Our friends at the Verge have given us a snapshot into what Microsoft store employees have been up to since the physical stores were shut down on March 16th. Like many of us who have transitioned to being fully remote workers, so to have nearly 80% (2,000) of all store employees have transitioned into supporting customers remotely as part of Microsoft’s Emergency Remote Operations Plan.
According to the Verge, and Microsoft’s own post, store employees have virtually trained 65,000. The demand for the virtual training program, known as Customer Success Training, has surged as many customers want to improve and transform their remote work capabilities and for store employees who participate, they are continuing to receive regular pay but also weekly bonuses as part of the program. Some early training successes of the program include training school district personnel to teach remotely using Microsoft 365, how to support virtual coding workshops for kids, as well as business training for companies like the Cleveland Clinic, accounting firm Ernst & Young, and transportation and logistics company CN (Canadian National Railway).
According to Microsoft, Microsoft Teams has seen a new daily record of 2.7 billion meeting minutes per day since March 31st. As a comparison, that is up more than 200 percent since mid-march. You can check out our Teams Hub to learn more about upcoming updates, news stories and more.