Tag Archives: Hangouts

Work hacks from G Suite: make meetings more efficient

At work, we spend a lot of time with meetings—from scheduling and hosting them, to following up on tasks after they wrap. In fact, the average technology CEO works 14 hours per day, 300 days per year, and nearly 30% of those hours are spent in meetings. It’s hard to tell how much of that time is actually spent being productive, so this month’s work hacks focus on how to make your meetings more efficient.

1. Set up your meeting faster by skipping scheduling

Coordinating a meeting time that works for the group can be tedious. Why not have your productivity tools do that for you? Instead of manually coordinating availability for your team, use scheduling tools in Calendar and Hangouts, like Find a Time and the intelligent @meet bot.

With Find a Time, you can bypass scheduling and ask Calendar to intelligently suggest times that work for your team, regardless of time zones. Simply go into your Calendar app, enter the names of team members you want to schedule a meeting with and then click the “Find a time” option. Select the time slot that works best and an invitation will automatically be sent.

You can also use Find a Room to book a conference room. Within Calendar, click “Add a room” and select the space you want to meet in, and the room will be booked on your behalf. Check it out:

loop

Another option is to use the all-new @meet bot, which finds and schedules meetings for your team within Hangouts Chat (now available for G Suite customers through the Early Adopter Program). Simply message @meet and ask it to schedule a time for your team. It sends an invitation and includes a link to Hangouts Meet. That way, when you’re ready to start your meeting, you can join instantly without having to worry about downloads or plugins.

@meet

2. Assign work more quickly to your team

You may remember, in the not-so-distant past, assigning a designated “note taker” during meetings (or maybe you were that person?). The note taker’s job was to collect everyone’s notes, compile and share to-do’s with the team to keep projects on track. Talk about a time sink.

You can skip that by using Google Docs, which lets everyone take notes simultaneously. But more importantly, you can move beyond simple recording and dive straight into assigning work. That’s where comments and action items in Docs can help.

Thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP), Docs can intelligently suggest action items. For example, when you type a comment like “Emile to schedule a weekly check-in,” Docs will intelligently suggest Emile as the owner and allow you to assign that task. You can also manually assign action items within comments by mentioning a name and checking the “new action item” box. Notifications are sent to team members on their laptops or mobile devices. Here’s what it looks like:
Action items

3. Follow up on and execute action items

Assigning tasks is the easy part. It’s following up and executing that’s hard. To make it easier, try out Chat, a dynamic communications tool that creates a space for teams to discuss and complete work outside of email or meetings.

You can enter Chat, create a room, discuss ideas with coworkers, share relevant files, filter and search previous project discussions (so nothing is ever lost) and accomplish more. Chat is integrated with G Suite tools like Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and more, plus third-party apps are teaming up too, so you can use your favorite apps without having to switch between tabs.

For more time-saving tips, check out the Transformation Gallery. You can also watch this video from Google Cloud Next ‘17:

Work hacks from G Suite: make meetings more efficient

At work, we spend a lot of time with meetings—from scheduling and hosting them, to following up on tasks after they wrap. In fact, the average technology CEO works 14 hours per day, 300 days per year, and nearly 30% of those hours are spent in meetings. It’s hard to tell how much of that time is actually spent being productive, so this month’s work hacks focus on how to make your meetings more efficient.

1. Set up your meeting faster by skipping scheduling

Coordinating a meeting time that works for the group can be tedious. Why not have your productivity tools do that for you? Instead of manually coordinating availability for your team, use scheduling tools in Calendar and Hangouts, like Find a Time and the intelligent @meet bot.

With Find a Time, you can bypass scheduling and ask Calendar to intelligently suggest times that work for your team, regardless of time zones. Simply go into your Calendar app, enter the names of team members you want to schedule a meeting with and then click the “Find a time” option. Select the time slot that works best and an invitation will automatically be sent.

You can also use Find a Room to book a conference room. Within Calendar, click “Add a room” and select the space you want to meet in, and the room will be booked on your behalf. Check it out:

loop

Another option is to use the all-new @meet bot, which finds and schedules meetings for your team within Hangouts Chat (now available for G Suite customers through the Early Adopter Program). Simply message @meet and ask it to schedule a time for your team. It sends an invitation and includes a link to Hangouts Meet. That way, when you’re ready to start your meeting, you can join instantly without having to worry about downloads or plugins.

