Microsoft’s commitment to supporting the new age of work goes far beyond the features of Microsoft Teams. Recently, the company released a series of new solutions to support the modern employee, including the impressive Microsoft Viva EXP (Employee Experience Platform).
The Viva EXP promises to empower employees and enrich the digital workplace in a world where more people are working from “anywhere”. Viva is a complete platform split into four modules, which aims to support employee engagement, wellbeing, knowledge discovery, and learning.
So, what makes Microsoft Viva so effective, and why should companies be considering using it?
Simply put, Microsoft Viva is the latest innovation from Microsoft designed to simplify the transition to the remote workforce. According to CEO, Satya Nadella, Microsoft participated in the largest remote work “experiment” ever seen during 2020, and now it’s time to prepare for a future where flexibility is the new norm.
What is Microsoft Viva?
Microsoft Viva isn’t a service or an app – although you can access the functionality of Viva through things like Microsoft Teams. Instead, this is a comprehensive platform intended to improve the quality of remote work for employees who need help staying productive and engaged. According to the head of Microsoft 365, Jared Spataro, Viva is for the new age where “work” isn’t a place, but something we do.
Viva addresses the trends that are emerging in the modern workplace, including remote working and an increasingly vast digital environment. As a modern version of the ultimate company intranet, Viva integrates with Microsoft Teams and curates information and solutions from all parts of the business into a central location.
Here are the four components of Microsoft Viva, and why they’re useful.
Viva Connections
Viva Connections is Microsoft’s solution to keeping employees engaged in a remote and hybrid environment. Designed as the gateway to better employee experiences, Connections works within the apps employees use each day, like Microsoft Teams. Business leaders can brand the Connections hub to suit their business, and create a hub of information, announcements, news, and communities.
Powered with SharePoint, Connections gives people a curated space where they can stay up to date with whatever is going on in their organisation. There’s even support for Yammer communities within the Connections space.
Viva Insights
Viva Insights is an informative solution for workplace analytics that cleverly balances employee privacy with actionable information. The Viva Insights environment includes data that managers and leaders can use to track work trends and patterns. However, the information available will be depersonalised, so that employees don’t feel overly monitored.
There’s also a personal insights space available for employees who need help reaching their goals. The personal environment is visible only to the employee, and offers insights on how to manage wellbeing, work-life balance, and more.
Viva Learning
Development and learning should continue in an environment where employees are working remotely. That’s why Microsoft created Viva Learning as the third module for Viva. This solution is where employers can collect and curate all kinds of training materials. You can pull course content form Microsoft Learn and LinkedIn Learning. Teams can use third-party solutions like Coursera, or even add their own house-training materials too.
Individuals can build their own training environments and track their progress on courses. Team leaders and supervisors also have the option to assign specific learning tasks to individual members of staff. It’s a great way to keep your team growing in any environment.
Viva Topics
Viva Topics is the final component of the Viva platform, and it aims to empower your employees with both expertise and knowledge. With Viva Topics, companies can create topic cards that allow users to easily access all kinds of information in a single space, including key documents, videos, and more. You can even include contact details of relevant experts in a Topic card.
Similar to company Wikipedia entries, the Viva Topics space makes it easier for employees to find everything they need to answer questions and overcome challenges in one place. You can also update and edit your Topics whenever you choose.
Who Will Benefit Most from Viva?
Microsoft claims that its only just getting started with the functionality of Viva. The open and extensible platform is set to grow significantly going forward, as business leaders continue to look for new ways to enhance and support remote working practices.
Microsoft Viva is likely to appeal to all kind of companies who want a unique approach to the old-fashioned intranet. With Viva, you can bring a full SharePoint site and various fantastic resources into the Microsoft Teams environment that your employees use every day. For companies that want to deliver a single pane of glass environment to a distributed workforce, Viva is an incredible service.
With Microsoft Viva, companies can go beyond the already immersive experiences that Microsoft offers for combining communication and collaboration environments. You can have everything you need for communicating and collaborating with team members in the same space and access to training tools, valuable information, and business news.
Tools like Microsoft Topics within the Viva environment will even make it easier to onboard employees from across the globe as the business landscape continues to evolve. With Topics, employees can learn everything they need to know about complex business terms or projects and find out who they should contact if they have more questions. After that, new employees can stay up to date with Viva Connections and develop their skills with Viva Learning.
All the while Viva Insights gives employees and team leaders an overview of what’s really happening in the remote working environment, without compromising on privacy.
A New Benchmark In Employee Experience
The Microsoft Viva offering has the potential to be a ground-breaking solution in employee experience. With this technology, companies can usher in a new era of software that focuses completely on the needs of the evolving workforce. Viva will give teams the power to be more productive and informed wherever they are.
With Viva, companies can finally enter an aligned digital environment for work that mimics the standard office environment, without the restrictions.
More:
Microsoft Viva: A New Employee Experience Platform
Microsoft Will ‘Dominate’ Workplace Analytics with Viva – Partners
Microsoft Viva: A Simple Guide
