End User Training: Make Sure Clients Get the Most Out of Office 365

So you managed the big migration and your customer is now comfortably set up on Office 365.

Congratulations!

But serving as a “trusted advisor” means ensuring you haven’t allowed your client to overlook the critical importance of end user training to maximize the return on their investment.

“There are so many features and applications in Office 365, you can’t possibly expect employees to understand or implement them all at once,” wrote Dan St. Hilaire in a recent blog post for KnowledgeWave.    

“It’s your job, along with your leadership team, to prioritize where your team is likely to get the most value right out of the gate,” he continued. “Then tailor your training to your organization’s top priorities.”

St. Hilaire offered three things decision-makers should keep in mind when thinking about an organization’s optimal utilization of Office 365:

1. Carefully Focus Initial Training

That means targeting your training on desired employee behaviors that improve productivity and workflows. Want employees to stop exchanging file attachments via email? Then conduct an initial training on storing and sharing of files using SharePoint or OneDrive for Business.

Want your team to communicate more effectively? Set up a session that gets in the weeds about Groups or Skype for Business.

2. Training Should Be Iterative

After getting the crew up to speed on the top Office 365 priorities, start fanning out to the next tier of behaviors you need addressed.

“Now it’s time to cycle back and figure out the next few things that will bring value to your organization and do the whole behavior change training cycle again,” the blog states.

Users will be surprised at how much change can be accomplished after a few iterations.

3. End User Training in Perpetuity

Now that the critical mass of the organization has a solid handle on key features of Office 365, you’ll want to evolve your strategy to one of ongoing training.

St. Hilaire says this is important for a number of reasons.

“New employees come on board and need to learn your new ways of working,” he said.

“Long-time employees get rusty and need review, or they might change positions and need new skills,” St. Hilaire continues. “And most importantly: updates happen.”

 He recommends organizations consider one of the many training-as-a-service options now available for Office 365.

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