@meet

2. Assign work more quickly to your team

You may remember, in the not-so-distant past, assigning a designated “note taker” during meetings (or maybe you were that person?). The note taker’s job was to collect everyone’s notes, compile and share to-do’s with the team to keep projects on track. Talk about a time sink.

You can skip that by using Google Docs, which lets everyone take notes simultaneously. But more importantly, you can move beyond simple recording and dive straight into assigning work. That’s where comments and action items in Docs can help.

Thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP), Docs can intelligently suggest action items. For example, when you type a comment like “Emile to schedule a weekly check-in,” Docs will intelligently suggest Emile as the owner and allow you to assign that task. You can also manually assign action items within comments by mentioning a name and checking the “new action item” box. Notifications are sent to team members on their laptops or mobile devices. Here’s what it looks like:
Action items

3. Follow up on and execute action items

Assigning tasks is the easy part. It’s following up and executing that’s hard. To make it easier, try out Chat, a dynamic communications tool that creates a space for teams to discuss and complete work outside of email or meetings.

You can enter Chat, create a room, discuss ideas with coworkers, share relevant files, filter and search previous project discussions (so nothing is ever lost) and accomplish more. Chat is integrated with G Suite tools like Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and more, plus third-party apps are teaming up too, so you can use your favorite apps without having to switch between tabs.

For more time-saving tips, check out the Transformation Gallery. You can also watch this video from Google Cloud Next ‘17:

Work hacks from G Suite: a new corporate training regimen (no weights required)

In our first G Suite Hacks article, we shared tips from the Transformation Gallery to help employees automate everyday workflows and save time. Today, we’re focusing on corporate training tips that will help your employees stay engaged so they can do their best work.

According to last year's Global Human Capital Trends report by Deloitte, employees at all levels expect their employers to provide consistent opportunities to learn and develop new skills, and 30% of executives see learning as a primary driver of employee development. But training employees has its own set of challenges, like scaling programs and trainers, ensuring easy access to training materials, accommodating learning styles and tracking progress.

Here are a few ways you can improve your corporate training with G Suite:

1. Scale your training program with an online hub

Create one place where employees can access training material any time. Start by uploading or creating your training files in Team Drives, a central place within Drive for teams to house files. Organize these files into shared folders by topic or course level. Next, set up a Site to display all of the content from Drive and add relevant pages, like training videos, slides, guidelines or handbooks. Share your new hub with employees so that they can easily access training materials, even on mobile. And anytime you need to update training materials, just go into Drive and update the files there. Sites will automatically reflect changes.

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2. Provide live training options, too

It’s also important to provide face-to-face training for your employees. You can create a live training option with Hangouts Meet so that employees can join training sessions from a conference room, their favorite coffee shop, or another remote location. Simply set up Calendar invites for training events and send them to your employees (It’s a good idea to post these events to your new training Site so that anyone who missed the invite can join.). Then, track employee attendance with Forms.

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3. Quiz employees on their knowledge

Once your employees have completed their training course, you’ll want to track their learning progress. You can do this easily by setting up quizzes in Forms and assigning point values for each question. Let your employees see which questions they missed and explain why so that they can continue to master concepts. And to improve your training course, ask for real-time feedback within the Form. Quiz data is tracked in Sheets so you can keep a pulse on who’s completed training courses and who might need some additional help.

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With these quick tips, you can help your employees to do their best work. Check out this G Suite Show episode to learn more, and let the training begin!

Work hacks from G Suite: a new corporate training regimen (no weights required)

In our first G Suite Hacks article, we shared tips from the Transformation Gallery to help employees automate everyday workflows and save time. Today, we’re focusing on corporate training tips that will help your employees stay engaged so they can do their best work.

According to last year's Global Human Capital Trends report by Deloitte, employees at all levels expect their employers to provide consistent opportunities to learn and develop new skills, and 30% of executives see learning as a primary driver of employee development. But training employees has its own set of challenges, like scaling programs and trainers, ensuring easy access to training materials, accommodating learning styles and tracking progress.

