A glance at Microsoft Viva

According to Microsoft research, over 73 % of employees globally, seek for remote working options to have a better life balance. Employee satisfaction often correlates with productivity in the workplace, so it might be worth supporting this trend. 

Some Microsoft solutions are designed to support the overall wellbeing of employees and offer enhanced capabilities to support communications, collaboration and productivity. As technology becomes increasingly present in most businesses across the world, why not adjust it to the wellbeing of users? After all, a study from LinkedIn has shown that 94% of employees interviewed say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development (LinkedIn, 2019). Employees across the world seek to have the best level of support from their organisation to thrive in the workplace as an individual. 

Microsoft Viva 

Microsoft Viva is an Employee Experience platform (EEP) solution with insights, connections, topics and learning functions, that can easily be accessed directly through Microsoft Teams. Employees can have personalised recommendations that help them do their best work, building better habits and feeling supported.  

Viva Connections offers relevant content and news for all employees to access on a unified and secured platform. Everyone can interact and share resources with other co-workers which fosters a community in the modern workplace. Collaboration is also enhanced with user friendly features that are simple to understand. Each feature is compatible with Microsoft Teams with any devices connected to the environment.  

Viva Insights includes the reflect function, which enables employees to take a moment and assess how they are feeling by selecting a relevant emoji. Research has shown that even the act of taking a moment to reflect has positive benefits for wellbeing. Additionally, Viva offers mindfulness mediation with Headspace for people to use between breaks and reduce stress at work.  

Viva Insights includes productivity features such as Microsoft-to-do, to create a detailed list of tasks to complete each day. You can schedule your work based on how you function best and be more productive. Do you need focus time during the week? Simply protect your time by scheduling specific slots in your calendar to let everyone know you are focusing. Studies show that it can take an average of 23 minutes to refocus on a task after a distraction. These distractions during focused work can also cause higher stress and lower productivity. 

Viva Topics will use AI technology to bring knowledge around Microsoft 365 solutions used within an organisation, improving the skills and productivity of employees. This feature will offer smart suggestions when employees are searching for information within Microsoft 365. Sounds good? Organisation can also integrate specific information that is considered useful for employees.  

Similarly, Viva Learning is designed to help employees find information and access learning content relevant to their tasks with Microsoft solutions. Users can search for topics they are interested in learning about and access from Microsoft partners such as LinkedIn.  

MyAnalytics  

MyAnalytics offers visibility on new insights on how to increase focus, achieve work-life balance, improve your work relationships and team collaboration. MyAnalytics is a great addition to Viva as it helps you understand whether you have enough time for your focus time at work and provides tips on how to better manage your calendar and minimise distractions.

(Microsoft, 2021) 

The focus feature shows how much focus and collaboration time you had during a specific week. The dashboard provides tips on how to improve your schedule and manage notifications and making meetings shorter.  

The wellbeing page included in MyAnalytics dashboard will show you how much collaboration (meetings and calls on Teams) time you have done during the week and suggest relevant tips to better your wellbeing.  

If you want to find out more, we have exclusive 1:1 demo’s currently taking place with our Viva experts and a FREE Viva whitepaper available for download.  

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