The Digital Employee Experience is all about going above and beyond to treat your employees like people, not numbers, and leveraging technology to help amplify and facilitate that objective. Since hybrid or fully remote workplaces emphasize the digital environment and de-emphasize the physical environment, there’s never been a more important time to invest in digital employee experiences.
Download our 80+ page definitive guide on Employee Experience with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva to get a complete understanding of the potential Microsoft brings to your workplace.
Maybe you think looking at the Employee Experience as a people-first experience is intuitively obvious. Or maybe it’s the first time you’re taking a step back from the important distractions that come with managing and maintaining these processes and solutions, to realize and look at the human element. Regardless, helping the humans behind the machines is at the core of a great employee experience and doing right by that is crucial in today’s extremely competitive job market.
Luckily, companies are waking up to the importance of improving employee experience (EX). Why have company alarms started ringing? The people, of course!
52% of people in North America are now more likely to choose their health and wellbeing overwork after the pandemic. Before this, organizations have had to ramp up on a trend that was already gaining momentum pre-pandemic.
In this blog, we will look at the employee experience through the lens of the people and how Microsoft has reacted to the change and can help.
However, if you’re also looking for insight into where EX is headed and how to keep up effectively, join us for our virtual event with 4 internationally recognized expert-led sessions on employee communication, collaboration, and management.
It can be easy to focus on strategy but that sometimes accidentally leads to tactics that don’t leave you focusing on the employees you’re supposed to enable. And if we look at the image below, we see that there are several points to consider.
We dive deep into modern Employee Experience in our recent blog “What Is Employee Experience & Why It Matters?”(What Is The Employee Experience & Why It Matters) which looks at a lot more than what it is, in addition to answering the question.
At the end of that blog, and in our dedicated blog on the Stage of Employee Experience (Improve Employee Experience By Understanding The 8 Stages), we map out the path employees take along their journey at an organization.
Make sure to put yourself in the shoes of your employees across all of the 8 various stages of the Employee Experience.
Here are some questions for your internal EX think tank:
Those were just some quick questions we hope will help get you started on your path to more unique questions, people in your organization might be experiencing.
We promise that all this work is worth it! Having people at the forefront of your Employee Experience plans is not only beneficial for your employees but for the organization itself. Research from Microsoft’s Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work proves that there are clear benefits to thriving relations within and outside your direct team.
Strong relationships lead to a more optimistic and happier workforce. Now, it’s up to your organization to deliver. Here to help you do that is Microsoft Viva. But first a couple of short paragraphs on why this matters to Microsoft.
Back in 2017, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, released his book titled, “Hit Refresh.” In his book, he discussed increasing synergy between the different departments and solutions at Microsoft. In addition, and among many other things, he discussed his aspirations to improve the future of digital business communication and collaboration.
Last year, on February 4th, after accomplishing many of his goals, Satya took another step forward toward his long-term aspirations. On that day, he said,
“Today, we want to talk about what this means and how we are ensuring every organization will have the technology required to support their employees and to help them thrive in this new era of flexible work.”
Satya Nadella @satyanadella
This statement was part of the Microsoft Viva announcement. The new, growing suite of applications is dedicated to improving the future of the employee experience through a more robust digital workplace.
Microsoft offers several ways for employers to increase collaboration (5 Ways Microsoft Intranets Make HR & Communication Efforts Easier) across the organization. There are several components to an improved employee experience.
Here are a few are examples:
Microsoft Viva is a comprehensive employee experience platform that helps employers improve several of the above points.
The following are the four Viva applications:
Discover more about each feature application.
Viva Learning combines learning opportunities into everyday workflows. It allows employers to include learning and development throughout established processes.
It also allows for personalized recommendations. This means employees get a more customized experience and opportunities are based on career path goals, A personal touch can really elevate the employee experience, so try to find the best ways to leverage them.
Viva Learning also allows employers to use content from other sources. You can centralize your entire learning and development process in one hub. This leads to more efficiency and a more organizated digital workplace.
Viva Insights is focused on promoting productivity and well-being. It uses data-driven insights to make recommendations directly on the platform.
This feature also gives managers and employees a look into personal metrics. Employees can learn better and more effective ways of working with the recommendations. This capability also allows managers to improve the company culture.
It gives insights about teams that provide valuable guidance in decisions.
Viva Topics is fundamentally a knowledge base for employees, but can do so much with that information. This application organizes content and expertise across the entire company. It makes finding the answer to a question or getting help a fast and easy process.
Viva Topics uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically identify, sort, and organize content. The employee experience would benefit greatly from this information source.
Viva Connections promotes transparent communications across the organization. It consolidates news, topics, and conversations into existing technology. Open communications empower, inspire, and engage employees.
Viva Connections is especially beneficial for hybrid or remote work environments. Employees can feel disconnected from team members in a remote setting. By enabling an easy communication platform, the employee experience levels up.
An employee experience platform can connect teams virtually. This is a great solution for companies with hybrid or remote working models. This type of platform integrates many tools and activities.
Viva streamlines employee engagement and processes. The platform offers many features and benefits for employees. Those include:
Learn more about each feature below.
Streamlined communications with employees improved the digital employee experience. As discussed above, Microsoft Viva makes communicating with team members easy.
Viva offers actionable and personalized insights. It uses data about how employees work and recommends ways to do it better. This leads to more efficiency and productivity among team members.
Employees can see insight into where how they perform. And what areas need improvement. This is especially important when combined with goal tracking.
Employee experience platforms enable businesses to gain feedback from employees. This not only helps businesses create a better experience but also increases satisfaction. Stop trying to guess what employees need or want and go directly to the source with this feature.
An organization can align its goals and vision with this platform. The insights feature allows companies an inside look at how employees perform. And the relation with overarching goals.
Viva allows others to send praise about other employees. This option is through communication channels or can be sent in a private message. Sending regular praise and recognition will make employees feel more valued and appreciated.
Microsoft Viva has mindfulness features. There is an animated breathing break. This allows employees to take a brief moment to reset and refocus.
Viva also has a partnership with Headspace. Headspace offers guided meditations. When people apply mindfulness techniques, the experience will be more memorable.
Microsoft Viva enables in-app scheduling and reminders. Having lots of different applications or systems to use can impact the experience. Employees can get overwhelmed. Companies can make employee functions streamlined and more efficient with one comprehensive platform.
Viva has a feature for employees to set their status as do not disturb. This will allow them to focus without any distractions. This can be beneficial when there are many emails and chats to respond to throughout the day.
Now that you understand the importance of people in your employee experience, we’re here to help guide you to a better employee experience by sparking the right idea. Our latest eBook has over 35 solution ideas across 8 areas of business.
