Unite colleague communities with Viva Engage

Four great use cases for Microsoft 365’s enterprise social networking solution 

Reading time: 4 minutes

In this week’s YouTube Tutorial: What is Viva Engage? Scott lifted the lid on the key elements of the enterprise social media platform that is already included with Microsoft 365.  

Over the last few years, we’ve become reprogrammed to work in the framework of Teams and Channels but let’s look at some scenarios where Viva Engage’s more relaxed attitude to collaboration can be just as productive. 

Leadership visibility  

Gone are the days when marching the Chief Exec around the shopfloor ticked the box for leadership visibility on the employee engagement survey. Colleagues want a sense of realism and authenticity from their leaders, an expectation that was further fuelled by the delight of seeing their manager in their kitchen, struggling to come off mute during the pandemic. 

Let them into your workplace life by promoting that they follow you on Viva Engage. 

Switched on leaders can let their teams be part of their week with regular posts to their Storyline in Viva Engage. Be it just a candid thought “Is the food in employee restaurant in Cardiff always this great?” to posing a question “What was your key takeaway from my presentation today?”.  

Words are wonderful, but sharing a selfie or a short video clip absolutely delights an audience, and this can all be achieved instantly and simply from the Viva Engage mobile app 

Conference or event app 

Are you running the annual management conference? No budget for a bespoke conference app?  

A Viva Engage community could be the solution you’re looking for. Setting the community to private allows you to invite your delegates to a secure stream of information. You can pin the agenda, meal menus and joining information to the community homepage so all are in easy reach. The conversation thread can help you with questions before arrival.  

Using the mobile app during the event allows facilitators to share key updates and useful messages, presenters can host live polls and the impressive questions feature (including ability to upvote and mark as resolved) can be the backbone of a great live Q&A session. 

Workplace networks 

Workplace networks are a great way to increase engagement and foster a sense of belonging between co-workers with common goals or interests. Whether it’s the LGBTQ+ network, the running club or office location sports and social, Viva Engage provides a home for the informal team nature needed to make these succeed. 

Public communities allow like-minded colleagues to just join, taking the stress out of managing membership and distribution lists. The conversation thread lends itself to peer-to-peer support, getting to know one another and promoting key network events. Talking of events, you can even run live online events directly inside Viva Engage! 

Volunteering campaign

Industry is clued up now that letting colleagues contribute back to society builds the individual’s value in their workplace, it also promotes that it’s great place to work and part of neighbourhood communities.

There’s a fair amount of legwork involved for someone in a volunteering project and a Viva Engage community can help take a load off.

Again, a public community lets people show their interest by joining, the conversation thread can host shout-outs for help with simple replies to create a working party. Because Viva Engage is powered by SharePoint it’s easy to upload those important files like the risk assessment, guides and instructions for everyone to read before they get involved.

And on the day of the big litter-pick, those still at their desks can enjoy the pictures of the boss, sleeves rolled up with a rubbish grabber, broadcast live via the Mobile app!

These are just four ideas, but with a flexible tool like Viva Engage there are hundreds of other ways it could help with your engagement goals, if you're not sure ask us!

Published: 3 May 2024

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