For many Canadian organisations, a Microsoft 365 subscription represents a significant financial commitment. Yet, too often, this powerful suite of tools is treated like a simple replacement for older office software. Teams use Outlook and Word but neglect the transformative potential of platforms like SharePoint, Teams, and the Power Platform. This gap between investment and adoption is more than a missed opportunity—it carries tangible costs in the form of lost productivity, security vulnerabilities, and inefficient workflows.
Without structured training, employees naturally default to familiar but less effective methods. This results in wasted hours, disjointed team collaboration, and a failure to capitalize on the very features designed to give your business a competitive edge. The question isn't whether you can afford to train your employees, but whether you can afford not to.
Effective Microsoft 365 training goes far beyond showing someone how to open a document. It’s about building a ladder of skills that empowers your entire workforce, from the front line to the C-suite. A well-designed program categorizes learning to match organisational needs and employee roles.
This is the baseline. Every employee should have a firm grasp of how to use OneDrive for secure cloud storage, how to collaborate in real-time on documents, and how to leverage Teams for much more than just video calls. Mastering these fundamentals transforms everyday processes, moving your team away from endless email chains and toward a more integrated, efficient workflow.
The next level of proficiency involves tools that generate significant ROI. Training on the Power Platform—including Power Automate for automating repetitive tasks and Power BI for creating insightful data dashboards—allows your teams to solve their own problems, freeing up IT resources and driving innovation from the ground up. This is where your organisation begins to build truly unique efficiencies.
In a landscape of increasing cyber threats, a trained employee is your first and best line of defence. Training must cover critical security practices, such as recognizing phishing attempts, using multi-factor authentication correctly, and understanding data sensitivity labels. This is especially vital for Canadian businesses that must adhere to privacy legislation like PIPEDA. A workforce educated in secure practices helps protect your company’s data and reputation.
Viewing training as an expense is a limited perspective. When framed as a strategic investment, the returns become clear and compelling. Organisations that commit to comprehensive Microsoft 365 education see measurable improvements across the board.
Microsoft 365 is more than an assortment of applications; it's a unified ecosystem designed to propel your business forward. However, the platform itself can’t achieve anything without skilled users at the helm. By investing in targeted, role-based training, you equip your Canadian team with the knowledge to work smarter, collaborate more effectively, and innovate faster. This strategic commitment to employee development is the single most effective way to unlock the full potential of your Microsoft 365 investment and secure a lasting competitive advantage.
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Microsoft 365 is best described as a productivity cloud suite that’s designed to help business owners and managers run their businesses. It includes a number of different applications and tools, as well as a powerful cloud infrastructure that’s designed to give businesses a cohesive and comprehensive platform for running the entire organization.
Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, comes in three different plans. Here’s a basic breakdown of each:
Depending on the plan you have, you can also get audio conferencing, business voice, or Windows 365 added on at an additional cost.
For businesses that only need the Microsoft 365 Office apps, there’s a plan available for $8.25 per user/month.
There are several primary reasons why employees should be trained on Microsoft 365. We’re going to explore each of them (and then provide some clarity on precisely how to train your employees on this platform).
Research from Capital One and Burning Glass Technologies shows 82 percent of middle-skill positions in the workforce require proficiency in a productivity software like Microsoft 365 (particularly the Office portion of the program).
If your employees and new hires don’t have the proper Microsoft 365 skills, then they’re going to seriously underperform in their positions. The ramifications of this might not be seen right away, but the consequences will eventually catch up to you.
Everyone from the receptionist to the executive leadership team within your organization needs basic proficiency in productivity software and accompanying applications and tools. Without this, processes and workflows get bogged down.
Talent is something we’re big on here at Readynez. In fact, we believe that talent is far more important than experience or anything else that a candidate can put on a resume or job application. But talent alone is not enough to be successful. Talent must be coupled with the right skills and training in order for potential to be realized.
When you invest in Microsoft 365 training, you give individual team members the gift of understanding. Rather than spending all of their time wrestling with software or trying to figure out how to perform a basic function, they’re able to utilize all of the robust and dynamic features that the platform offers. This leads to greater productivity, less frustration, and faster processes. The indirect benefits are more satisfied employees, which subsequently leads to less turnover and greater continuity.
It might sound like a stretch that something as seemingly basic as Microsoft 365 training can lower turnover and strengthen your company’s culture, but it’s true. It’s often the smallest details that have the biggest impact.
Let’s get really practical for a moment: If you’re investing in Microsoft 365 and you aren’t committed to training, you’re wasting your resources. All you have to do is run the numbers and this is clear.
For illustrative purposes, consider a company that has 500 employees and is spending $22 per month for the Microsoft 365 Business Premium plan. That’s an investment of $11,000 per month (or $132,000 per year). And while you might think you’re getting a good deal and empowering your team with the tools and applications they need to excel, the reality is they don’t know how to use the tools. They might only be utilizing 10 to 15 percent of the functionality in the first place. This means you’re basically wasting thousands of dollars per month.
Never assume that someone knows how to use Microsoft 365, or that they’ll take the time to educate themselves. You need to be proactive with your training. That’s the only way to generate a positive ROI in this area of your business.
Microsoft 365 is not a static product. It’s dynamic and ever-changing. This is perfectly exemplified in the Office 365 portion of the platform. Office 365 gets updated once per quarter. This means adding new features, changing interfaces, and offering key updates.
If your team isn’t being trained, it’s possible that they’re still relying on yesterday’s best practices. At the very least, this is minimizing productivity and ROI. At worst, it’s opening you up to security vulnerabilities and other issues. Training solves all of this.
At Readynez, we help your team close the digital skills gap with robust and up-to-date IT training courses on a variety of products, including Microsoft 365. When you work with us, you get world-class training that taps into the award-winning Readynez method. We can also help you recruit and train new talent so that your organization is constantly moving forward.
For more information on our training or talent offerings, please feel free to contact us today! We look forward to learning more about your business.
Through years of experience working with more than 1000 top companies in the world, we ́ve architected the Readynez method for learning. Choose IT courses and certifications in any technology using the award-winning Readynez method and combine any variation of learning style, technology and place, to take learning ambitions from intent to impact.