Microsoft Viva: Empowering employees to be their best

September 8th, 2021 | 3 minute read

• Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform. Part of Microsoft 365, Viva is experienced primarily through Microsoft Teams. 

Your employees bring your organization’s strategy to life, but what are you doing to empower them to do their best work? Being able to shift from one workplace to another is no longer a luxury but a necessity. And while modern businesses are working hard to transition to a hybrid work model, one thing must not be overlooked: the employee experience. Discover Microsoft Viva: a platform that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights focused on employee experience.

We are entering an era of rapid workplace transformation. Technology empowers us to do more, be more, and pushes us harder as the pace of business accelerates. Efficiency is not the only factor that should be measured, employee ingenuity needs to be empowered by creating a positive experience. Employers need to foster a culture where people thrive.

“Wellbeing, team cohesion, and trust are linchpins of success and catalysts for creativity, innovation, and resilience. We must nurture them accordingly”, says Microsoft. The tech giant distinguishes six key elements to a great employee experience: wellbeing, connection, focus, empowerment, growth, and purpose.

Improvement is needed, because according to the Microsoft Work Trend Index¹, nearly 60% of people said they felt less connected to their team after shifting to remote work. Furthermore, a study shows that employers need to focus more on the mental health of their employees: nearly 70% of employees reported higher stress levels and over 40% are experiencing decreased mental health². Information needs to be centralized, because people spend about an hour a day searching for or recreating information³. Lastly, almost 80% of CEO’s worldwide are concerned that a lack of essential skills in their workforce is a barrier for future growth⁴.

Considering these facts, Microsoft Viva was developed with four main pillars, putting people at the center:

• Microsoft Viva Connections to amplify culture and communications
  Your gateway to a modern engagement experience designed to keep everyone engaged and informed.

• Microsoft Viva Insights to balance productivity and wellbeing
  Helps your people thrive with data-driven, privacy-protected insights and recommendations to improve productivity and wellbeing.

• Microsoft Viva Topics to harness knowledge and expertise
  Automatically organizes content and expertise across your organization, making it easy for people to find information and put knowledge to work.

• Microsoft Viva Learning to accelerate skilling and growth
  Empowers employees with formal and informal learning when and where it’s needed, making it easier for people to learn while working.

Why Microsoft Viva?

Employees want to feel more connected, more aligned to their company’s purpose and mission. They want to grow, make an impact, and make a difference. At the same time, leaders need a modern way to engage and develop their employees, while IT needs to be able to quickly enable this modern employee experience without having to replace their existing systems, says Microsoft.

Microsoft Viva helps employees identify ways to balance wellbeing and productivity, and to respond to changing needs over time. It helps managers develop their teams and respond to employee needs, while fostering decisions that improve team performance, work/life harmony, and wellbeing. And it helps business leaders drive better outcomes with tools to help them understand and guide how work happens.

Microsoft Viva is powered by Microsoft 365 and experienced primarily through Microsoft Teams. 

About Inova Solutions

Inova Solutions is the Microsoft trusted provider of cloud services in the Caribbean. Our mission is to “Empower organizations of all sizes to create business advantage by adopting digital transformation”. Inova Solutions' focus is to help organizations ensure business continuity by embracing the smart use of technology. The main priority is to establish the ultimate customer experience driving transformational change. As a Microsoft-certified Gold partner, you can trust our experience and the level of expertise we deliver. We have a proven and specialized skill set in Cloud Security technology.

Sources:

• Microsoft Work Trend Index (2020) ¹
• Qualtrics Study on Mental Health (2020) ² 
• Knowledge Sharing in a Changing World – Spiceworks/Ziff Davis, commissioned by Microsoft (2021) ³
• PwC CEO Survey: Talent Trends (2019) ⁴ 
• Microsoft