In these work-from-home times, we are primarily working behind the scenes. Our virtual meetings are the highlight reels that only show one dimension of our persona. Indeed, we all miss the workplace with a personality. Recently, Microsoft put its best foot forward to deal with this new change by introducing Microsoft Viva, which is a must-needed revolution in the digital work culture. This Employee Experience Platform aims at bringing the balance of productivity, interaction and well-being at virtual offices.
With blurred boundaries between work and home life, this new set of tools reminds us and sets the best example of the stoic philosophy by Marcus Aurelius – “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way”.
Undoubtedly, the pandemic came as a severe impediment to the workflow and businesses. However, Microsoft Viva gives us four ways to deal with it while maintaining productivity:
Viva Connections:
For the first few months of 2021, Viva Connections is available as a preview for personal desktop. This works like the corridor feature facilitating seamless communications among employees. This also acts as a pool of company resources and benefits for new and old employees. In addition, viva connections accommodate features like company news, communities and town halls. It follows the footsteps of Microsoft’s SharePoint technology.
Viva Insights:
You know you are an expert when your work becomes your intuition. Viva Insights is designed to enhance work performance on an ingrained level of skills and ability. This segment helps managers track the trends, but it also assists employees in organising their time and relationships. Viva Insights works like a conglomeration of various data and feedback apps to give a global picture of productivity trends.
Viva Learning:
Sir Dave Brailsford’s aggregation of marginal gains concept gives us every reason to commend this module of Microsoft Viva. The training and learning resources plucked from the most reasonable means such as LinkedIn, Microsoft Learn, and Coursera provide a cushioning effect for your professional development. Employees can find the right microlearning resource, and managers can find relatable traditional courses to assign to the team.
Viva Topics:
If your company is your small work-world, Vivo Topics is Wikipedia for it. With the help of AI, it surfaces the most relevant content on the given topic. It is a constellation of documents, videos and experts within the organisation that generates topic cards from various regular apps such as SharePoint, Teams etc.
“A year ago, when everything went to remote work, we realised the world is changing quickly. So we commissioned a bunch of our research to figure out what was happening. The result of all that is that we have a worldview for what we call an ‘employee experience’ platform.” says Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jared Spataro.
Microsoft Viva is backed by the power of data and Artificial Intelligence. Being a part of Microsoft Azure Cloud, Viva brings the fluid effect to the digital machinery of endless applications and tools.
Moreover, the new Together Mode to Microsoft Teams exhibits the most updated version of pandemic-influenced workplaces.