Here are a few ways you can improve your corporate training with G Suite:

1. Scale your training program with an online hub

Create one place where employees can access training material any time. Start by uploading or creating your training files in Team Drives, a central place within Drive for teams to house files. Organize these files into shared folders by topic or course level. Next, set up a Site to display all of the content from Drive and add relevant pages, like training videos, slides, guidelines or handbooks. Share your new hub with employees so that they can easily access training materials, even on mobile. And anytime you need to update training materials, just go into Drive and update the files there. Sites will automatically reflect changes.

2. Provide live training options, too

It’s also important to provide face-to-face training for your employees. You can create a live training option with Hangouts Meet so that employees can join training sessions from a conference room, their favorite coffee shop, or another remote location. Simply set up Calendar invites for training events and send them to your employees (It’s a good idea to post these events to your new training Site so that anyone who missed the invite can join.). Then, track employee attendance with Forms.

2

3. Quiz employees on their knowledge

Once your employees have completed their training course, you’ll want to track their learning progress. You can do this easily by setting up quizzes in Forms and assigning point values for each question. Let your employees see which questions they missed and explain why so that they can continue to master concepts. And to improve your training course, ask for real-time feedback within the Form. Quiz data is tracked in Sheets so you can keep a pulse on who’s completed training courses and who might need some additional help.

With these quick tips, you can help your employees to do their best work. Check out this G Suite Show episode to learn more, and let the training begin!

Virtual Training Hub | The G Suite Show

Source: Drive


Work hacks from G Suite: a new corporate training regimen (no weights required)

In our first G Suite Hacks article, we shared tips from the Transformation Gallery to help employees automate everyday workflows and save time. Today, we’re focusing on corporate training tips that will help your employees stay engaged so they can do their best work.

According to last year's Global Human Capital Trends report by Deloitte, employees at all levels expect their employers to provide consistent opportunities to learn and develop new skills, and 30% of executives see learning as a primary driver of employee development. But training employees has its own set of challenges, like scaling programs and trainers, ensuring easy access to training materials, accommodating learning styles and tracking progress.

Here are a few ways you can improve your corporate training with G Suite:

1. Scale your training program with an online hub

Create one place where employees can access training material any time. Start by uploading or creating your training files in Team Drives, a central place within Drive for teams to house files. Organize these files into shared folders by topic or course level. Next, set up a Site to display all of the content from Drive and add relevant pages, like training videos, slides, guidelines or handbooks. Share your new hub with employees so that they can easily access training materials, even on mobile. And anytime you need to update training materials, just go into Drive and update the files there. Sites will automatically reflect changes.

gif 1

2. Provide live training options, too

It’s also important to provide face-to-face training for your employees. You can create a live training option with Hangouts Meet sothat employees can join training sessions from a conference room, their favorite coffee shop, or another remote location. Simply set up Calendar invites for training events and send them to your employees (It’s a good idea to post these events to your new training Site so that anyone who missed the invite can join.). Then, track employee attendance with Forms.

2

3. Quiz employees on their knowledge

Once your employees have completed their training course, you’ll want to track their learning progress. You can do this easily by setting up quizzes in Forms and assigning point values for each question. Let your employees see which questions they missed and explain why so that they can continue to master concepts. And to improve your training course, ask for real-time feedback within the Form. Quiz data is tracked in Sheets so you can keep a pulse on who’s completed training courses and who might need some additional help.

gif 2

With these quick tips, you can help your employees to do their best work. Check out this G Suite Show episode to learn more, and let the training begin!

Virtual Training Hub | The G Suite Show

Source: Drive


Work hacks from G Suite: a new corporate training regimen (no weights required)

In our first G Suite Hacks article, we shared tips from the Transformation Gallery to help employees automate everyday workflows and save time. Today, we’re focusing on corporate training tips that will help your employees stay engaged so they can do their best work.

According to last year's Global Human Capital Trends report by Deloitte, employees at all levels expect their employers to provide consistent opportunities to learn and develop new skills, and 30% of executives see learning as a primary driver of employee development. But training employees has its own set of challenges, like scaling programs and trainers, ensuring easy access to training materials, accommodating learning styles and tracking progress.

