A recording link in a Teams chat does not prove that the training material is complete or will remain available for the next new staff member. Review what was captured, who can open it and when it may expire before making it the team’s reference.

Begin with the session’s intended outcomes. List the important demonstration steps and any separate materials, such as a worksheet or annotated diagram. These give you a concrete way to judge the recording instead of simply checking that a video file exists.

Watch the parts that matter

Teams recordings are stored in OneDrive for work or school or SharePoint, depending on the meeting arrangement. Open the actual recording from the meeting chat, recap or channel and identify the responsible owner and storage location.

Play the introduction, key demonstration and ending. Check speech clarity, readable detail and whether the necessary content was captured. Microsoft lists exclusions such as whiteboards, shared notes and embedded video or animation in PowerPoint Live. Keep essential supporting material separately when the recording does not contain it.

Ask an authorised intended viewer to open the recording using their own account. Guests and external attendees may need explicit sharing; your organiser access cannot prove their access works.

Review availability and ownership

Inspect the recording’s expiration on its player page. The applicable administrator settings influence expiration, and changing it requires edit permission. Choose any change according to the business’s retention arrangement rather than automatically keeping every recording forever.

Record the owner, intended audience, storage location and review date alongside the training index. Watching the video does not extend its expiration. If the owner is leaving, include the recording in the authorised account handover.

Treat a locally downloaded copy as another record requiring controlled storage and an agreed audience. It may help continuity, but it does not automatically preserve every interactive feature or permission from the live meeting.

A usable training record is one that the next staff member can open and learn from, with the missing supporting material clearly identified.

References: Microsoft Teams recordings.