We’ve got some gifts we think you’ll find grand,
to help guide you to Teams wonderland. 
12 tips & tricks delivered with glee, 
we’ll help you use Teams most optimally. 

As a holiday treat, here’s the full collection, 
read on to discover Teams perfection. 

Holidays can be stressful | Destress with Viva Insights

Even if you don’t work in Santa’s workshop, holidays are extreme, both at work and at home. Every employee needs a healthy way to destress, and thanks to Viva Insights, your hybrid workspace now offers various mindful practices. Book yourself a focus time, learn how to control your breath, or vibe to a Lo-Fi playlist to calm your mind and stay present. 

Checking Your Pulse in 2023 | Viva Pulse

The holidays can be overwhelming, which is why it’s so crucial to take a moment out of your day and check in on your team members. Whether that be seeing how their work progress is coming along, checking in on their wellbeing, or even requesting feedback, sending a pulse to your team members increases open communication. Take a quick read through the Viva Pulse blog today and discover why Viva Pulse is right for your team. 

The Gift of Eloquence | Teams Speaker Coach

Gifts are good and all, but delivery is key. Good leaders must have exceptional communication skills—they bring clarity, focus, and efficiency to your organization. With the help of the Speaker Coach, everyone can now become a better leader and better engage their audience by improving their pacing, tone, and use of filler words while speaking. 

Spread Holiday Cheer | Teams’ Video Messaging Feature

A personal touch goes a long way in humanizing the digital employee experience. Now is your chance to improve your company culture and spread some extra holiday cheer by leveraging Teams’ video messaging feature to send your team a cheery video message. 

More Isn’t Always Merrier | Chat with Yourself

With the holiday season upon us, a lot is going on in our minds. Sometimes, it’s all just too much to handle and keep track of! This holiday season, put your worries aside because our wish came true with the introduction of the self-chat feature on Microsoft Teams. Say goodbye to your messy desktop, numerous reminders, and your overwhelmed workspace. Chatting with yourself helps you stay organized, on track, and always in the loop of your work tasks, thoughts, and, most importantly, resources. 

A Present of Presence | Schedule Teams Messages & Protect Your Team’s Time

Your team deserves their time off, so don’t invade their personal space while they’re relaxing during the holidays. Just schedule your message for a later time or date! With the schedule-send feature, you never again need to stress about forgetting your messages and ideas, contacting your team at an inconvenient time, or missing out on sending your team holiday wishes. 

From Santa’s Workshop | Games for Work

Elves’ve been busy wrapping up the gift of nostalgia and serving it up in Teams! Grab your eggnog, sit back, and reminisce about the days of old while playing Microsoft Solitaire and Minesweeper. In addition to nostalgia, games are an amazing tool for strengthening team bonds. By bringing games and excitement to your meetings, you can boost creativity and collaboration in a unique way throughout your organization.  

Jingle Jingle Jingle, Reduce Distracting Rings | Customize Channel Notifications

We’re here to reassure you that you’re perfectly justified for believing there may be such a thing as too many notifications. Notifications can be as helpful as they are distracting. The solution is the customization of your channel notifications setting. By customizing your notifications, you can now be sure you’re getting all the critical messages from your clients or colleagues and reduce the distractions from irrelevant messages. 

Corp Comm’s Little Helper | Viva Amplify

It’s hard to get your voice heard through online platforms, especially when all you’ve got going on in your head are Christmas jingles! Viva Amplify to the rescue as your little elf helpers, ensuring your message is not only listened to, but also understood. Viva Amplify is all about helping users “amplify” their voice through writing guidance and feedback, campaign generation, analytics, and the list goes on! Let Santa’s helpers guide the way to gaining your voice and the recognition and awareness you deserve. 

Merrier Meetings | Pop-out Shared Content in Teams

Would you believe that you can now not only pop-out shared content in meetings but also chats to a separate tab!? What does that mean, you ask? Using the pop-out feature, you can do more work without exhausting additional energy. You can stay engaged, productive, and overall, more in tune with work tasks and expectations. What a way to make your life easier! 

An Eternal, Perfect Hair Day | Mesh Avatars Coming to Teams

Let’s be real; we all have those days when we wake up and truly have no energy to put ourselves together to look presentable for our virtual meetings. Especially during the holiday season! This is the perfect time to use Mesh avatars. Keep that camera off but remain just as engaged with your peers with easily customizable avatars. 

Connect Your Team | Microsoft Places

It’s the final stretch before the holiday season, and what more could you ask for than to share these last few weeks with your friends, family, and closest coworkers? Because let’s admit it, hybrid work can get quite lonely, and it can be difficult to know where work happens and when. Microsoft Places helps you coordinate your hybrid work schedule because just like the holidays, which emphasize the importance of people coming together, Microsoft Places promises the same priority as it turns out that employees need a “why” for coming into the office and that “why” is each other.   

A Quick Recap 

Well, there you have it, our wonderful readers! We hope you take a moment to spoil yourself this holiday season by checking out our full blogs on our sister company Creospark’s site! Get a more detailed breakdown of our 12 days of Teams celebration and discover how you can transform your Microsoft Teams experience in just 12 short & sweet blogs. Enjoy your newfound Teams knowledge, and we wish you happy holidays from our family at Creospark and PixelMill, to yours.