Microsoft Viva could be the ultimate employee experience platform

The employee experience is essential be it for working in the office, remote or hybrid. And the email is probably the most important working communication tool as it is also the most convenient methods of communicating.

Despite concerns on security increasing today, especially with phishing emails, almost all organizations still rely heavily on this communication method. As such, businesses continue to invest in email security solutions and also adapt private email servers to ensure their emails are secured and not compromised.

One of the reasons why emails remain a popular mode of communication is because of the simplicity it offers to employees, especially those working in remote or hybrid environments. While there are messaging applications and other forms of workplace communication tools, email still sits at the top when it comes to communication.

As the email is just one of the many tools in the workplace, perfecting the employee experience is now a prerogative for most organizations today.

As such, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Pulse Report announced new capabilities in Microsoft Viva, its employee experience platform, that is designed to help empower and energize employees in a time of economic uncertainty. Simply put, it’s a platform that makes the most out of emails, enabling employees to have greater control over their workplace tools.

The report highlights that hybrid work has created a growing disconnect between employees and leaders. They’re at odds about what constitutes productivity, how to maintain autonomy while ensuring accountability, the benefits of flexibility, and the role of the office. To bridge this gap, a new approach is needed that recognizes work is no longer just a place but an experience that needs to transcend time and space so employees can stay engaged and connected no matter where they are working.

According to Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, of Microsoft, thriving employees are what will give organizations a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic economic environment. As such, he believes that the new innovations across the employee experience platform Microsoft Viva will help leaders end productivity paranoia, rebuild social capital, and re-recruit and re-energize their employees.

Microsoft Viva enhances the employee experience

Microsoft is expanding its employee experience platform Microsoft Viva to help companies deliver an employee experience optimized for the way people now work. This includes several new and enhanced capabilities coming to Viva.

Among them include Viva Pulse, a new app that will enable managers and team leads to seeking regular and confidential feedback on their team’s experience. Viva Pulse uses smart templates and research-backed questions to help managers pinpoint what’s working well and where to focus. It also provides suggested learning and actions to address team needs.

There is also Viva Amplify, another new app that will empower leaders and communicators to elevate their message and reach employees where they are with consistency and impact. The app centralizes communications campaigns, offers writing guidance to improve message resonance, enables publishing across multiple channels and distribution groups in Microsoft 365, and provides metrics for improvement.

Apart from that, there are Answers in Viva and People in Viva. Answers in Viva will use AI to match employee questions to answers and experts across the organization to help put collective knowledge to work for all employees. Meanwhile, People in Viva uses AI to create rich profile cards with details on an employee’s interests, knowledge, and team goals to help colleagues easily discover connections, experts, and insights across the organization. These insights will be available through Microsoft 365 profile cards and as a new app.

At the same time, Microsoft recently launched Viva Engage, which fosters digital community building through conversations and self-expression tools with stories and storylines. Leadership Corner is coming to Viva Engage as a space to invite employees to interact directly with leadership, share ideas and perspectives, participate in organization initiatives, and more.

Other capabilities include Viva Goals which helps organizations align employee work to business outcomes and enhanced integrations between Viva Learning and LinkedIn Learning to make it even easier for people to access content from LinkedIn Learning Hub right in the flow of work in Teams. There is also Viva Sales, the first role-based experience app in the platform which brings together a seller’s CRM with Microsoft 365 and Teams to provide a more streamlined and AI-powered selling experience.

The new Viva capabilities will begin rolling out to customers in early 2023.

 

---

---

---

---