An Introduction to Microsoft Viva

Microsoft Viva is an Employee Experience Platform (EXP) that puts in place everything an employee will need, from being onboarded, getting the latest information and learning fundamental knowledge for your role.

The services announced by Satya Nadella mainly had been mentioned before, but Viva's beauty is the simplicity of the messaging. It is not about the underlying technology (impressive as that is) but what it enables for employees and the consistency that it should bring about. Thankfully, someone who can explain this far more eloquently than I has already done, so I highly recommend Josh Bersin’s article on the subject.

According to Glint*, specialists in employee engagement, and one of the many tools that can integrate with Microsoft Viva Insights, six key areas of importance matter most to employees. These elements help build effective cultures, management and leadership styles, which empower employees, ensuring they are engaged and motivated. Glint has referenced these factors to be:

• Wellbeing – when an employee feels physically and psychologically secure at work.
• Connection – colleagues have a meaningful connection with the organisation and colleagues, trusted as individual contributors and part of a broader team or community.
• Focus – clear prioritisation enabling colleagues to stay on track and productive.
• Empowerment – colleagues have the correct access and tools to work productively.
• Growth – the organisation continually supports your strengths and diversifies your experience to yield positive outcomes and ultimately growth.
• Purpose – colleagues can see their role within the organization and how their contribution builds to support a bigger goal or objective, yielding satisfaction in the role.

Microsoft Viva brings all these factors that are important to employees and builds on them in their employee experience platform – delivering the insights, learning, knowledge and information that employees need for both their emotional attachment to work, but also the tools and understandings to progress.

It comes as no surprise that four current elements form Viva, with additional elements in the planning – what Microsoft are not sharing yet:

• Viva Connections – this element mainly focuses on surfacing curated content personalised to an individual’s requirements. Content appears in pre-existing apps such as Microsoft Teams, making the user experience slick and familiar.
• Viva Learning – as the title suggests, Viva Learning is all about bringing together the various tools, platforms and user requirements into one easily accessed place. From LinkedIn Learning, SAP SuccessFactors, and an organisation’s own education content, colleagues can more easily access the learnings they need to excel within the role.
• Viva Insights – with the wealth of available productivity data, Viva Insights shares privacy-protected insights to improve productivity and wellbeing. Leveraging such tools as Workplace Analytics and MyAnalytics, Viva Insights will support colleagues to understanding their impact on work patterns, productivity and wellbeing – something we all need in this ‘always-on,’ digital world where remote or hybrid working has become the new normal.
• Viva Topics – utilising AI, an organisation’s data and content can be recognised and surface, offering quick and seamless access to an employee. Topics reduce time spent searching for content that is buried in a different communication medium. It organises the content you need into specific projects, products, processes and or classification.

Microsoft Viva is a platform that can bring together your existing employee experience systems into one place to give a seamless and straightforward experience for staff without having to navigate a plethora of differing solutions while gaining the best of breed from different services. Whether your learning content is in Cornerstone or you maintain knowledge in Service Now, you can bring it together in one place.

For further information on Microsoft Viva, and how it can support your employee’s experiences, contact us today.

Listen to GreyHatBeard

* https://www.glintinc.com/blog/the-elements-of-people-success/