Viva Engage Comes to Microsoft Teams

Since Microsoft Teams launched, the question everyone has been asking is: “What does this mean for Viva Engage?”

First, let's have a quick recap as to what Viva Engage is.

Viva Engage is Microsoft’s enterprise social platform, allowing staff from multiple and varying departments and locations to come together to share thoughts and experiences on topics both work-related and... well let’s just say we’ve seen a lot of Viva Engage ‘Cat Owners’ groups in our time.

It allows for open, dynamic communication across your organisation, improving employee engagement, connecting staff with the executive team, and really breaking down barriers from traditional corporate structures to make work fun.  

With current climates, as staff are isolated and at home, we are seeing the importance of Viva Engage even more - as mental health, community spirit and employee engagement are becoming a greater focus for businesses, is Viva Engage the tool that can keep us going through these turbulent times?

When Microsoft Teams came along, many organisations felt Viva Engage was going to die a slow death. Public groups allowed anyone to join should they wish, get involved with conversations and access files.

“Conversations can happen in teams, so why do we need Viva Engage”, was an often-heard comment during workshops or business events.

Well, Viva Engage has always been the tool for building communities away from business platforms such as Teams or SharePoint. It provides that clear distinction for when something is more open and can deliver great solutions such as company-wide communication, knowledge-sharing, social groups and employee engagement and as of April 2020, Viva Engage has come to Microsoft Teams!

We've only just spoken about other recent developments in Teams but with this addition, we'll have even more to to keep a close eye on and understand how it fully fits into the platform. You can read the official Microsoft posting here.

Here are some tips and key features we are liking already!

1. Sideload the Communities App - If you are ready to roll out the app and have considered the adoption and change management aspects, you can get the app sideloaded to your Teams client. Head over to the Teams Admin centre and go to Teams apps > Setup policies > Add apps and then search for Communities.
2. Adding topics to channels - Add a topic to a channel as a tab for a great feed of information from across your organisation. Add the Communities app as a tab in the channel you want and then use the drop-downs to select Viva Engage Topic as the content type. Search for your specific #tag keyword and add the feed.
3. Got a Question? - Use the application to ask a question and get responses from your communities. Remember to mark the best answer to help others use this feature as a great Q&A platform.

If you would like to learn more about Viva Engage or Microsoft Teams, then why not get in touch with us here at Perspicuity and see how we can deliver these tools effectively and securely into your organisation.

Happy Viva Engaging!