This article was translated from German with the help of Claude.
At the TeamsCommunityDay 2021, René and I presented four Teams App Templates in our session that can help strengthen company culture in the home office. I would like to present these apps and their use cases here once again. Additionally, you’ll find our slides from the session here.
1. Icebreaker #
First, we introduced the Icebreaker. This app randomly pairs members of a team so they can get to know each other and have personal conversations. The bot works on a configurable schedule and offers two buttons that allow partners to either chat with each other immediately or schedule a meeting.
This app essentially brings the conversation at the coffee machine or the chance encounter in the hallway to Teams. Furthermore, it can also bring together people who don’t know each other because they work in completely different teams or even locations.
Best practices:
- Dedicated team for Icebreaker
- Announce Icebreaker in the team
- Promote through key users
- Regularly bring in “fresh” participants
- Need a break?
- Every user can pause the bot
- Leave the team
Microsoft Teams app templates – Teams | Microsoft Docs
2. Company Communicator #
Internal communication is fundamentally an important tool in any organization. For employees in the home office, it is even more important to remain part of the company through transparency and information flow.
The “Company Communicator” app can help shift corporate communications from email to Microsoft Teams. With the author mode, cards can be created in no time and sent to Teams channels or directly to employees’ chats.
Practical: Authors can be designated independently of their position in the company through a dedicated permission parameter.
Best practices:
- Dedicated team for Company Communicator authors
- Add Company Communicator recipient to the global app setup policy
- Either Company Communicator or email
- Don’t spam!
3. Reflect #
After bringing employees together and improving communication in the company, we also want a way to capture the mood and personal well-being of employees. With “Reflect”, we implement a Microsoft Teams messaging extension app that allows collecting feedback on questions through a simple form. These questions can be customized. The response options are smileys on a scale from “laughing” to “angry”.
This extension is available in any type of chat and is inclusive and secure through various privacy settings.
Best practices:
- Create a public team so employees can join voluntarily
- Respond openly to feedback
Microsoft Teams app templates – Teams | Microsoft Docs
4. New Employee Onboarding #
When many or even all employees are in the home office, onboarding and training new employees is very challenging. Making connections and understanding company processes is particularly difficult for new colleagues due to the distance.
The “New Employee Onboarding” app integrates a SharePoint Lookbook solution into Teams. Through a SharePoint list, all onboarding stations can be captured and handed over to the new employee via Teams. This provides a consistent and high-quality onboarding experience for all employees.
The SharePoint list additionally offers HR and managers constant monitoring of the process.
Best practices:
- Adapt and evolve to your own processes
- Involve all relevant departments
- Collect feedback