Whether it’s a round of layoffs, a performance-driven dismissal, or a colleague simply opting to further their career at another company, employee turnover is a reality for organizations of all shapes and sizes, and predictions for 2024 anticipate plenty more headcount reductions to come. But regardless of why a coworker left, whoever remains must pick up the pieces and continue conducting business.

Ideally, every soon-to-be-former colleague would methodically catalog all of their digital records and perform a detailed handoff and knowledge transfer to those taking over their duties. However, reality tends to be a lot messier. The short-handed workers left behind must scramble, trying not to let any details fall through the cracks as they strive to maintain project schedules, customer relationships, and logistical workflows.

Downstream impacts of communication breakdowns

One area where this dilemma rears its head is communication. Former colleagues conducted numerous conversations with internal and external individuals and businesses, and those email threads were more likely than not stuck in ex-employee Outlook inboxes. Unreachable, unsearchable, and unknowable to anyone else, those emails represent both a danger and a missed opportunity.

The danger is that the organization lacks key information that could impact the business. Maybe it’s a key customer left hanging, their issues unaddressed and growing increasingly frustrated and impatient. Or perhaps it’s a supplier holding up a key order while waiting for a shipping address confirmation. If others in the organization knew about these things, they’d take action, but locked away in Outlook, there’s no way for them to know.

And while there’s no shortage of potential doomsday scenarios, those siloed email messages also represent missed opportunities. It could have been a hot prospect just about ready to sign on the dotted line. Or a now-past deadline to secure a key speaking slot at an industry trade show, or a lively exchange with an R&D partner in another site, now snuffed out on the vine.

Bridging the gap between Outlook and Teams

If Outlook’s information silos are the problem, then Microsoft Teams is the solution. When emails or attachments are shared to a Teams channel, they’re now a useful asset for everyone. They’ll now show up in search results and can be stored with other relevant materials to create a single source of truth and knowledge for different projects, customers, and initiatives.

That still leaves the challenge of getting those emails from Outlook into Teams. That’s where harmon.ie comes in. This plug-in adds a panel to Outlook that enables end users to see and search for what’s in Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, making it a snap to find the information they need, all without having to leave Outlook.

However, the harmon.ie superpower most relevant in this case is the ability to drag and drop email messages right to a Teams channel from their Outlook inbox. This convenient and frictionless workflow makes it quick and easy to get in the habit of sharing important emails and attachments to Teams as they arrive.

Motivating current employee compliance

While a thoughtfully cataloged and organized collection of emails and files in Teams may be convenient for the remaining workers after someone else leaves, that’s not a compelling incentive to get current employees to take action. Instead, colleagues must experience the value of this extra effort themselves and see the wisdom of saving things in the right spot from the start.

Luckily, getting messages and files out of Outlook and into Teams benefits everyone involved. Individuals are no longer information gatekeepers or bottlenecks. No more dealing with interruptions during meetings or vacations from colleagues requesting a specific file or email. They’re now discoverable by everyone in Teams and any given employee’s absence—even temporary ones due to injury or illness or a sabbatical—won’t slow the rest of the team down.

And those search results are better than ever because users can include metadata in their search queries, which can be easily added for emails and files when they’re shared to Teams using harmon.ie. When colleagues and senior management can locate and access the information they need on their own, everyone else can stay focused on the core tasks at hand.

Broader access to these messages and files means a more informed and collaborative workforce, leading to increased efficiency and business performance. Industry regulations and compliance requirements around email retention can also provide a good rationale for the widespread adoption and compliance of this best practice.

harmon.ie can even help organizations with knowledge transfer after an employee leaves. Their former manager or an assigned colleague can sift through the ex-employee’s Outlook and use harmon.ie to quickly drag and drop those messages and files to Teams where everyone who needs access can find them. And, if emails sent to an ex-employee are now getting forwarded to someone else, they can also share important ones to a Teams channel as soon as they arrive.

It’s never too soon to start

For organizations concerned about business continuity in the face of employee turnover, there’s no time like the present to kick off this initiative and begin instilling the good habit of sharing emails to Teams. And the best way to ensure its success at scale is by making it simple and obvious for end users, which inspires compliance through productivity gains.

harmon.ie makes the tedious task of sharing emails an effortless no-brainer. Get ahead of the game and begin a free trial today to see just how easy it can be.