Microsoft Viva - the employee platform of the future for the hybrid workplace

It is Monday morning, it is 8.30 a.m. and you are having a morning meeting with your colleagues. Four of them are sitting with you in the conference room, while five are at home. Fredrik is on leave, but tries to participate as much as possible. At 11 am you have a job interview via video with an interesting candidate. And at 2 p.m. you have a check-in with Karin, one of the salespeople. She held a successful presentation for your biggest customer yesterday from her summer house on Gotland - and you will take the opportunity to give her some extra praise for the phenomenal effort.

The world of work has certainly changed, and quickly. Before the pandemic, video meetings were not commonplace. You had probably never heard the words hybrid and workplace in the same sentence. But nowadays, many people, if they have the opportunity, divide their working hours between the office and home. We have also discovered that digital meetings are a great alternative to the conference room at work.

But for this hybrid workplace approach to be successful in the long run, we need new mindsets and tools. It is not possible to continue working in the same way as we did before the pandemic turned everything upside down. When not all employees are physically present in the office, some of the social glue has disappeared. This means you need to find new ways to make everyone feel like an important part of the company and the community regardless of where they physically work. At home, in the office or in the summer cottage - the experience and company culture should feel the same wherever you work.

Making employees feel and perform well with Microsoft Viva

This is where Microsoft Viva, Microsoft's new employee platform, comes in. The platform offers tools to increase employee engagement, well-being and opportunities to discover new knowledge in their everyday work life.

Based on Microsoft 365 and Teams, Microsoft Viva creates a shared employee experience in four key areas - engagement, wellbeing, learning and knowledge. Viva integrates seamlessly with your existing employee systems and tools, as well as with a growing ecosystem of Viva partners. The platform's modules will be launched gradually, starting with Connections, Insights, Learning and Topics.

Viva Connections

With Viva Connections, your employees get a home page (a gateway) to your digital workplace. Similar to an intranet, employees can access all internal communications and company resources such as policies and benefits in one place. They can also participate in various employee communities. All in one app in Teams that they can customize as they wish. Connections is perfect for employees on the go - they always have the office in their pocket. Read more about our offer Viva Connections - Intranet in Teams here!

Viva Insights

Viva Insights is a tool that develops the organization in the hybrid world. In other words, it ensures that all employees feel as good as possible no matter where they work. For an employee to thrive and perform at their best, there are a number of best practices that companies should follow. For example, they should make time for regular breaks, focused work, regular learning and strengthening relationships with their colleagues. Insights keeps track of all that.

The tool gives managers the insights they need into the lives of their employees (and employees can also gain these insights about themselves). As a manager, you can see what your employees' days look like, both at an individual and team level. Does someone have too many meetings? Do some people never seem to take a break? With Viva, you can make sure that your employees are working and structuring their day in the best possible way. If they need to improve in any area, such as taking more breaks, you can send them a friendly reminder. And if someone has done a particularly good job, there is a function to give them encouragement and praise. The tool is also a great help in onboarding processes for new employees, as you can ensure that newcomers are on track and getting into their new job in the best possible way.

Plus, you'll get recommendations and the latest findings to find the right balance between employee productivity and well-being. Quite simply, Insights is a tireless feel-good manager who makes sure everyone in the company feels as good as possible.

Viva Learning

Training, knowledge and continuous learning are an important part of the future of work. We need to constantly learn new things to be able to deliver at the top and in Viva Learning you get all the organization's training resources served in one place. Through Teams, each employee can take the training courses he or she wants or needs without the involvement of third-party services. Managers, in turn, can see which training courses each employee has attended to have full control of the team's training level. Learning is also very useful for onboarding new employees, as it ensures that the new employee has received all the necessary training.

Viva Topics - the new corporate knowledge bank

Viva Topics is a tool that helps employees discover new knowledge. By connecting to information and experts across the company plus a range of third party services. It is an add-on to Microsoft 365 that allows users to get help and knowledge support in their daily work. Your employees can receive information and explanations on automatic topic cards if they encounter unfamiliar concepts in Word or Excel, for example. They can also ask their colleagues questions and get answers from them. In short, Topics saves your employees from Googling and allows you to control information within your organization to ensure it is accurate. A flexible and easy-to-use internal knowledge bank, in short.

Connections, Insights, Learning and Topics - a strong starting quartet that bodes well. And more Viva modules that will make the new employee platform even better are on the way.

With Viva in the team, your company will be well supported in creating a culture with a strong sense of togetherness - even if you are spread out in different locations. The platform will help you create a workplace with responsive and inspiring leaders who have your employees' best interests at heart. And with good leaders, your company will have engaged and happy employees. When employees feel good, they also perform better - in other words, they do an even better job for your customers. And more satisfied customers can translate into higher profitability. A real win-win for everyone, quite simply.

Improve employee satisfaction - get started with Microsoft Viva today

As I said, times have changed and we at WeSafe see great opportunities with Viva for today's companies in the hybrid working life. At present, it is primarily the Connections and Insights modules that we see can create major positive changes in an organization.

We have already helped several of our customers to implement the platform and from them we have only heard positive feedback. Starting to use Microsoft Viva is easy because it is seamlessly integrated with other Microsoft services such as Microsoft 365 and Teams. Where your employees already exist. Contact us today and we will help you get started with the employee platform of the future for a successful hybrid workplace.