How to increase employee engagement with Microsoft Viva

Companies have increasingly prioritized remote workplaces in recent years because of the social distance restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that restrictions have been eased, many companies continue to offer the remote work option because of the added benefits and convenience of working from home. In fact, a Stanford study shows that “performance can increase by up to 13 percent by working from home.”

While there are advantages to working from home, there are also disadvantages. External workspaces often lack the same connection, bonding and culture that develops in an office environment and can lead to greater miscommunication and disorganization. A recent study that analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of WFH (working from home) found that “the main disadvantages are (iv) Home office restrictions, (v) work uncertainties and (vi) were inadequate resources.”

In an effort to address the problem of having inadequate tools, Microsoft Viva – a new employee experience platform – aims to reinforce the benefits of working from home through Viva’s four modules: Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Topics and Viva Learning.

What is it mainly used for?

According to Microsoft, Viva “brings together communication, knowledge, learning, resources and insights into the flow of work. Powered by Microsoft 365 and experienced through Microsoft Teams, Viva fosters a culture that empowers employees and teams everywhere to be the best they can be.”

Because Viva operated within the SharePoint and Microsoft Teams framework, it is not considered a new, separate product, but rather an organizational tool to help promote and optimize the best parts of both SharePoint and Teams.

Viva is designed to streamline daily workflows for every employee, both individually and collectively. The macro and micro focus on the employee experience allows Viva to target low engagement much more accurately than leaders and managers have in the past.

What are the employer benefits?

Viva’s main benefit to employers and leaders is a more thorough understanding of their workplace, teams and employees so they can prioritize high-quality engagement, connections and communication.

Between personal and manager/leader insights through Viva Insights, employers have access to an eagle-eye view of operations and can quickly intervene if there is a pattern of operational disharmony. This means you can catch problems faster before they become a bigger problem.

Viva also makes it much easier for leaders and managers to communicate with their team through Viva Connections. Viva’s intelligent AI capabilities also ensure that information and announcements shared by management are placed in front of the right people.

Viva Topics benefits employers by managing information and producing topic pages and topic maps with suggested definitions, related content, relevant conversations and expertise. Then the AI organizes and optimizes the information output for relevant users regarding their role in the business. Because Topics offers a new way to access information, it reduces the number of repetitive questions managers typically answer for their team members.

Finally, Viva Learning significantly streamlines the training and onboarding process with new employees. Because Viva Learning utilizes learning content from credible platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udacity, Udemy Business and Edx, there is no shortage of valuable information available to trainees.

What are the employee benefits?

One of the challenges associated with working remotely is the sense of isolation and disconnection that individuals can often feel in relation to their colleagues. Remote work does not provide the same opportunities for social interaction and bonding that naturally occur in an office.

Viva Connections, Microsoft Viva’s enterprise-focused connectivity and communications platform, aims to bridge this gap by creating more opportunities for team members to communicate through an interface similar to social media platforms. This removes the pressure of maintaining formal communication solely through emails and provides opportunities for more convenient engagement that helps build team relationships and maintain a strong company culture.

In addition, Viva Insights provides employees with a high-quality workplace by tracking progress, focus and engagement and offering suggestions/solutions for the most common pitfalls that lead to burnout and inefficient workflow.

Moreover, Viva Topics complements daily tasks and makes it much easier for employees to access the information they need when they need it. AI puts the right information in front of the right people by tracking user activity and making intelligent predictions about the information the user needs as they work.

Finally, Viva Learning opens a world of opportunities for employees to expand their skills within the corporate structure and continually exceed their previous achievements and capabilities. Viva Learning breathes new life into the idea of “lifelong learning” and offers employees more opportunities to grow in their current roles, which can also lead to higher employee retention rates.

What direction is Microsoft Viva headed in?

Viva is an important step in Microsoft’s efforts to create a better digital world for leaders and their employees. Because Viva is not a separate product and rather builds on the tools and features within SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, it makes it much easier to integrate into the overall digital presence of any company well versed in Microsoft products.

Conclusion

Microsoft Viva is a natural next step in the merged optimization of SharePoint and Teams. The new features add a greater touch of care, personalization and precision to each user’s experience, helping to maximize engagement and promote harmony in operations, at the management and personal level.

Source: cloudcollective