or turn off notifications entirely.
2. The "Ok, you may have a problem" Dependency Level
   Temporarily delete Microsoft Teams off your phone and store your laptop somewhere that you'll need a ladder to reach.
3. The "Seek professional help" Dependency Level
   Grab your laptop and phone firmly and proceed to hurl them out of the window as you question how it ever got this far.

2. Migrate your new habits from Microsoft Viva Insights, into your everyday life

The Insights module has likely found its way into your heart and daily routine if you are one of the many organizations and individuals leveraging Microsoft Viva. It has helped us work, excel in the new normal, and potentially even better our overall mental health. If you aren't using Viva Insights yet, take a look at this video to prep your mind for after the break.

While work pressures shouldn't be around over the holidays, it is a great time to adopt or continue to adopt things like Headspace in your daily life.

If you want to take a break from work without taking a break from developing better mental health, take a look at the following three methods.

1. The "I hope you have a little self-control" Dependency Level
   Take what you have learned and apply it outside of work in a similar way and/or download the headspace app for a little help.
2. The "Ok, you may have a problem" Dependency Level
   Has your love of warm covers and soft pillows interrupted that great daily routine you had before the holidays? If you are looking for something more schedule-oriented, try booking a few yoga classes or a couple of spa days to take the edge off.
3. The "Seek professional help" Dependency Level
   Forget a spa day, book a spa week or vacation!

3. Put Outlook on pause

While Microsoft Teams has become where most of your time in the digital workplace is spent, email isn’t going anywhere. So, how do you disconnect from floods of relevant and irrelevant information flying into your inbox each day? Or how about the calendar widget on your phone that constantly takes you down a river of work-related thoughts?

If you want to disconnect from email, try one of the following methods.

1. The “I hope you have a little self-control” Dependency Level
   Remove the widget from your phone, mute or turn off notifications entirely, and set an out-of-office message.
2. The “Ok, you may have a problem” Dependency Level
   Temporarily delete Microsoft Outlook off your phone and store your laptop somewhere that you’ll need a ladder to reach.
3. The “Seek professional help” Dependency Level
   Sit on your couch eating your favorite comfort food and wonder how many new emails you’ll have in your inbox or if it will even be able to display the entire number.

Did that help?

While this blog was in good fun, we hope you found some new ideas to leverage in your quest for an escape from work over the holiday season. We hope this has helped so that you can spend time with family and friends.

If you need help improving Microsoft 365 usage and learning best practices, we’re happy to help you right after some family, friends, and good times over the holidays. See you in the new year.

If you really can’t get enough of us, take some time to browse our many Microsoft 365 resources.

Maximizing Out-of-the-Box SharePoint Navigation

Do you want to see how far out-of-the-box navigation can take you before taking it to the next level with customizations or third-party solutions?

Watch our CTO and Microsoft MVP, Richard Harbridge, guide you through the possibilities in this webinar clip from our webinar with partner Omnia.

The Digital Workplace GPS You Have Been Looking For

70% of people start their journey by navigating. It is at the very heart of an effective digital workplace. We have put together our eBook to help you properly plan and strategize for effective intranet and digital workplace navigation.  

A birds-eye view of our Navigation eBook

In this overview of our latest eBook, you will discover a little about the following sections:

• Why Navigation Design Should Be A Priority
• How To Plan Effective Navigation                                                             
• Aligning To Your Navigation Objectives
• How should we plan to best leverage Microsoft 365 navigation?
• Why & When To Go Beyond Out Of The Box Navigation

Does this eBook sound like exactly what you were looking for? Then, download it here.

OR if you still need more time to gain a better understanding of how our eBook will help you, continue reading below.

Why Navigation Design Should Be A Priority

In today's world, the digital workplace empowers organizations to adapt and be resilient to the changes we are all experiencing. Today, effective digital workplace design is about more than establishing a great digital hub for your digital workplace (your Intranet) and is much more about how we can improve digital experience, excellence, productivity, and collaboration with the effective use of technology.

While navigation is the #1 use case for an Intranet and its most crucial purpose, many fail to deliver dynamic and personalized navigation. In this section of our eBook, we look at why you should prioritize navigation for the sake of IT and end-users.

How To Plan Effective Navigation

Navigation starts by understanding clear navigation objectives and designing your nav based on identified user scenarios, personas, and user goals. These need to be S.M.A.R.T. or specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.

While it can be tempting to start with digital workplace objectives that relate to navigation that are generalized, these can often reduce your ability to prioritize the right investments.

So, if you need an effective plan for your navigation efforts, this section of the eBook has you covered.

Aligning To Your Navigation Objectives

As an example, you might start with these high-level navigation objectives, which could be further broken down with specific examples per persona or user grouping, or based on known user scenarios:

Create and maintain clarity:

Navigation should be clearly and meaningfully labeled and signposted so that users understand where they are and where they can go.

Create and maintain consistency:

When consistency is maintained, and clarity is promoted, navigation is easier to comprehend, and efficiency is improved.

Continually improve navigation efficiency:

Navigation should require less clicks or delayed interactions to see and get where you need to go.

Continually improve navigation usability:

When usability is focused on, it leads to better navigation experiences that work for more varied audiences from accessibility to functionality.

Our eBook also includes specific examples of the listed objectives. When you are designing your global navigation for your organization, you should embrace these objectives.

How should we plan to best leverage Microsoft 365 navigation?

In Microsoft 365, Intranets act as a portal to many key areas of interest within the business. The navigation should be personalized and dynamic for the Intranet to improve relevancy and usage.

In SharePoint Online, you can create a navigation experience with global navigation, hub navigation, site navigation, local site navigation, and then links on the page(s) themselves.

Not only this, but through Microsoft Viva Connections some navigation is also brought directly into the Teams app experience both in the desktop and the mobile Teams experiences.

Why & When To Go Beyond Out Of The Box Navigation

Many organizations still feel that navigation is an area that merits customization. Some of the design imperatives we consider when building a custom navigation experience include:

• Drive a consistent experience by offering a persistent navigation experience
• Showcase brand identity by leveraging a consistent theme
• Enable relevancy by providing choice and personalization to end-users
• Reduce barriers for remote work by offering mobile-ready means to navigate
• Drive inclusion and comprehension by providing a multilingual experience
• Facilitate findability by allowing users to switch between portals easily

We’re here to help you navigate with ease

The issues outlined in our eBook can be resolved in a timeframe of weeks or months, even the largest organizations. It can be resolved in a phased approach, starting with out-of-the-box and low to no cost technology solutions – many of which you already own. You will begin seeing immediate improvements after resolving some of these issues. It is equally important to maintain/review them long-term as the digital landscape is constantly changing, as is Microsoft 365.

No matter if you are looking for more knowledge around strong navigation tactics or if you are looking for help from Microsoft 365 experts, we are happy to help!