Forum Discussion
Using Teams for employee availability dashboard
Hi,
We use teams extensively for employee communication. I know that Teams offers a lot of additional functionality through add-on apps, but I don't really have any experience in this area, and was hoping that someone could offer advice.
Our issue is as follows; currently when an employee becomes available for a work assignment they message one of the project-managers. Their are many employees, multiple Project-managers, and we have no good way of keeping on-top of who is currently working, who is waiting for work, and who has just been assigned work.
We would like some sort of dashboard that will show project-managers employee status; busy, available, available soon (and perhaps more info.)
We could use a sharepoint excel table, or loop component, but we don't want the employees to see the status of all other employees, this info. should only be visible to the managers. The employee should only be able to update their own status.
Their are probably many ways to create this (including a custom-built solution), but is their any way to use existing functionality built into teams to implement this? As mentioned, we are already using Teams all the time, so it would be real efficient for us to have this integrated instead of bringing in a whole new platform.
Any advice appreciated.
Hi ys-315 ,
You can create a dashboard in Microsoft Teams for tracking employee statuses.
Create a SharePoint list in SharePoint to track employee statuses, including columns for name, status, and additional information. Set permissions to restrict access to project managers.
Then ,Add the SharePoint list as a tab in your desired Teams channel by selecting "SharePoint" from the "+" icon and choosing the list from your SharePoint site. Configure list views and filters in SharePoint to display only the logged-in user's status. Create additional views for different criteria like availability.
Inform all the employees to update their own status either by accessing the SharePoint list.
By integrating Teams and SharePoint, project managers will be able to access a private dashboard in Teams to view employee statuses.
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11 Replies
Your current process—where employees manually message project managers to indicate availability—creates inefficiencies and makes it hard to track real-time status across a large team. You need a solution that:
- Provides managers with a centralized view of who’s available, busy, or soon-to-be available.
- Allows employees to update their own status
- Integrates directly into Teams (no switching between apps).
While SharePoint lists or Loop components can work, they require manual upkeep and lack real-time visibility. A better alternative is https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/office/WA200005996?tab=Overview, a dedicated Teams app designed specifically for this use case.
Comparison: Team Board vs. SharePoint List
Feature Team Board SharePoint List
Real-time updates ✅ Yes ❌ Manual refresh
Teams-native ✅ Yes ❌ Requires switching apps
One-click communication ✅ Yes (call/message ❌ No direct integration
from dashboard)
Since you’re already using Teams daily, this eliminates the need for manual tracking or external tools.
Vipassana Mahale
mailto:email address removed for privacy reasons | https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=email address removed for privacy reasons | https://calendly.com/teamboardsupport/short-call
https://teamboard.in/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/team-board-microsoft-teams/- "Configure list views and filters in SharePoint to display only the logged-in user's status. Create additional views for different criteria like availability." Can anyone give any insight as to how to go about this. I believe I have everything correct so far. I have not added our employees to the Teams channel yet as I am still working on the list. I do have the employee names listed but they are not really in a format for a filter to be able to know what to display for them if I have it set to only display their own name. I hope I am explaining that in a way that is understandable. Any help is greatly appreciated!
I'm very interested in the details as well. A dashboard of some sorts is exactly what I am looking for, though I'm unfamiliar with building lists in SharePoint. Some examples/pointers would be great to get a handle on how to set this up. Nothing is looking terribly obvious to me as a starting point.
So I'll give you my general rundown of what I created to suit my needs:
****disclaimer: this is all self taught and university of google knowledge. I am by no means an expert in any of this and this took me quite a while to work through.
1 - Create a group in outlook. (you don't have to add users until you're ready)
2 - Once created go to the top of the group header in your outlook inbox. Click the three dots and go to "Site" with the SharePoint icon.
3 - From the SharePoint site in the bottom right hand corner a teams banner will pop up asking if you want to add Teams. Go through the steps and you'll add a shortcut to all folders in the SharePoint page.
4 - From the General tab in the Teams group you will see a Lists tab at the top of the page. It will allow you to create one from scratch or upload one using Excel. (if you don't see a Lists tab you may have to go to the + to add it. (((READ NEXT STEP BEFORE YOU CREATE A LIST))))
5 - If you have an excel sheet with users on it already with their name and e-mail address, that is the best place to start. To import a user list from an excel sheet the information you are importing must be inside a table in the spreadsheet. (I would honestly play around with the Lists application a little bit before you actually create one from the Teams group. It took me a lot of getting used to and learning what types of columns could do what. If you do have a user list in excel I would import it from the lists application or web browser outside of Teams first to use it as practice.)
When importing into Lists - it will ask you what type of column each column is.
First column with Users name will be a Title and the 2nd column with the e-mail address will be a person or group. Change the other columns to "Do not import." You can add other columns with information once you get the initial name and e-mail address imported.
6 - Once you have the list up and running and have information that you want to include set up... I can include further steps depending on how you want the list to function for users.
Hi ys-315 ,
You can create a dashboard in Microsoft Teams for tracking employee statuses.
Create a SharePoint list in SharePoint to track employee statuses, including columns for name, status, and additional information. Set permissions to restrict access to project managers.
Then ,Add the SharePoint list as a tab in your desired Teams channel by selecting "SharePoint" from the "+" icon and choosing the list from your SharePoint site. Configure list views and filters in SharePoint to display only the logged-in user's status. Create additional views for different criteria like availability.
Inform all the employees to update their own status either by accessing the SharePoint list.
By integrating Teams and SharePoint, project managers will be able to access a private dashboard in Teams to view employee statuses.
If I have answered your question, please mark your post as Solved
If you like my response, please give it a Like
Appreciate your Kudos! Proud to contribute! 🙂
Deleted
It looks like this is the solution, I figured there was someone to do it through the Microsoft platform, but didn't know about SharePoint lists. Thank you for your clear and detailed answer.
