What You Need to Know about the New Microsoft Viva Suite

Microsoft has positioned itself as one of the leading tech companies behind the hybrid workforce. Its goal is to provide the infrastructure companies need to facilitate all possible combinations of in-person and remote work with little to no disruptions. Microsoft Viva represents one of the key products behind this goal, and it finally became available to the general public in November 2021.

What Is Microsoft Viva?

Microsoft describes it as a platform designed to empower the human assets of a company. It builds connections, nurtures relations, and promotes employee wellbeing. As an employee experience platform, it helps companies create an environment where workers can thrive. The suite includes these four main modules. A fifth is in the works.

1. Viva Knowledge

Human resource professionals and managers can use this to create and organize knowledge and expertise that workers can access easily. This feature relies on machine learning AI to identify topics individual workers might want more information on. Not only is the information easy to access, but it’s also easy to share.

Microsoft has now integrated Viva Topics into Bing, Outlook, Yammer and profile cards. It also gives managers some control over how to organize data. Finally, it supports content written in Spanish, French and German.

2. Viva Learning

It improves the learning process and helps employees incorporate continued learning into their daily work routines. This also integrates with Teams on both the desktop and mobile versions. It brings content together from various sources, such as Microsoft, third-party providers and companies’ learning management systems. These are some of the top features:

• It creates a curated tab of learning sources that connect to the Teams channels.
• It allows workers to search across all available learning sources and filter by topic preferences.
• It makes it easy for workers to track progress with required learning tasks.

3. Viva Connections

This dashboard connects people and knowledge in a way that is attractive and easy to understand, so workers can contribute their best work every day. It centralizes the company-branded experience. This can be crucial for companies who struggle to build corporate culture and teamwork once workers move into remote workspaces.

Connections also make it possible to leverage integrations created by leading partners. Some common choices include Qualtrics and Workday. Even more impressive is the fact that Microsoft will provide smartphone support, which creates an even more seamless experience.

4. Viva Insights

Managers and workers receive insights to help improve productivity and reduce burnout, so workers can continue to perform at optimal levels. Microsoft did face some backlash over how it structured its initial insights and productivity features some time ago, so the company has emphasized this version will continue to provide privacy-protected data. Put simply, managers cannot use the data to spy on individual workers.

The Insights module brings more than just aggregate data and analysis to the table. It also provides tools for tracking tasks, shedding light on accomplishments, facilitating no-meeting days, and connecting workers. It also works with the Team apps to provide a better meeting experience.

Why Does the Employee Experience Matter?

Over the past year, America has experienced what experts now call the Great Resignation. The record rates at which people quit their jobs began in April and continued to grow throughout the year. By the end of 2021, 38 million workers had resigned. 

This prompted a potential explanation that no one wants to work. The truth is that workers suffered from extreme burnout or disliked their jobs, and 2021 was just the time it all came to a head for a large number of people. Consequently, companies now have a retention problem.

Turnover is very costly, so investing in existing employees can save thousands of dollars or more. Microsoft Viva is a low-cost and easy way to accomplish this, so workers can give their best without losing themselves in the process. This reduces the likelihood of more resignations.

How Can You Access the Microsoft Viva Suite?

Like most of Microsoft’s best productivity software, you do need to complete cloud migration to access all the features. When you choose the right migration vendors, cloud migration is a smooth and simple process that creates little to no disruptions. Our team of experts brings over a century of experience to the table and works closely with you to determine the best migration schedule and process. Once you migrate to Office 365, you now have the opportunity to purchase and use the Microsoft Viva suite.

With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless.

If you would like to learn more about how to bring Cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.