Managers are constantly on the lookout for ways to engage with meeting participants without adding a million extra to-dos to their list. Easy and functional tools that support workplace communication, especially with distributed teams, can make all the difference. Enter Microsoft Teams, which can help schedule virtual team meetings with high-quality video, screen-sharing and in-meeting apps.
Microsoft's intentional design has made scheduling a new meeting on Microsoft Teams or through Microsoft Outlook’s calendar, a very hassle-free process, with the ability to schedule meetings with your distributed team in just a few clicks.
Below, we'll focus on:
While there is more than one way to set up a meeting in Teams, it’s mostly an intuitive process.
With the paid subscription version of Microsoft Teams, you can automatically send a meeting invite from the Calendar tab of both the Teams desktop and the Teams web app.
Select the Calendar tab on the left side and then select Meet Now.
Image credit: Microsoft Teams
There are a few other ways to set up new Teams meetings:
Here are the steps if you want to schedule a new meeting in Teams from your desktop:
The bonus of your paid subscription means you can easily schedule a meeting through both Android and iOS mobile apps.
Here's a brief list to guide you while learning how to set up meetings in Teams:
Microsoft Teams has built-in features that get everyone on the same page (or, in the same window 🤓), and that's the first part of a successful meeting. The second half is keeping the team engaged once they've arrived.
Polly works as the perfect complement to your meetings because of its enjoyable social games that perk everyone up. During busier periods or meetings with a heavier subject matter, a quick break can help lighten the load:
Polly also helps gather meeting feedback from the attendees, which means you can continue improving your format to suit the intended audience's needs and boost engagement.
By sending a polly directly after the meeting while the experience is still fresh (rather than waiting for the next 1-on-1 meeting), you'll gain better insights and pick up on data trends more immediately that lead to stronger outcomes.
Whether you use one of our feedback-oriented templates or our Q&A feature that's sent out to participants in-meeting, it helps to have real-time results at your fingertips.
To get ready to send a polly during a Teams meeting, you’ll first need to add Polly to Teams, if its not already installed. Then, you can easily use Polly in your meeting by clicking the Polly icon. Use the Quick Create button to instantly get live feedback during your meeting, or start a Q&A session to help you moderate questions.
If you need to prepare questions ahead of time, Polly also allows you to create feedback questions prior to the meeting start time, so that you do not need to interrupt the flow of your presentation to get feedback. Set up pollys in advance and then fire them off with 1-click during the meeting.
Alternatively, you can send a polly from a meeting chat, type @polly and click on the suggested “Polly” option. You can then make either a quick or advanced polly, choose your question type, create your question, and select your preferences. When you’re ready, hit Send now.
With more and more time spent meeting online, remote teams need supportive tools that enhance their workflow. Microsoft Teams provides high-quality audio, video, file sharing, and recording options that work well with most platforms and machines, making collaboration easy and functional.
Polly works seamlessly with Teams to engage employees before, during, and after meetings. Whether with a pre-meeting icebreaker or a seamless live Q&A session that helps participants get context during the meeting, with Teams and Polly, it's a one-two punch.
Try adding Polly to Teams or get a demo to see these two platforms coupled together can elevate your next team meeting.