Microsoft this week launched Viva, a range of new services integrated into Microsoft Teams to improve remote employees’ ability to access company resources and training materials, engage with other staffers, draw on third-party services, and more.
“We have participated in the largest at-scale remote work experiment the world has seen, and it has had a dramatic impact on the employee experience,” said chief executive Satya Nadella. “Every organization will require a unified employee experience from onboarding and collaboration to continuous learning and growth. Viva brings together everything an employee needs to be successful, from day one, in a single, integrated experience directly in Teams.”
Microsoft Viva has four modules integrated in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams – Connections, Insights, Learning and Topics – and employees will be able to integrate their existing tools with Viva.
The Connections module provides access to internal communications and company resources, such as policies and benefits. Connections will roll out during the first half of the year, with an app launching in the summer.
The Insights module is intended to promote employee well-being by preserving time for breaks, focused work and logging off for the day, and warning managers when a team is at risk for burnout. Viva can sync with data from LinkedIn’s Glint, Zoom Video, Workday and SAP to glean insights.
“We really are committed to this idea that data-driven insights are going to be important to improve performance of individuals and organizations,” Jared Spataro, a Microsoft vice president, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “At the same time, we feel an equal commitment to privacy as a human right.”
Viva Learning will include educational courses from LinkedIn Learning; Microsoft Learn; and third-party providers including Skillsoft, Coursera, Pluralsight and edX, as well as an organization’s own content library, which will be available this month.
Viva Topics aims to help people connect to information and experts across the company. The module will use artificial intelligence to go over a customer’s Microsoft 365 data and surface topic cards within conversations and documents. Once an employee clicks on a card, Microsoft Teams or 365 will opens a topic page with related documents, conversations, videos and people. Viva Topics is now available as an add-on.
The company plans to announce more additions to Microsoft Viva throughout 2021.
Photo:© Microsoft Viva Connections.
