New Platforms + Looking Forward


On February 4th, Microsoft entered the employee experience space with the release of their new product, Viva.  This might be a turning point in the industry as one of the tech giant's openly acknowledges the importance of integrating caring for your employees into everyday life.  You can watch an overview of Viva here.  I'd like to spend a little time exploring how the platform will work and what this might mean for the future of corporate wellness.  

This product, built on top of Microsoft Teams and is made up of four distinct modules.  They are as follows: connections, insights, topics, and learning.  The first, connections, is touted as a 'digital campus' where employees can find information on their benefits, company policies, social communities and other resources.  Josh Bersin wrote that this module could be a company's 'mobile employee interface' to all sorts of applications going forward.  The second, insights, uses a a company that Microsoft acquired (Glint) to offer employees insights into how they work.  It will recommend focus time for employees, as well as other ways to stay healthy.  For instance, wellbeing apps, such as Headspace and others, can be integrated into this module.  Managers will also receive information about their team members, such as who might be at risk for burnout or is working extra hours after work.  The third, topics, is built up from something called 'Project Cortex'.  This module digs through tons of data in the form of files, documents, emails and other areas.  It groups these items into clusters relating to the same topic.  It also identifies individual contributors who are experts in certain areas so that others might utilize their expertise to help problem solve.  Lastly, learning is the module that integrates LinkedIn Learning with other external sources of information.  Organizations can integrate their own learning platforms with Viva to make their programs available for anyone who uses the Microsoft product.  Josh Bersin has stated that he will be ensuring that his learning platform, Josh Bersin Academy, will be one of the learning apps available through Viva.  

The biggest issue that analysts see with this new development is the potential for a privacy leak.  Microsoft claims that they are doing everything possible to protect users information, but there is always the concern for privacy issues when personal data is being aggregated.  Managers and leaders don't see individualized data, but instead can view aggregated and de-identified results.  Microsoft ensured that Glint had these protocols in place before integrating them into Viva.  Other questions arise, such as - Will employees be able to opt out?  What will be done with the data?  How long with the data be stored for? Will employees be told what is happening with their personal information?

While these question will need to be answered before the majority of the population might embrace this product, the rise of something like Microsoft's Viva serves to legitimize the employee experience market.  I am beyond excited to see such a large organization using the appropriate level of time and money into the concept of employee experience.  I can only hope that this will mean more investment by other companies.  It makes sense to me and has for years, but it seems that this COVID-19 pandemic might have a silver lining to it: the rise of the importance of the employee experience.

With products like Microsoft Viva, 'leaders will be able to connect how people feel to how people work'.  They'll be able to discover what work habits correlate with specific employee perceptions or if manager one on ones are impacting employee engagement.  Josh Bersin also wrote how this platform is meant to address employee experience issues that would normally have been a challenge.  Populations such as retail workers, manufacturing employees, remote salespeople or other workforce segments that don't fit into the 'normal workplace' can be reached via Microsoft's new platform.  Instead of having multiple apps or systems in place for various things, Viva aims to be the one stop shop.

As I continue my journey in this corporate wellness space, it brings me such joy to see large scale impact developing for something that I've been talking about since 2016.  These changes aren't easy to make, as it take major buy-in from all stakeholders, but it is imperative that all industries respond to the demands for a more balanced workplace.  I am looking forward to see what else might pop up as companies try to compete with the bar that Microsoft has set.

-Vicky 

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