Employee Experience in Microsoft Teams Using Microsoft Viva

Microsoft Viva is a new suite of applications built by Microsoft to provide a modern employee experience to anyone working in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

This chapter gives you an overview of the four existing modules currently available in Microsoft Viva, covering its main functionalities and configuration options.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Understanding Microsoft Viva
• Microsoft Viva Connections
• Microsoft Viva Topics
• Microsoft Viva Insights
• Microsoft Viva Learning

Understanding Microsoft Viva

Microsoft Viva, the new Employee Experience and Engagement suite of applications provided by Microsoft, was announced as a new concept in February 2021 and has been gradually made available to users through Microsoft Teams.

Viva includes four different modules that combine employee wellbeing, communications, knowledge, and learning resources under the same brand:

• Viva Connections: The landing page for the corporate intranet in SharePoint from Microsoft Teams.
• Viva Topics: A topic center powered by AI that puts information detail in the right context automatically. From several locations inside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, users are able to easily access information and connect to experts about specific topics without needing to manually search for it.
• Viva Insights: A dedicated application for employees and leaders that aims to make everyone's work lives better. Using this application, users are able to better track their...

Microsoft Viva Connections

Viva Connections brings your SharePoint intranet to Microsoft Teams and, at the time of writing, is the only Viva component fully available to be used in Microsoft Teams. It is also the only one that does not require an extra license for each user, being available for free to everyone in the organization.

With Connections, your users will be able to access the data stored on the intranet, consume news, and access a feed of information tailored for each user specifically, based on their activities and preferences.

The following screenshot illustrates Microsoft Viva Connections, with all its main components highlighted and described below:

Figure 7.2.1: Microsoft Viva Connections in Microsoft Teams – Desktop

1. Viva Connections application: Viva Connections is a personal application in Microsoft Teams and is accessible from the personal menu bar. The position of the icon is just representative and can be manually adjusted by...

Microsoft Viva Topics

Microsoft Viva Topics is a knowledge center powered by AI that transforms the content available in your intranet into knowledge, providing you with access to the information you need in the context you need it the most.

Topics is another pillar that runs on top of SharePoint but is accessible from Microsoft Teams, making relevant content available throughout the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Unlike Viva Connections, Topics requires a custom license for each user to have access to the topic center and all the content available in it.

To acquire licenses to use Viva Topics in your organization, visit the following site: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/buy-topics?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab.

At the time of writing, Viva Topics is not yet available for Microsoft Teams and only works for SharePoint pages. The content shown in this section is based on the public roadmap available for this product.

The setup of Viva Topics requires...

Microsoft Viva Insights

Unlike the first two Viva applications, Microsoft Viva Insights is available through Microsoft Teams only and was designed to improve your productivity and wellbeing during a work day.

Viva Insights can be seen as a personal assistant inside of Microsoft Teams that shows you relevant information based on the things you have said to others and what you have done in other Microsoft 365 applications like Outlook.

Available as a personal application in Microsoft Teams, with Viva Insights you will be able to do the following:

1. Stay connected: The AI-based system allows you to stay on top of collaborative work with your colleagues, with suggestions for meeting assistance.
2. Protect time: This feature allows you to easily protect time in your calendar so you can have time for yourself to work on your own tasks.
3. Send praise: You will be able to recognize the work of your colleagues by sending direct praise to them. This can be sent to a...

Microsoft Viva Learning

Microsoft Viva Learning is the central training repository for your organization and was designed to introduce the training and learning of new skills into the natural flow of daily work, directly from Microsoft Teams.

At the time of writing, Viva Learning is still in preview and the screenshots shown in this section may change up until the final version of the application is released. To get access to the latest updates about this application, visit the following site: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/learning.

With Viva Learning, you will see personalized content provided by Microsoft, or other Microsoft Learning partners such as LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, Microsoft 365 Training, Skillsoft, Coursera, edX, and Pluralsight.

Viva Learning is available as a personal application and as a tab to be used in teams or chats. By default, it can be added to Microsoft Teams by any user by following these steps:

...

Summary

In this chapter, you have learned how Microsoft Viva and its four pillars can be used in Microsoft Teams to unify information spread across the web and Microsoft 365, collating it all inside Microsoft Teams.

You got an overview of Viva Connections, which brings your SharePoint intranet to Microsoft Teams; Viva Topics, which gives you information about certain topics in the context where they are mentioned; Viva Insights, which works as your personal assistant and helps you balance personal life and work; and finally, Viva Learning, which provides learning courses in the same context where users are performing their daily tasks.

In the following chapter, you will learn about other Microsoft Teams use cases and how the application is adapted to solve specific industry or education challenges.