Internal Comms and Microsoft Viva in Melbourne

I’m still recovering from a very long journey home from Melbourne, Australia where I participated in another Digital Workplace Conference (#DWCAU) event. Loved being back in Australia (last there in 2018 for DWCAU) and seeing old friends and making new friends. It was also great hanging out with Rencore regional partner Pack of 7 and talk about governance with attendees. My session “Five Ways to Jumpstart Internal Comms with AI and Viva“ had a full room, and some great questions from the audience, which is always appreciated. Not surprisingly, I fielded a couple of questions around the “which tool and when” quandary, and hopefully answered them successfully.

Hybrid work = The Modern Workplace

I started out the session talking about internal communications and the modern intranet, walking through the components of a successful intranet and making the case that internal comms followed the same principles of success. In short, our data (and communications) tend to be spread across various sites and data silos. When data (again, communication) is not optimized, classified, and organized, it cannot be used effectively. When data is not used effectively, it impacts (reduces) discovery, collaboration, and innovation.

Looking at what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a 2021 LinkedIn post about organizational challenges in what he called the “hybrid work paradox,” I also pointed out the similarities with internal comms challenges:

• Employees are looking for a more personalized experience
• They want relevant, timely information to help drive their work,
• not to be burdened with more work to sift through content and try to determine its relevance to their own roles and tasks.

Satya goes on to talk about how Microsoft is preparing for the hybrid workplace by prioritizing three things:

• Social capital: how we communicate, connect and collaborate
• Knowledge capital: how we learn from each other, within and across organizations
• Human capital: how we approach wellness and work/life balance

Understanding the Role of Internal Comms

I then went on to explain that Internal Communications is a key function within an organization, responsible for effective, timely, and appropriate delivery of information to all members of the organization. While there are nuances in the role in every organization, some of the primary functions include:

• Enhancing Employee Engagement: By keeping employees informed about the company’s strategies, goals, and achievements, Internal Communications helps them feel connected and engaged. An engaged workforce is typically more productive and can help improve business outcomes.
• Crisis Management: During a crisis, clear and concise communication is critical. The Internal Communications team ensures that the right messages are delivered promptly to minimize panic and confusion. They also play a key role in planning and preparing for potential crises.
• Change Management: When significant changes happen within an organization, such as a new strategic direction, a merger, or restructuring, Internal Communications ensures these changes are effectively communicated. They help manage the expectations and fears that might come with change, thereby facilitating a smoother transition.
• Building a Unified Culture: Internal Communications helps foster a sense of community within an organization by sharing success stories, recognizing achievements, and promoting company values. They work to create a unified organizational culture that aligns everyone’s efforts.
• Knowledge Sharing: By disseminating important information and updates across the organization, Internal Communications supports knowledge sharing. This includes policy changes, process improvements, or simply sharing good practices among different teams.
• Feedback Mechanism: Internal Communications can also play a role in gathering and channeling feedback from employees to the leadership. This can help leaders understand what’s working, what’s not, and where improvements can be made.
• Training and Development: The Internal Communications team often helps facilitate training and development initiatives within the organization, making sure employees are aware of and can access opportunities for growth and learning.
• Supporting Employee Advocacy: Well-informed and engaged employees can be great brand ambassadors. By providing them with the right information, Internal Communications helps foster employee advocacy.

How Microsoft Viva can help

For the second half of my session, I focused on the importance of having an Employee Experience (EX) focus, and the three core solutions in Microsoft Viva that apply to internal comms: Viva Connections, Viva Engage, and the not-yet-generally-available Viva Amplify. To quickly recap:

• Viva Connections (formerly known as the SharePoint Home Page) really is your front door to the employee experience, providing a single-pane view into news, information, tasks, and tools. This is your Microsoft Teams portal into your intranet.
• Viva Engage (formerly known as Yammer) is all about building community and connecting people across the organization. With the new-ish Q&A and Leadership Corner features, Engage helps you to build a two-way dialogue between leadership and employees and foster open discussion and knowledge sharing amongst employees across departments, geographies, and languages.
• Viva Amplify (currently in private preview, GA later this year) provides an internal marketing platform where you can centralize and manage communication activities the same as you would with external marketing campaigns, helping your organization to better create, execute, and measure the effectiveness of your messaging and communications.

 

If you are not yet using these tools and would like to learn more, I’ll be presenting this session at least 2 more times this year at other events. I’m not yet sharing out all of my slides as this is a session that I am actively presenting at paid events, but my slides will eventually be shared publicly, so watch this space!

Thanks again to Debbie Ireland and her team for inviting me once again to participate in #DWCAU. I hope to be back in Australia (and New Zealand) next year for the 2024 events.