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Welcome to the Enable Remote Work community

Microsoft

With more than 3% of the workforce—or around 5 million people—now working from home at least half of the time, remote work within the non-self-employed population has grown by nearly 200% in the last 15 years.¹ More than 70% of employees worldwide work remotely at least once a week.² 

Not a huge surprise considering the significant improvements in technology that have happened over this time. Of course, remote work is not new, but with more and more people working remotely, especially in these difficult times, different challenges have emerged.

 

To help address these challenges, we have created a community space for sharing best practices, guidance, and experiences around enabling remote work. Registering is fast and free, and in seconds you’ll have access to the community forums and feedback submission areas. Simply sign in with your Microsoft account to register and select the "Join" button on the Enable Remote Work community.

 

We’ve created a space for you to ask questions, answer others’ questions, and participate in discussions.  Folks across Microsoft will also be engaging you in these discussions. We will be publishing blog articles here to keep you updated on related announcements and helpful resources. There is also an active poll to get us started – tell us whether you are working from home by clicking the ‘vote’ button on the panel in the right.

 

We’re very excited to welcome you to the new Enable Remote Work community. We can’t wait to hear about your experiences and ideas!

 

 

[1] Latest Telecommuting/Mobile Work/Remote Work Statistics, Aug 2019; Analysis of 2005-2018 (released in 2019) American Community Survey (US Census Bureau) data conducted by Global Workplace Analytics.

[2] IWG Global Workspace Survey, 2019

 

26 Replies
best response confirmed by Annette799 (Copper Contributor)
Solution

This is a great iniative @AnnaChu. I think we'll see a variety of tips in this community. I'm looking forward to reading the stories of how teams work remotely together and address their different needs. I'd also like to see stories where working remotely is new to people, and they share what their daily learning journey here. It will give insights into how change managers and org leaders can develop a culture that supports remote working. 

 

Agreed @darrellaas!

 

Very excited to see some more of the tips, tricks, and questions by those where WFH is new. For those who have been in the WFH mindset for a long time, we can sometimes take certain things for granted.

 

Also, so many can be afraid to ask or not know where to ask, having this will help so many embrace the new and empowering WFH opportunity. 

 

Thanks @AnnaChu!! :stareyes:

@darrellaas I totally agree. Great to share and read stories. I think many can update their wfh setup and thoughts around what is needed to make them have a better experience and keep not only productive but also connected in to the organisation.

@AnnaChu Great initiative Anna and as I was reading your post, I wondered what the results were of people moving to remote work in the last couple of weeks - and what those figures will change to in the next couple of weeks as countries are now feeling the pressure of the pandemic.  Glad to be part of this community to share ideas, tips and support because at times, it is a little bit lonely working from home but it need not be. 

It will definitely be something we'll observe and I hope to get your thoughts on what you're seeing from your hemisphere @Helen Blunden! Let's hope we can beat some of the isolation by staying connected with community! 

@AnnaChu For sure.  I'm seeing an increase in 'fun' online meetups with people from different networks just creating online catch up meetings.  So for those quarantined, no need to feel alone. Just join an online meetup.  It's kinda like a "Neighbourhood Watch" meeting - but fun - not serious - and very informal.  Great way to stay connected with people around the world and meet new people.  So it's not about work all the time either.....!!  

Thanks for creating this

@AnnaChu 

 

Thanks for creating this area, I was just giving my daughter tips on Teams for her school video chat with her teacher (8th grade).

 

I'm glad you called it Remote, I hate the word "virtual". And even in less than a year from now, it won't even need to be called "Remote", it will just be "Work" -- lol!

 

What do you anticipate being in this group vs Teams group? Is this more general?

 

Good luck!

Rob.

Yes - for many people this is their normal mode of work @RobOK and they're giving us a lot of insight on how to make remote work actually work for us ☺

 

There are indeed lots of places for conversation, if your question is Teams specific, there's a thriving community here to ask questions. Chances are your question may already be answered so search around to see if you can find your answer. But if the center of gravity of your question is around Enabling Remote Work, you can absolutely ask the question here. @EricStarker is our Community Manager here and can help triage an answer to any question posted here 👍🏽

Well, we are adapting new life-style.
It might be hard and we need to experience and learn best practices and share with folks here.

Anna - I have added a NEW Blog article called "Playing & Sharing Recorded Meetings in Microsoft Teams" The article is located at: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/enabling-remote-work-blog/bg-p/EnableRemoteWorkBlog

 

It just needs you to publish it if it's okay. Ivor

 

@AnnaChu

 

Thanks @Ivor Davies I'll take a look!

Thank you! #staysafe #stayhealthy

@AnnaChu 

I was lucky in the sense that I was already used to working remotely, as I have been part of a remote team for over two years now. But it has definitely been a big shift, to only work from home.

I'll be happy to share my experiences in this community, thanks for creating this space for us to discuss working remotely @AnnaChu!

@AnnaChu Iniative is very good! For me, the big challenge is to keep a healthy mind. Many days at home and no exercise is difficult. So I've been going out for a walk in the hours when the streets are empty. In my town, quarantine is not mandatory.

@edenalencar Have tried home workouts? There has been an explosion of training videos that require little to no equipment at home.

 

I personally can't wait to do actual exercise again, but for now working out at home helps me keep my energy levels up and makes me happier.

Yes, I exercise at home, but I need fresh air and sunshine too. It's not easy staying home for days.

@AnnaChu Thanks for the post! We are currently working remotely as are most people and having a few quality issues when it comes to Teams meetings.  I'm wondering if you know any ways to keep Microsoft Teams video meetings audio working at its best...

Some tips I've seen are more related to how to run a team meeting (muting when not talking, having a presenter, etc...) but I am looking for how to keep voice quality the best. Are there any tips the Microsoft team has for sound quality at its best?

Hi @jpfense I would point you in the direction of @Jimmy Hang's blog article on this very topic here in the Enable Remote Work Community (Managing your Audio & Video settings in Microsoft Teams) but also take a look at @ChrisHoardMVP's excellent blog series to learn more best practices for Microsoft Teams (Teams: #FightCorona – Everything else I think you should know).

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Annette799 (Copper Contributor)
Solution

This is a great iniative @AnnaChu. I think we'll see a variety of tips in this community. I'm looking forward to reading the stories of how teams work remotely together and address their different needs. I'd also like to see stories where working remotely is new to people, and they share what their daily learning journey here. It will give insights into how change managers and org leaders can develop a culture that supports remote working. 

 

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