Here are a few ways you can improve your corporate training with G Suite:

1. Scale your training program with an online hub

Create one place where employees can access training material any time. Start by uploading or creating your training files in Team Drives, a central place within Drive for teams to house files. Organize these files into shared folders by topic or course level. Next, set up a Site to display all of the content from Drive and add relevant pages, like training videos, slides, guidelines or handbooks. Share your new hub with employees so that they can easily access training materials, even on mobile. And anytime you need to update training materials, just go into Drive and update the files there. Sites will automatically reflect changes.

gif 1

2. Provide live training options, too

It’s also important to provide face-to-face training for your employees. You can create a live training option with Hangouts Meet so that employees can join training sessions from a conference room, their favorite coffee shop, or another remote location. Simply set up Calendar invites for training events and send them to your employees (It’s a good idea to post these events to your new training Site so that anyone who missed the invite can join.). Then, track employee attendance with Forms.

still

3. Quiz employees on their knowledge

Once your employees have completed their training course, you’ll want to track their learning progress. You can do this easily by setting up quizzes in Forms and assigning point values for each question. Let your employees see which questions they missed and explain why so that they can continue to master concepts. And to improve your training course, ask for real-time feedback within the Form. Quiz data is tracked in Sheets so you can keep a pulse on who’s completed training courses and who might need some additional help.

gif 2

With these quick tips, you can help your employees to do their best work. Check out this G Suite Show episode to learn more, and let the training begin!

Work hacks from G Suite: a new corporate training regimen (no weights required)

In our first G Suite Hacks article, we shared tips from the Transformation Gallery to help employees automate everyday workflows and save time. Today, we’re focusing on corporate training tips that will help your employees stay engaged so they can do their best work.

According to last year's Global Human Capital Trends report by Deloitte, employees at all levels expect their employers to provide consistent opportunities to learn and develop new skills, and 30% of executives see learning as a primary driver of employee development. But training employees has its own set of challenges, like scaling programs and trainers, ensuring easy access to training materials, accommodating learning styles and tracking progress.

Here are a few ways you can improve your corporate training with G Suite:

1. Scale your training program with an online hub

Create one place where employees can access training material any time. Start by uploading or creating your training files in Team Drives, a central place within Drive for teams to house files. Organize these files into shared folders by topic or course level. Next, set up a Site to display all of the content from Drive and add relevant pages, like training videos, slides, guidelines or handbooks. Share your new hub with employees so that they can easily access training materials, even on mobile. And anytime you need to update training materials, just go into Drive and update the files there. Sites will automatically reflect changes.

gif 1

2. Provide live training options, too

It’s also important to provide face-to-face training for your employees. You can create a live training option with Hangouts Meet sothat employees can join training sessions from a conference room, their favorite coffee shop, or another remote location. Simply set up Calendar invites for training events and send them to your employees (It’s a good idea to post these events to your new training Site so that anyone who missed the invite can join.). Then, track employee attendance with Forms.

2

3. Quiz employees on their knowledge

Once your employees have completed their training course, you’ll want to track their learning progress. You can do this easily by setting up quizzes in Forms and assigning point values for each question. Let your employees see which questions they missed and explain why so that they can continue to master concepts. And to improve your training course, ask for real-time feedback within the Form. Quiz data is tracked in Sheets so you can keep a pulse on who’s completed training courses and who might need some additional help.

gif 2

With these quick tips, you can help your employees to do their best work. Check out this G Suite Show episode to learn more, and let the training begin!

Virtual Training Hub | The G Suite Show

Source: Drive


Work hacks from G Suite: a new corporate training regimen (no weights required)

In our first G Suite Hacks article, we shared tips from the Transformation Gallery to help employees automate everyday workflows and save time. Today, we’re focusing on corporate training tips that will help your employees stay engaged so they can do their best work.

According to last year's Global Human Capital Trends report by Deloitte, employees at all levels expect their employers to provide consistent opportunities to learn and develop new skills, and 30% of executives see learning as a primary driver of employee development. But training employees has its own set of challenges, like scaling programs and trainers, ensuring easy access to training materials, accommodating learning styles and tracking progress.

Here are a few ways you can improve your corporate training with G Suite:

1. Scale your training program with an online hub

Create one place where employees can access training material any time. Start by uploading or creating your training files in Team Drives, a central place within Drive for teams to house files. Organize these files into shared folders by topic or course level. Next, set up a Site to display all of the content from Drive and add relevant pages, like training videos, slides, guidelines or handbooks. Share your new hub with employees so that they can easily access training materials, even on mobile. And anytime you need to update training materials, just go into Drive and update the files there. Sites will automatically reflect changes.

gif 1

2. Provide live training options, too

It’s also important to provide face-to-face training for your employees. You can create a live training option with Hangouts Meet so that employees can join training sessions from a conference room, their favorite coffee shop, or another remote location. Simply set up Calendar invites for training events and send them to your employees (It’s a good idea to post these events to your new training Site so that anyone who missed the invite can join.). Then, track employee attendance with Forms.

