Webinar Recap | The State of Microsoft Viva & the Digital Workspace

Thanks for your interest in ” The State of Microsoft Viva & the Digital Workspace.” If you were able to join us for the webinar, we sincerely thank you for being there. We hope you had as much fun getting to learn about Microsoft Viva as our speakers did sharing their knowledge with you.  

Didn’t get a chance to catch our session live? We’ve got you covered. 

This session:

The way we work continues to fundamentally change, and organizations are clamouring to connect disparate digital tools into an intuitive and holistic digital workspace. Microsoft Viva—Microsoft’s employee experience platform—is becoming the central hub of a successful digital workplace.

With seven modules currently spanning five key pillars — employee communications, workplace analytics and employee feedback, goals and OKR management, learning and knowledge, and role-based experiences — understanding the Viva ecosystem can feel daunting.

Episode takeaways:

• Understand each of the nine GA Viva Modules
• See how the modules integrate
• Learn successful patterns & practices when rolling out Viva components in your organization

Key takeaways:

Before talking about what Microsoft Viva is all about, our Microsoft MVP and Regional Director, Eric Overfield jumped right into the latest Microsoft Viva updates. Hang tight – there’s a lot coming your way!

What’s new in Viva? 

1. Copilot

Built on the Microsoft 365 Copilot System, Copilot in Viva combines the power of large language models with your data in the Microsoft Graph and the Viva apps to give leaders an entirely new way to understand and engage their workforce. Copilot in Viva Goals simplifies goal setting by guiding leaders through creating objectives and key results and simplifying goal management across the organization. Copilot in Viva Engage helps leaders create compelling and inspiring posts from simple prompts or trending topics within workplace communities and storyline conversations. Also, leaders can use Copilot to analyze engagement and recommend responses.

2. Yammer is now Engage

Over the next year, Yammer will be rebranded to Viva Engage to align better with Microsoft Viva while becoming a key pillar of the Microsoft Employee Experience Platform. These changes will not affect the current capabilities, value, or pricing of Yammer for existing Microsoft 365 customers. All the current Yammer capabilities with your M365 license will remain available under the Viva Engage name.

3. Viva licensing

Viva licensing is ever-changing. Check this site regularly to see what’s currently available — it’s the best way to get all the licensing and pricing information you need.

4. Viva + Glint & Viva Pulse

Microsoft bought Glint a while back; originally a part of LinkedIn, it’s now moved into the Viva platform. Glint is a great way for an organization to send out monthly, quarterly, or annual surveys with some really useful tools. Check out Glint and how it can work with Microsoft Viva here.

5. Answers in Viva

Answers in Viva is powered in Viva Topics but lives in Viva Engage. With Answers in Viva, employees will get answers to critical questions. It can help employees find answers to their questions by matching experts to unanswered questions, and the built-on AI-generated knowledge can distribute topics and answers in context.

6. People in Viva

Available as an app and integrated into Microsoft 365 profiles, People in Viva is powered by AI, unlocking information across interests, knowledge, and goals to improve collaboration and team building. People in Viva helps you curate your network to create meaningful connections, unlock insights across people and teams, and enable knowledge sharing so employees can flourish and grow.

If you are new to Microsoft Viva, all of these new features might confuse you. Have no fear! Eric dove into all the modules that make up Microsoft Viva, and we’ve summarized this below:

What is Microsoft Viva? 

Viva is an employee experience platform that supports connection, insight, purpose, and growth while empowering individuals and teams to perform at their highest level. Microsoft has designed this platform to assist leaders with providing their employees with transparency while communicating, building a culture that is people-oriented, and the necessary tools required for external and internal learning opportunities.

Communication  

Microsoft Viva enhances employee collaboration and engagement through modules like Viva Connections, Viva Engage, and Viva Amplify. It provides a central hub for communication, fosters employee engagement through surveys and feedback, and empowers knowledge sharing. Integration with Microsoft Teams enables seamless teamwork and real-time collaboration.

Insight 

Facilitate insights and data-driven decisions through modules like Viva Insights, Viva Pulse, and Viva Glint. Viva Insights provides productivity analytics, Viva Pulse collects feedback, and Viva Glint offers employee engagement insights. These modules synergize to empower organizations with valuable insights, enabling decision-making processes.

Knowledge 

Viva Learning, Viva Topics, Viva Connections, and Viva Engage work together to cultivate a culture of knowledge sharing and discovery, enhancing collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Viva Learning facilitates continuous learning, Viva Topics organizes knowledge for easy discovery, Viva Connections centralizes resources, and Viva Engage fosters engagement and knowledge exchange.

Alignment 

Together, Viva Goals, Viva Sales, Viva Connections, and Viva Topics enable organizational alignment, fostering a cohesive work environment. Viva Goals enables organizations to define OKRs, fostering clarity and shared purpose. Viva Sales streamlines sales processes. Viva Connections and Viva Topics organize knowledge, ensuring easy access and alignment with relevant information.

After walking us through Microsoft Viva, Eric gave us two real examples of how a knowledge worker and a manager can use various Viva modules to improve their employee experience, engagement, and overall business performance. Check out the recording to see these examples and a demo in action!

We also discussed some key steps to follow when you decide you’re ready to roll out Microsoft Viva in your workplace:

Viva rollout best practices 

1. Select your pilot style

Consider a pilot for each module to ensure success. You may even find it better to use a different pilot style, depending on each module. We’ll use Viva Goals as an example. One of the most popular ways to roll out an OKR program is from the top down. The benefit of going this route is that leadership is fully behind the program, and OKRs are well aligned. Another popular rollout method is for one department or group to run a top-to-bottom rollout involving team managers and individual employees. The “crawl-walk-run” pilot approach is best for most companies. Still, mature companies that can efficiently and effectively lead the organization through change may choose to launch OKRs organization-wide all at once and implement what is called the “Big bang theory.”

2. Confirm the right license is in place

Some of the modules are free, but not all of them. Make sure to ask yourself: what is this going to cost us? Do we have the budget? Do we have the budget only for a specific department or group? There are a lot of ifs and buts that you should discuss, and you mustn’t move past them until you figure out these details.

3. Meet technical requirements

Look into any additional requirements for the Viva modules to set it up. For example, Viva Connections requires a home site and global navigation. If you’re using the premium version of Viva Learning, you’re looking to be able to connect with External LMS’.

4. Get guidance on roles for each phase

Once you know what you’re going to work on, dig into the module and get guidance on the different roles required for each phase in each module to be successful (planning, building, launching, etc.).

5. Get started

Get started on working on installing it, getting the pilot group included in it, and championing it.

6. Prepare to launch and scale adoption with end users

By this stage, be ready to roll everything out to the whole or a specific part of the organization.

Now that you’ve learned all about Microsoft Viva how it can transform your employee experience, you may be wondering how to get started.

Let us help! Check out our Microsoft Viva Rollout Package so our technologists can show you the way through Microsoft Viva and provide all the resources you’ll need to successfully implement it.

And there you have it! We hope this recap gave you some valuable insights that you can put into practice. Check out the recording for more details! 

Make sure to join us at our next webinar on June 29th, where we’ll show you how automating onboarding processes can lead to remarkable transformations within your organization.