Microsoft announces several new Microsoft Teams updates to help Firstline Workers

At Inspire 2020 conference, Microsoft Teams today announced several new features focused on Firstline workers. Now more than ever, organizations need better tools for Firstline Workers to connect with their teams, stay engaged and streamline common tasks. Microsoft is announcing the new Yammer Communities in Teams mobile apps, public preview of Walkie Talkie, Time Clock feature and more. Read about these features in detail below.

Easily manage schedules and start your shift from anywhere: Coming later this year, Shift schedule assistance will make it easier for managers to create team schedules while alerting them to potential schedule conflicts so they can be avoided. And Time Clock is now available for Teams on the web and in the desktop app, enabling Firstline Workers to clock in and clock out wherever they are, whether now working remote or at the job location, all with the geo-fencing capabilities.

Make vital messages and live events more discoverable: Having a direct line of communication with your Firstline Workers during uncertain times is critical to ensuring they feel included, engaged, and informed. We’ve added Yammer Communities to the Microsoft Teams mobile apps, so employees can access critical messages, safety alerts, and live events in one place.

Enable Firstline Workers to communicate safely and efficiently: Microsoft Teams Walkie Talkie, now in public preview, is a new push-to-talk experience that turns employee or company-owned Android devices into walkie-talkies for instant and secure voice communication over the cloud using cellular network or WiFi. Key launch partners include BlueParrott with newly announced C300-XT MSand B450- XT MS wireless headsets, Klein Electronics with updated models of their Triumph and Valor wired headsets, as well as Samsung, which recently unveiled the Galaxy XCover Pro. Also now in public preview, Microsoft Teams on RealWear provides Firstline Workers with hands-free access to calls, chats, and live remote collaboration all through integration with HMT-1 and intrinsically safe HMT-1Z1.

Manage your Firstline Workforce more easily: Staying on top of employees clocking in and out and making edits to shifts is critical to ensuring smooth and compliant operations. Now generally available, Firstline Worker and manager policy packages for Teams provide IT administrators with predefined policies and policy settings tailored for their entire Firstline Workforce. Policy packages simplify, centralize, and help provide consistency when managing policies for Firstline Workers and managers across your organization. Audit logs for Shifts, also now generally available, provide IT admins a unified view and search functionality to help monitor and keep track of activities.

Source: Microsoft