Currently, people all around the globe are adjusting to an age where the majority of work takes place from a remote location. Microsoft’s Corporate VP for Microsoft 365, Jared Spataro, recently published a blog discussing how this shift in work has changed the meeting environment.
According to Jared Spataro, face-to-face meetings are still essential, even in this social distancing environment. Microsoft is inspired by the way that customers are connecting in their Microsoft Teams landscapes, using tools from background blur to broadcasts to share information. What’s more, the company has also experienced a massive increase in the number of meetings happening on Microsoft Teams. There’s a new daily record for the company of 2.7 billion meeting minutes in a single day floating around the office.
To further explore the changing state of the meeting space, Microsoft posted findings from its latest Work Trend Index. The report highlights how work is changing through the use of various new interactive and collaborative tools.
What Did the Report Discover?
Researchers from the Microsoft report, such as Dr. Fiona Kerr have discovered that physical connection and eye contact increases dopamine and reduces stress hormones. Microsoft believes that it’s no wonder that people are using video in Teams meetings two times more than often in this confusing new environment.
The report found that the total number of video calls in Microsoft Teams grew by over 100% in March. What’s more, Norway and Netherlands were found to be the countries using video the most (60%), while people in Australia, Chile, Switzerland and Spain followed close behind. Even users in the UK are using video 47% of the time in their meetings.
While Microsoft notes that there’s no true replacement for collaboration in-person, the company is working harder than ever to innovate and reduce pain points, while increasing human connection. Recently, Microsoft Teams has introduced:
- Custom backgrounds: Replace the background in Microsoft Teams with a fresh and fun home office, or another location. This is an alternative to the AI-assisted background blur solution that was available from Microsoft up to now
- Raise hand features: This feature was introduced in February and began rolling out globally recently. This allows meeting participants to indicate that they want to jump in and say something during a meeting
- End meeting: All meeting organisers can now end a meeting for all participants with the touch of a single button. The end meeting solution is within the meeting control bar
- Participant reports: Meeting organisers and leaders can now download participant reports to see the joining and leaving times for each user
- Real-time noise suppression: Later in the year, Microsoft will be introducing an AI-enhanced real-time noise suppression service to reduce distracting background noise in meetings
Creating Better Connections with Videos
In an age where businesses are struggling to adapt rapidly to full-time remote work, Microsoft is seeing a larger number of companies using video and meeting technology in new ways. Large conferences and events are moving online, and people are recording meetings so that everyone can share the same useful information.