2

3. Quiz employees on their knowledge

Once your employees have completed their training course, you’ll want to track their learning progress. You can do this easily by setting up quizzes in Forms and assigning point values for each question. Let your employees see which questions they missed and explain why so that they can continue to master concepts. And to improve your training course, ask for real-time feedback within the Form. Quiz data is tracked in Sheets so you can keep a pulse on who’s completed training courses and who might need some additional help.

gif 2

With these quick tips, you can help your employees to do their best work. Check out this G Suite Show episode to learn more, and let the training begin!

Source: Google Cloud


See how companies are using G Suite and Xero to keep their finances on track

As a business leader, whether you’re keeping books up-to-date, sharing data with investors, or connecting with advisors in real-time, combining cloud-based technologies like G Suite and Xero can help you collaborate quickly and securely to keep company financials on target.

Gimme Vending is a great example of a company that’s taking advantage of real-time collaboration. The company specializes in hardware that retrofits dated vending machines to communicate wirelessly with a mobile app. It partners with Acuity Accounting to drive growth. Together, the two use G Suite and Xero to manage Gimme Vending’s financials in the cloud. 

Xero’s deep integrations with G Suite lets you connect directly to Gmail to manage invoices and quotes. And with Xero’s “Smart Lists,” you can filter contacts based on purchase history and location for targeted emails and sales campaigns, or check in on overdue items. You can also more securely export financial reports straight to Sheets and Docs to collaborate and analyze in real-time.

With these integrations Gimme Vending and Acuity Accounting can:

  • Send messages in Gmail directly from Xero to stay up-to-date on the status of documents
  • Push accounting files out of Xero into Sheets and Docs to generate reports quickly
  • Sign in to G Suite through Xero using single sign-on to speed up productivity
  • Use Hangouts to serve clients nationwide

GIF

Now, Gimme Vending can more securely manage their books and speed up investor reporting. “Thanks to Google Docs, we’ve been able to provide confidential data and financial reports to investors almost immediately, and manage who has access just as quickly,” says Cory Hewett, CEO of Gimme Vending.

To learn more about how your business can use Xero and G Suite to track and improve your bottom line, sign up for this free webinar on March 29, 2017 at 1pm ET / 10am PT.

See how companies are using G Suite and Xero to keep their finances on track

As a business leader, whether you’re keeping books up-to-date, sharing data with investors, or connecting with advisors in real-time, combining cloud-based technologies like G Suite and Xero can help you collaborate quickly and securely to keep company financials on target.

Gimme Vending is a great example of a company that’s taking advantage of real-time collaboration. The company specializes in hardware that retrofits dated vending machines to communicate wirelessly with a mobile app. It partners with Acuity Accounting to drive growth. Together, the two use G Suite and Xero to manage Gimme Vending’s financials in the cloud. 

Xero’s deep integrations with G Suite lets you connect directly to Gmail to manage invoices and quotes. And with Xero’s “Smart Lists,” you can filter contacts based on purchase history and location for targeted emails and sales campaigns, or check in on overdue items. You can also more securely export financial reports straight to Sheets and Docs to collaborate and analyze in real-time.

With these integrations Gimme Vending and Acuity Accounting can:

  • Send messages in Gmail directly from Xero to stay up-to-date on the status of documents
  • Push accounting files out of Xero into Sheets and Docs to generate reports quickly
  • Sign in to G Suite through Xero using single sign-on to speed up productivity
  • Use Hangouts to serve clients nationwide

GIF

Now, Gimme Vending can more securely manage their books and speed up investor reporting. “Thanks to Google Docs, we’ve been able to provide confidential data and financial reports to investors almost immediately, and manage who has access just as quickly,” says Cory Hewett, CEO of Gimme Vending.

To learn more about how your business can use Xero and G Suite to track and improve your bottom line, sign up for this free webinar on March 29, 2017 at 1pm ET / 10am PT.