Microsoft Viva started during the pandemic as many companies had to transform their physical workforce into a digital one. This brought with it a whole host of unexpected issues. How do you create and share a company’s culture over an internet connection? How do you protect employees from burnout when you seldom see them? The tools businesses had to try to accomplish this relied on simulating an in-person environment. These tools often did not integrate with their each other and caused other challenges

That’s where Microsoft Viva comes in. Viva is an Employee Experience Platform (EXP) designed with the core belief of helping employees to be and do their best. It aims to create a unified system of shared understanding and connection. Microsoft Viva sets out to achieve this using four tools.  

Viva Connections

Viva Connections is designed to transmit the digital feeling of a company and serves as a method of access to a personalised digital workspace. It is a one-stop shop for organisation news, benefits, company communities, and policy information. Viva Connections has a customisable dashboard that allows for a personalised control over the user experience. The dashboard can be customised for specific roles within the company so they can access all the resources they would need.  

Viva Learning

Viva Learning serves as a means for employees to upskill themselves within the company. Viva Learning will compile content from LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, and your company’s custom content. An employee shouldn’t have to struggle to find information, it should be readily available. Viva Learning aims to make this knowledge easy to find.  

Viva Topics or Viva knowledge

Viva Topics uses artificial intelligence to automatically organise companywide content and expertise into relevant categories such as projects, products, customers, etc. It automates data collection and organisation so employees can spend more time being productive.  

Viva Insights

Burnout surged during the many lockdowns of the pandemic and while there were many factors that contributed to it, one of them was the rapidly shifting work boundaries. Suddenly, there was no escape from work since work was home, people would work later and relax less. To contribute to combatting this problem, Viva Insights provides MyAnalytics and Workplace Analytics. Workplace Analytics offers recommendations for managers and executives to enhance employee experiences by allowing them to see trends and work patterns that occur, which lets them make better managerial decisions. MyAnalytics will offer individuals a personalised message on ways they can improve productivity and gain a greater work-life balance. All the suggestions offered by the services are focused on team success and well-being.  

Value over competition

What makes Viva unique? Why should you choose it over competitors? In one word: integration. Viva seamlessly integrates itself into other Microsoft services such as Teams and Outlook.  

Pricing

Microsoft Viva is fully included in Microsoft’s E5 subscription and partially included in their E3 and F3 subscriptions. A partially included tool will lack some of the unique integration and personal insight features the fully included version has. The Viva suite can also be purchased separately from a subscription plan.  

The Microsoft Viva Suite fully includes all Viva Tools. It is available for R185.07 per user per month.  

To learn more about pricing options follow this link: Employee Experience Platform Plans and Pricing | Microsoft Viva 

While hard lock down may be over and many companies are moving back to on premises or hybrid work environments, digital work is the new standard and is likely to stick around. While water cooler talks and company parties are great, the most important thing for an employee is to feel connected and perform at their best. Microsoft Viva makes that a little bit easier.