Microsoft announces Viva, its new Employee Experience Platform

Today, Microsoft announced Viva, its new Employee Experience Platform (EXP). If you've never heard of the Employee Experience Platform category, it's because Microsoft just made it up, and the Redmond firm thinks that you'll be hearing more about EXPs. In the modern world of the digital workplaces, it found the need for the new category, and that's where Viva comes in.

The service is broken into four pieces: Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Learning, and Viva Topics.

Starting with Viva Connections, Microsoft calls it "a gateway to your digital workplace", citing almost 60% of workers feeling less connected since they've been working from home. It can have a branded and curated landing page, where there can also be town hall-style discussions and people can access things like company news and more.

Next is Viva Insights, which is exactly what it sounds like, giving employees, managers, and leaders insights that are meant to "help everyone in the organization thrive". Individuals can see their insights from within Microsoft Teams, and things like Headspace integration will be included. Managers will be able to see how team members are doing to help employees not get burned out, so they can suggest turning off notifications, set boundaries on their calendar, and more.

Microsoft said that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning, and that brings us to Viva Learning. The idea isn't just to give employees courses to complete, but to make learning a part of your day and a part of the company's culture, more or less integrating it into your work flow. It includes content from LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, and your own content.

Microsoft says that its research shows that people actually spend seven weeks a year re-creating or searching for information that's inside of their organization. Viva Topics lets you access the knowledge inside of your company; Microsoft called it a "Wikipedia with AI superpowers for your organization". For example, if you come across an acronym that you're not familiar with, you can just hover over it.

As noted above with Headspace integration, this is an extensible platform, so you're going to see third-party services included as well. Starting today, Viva Topics is available to everyone, while Viva Insights is in public preview. Viva Learning is currently in private preview. You can learn more here.