On Thursday, Microsoft launched Microsoft Viva, a new platform to bring together tools for employee engagement and enhance companies’ workspace and flow. Viva is constructed to organize workspace for the well-being, learning, and knowledge discovery of the employees so that they can thrive, grow and learn with this new platform.
Powered by Microsoft 365, it integrates the company’s support and resources with productivity tools to make the workflow efficient for people working from home or anywhere else.
During the pandemic, more and more people opted for WFH out of necessity. Obviously, it shifted the dynamics of work culture, and as a result, structure and disciple were required to organize the chaos. “As the world of work changes, the next horizon of innovation will come from a focus on creativity, engagement, and well-being so organizations can build cultures of resilience and ingenuity,” said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president, Microsoft 365.
Having said that, Viva is built on the power and collaboration of Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 to bring uniformity in the employee experience.
It revolves around four major key areas – Engagement, Well-being, Learning, and Knowledge.
The platform is largely divided into four modules –
Viva Connections will provide a personalized getaway to your digital workplace and make you feel more connected to your workplace and other employees. Through this, employees can access internal communication and company resources. It integrates Microsoft 365’s Share Point to create collaborative space and Yammer, an internal social networking service for communication within the organization.
The Connections app for Teams will be available on desktop in public preview the first half of 2021, with a mobile app coming later this year.
Viva Insights will give personal experiences and insights, visible only to the employee, to help them thrive and cope during work. With Insights, employees can prevent burnout as well as strengthen relationships with their colleagues. It is collaborated with LinkedIn’s Glint to identify and increase employee engagement using real-time data. The Viva Insights app in Teams and the new Glint and Viva Insights dashboard are now available in public preview.
Viva Learning encourages training and learning, providing more professional development for the employees. It incorporates all the learning resources available to an organization in one place, including content from LinkedIn Learning; Microsoft Learn; third-party providers including Skillsoft, Coursera, Pluralsight, and edX; as well as an organization’s own content library. The Viva Learning app is now available in private preview.
Last but not the least, Viva Topics deliver connectivity in terms of information for employees whenever required with the assistance of an AI. Through third-party integration, ViVa topics will automatically provide topic cards within Microsoft 365 and Teams, clicking upon which opens a topic page with documents, conversations videos, and experts related to it. Viva Topics is now generally available as an add-on to Microsoft 365 commercial plans.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said, “Every organization will require a unified employee experience from onboarding and collaboration to continuous learning and growth. Viva brings together everything an employee needs to be successful, from day one, in a single, integrated experience directly in Teams.” By its look, Microsoft Viva seems to be the perfect haven for company leaders, managers, and employees alike.