Microsoft Teams has emerged as the go-to solution for communication and collaboration in virtually every industry. Designed to unify distributed tech and employees, enhance productivity, and improve company culture, Teams can help companies of all sizes and backgrounds to achieve essential goals.
Part of what makes the Teams ecosystem so attractive to today’s business leaders, is how flexible the landscape can be. With endless apps, integrations, and customisation options to choose from, organisations can easily tailor their Teams instance to suit their specific needs.
In the retail landscape, Microsoft Teams provides companies with an efficient way to bring distributed staff members together, wherever they are. Front-of-store employees and customer experts can synchronise their efforts via the same comprehensive ecosystem. With Teams, leaders can leverage the innovative digital tools they need to enhance backend team performance, and empower frontline workers at the same time.
Recently, Microsoft shared insights into its continued work on the Teams platform, and how it can enhance employee performance in the retail sector, as part of the National Retail Federation (NRF) event, 2023. Here’s what retail companies can expect from Microsoft Teams.
Connecting Store Teams with Efficient Communication
During the NRF event for 2023, Microsoft highlighted a number of pre-existing and new solutions, specially created to boost communication, connect employee experiences, and streamline operations in the retail sector. According to the company, countless retail employees struggle to maintain connections with the rest of their colleagues, particularly when working on the frontline.
Around 61% of retail staff say leadership messages never reach them, and a further 31% say they believe their voice isn’t being heard when they attempt to communicate potential issues. To address this issue, Microsoft updated the Teams Walkie Talkie feature with transmission usage reports, and a “prompt to join” capability. The prompt to join feature allows the Walkie Talkie device to automatically select the last channel in use for a conversation.
The new usage report solution will provide admins with downloadable insights into overall call quality and application usage. These enhancements will also be rolled out on devices from industry-leading partners working with Microsoft, such as Zebra Technologies, Samsung, and Honeywell. The devices come with dedicated buttons for Walkie Talkie functionality.
Leading companies like L’Oréal have already begun taking advantage of Teams’ built-in collaboration tools for its frontline workers. The company introduced Teams to help beauty advisors share insights from interactions with customers with headquarters and leadership teams in real-time. Elsewhere, Ahold Delhaize is leveraging teams to align frontline workers and back-end staff, for end-to-end collaboration across the workforce.
Enhancing Retail Store Operations
Microsoft noted many frontline workers in the retail landscape are still reliant on legacy tools and systems to accomplish their work. However, with built-in solutions in Microsoft Teams, such as Shifts, Tasks, and Updates, organisations can effectively improve workflows and efficiency. Notably, retail companies also have the option to create their own custom, low-code apps, using the Microsoft Power Apps ecosystem, without the need for developer knowledge.
During Microsoft Ignite 2022, the leading company introduced a new partnership with UKG, to build a Shifts connector solution for UKG Dimensions. This offering gives frontline workers the freedom to request time off, accept open shifts, clock in or out, and more, from within Teams.
Additionally, Microsoft drew attention to the benefits of the Updates app in Teams for retail companies. This simple but intuitive app supports store team members in completing comprehensive workflow checklists, and maintaining efficiency. As of January 2023, Microsoft began rolling out deep link sharing for the Updates app, which allows teams to create specific links for each update.
What’s more, to help save time in the retail space, Microsoft introduced the Updates Power Automate connector, which supports workflow automation with intuitive triggers and actions. Companies like River Island have used these technologies, as well as Microsoft Tasks in Teams to replace their multi-step workflows into simple, consistent processes.
Enhancing Retail Employee Experiences
During the NRF event, Microsoft also drew attention to the changing priorities of employees in the retail space, and around the world. According to the leading technology vendor, today’s employees want a more connected, meaningful, and empathetic experience in their jobs. However, 62% of retail staff members still say their leadership teams aren’t committed to building company culture.
For frontline workers, the focus on wellbeing and connectivity between team members is particularly poor. Around 51% of staff in non-management positions say they don’t feel valued, and believe more should be done to reduce burnout and improve wellbeing.
To address this evolving problem, Microsoft introduced the benefits of merging Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Viva, for employee engagement and company culture. For instance, Microsoft Viva Connections has a pre-configuration solution already available for frontline workers (in preview).
This solution pins the Viva Connections service to the app tray on Teams, and provides users with a simplified, straightforward dashboard experience, with included adaptive cards for Tasks, Shifts, Top News, and Approvals. This ensures retail professionals can rapidly access the resources and information they need while at work. The experience can also be customised to suit the specific requirements and expectations of each team.
Additionally, Stories, a new feature for Microsoft Viva Engage, was also recently introduced in Preview, providing team members with an option to join and participate in communities, and contribute to company discussions. Frontline workers and other employees can use Stories to connect with their peers, share information, and express themselves.
What’s more, Microsoft Viva Learning has been recently enhanced by the technology vendor, with a new home page experience, which boosts the intuitive experience for all kinds of employees. Users can access training assessments and browse available learning content on the move. It’s also possible to easily access learning resources within the Teams app, and view upcoming assignments and bookmarked content, as well as personalised tips.
Deploying and Using Microsoft 365 apps with Teams
Part of what makes Microsoft Teams so powerful for employees across a range of business environments, including in the retail sector, is it’s close integration with Microsoft 365 apps. Within Teams, employees can easily leverage a range of tools from within the Microsoft ecosystem, using any device they choose.
In their NRF presentation, the Microsoft team highlighted the importance of being able to manage access to crucial solutions on shared devices in the retail sector. Many retailers supply devices to frontline workers which are shared between shifts and different groups. The Microsoft Azure Active Directory software comes with a dedicated shared device mode, which enables the easy transition of tools from one employee to the next.
To further support retailers and their employees, Microsoft announced shared device mode will now enable Power Apps, Yammer, Edge, and Outlook apps on Android devices to be securely accessed via Microsoft Intune. For iOS devices, the shared mode for Intune will enter preview from February 2023. Retailers using VMware Workspace ONE or SOTI for unified endpoint management solutions for Android will also be able to enrol devices into shared device mode in Azure AD.
Microsoft also shared it would be providing a sample application via GitHub to customers, which would allow for the addition of QR-based authentication solutions for users implementing their own applications. With this application, users will not need to enter their full username to log into a shared device, saving time during shift switches.
To enhance the Microsoft 365 experience for retailers even further, Microsoft introduced a new system to improve the deployment of Outlook at scale. This solution allows IT admins to use the Microsoft 365 admin center as an all-in-one environment for IT management. Launching in February 2023, the experience will be accompanied by two new capability previews.
The first solution, audience targeting for Outlook, will allow users to send targeted emails, and filter through frontline recipients by location, job function or department. The second offering, group mailboxes, gives IT admins an opportunity to align each department with a shared voice. This should allow frontline teams to collaborate and communicate more effectively with ease.
Powering the Frontline Workforce with Microsoft Teams
Like many companies, organisations in the retail landscape are going through a rapid stage of transformation, growth, and change. Fortunately, Microsoft believes it is providing retail brands with all of the tools they need to innovate and grow at scale. During the NRF expo, Microsoft drew attention to the various new and existing components of Microsoft Teams, specifically designed to empower the frontline workers often overlooked in retail environments.
Microsoft also has its own dedicated Retail-focused blog, where companies in the retail sector can learn more about how they can unify and transform their frontline teams with Microsoft Teams, as well as other powerful Microsoft apps.
