Microsoft Teams Now Boasts a Unified Employee Experience Portal Powered by AI

Microsoft has designed a new, unified approach to manage employee experience from Teams communication platform. The newly launched solution — Viva is in line with 2020 digital workplace trends and underscores Microsoft’s ambition of making Teams the centerpiece of its transformation strategy.

In a massive shift to digital, companies rolled out a raft of easy-to-use, cloud-based digital workspace solutions to tackle remote work challenges. But as more agile, collaborative working techniques take root in modern enterprises, so does the need for a unified approach to boost employee experience (EX). Remote workers are increasingly seeking an integrated approach to manage communication, learnings, connections, and knowledge insights from a single platform.

During the pandemic-hit 2020, Redmond tech giant Microsoft left no stone unturned in reimagining and enhancing Teams at every turn. Now, the tech giant has expanded its Teams offering with Microsoft VivaOpens a new window , an employee experience platform (EXP) integrated into Teams. Viva is a one-stop-shop for employee engagement, learning, knowledge, resources, and insights.

In a pre-recorded video messageOpens a new window , Microsoft CEO Satya NadellaOpens a new window said, “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. As the world recovers, there is no going back. Flexibility in when, where and how we work will be key.”

Also available as integration in Microsoft 365, Viva is Microsoft’s answer to internal intranets used by organizations for intra-company communication, community-building, content, and learning requirements. But unlike standard EX solutions, Microsoft Viva goes beyond the usual features to help organizations derive value from internal data via artificial intelligence (AI). By analyzing user data such as job role, preferences, and the previously browsed libraries, Viva helps end-users find the right content when they need it.

Microsoft Viva Primed to Transform Employee Experience

Organizations are in no rush to force employees back into their cubicles in 2021. Now, with corporate offices empty, there is an increased focus on employee experience that is driving the uptake of digital workspace solutions that combine learning, engagement and collaboration.  Microsoft Viva is uniquely positioned to transform this fragmented experience and help managers understand organizational work patterns and trendsOpens a new window .

Jared SpataroOpens a new window , Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, wrote in a blog postOpens a new window , “Today, organizations spend over $300 billion a year on employee experience. That number includes employee development and training, benefits and wellbeing, and a whole host of employee experience technologies. But too often, these technologies are fragmented, hard to find, and disruptive to the flow of work.”

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See Also: 10 Workplace Apps That Grew the Fastest in the Remote Work Era

Microsoft Viva Modules

Microsoft Viva comprises four modules — Viva Connections, Viva Learning, Viva Insights, and Viva Topics, accessible through Microsoft Teams and other every-day use Microsoft 365 apps.

Viva Connections is an app that seeks to bridge the culture gap. It allows remote workforces to stay on top of important announcements, policy & benefits updates. It also enables them to be a part of internal corporate communities through Yammer integration. The public preview of Viva Connections will be available in the first half of 2021.

Viva Learning enables employees to discover educational resources and learning materials for professional development. Besides the internally curated course, training, and learning content, integrations with third-party providers like LinkedIn Learning, Skillsoft, Coursera, Pluralsight, and edX ensure external content is also available. Some of the upcoming integrations include Cornerstone OnDemand, Saba, and SAP SuccessFactors. Viva Learning is available in private preview.

AI-based Viva Topics organizes user-specific content. It builds upon Project CortexOpens a new window that was designed for relevant content discovery. “Think of Viva Topics as a Wikipedia with AI superpowers for your organization,” explained Spataro. “It uses AI to automatically organize company-wide content and expertise into relevant categories like projects, products, processes, and customers.” And to access the content, all a user would need to do is click a link or topic card generated by its algorithm.

Last year, Microsoft’s Productivity Score solution hit a roadblock when privacy advocates pointed out the surveillance risks to employee privacy. The company has now released Viva Insights, the fourth and final module under Microsoft Viva.

Viva Insights aggregates and de-identifies individual data from internal and third-party tools to offer management a holistic glimpse into how their respective teams — and not individuals. Company leaders can quantify burnout, identify the employee’s pain points, adjust work standards, and encourage them to take personal well-being steps.

https://x.com/DamianEdwards/status/1357371403398356993?s=20

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Modern Collaboration Architecture | Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Teams: Adopting a Platform-Based Approach  

Microsoft’s vision is clear — the company wants to position Teams as the ‘organizing layerOpens a new window ’, where employees can access and leverage all tools on a single platform for workplace collaboration and “empower people to feel connected, supported, and able to bring their best selves to work.”

Teams witnessed explosive growth in 2020, with daily active users climbing to 115 million. Opens a new window  Nadella told Financial TimesOpens a new window , Nadella, “Teams is on its way to becoming a digital platform as significant as the internet browser, or a computer operating system.”

“In China, WeChat is the internet, that’s a great example,” he added. “There isn’t a western equivalent. If anything, Teams is probably the closest when it comes to the work area.”

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