Microsoft Viva is Microsoft’s new employee experience platform which brings together learning, insights, connections and information in one place and integrates with Microsoft Teams so everything can be found and accessed easily.
Viva works with existing Microsoft and third-party technologies to create a unified digital workplace and a seamless user experience that makes work easier. Its integration with Microsoft and other tech means you get the best return on the investment you’ve made in your current solutions and don’t have to spend more on other apps that work with it.
With most organisations continuing to work remotely, or adopting a hybrid work environment, this new solution couldn’t come at a better time. Businesses today need to be more flexible and agile than they have ever been, and the new ways of working we have adopted demand new technologies to make this new working model sustainable, secure and successful. Viva is perfect for organisations that have found themselves seeking new ways of improving the employee experience and boosting wellbeing during this time, connecting disparate teams and providing staff with the content and information they need, as effortlessly and efficiently as possible.
Working remotely has also crystallised the importance of employee interaction and staff wellbeing, and how intrinsic this is to staff productivity, creativity and resilience. It’s become clear that investing time and money into the employee experience is beneficial not only to individuals, but to businesses as a whole. But since working remotely, it seems more difficult than ever to build and maintain cohesive, dynamic teams and strong colleague relationships. Achieving this takes more than just willpower – it relies on having the right IT and digital solutions in place to make it possible, in a way that is effortless and organic, and without having to replace existing systems that can cause further disruption and upheaval.
Enter Microsoft’s new digital employee experience platform, Viva.
Viva is available as part of Microsoft 365 and is the new digital platform from Microsoft designed to enhance the employee experience. It integrates with your existing Microsoft and third-party tools to create a single platform that makes staying connected and informed easier, and improves productivity.
So, how does it work? Viva gathers your company information, trends and data and uses it to create insights that help you use your time better. According to Microsoft, Viva will “elevate each employee’s experience; how they engage, find knowledge, learn and work”. By using Viva, organisations can ensure their people thrive and succeed in the new normal of remote working.
At every level, Viva plays a pivotal role in business and employee success. Staff can identify their needs in terms of productivity and wellbeing; managers can respond to these needs and nurture and develop their teams; business leaders can achieve their outcomes using insights that help them identify the actions needed to realise them.
Kat Greenan, Microsoft Solutions Specialist at Core, explains why there's been such a buzz around the release of Viva: “We are very excited about the release of Viva, especially Viva Connections. Customers often wonder how they can get the best from all the tools in M365 like Yammer, SharePoint and Teams. Viva Connections seamlessly brings all of those tools together into a true Digital Workspace.”
Microsoft believes there are six key elements to a great employee experience: wellbeing, connection, focus, empowerment, growth and purpose. To make sure each of these needs are addressed and met, Viva is built around four pillars that reflect and embody the best modern employee experience. These are: Connections, Learning, Insights and Topics.
Let’s take a closer look at two of the pillars: Connections and Learning.
Viva Connections is the home of your digital workplace and the "gateway to the modern employee experience", according to Microsoft. It lets you bring your existing SharePoint site into Teams, so everything can be easily accessed. It’s there to help people stay engaged, connected and informed whether they’re working together in the office or separately at home.
Connections gives a personalised, curated experience that’s unique to each employee, with the news, conversations and resources they might need all in one place.
Deloitte’s 2020 Leading in Learning report found that employees only had 1% of their working week to focus on learning new skills; but having the chance to learn and develop is an important part of staff satisfaction and company culture. It’s also important for employee wellbeing, as well as benefitting the employer. Viva Learning is the platform’s dedicated learning resource which makes it really easy for employees to access training and learning resources as they work. It integrates content from other leading learning platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn and third parties with your organisation’s own content, so that you have a repository of learning that staff can pick and choose from to develop their skills and benefit the business.
As well as enabling staff to further their learning and development, Viva Learning lets team leaders set learning objectives for their teams and assign certain tasks to make sure these objectives are achieved. Plus, progress and attainment can be tracked so managers have visibility of how their team is getting on.
In part two of our Viva blog, we'll look at the first two pillars - Connections and Learning. Keep an eye out for our next instalment!
To find out more about Viva and how you can access it through your Microsoft 365 subscription, contact us now.