Migrating groups between Microsoft Teams “Teams” and Yammer “Communities”

SWOOP Analytics’ machine learning algorithms identified almost 50% of the 2,700+ teams we analysed in detail in our 2021 Teams Benchmarking Report were not operating as “real” teams.   

With an average team size of 49 members, of whom only half were active over a three-month period, it is highly likely that many of these teams are better hosted on the enterprise social platform Yammer.  

There are also opportunities to re-host Yammer Communities that are more team-like to Teams, especially for those Yammer users that pre-dated the introduction of Teams. However, it is usually the migration of a Team to a Yammer Community that is more challenging.   

The SWOOP dashboard graphic below shows an example of one such team, highlighting the operational aspects that align with a high performing community. 

With Yammer now being accessible as a “Community” tab within Teams, Yammer has seen a doubling of usage year on year, according to Microsoft. In particular, we believe the read-only audience has grown as a result of the integrations of Yammer into Outlook and Teams. 

Even though Yammer has been available from Microsoft since 2012, awareness of Yammer is likely dwarfed by Teams, with active monthly users of Teams( ~250 million) an order of magnitude greater than Yammer (tens of millions). We have observed many of our clients and prospects trying to operate communities and forums on Teams. Like Yammer, Teams makes it easy for any staff member to create a Team.  It is therefore not surprising many Communities and Forums might be created on Teams, purely through not knowing about a better option.  

How do we decide where a group should be hosted: Yammer or Teams? 

There is now an abundance of advice on the differential uses of Yammer and Teams. But to make things even simpler, we offer the following decision chart to guide you: 

What is the problem with running Communities and Forums in Teams? 

SWOOP’s 2021 Teams benchmarking study identified the former Skype for Business functions of Chat, Calls and Meetings became the most common entry point into Teams usage. We found 97% of digital teams formed were either inactive or immature. In other words, the digital teams being formed may have been with good intent, but were largely failures.  

The key differentiator between Teams and Yammer is that Teams is designed for day-to-day working team level collaboration. Yammer is designed for enterprise level collaboration. Teams by default are private. Yammer communities by default are open and public. 

When you create a digital team it is expected your work will be kept private and every team member will want to be fully aware of their fellow team members’ activity. This is why, by default, every interaction in a team on Teams creates a notification to all team members. The assumption is that as a team member, you will also want your fellow team members to be notified every time you post something. For a team of the optimal size of 4 to 8 members, this is perfect. For a team of 50 or more, this is gets a little noisy. Multiply that by the 8 to 10 other teams that staff are, on average, also members of; this is now a digital noise nightmare!  

If you are hosting a Community or Forum, you are desperate for members to contribute and engage in meaningful online discussions. As a regular contributor to a large team, you are more likely to be seen as a source of digital noise, rather than a welcomed contributor. Hence, getting staff to contribute is hard work.  

Yammer is designed for Communities and Forums 

 There is no shortage of literature on Yammer versus Teams. A summary of why you should use Yammer, rather than Teams, for Communities and Forums are:  

• Yammer communities are by default open and public. The barriers for participation are very low. 

• Yammer is designed for large groups with common interests and knowledge sharing. 

• Yammer is releasing new features to support Q&A forums, encouraging staff to either ask for help or provide answers. Best answers can be highlighted. 

• Yammer supports live events, where top-down communications can be made live, while inviting offline discussion in Yammer. 

• Yammer is aligned with learning and competency development. Yammer communities of practice are the place to go to learn on the job, from peers and in-house expert practitioners.  

According to Microsoft, the availability of Yammer Communities through the Teams and Outlook has had a big impact on adoption rates. However, what if you have already created a Community or Forum on Teams? How can you best migrate this Team to Yammer without losing at least some of the current benefits you may be experiencing?  

Groups were re-labelled to “Communities” in Yammer to better differentiate the role of Yammer versus Teams. Communities, however, come in several flavours. Applying our machine learning approaches to Yammer interaction data, we have identified four types of Communities; two of which are not really communities at all:  

1. The simplest and most common is the “Community of Interest”. This is a place where “birds of a feather” can gather together to simply share information and experiences, like you might do at a conference meetup.  

2. “Communities of Practice” are more purposeful. They go beyond simple shared interests, by looking to collaborate to develop new and better practices.  

3. A third type of community is not really a community at all, but a Forum where staff can post questions for other staff to provide answers. Q&A Forums tend to be large, looking to maximise the chances of answers being found to questions from other staff. Interactions are short and sharp however; ask a question, get an answer, end of story. 

4. The final type is what we would call an “Announce” group. This group is there to facilitate enterprise announcements. There is no expectation of engagements, as found in true communities.  

All of the above types are valid and supported uses for Yammer. If you find your Team has one of the above purposes, then read on.  

Migrating Communities on Teams to a Community on Yammer, or vice versa 

While there are many options available, the method presented here is the easiest; and therefore more likely to be adopted.  

Export team members into an Excel or CSV file. Note there is no built-in function for this in Teams so you have to use this workaround: 

1. If you are sharing files in the Teams space (or Yammer space), copy these into a new SharePoint site that can be shared by members in Yammer and Teams. Send a link to the new site to all members and ask them not to use the Teams Files space. 

2. Create hashtags or topics for channels if you have them. 

3.  Use a cut-off date and say any posts will be copied across. 

4.  Be sure the Community (team) owner role is allocated to preferably two or more members.  

In this article we have looked to become more prescriptive as to where digital groups should exist in Yammer or Microsoft Teams. Groups, however, can often evolve from their original intent. It is therefore important to have fluid processes where groups can be easily migrated between the platforms as group needs evolve.