Doug Conant, the former President/CEO of Campbell Soup Company once said, “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”

This is a foundational principle that has driven companies in Sydney and around the world to continually work on improvements to employee experience.

The challenge to keep employees engaged, trained, and on task has become larger recently due to the pandemic and the move to remote teams. Research shows that almost 60% of employees working from home feel less connected to their colleagues since the transition.

Some of the business technology tools that organisations have turned to in efforts to improve communications and help teams connect more efficiently are Microsoft 365 and Teams.

But there were still elements that were missing, like learning and certain insights to help employees be more effective each day.

This is changing with the introduction of Microsoft Viva, an employee experience platform that is designed to operate inside Microsoft Teams and foster an empowered workplace culture.

Microsoft Viva brings together several areas of team enablement, including:

  • Communications
  • Knowledge
  • Learning
  • Resources
  • Insights

If you haven’t heard about Viva yet, it’s not surprising. This platform was just announced officially by Microsoft on February 4, 2021. It’s designed as the first tool of its kind – an employee experience platform that brings learning, wellbeing, and engagement together in one place to empower a thriving team, no matter where they are working.

What Does Microsoft Viva Do?

Microsoft Viva is designed to promote team connectivity and go beyond just the messaging, video, and voice capabilities in Teams and other platforms. It brings together four key areas of employee enablement:

  • Viva Topics
  • Viva Connections
  • Viva Learning
  • Viva Insights

We’ll take a look at each area of the platform below and explain how you can use it to empower your employees so you can win in the workplace and in the marketplace.

#1 Viva Topics

There are a lot of team conversations and content that are shared across an organisation. But how can you keep that content organised and available, letting employees know the most relevant information at the right time?

Viva Topics is designed to do this through use of AI for two important things:

  1. Identify common topics across an organisation and generate topic pages; and
  2. Discover complementary topics to help expand on a specific topic of interest

Imagine that one of your colleagues references a new company initiative in a Teams message thread. But you’ve been busy and aren’t really sure what that initiative is or what your responsibilities might be.

The old way of doing things would mean searching through conversations, file storage, or emails to find more details on the topic. But with Microsoft Viva, you can simply click the mention of the topic to be immediately served up all the relevant information from inside your organisation, quickly getting you up to speed.

#2 Viva Connections

The Viva Connections module is “coming soon” and is designed to help employees communicate and engage with information in a way that is more personalised and intuitive.

This module of Microsoft Viva curates a company-branded experience for each person to serve up vital information in a way that’s both engaging and easy to digest.

Some of the things that Viva Connections brings together for employees are:

  • Relevant company news
  • Conversations
  • Other company resources

Highly engaged employeesare 12xless likely to leave, reducing the company turnover rate.

#3 Viva Learning

Viva Learning will be a module that is a big time-saver for many companies that may struggle with how to keep employees on track and learning new skills.

This module incorporates a learning experience into Teams and creates a fluid and centralised hub where teams can discover, share, assign, and become educated on content.

Companies can create content libraries with ready-to-go learning modules and incorporate learning as a natural part of the working experience.

Viva Learning connects to multiple types of learning content, including:

  • LinkedIn Learning
  • Microsoft Learn
  • Your own content
  • Other 3rd party Learning Management Systems

#4 Viva Insights

Providing insightful data about teams, workflow, and employee wellbeing is what Viva Insights is all about. It serves up timely information to improve productivity, remind employees to take breaks when needed, and to help a team thrive.

This module includes two types of insights:

  • Personal insights: Actional recommendations about being more productive, learning, and wellbeing
  • Manager and leader insights: Visibility into potential burnout, work pattens, and overall team productivity

Interested in Learning More About Microsoft Viva?

Wondering how Viva can help your organisation thrive? NetCare can give you a full run down of Microsoft Viva, explain how to use it, and get you set up to begin benefitting from a healthier and more engaged workforce.

Contact us today to learn more. Call (02) 9114 9920 or reach out online.