Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform (EXP) that centralizes various tools and functionalities into a cohesive suite, all integrated within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. It is particularly valuable for businesses navigating the complexities of hybrid work, as it connects employees, provides actionable insights, and streamlines access to critical company resources. The platform's usefulness comes from its comprehensive modular approach, addressing key areas of the modern workplace.
The core pillars and what Viva is good for
Microsoft Viva is designed to unify the employee experience across four key areas: Engagement, Well-being, Learning, and Knowledge. Each module serves a specific purpose in this regard:
Connections and engagement
- Viva Connections: This module acts as the gateway to a company’s digital workplace within Microsoft Teams. It allows employees to access internal communications, company resources (like policies and benefits), and relevant news through a customizable dashboard and feed. This helps keep everyone informed and engaged, regardless of their work location.
- Viva Engage: The evolution of Yammer, Viva Engage fosters internal communication and community building through a social media-like interface. It provides a space for employees to share stories, connect with leaders, and participate in communities of interest, helping to build a stronger company culture. Premium features also include advanced analytics and a dedicated Leadership Corner.
- Viva Amplify: This tool helps corporate communicators centralize, manage, and distribute communications campaigns across multiple channels, including Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint. This ensures a consistent message reaches all employees effectively.
Well-being and productivity
- Viva Insights: Using data from Microsoft 365, this module provides personalized, privacy-protected insights and actionable recommendations to help employees improve their well-being and productivity. It offers features for scheduling focus time, mindfulness breaks (with integrations like Headspace), and quiet time. Manager and leader insights offer aggregated, anonymized data to help identify organizational trends like burnout risk.
- Viva Glint: A "voice of the employee" solution, Viva Glint helps organizations measure and improve employee engagement with targeted surveys. It provides leaders and managers with valuable insights into employee sentiment to drive positive change and business outcomes.
- Viva Pulse: This is a lightweight tool that empowers managers to quickly request and act on feedback from their teams. It uses research-backed templates to help leaders identify what is working and where to focus their efforts.
Learning and growth
- Viva Learning: This learning hub integrates content from multiple sources, such as LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, and custom company content, directly into Microsoft Teams. It brings learning into the flow of work, allowing employees to discover, share, recommend, and track learning content easily.
Goal setting and management
- Viva Goals: This objective and key results (OKR) management platform aligns teams to a company’s strategic priorities. It helps define, track, and manage goals transparently across the organization, ensuring everyone understands how their work contributes to business results.
Comparison: Viva vs. traditional, disconnected tools
| Feature | Microsoft Viva (Integrated Platform) | Traditional, Disconnected Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Integration | Deeply integrated into Microsoft Teams and 365, creating a seamless, unified experience. | Separate applications and services, requiring context switching and manual data transfers. |
| Employee Communication | Centralized news feed via Connections and social hub via Engage, fostering organization-wide and community-based conversations. | Email announcements and separate chat platforms, leading to information silos and lower engagement. |
| Learning and Development | A single hub for accessing learning content from various sources directly in the flow of work via Viva Learning. | Dispersed training content across multiple portals or external links, requiring employees to leave their workflow. |
| Well-being Initiatives | Data-driven insights and features for managing focus time, mindfulness, and work-life balance via Viva Insights. | Manual wellness programs or disconnected applications that may lack personalization and actionable data. |
| Goal Alignment | Aligns company, team, and individual goals transparently through the OKR framework with Viva Goals. | Manual tracking in spreadsheets, making it difficult to maintain visibility and align objectives across the organization. |
| Feedback Collection | Quick, templated surveys for managers via Viva Pulse and org-wide engagement surveys via Viva Glint. | Lengthy, annual surveys that provide delayed and often less actionable feedback. |
Conclusion
So, what is Viva good for? Ultimately, Microsoft Viva is for businesses that want to foster a thriving, productive, and well-connected workforce, especially in today's remote and hybrid work landscape. It is an investment in the employee experience, directly translating into tangible business benefits like improved engagement, better communication, and clearer goal alignment. By bringing together communication, well-being, learning, and purpose into a single, integrated platform, Viva helps organizations empower their people to achieve their full potential.
