Avanade strengthens its focus on employee experience with Microsoft Viva

A new strategy for employee engagement finds a perfect match in Microsoft Viva

When Avanade joined a private preview of Microsoft Viva in 2019, the company was already moving forward with its IT Experience Strategy, which put Microsoft Teams at the center of the employee experience. Today, the organization is well on its way to deploying all four Viva modules, with certain employee groups already experiencing each aspect of the Viva suite. “We are really excited about the potential of Microsoft Viva to drive our vision for employee engagement going forward,” says Jenkins. Part of that vision involved identifying what capabilities employees need the most and foregrounding them in Teams. “We use Viva to surface the capabilities our employees need so it’s right there in front of them the moment they need it,” Jenkins shares.

Art Holladay, Director, IT Go-To-Market Services Lead at Avanade, agrees that “Viva engages our employees where they work,” adding that the complex technology ecosystem at the company could occasionally create confusion. “Prior to the use of Viva, employees sometimes found it hard to stay on top of what was relevant to them, and stakeholders worried about how to get important messages to the right audience,” says Holladay. Avanade saw Viva as a powerful tool to help reduce this “noise in the system” by bringing information directly to employees, wherever they are.

Exploring the combined benefits of all four Viva modules 

Avanade began its Viva journey with Viva Topics, the module designed to deliver information and expertise so that it’s easy for employees to gain knowledge in the flow of work. “Previously, Avanade had an ongoing focus on where to put knowledge,” says Jenkins. “People worried about where to put information so that it would be found.” Combining what Jenkins calls “AI smartness” with “the power of our people,” Viva Topics brings tailored knowledge directly to Avanade employees in the flow of work. For Holladay, one of the key benefits of Viva Topics is the ability to identify subject matter experts and forge new connections between employees, all in an effort to deliver great service to Avanade customers. Holladay and his team experienced that firsthand when a colleague eager to learn more about machine learning and AI used Viva Topics to connect with the IT Experience organization. “That employee was able to connect with the people in our organization who could help them with a client situation,” says Holladay. “That’s the promise of Viva Topics, that you can make the right connections and find the right information at the right time.”

Next, Avanade lit up Viva Connections, using the module to help employees access news and conversations that are relevant to them, all from within Microsoft Teams and the Teams mobile app. “With Viva Connections, employees have the ability to influence what they see based on their previous interactions, so that the content they engage with is always relevant,” says Jenkins. “Viva Connections also helps ensure messages reach the right audience.” Today, Avanade employees start their day with Viva Connections, and receive daily and monthly summary emails to remind them of any important conversations, to-do’s, or content they might have missed, whether that is a message from the CEO or an upcoming deadline. “The Viva Connections app provides the latest company news at everyone’s fingertips,” says Jenkins.

The next Viva module to follow was Viva Learning. While still in the early stages of deployment, Viva Learning promises to be a welcome development for an organization that previously struggled with how to organize training opportunities. “Learning was a challenge across our organization because we had so many places to access learning,” says Holladay. “By bringing all our learning into one place, Viva Learning in Microsoft Teams will give our employees a chance to engage with a learning path that is very accessible, for example via the Teams mobile app for learning on the go.” Avanade will also use Viva Learning to share recorded training sessions about new products, a welcome alternative to the previous method of searching through emails or SharePoint to find a session recap.

Finally, Avanade is exploring Viva Insights, the module designed specifically to boost employee productivity and wellness with the help of data. “With Viva Insights, we are homing in on personal productivity and wellbeing,” says Jenkins. “Features like focus time and the ability to track how you are feeling throughout the week have already been game-changers.” Viva Insights reminds employees to send praise to colleagues and take breaks in the midst of a hectic workday. “Viva Insights reminds you to take a step back and take care of your colleagues and yourself,” says Jenkins. For Holladay, early use of Viva Insights among colleagues has inspired positive feedback. “I’ve had so many people say to me, ‘Wow, Viva Insights reminded me to complete something I forgot to do.’ It’s been extremely powerful,” he says.

More authentic, flexible ways of working: Avanade supports all employees

When Avanade began its journey with Microsoft Viva, the vision for a more intuitive way of working was the driving force. “With the use of Microsoft Viva and Teams, we wanted to create an environment where employees didn’t have to think about where they need to go to get their job done,” says Jenkins. “With that in mind, we doubled down on Teams as our system of engagement for employee experience.” The result is a far cry from the many disparate apps employees once had to contend with. Instead, Teams and Microsoft Viva provide a single portal to all the essential experiences that employees need. “When it comes to Microsoft Viva, the more the better,” says Holladay. “The power of the whole ecosystem together is already adding value to how we work.” Perhaps the greatest impact Holladay has seen is in how colleagues communicate. “Microsoft Viva is very rapidly changing our internal communication landscape,” he says. “Viva helps us cut through the clutter and get information to the right people at the right time.”

And, while Avanade employees use Microsoft Viva to work more effectively, Jenkins and her team in Workplace IT Experience use the tool to make managing technology easier. “Each of the Viva modules gives us a different piece of information that is key to the experience of our employees,” says Jenkins. “When we use all the Viva modules, we can feed information across them so that we don’t have to keep data in multiple places. That’s a big benefit for us and reduces the time it takes to deliver new experiences to our employees.”

Delivering new experiences faster, encouraging colleagues to take charge of their wellbeing with data-driven insights, providing powerful learning opportunities, and forging new connections: Avanade has quickly realized the potential inherent in Microsoft Viva. “It’s important for companies to focus on enabling employees to work in a way that is most authentic to them,” Jenkins reflects. “By introducing Microsoft Viva in the Teams platform, we have shown employees that we are listening to the things they are telling us they need quick access to.” Another popular benefit? Flexibility. “If you are a working mum and you need to pick up your child from school, you can still attend a call using the mobile applications and not feel like you have to choose between those activities,” says Jenkins. “That is why Microsoft Viva is a game-changer: it puts the information in the hands of our people in a way that they can adjust to suit the different lifestyles they have.”