How Microsoft VIVA Insights can help you and your team thrive in the hybrid workplace

 

The world of work has changed dramatically in the past few years, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More and more people are working remotely or in hybrid settings, where they have to balance their work and personal lives, collaborate with colleagues across different locations and time zones, and cope with the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation.

 

While these changes have brought many benefits, such as increased flexibility, productivity, and innovation, they have also created some risks, such as burnout, isolation, and disengagement. How can we ensure that we and our teams are not only surviving, but thriving in this new reality?

 

This is where Microsoft VIVA Insights comes in. Microsoft VIVA Insights is part of Microsoft VIVA, which is an employee experience platform built on Microsoft 365 that helps people and teams be their best from wherever they work. Microsoft VIVA Insights provides data-driven visibility into how work patterns affect wellbeing, productivity, and business performance. It offers personalized insights for building better work habits by summarizing your Microsoft 365 data about emails, meetings, calls, and chats. It also gives you useful recommendations, such as protecting time in the day for regular breaks, focused work, and learning that help improve wellbeing and boost productivity.

 

But Microsoft VIVA Insights is not just for individuals. It also helps managers and leaders understand how their teams and organizations are working, and what they can do to support them better. For example, managers can see how their team members are collaborating, communicating, and balancing their workloads. Leaders can see how work happens across the organization, and identify trends and opportunities for improvement. All these insights are privacy-protected and aggregated to respect individual privacy and support compliance with local regulations.

 

To illustrate how Microsoft VIVA Insights can help you and your team thrive in the hybrid workplace, let's look at some use cases for different roles and scenarios.

 

## Use case 1: A software engineer who wants to optimize her focus time

 

Madhuri is a software engineer who works remotely from her home office. She loves her job, but she often feels overwhelmed by the amount of emails, messages, and meetings she has to deal with every day. She finds it hard to concentrate on her coding tasks, and sometimes she works late into the night to catch up.

 

Madhuri decides to try Microsoft VIVA Insights to see if it can help her optimize her focus time. She installs the VIVA Insights app in Microsoft Teams and on the web, and starts to explore her personal insights. She sees a summary of how she spends her time at work, including how much time she spends on focused work, collaboration, learning, and wellbeing activities. She also sees how her work patterns compare to those of her peers.

 

She notices that she spends less time on focused work than her peers, and that she often has meetings during her peak productivity hours. She also sees that she rarely takes breaks during the day, and that she works longer hours than her peers.

 

Madhuri decides to follow some of the recommendations that VIVA Insights gives her to improve her focus time. She uses the Focus plan feature to book recurring blocks of time in her calendar for uninterrupted work. She also uses the Shared focus time feature to coordinate with her teammates when they want to focus together. She sets up notifications to remind her to take regular breaks throughout the day. She also uses the Focus mode feature in Teams to minimize distractions from chats and calls while she is focusing.

 

Check the picture below  which shows details of Focus plan:

 

 

Check picture below which shows how Mindfulness can be achieved  with guided Meditation  :

 

After a few weeks of using these features, Madhuri feels more productive and less stressed. She is able to finish her coding tasks faster and with fewer errors. She also feels more connected with her teammates, as they respect each other's focus time and collaborate more effectively.

 

## Use case 2: A project manager who wants to improve his team's collaboration

 

Suresh is a project manager who leads a team of six developers working on a new feature for a web application. His team is distributed across different locations and time zones. He wants to make sure that his team is collaborating well and delivering high-quality work on time.

 

Suresh decides to use Microsoft VIVA Insights to see how his team is working together. He accesses the Manager insights feature in the VIVA Insights app in Teams, which gives him a dashboard of key metrics about his team's collaboration patterns. He sees how much time his team spends on meetings, emails, chats, calls, documents, code reviews, etc. He also sees how his team members interact with each other and with other teams.

 

He notices that his team has a lot of meetings every week, but not all of them are effective or necessary. He also sees that some of his team members are more isolated than others, and that they don't communicate much with other teams. He also sees that his team has a high workload and a low wellbeing score.

 

Suresh decides to follow some of the recommendations that VIVA Insights gives him to improve his team's collaboration. He uses the Meeting feedback feature to collect feedback from his team members after each meeting, and to see how they rate the meeting's effectiveness, relevance, and engagement. He also uses the Praise sharing and trends feature to recognize his team members for their achievements, and to see how they appreciate each other's work. He also uses the No-meeting days feature to reserve one day per week for focused work and learning.

Teamwork Communication Habits :

 

Teamwork Collaborators :

 

 

After a few weeks of using these features, Suresh sees an improvement in his team's collaboration and performance. He is able to reduce the number of meetings and make them more productive and engaging. He also sees that his team members are more connected and supportive of each other, and that they communicate better with other teams. He also sees that his team has a lower workload and a higher wellbeing score.

 

## Use case 3: A senior leader who wants to drive organizational change

 

Satya is a senior leader who oversees the digital transformation strategy for his organization. He wants to drive organizational change and innovation by fostering a culture of learning, agility, and diversity.

 

Satya decides to use Microsoft VIVA Insights to see how work happens across the organization, and what he can do to support it better. He accesses the Leader insights feature in the VIVA Insights app in Teams, which gives him a comprehensive view of the organization's work patterns, trends, and opportunities. He  sees how the organization spends time on different types of work activities, such as focused work, collaboration, learning, etc. He  also sees how the organization collaborates internally and externally, across teams, functions, geographies, etc.

 

He  notices that the organization has a low learning score, which means that employees don't spend enough time on learning new skills or knowledge. He also sees that the organization has a low diversity score, which means that employees don't collaborate much with people from different backgrounds or perspectives. He also sees that the organization has a high burnout risk, which means that employees work long hours and don't take enough breaks.

Satya decides to follow some of the recommendations that VIVA Insights gives him to drive organizational change. He uses the Prebuilt report library feature to access ready-made reports on topics such as learning culture, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement, etc. He also uses the Advanced tools and prebuilt analysis accelerators feature to create custom reports and visualizations on specific questions or hypotheses. He also uses the Holistic insight across sentiment and behavioral data feature (coming soon) to combine data from VIVA Insights with data from VIVA Glint and VIVA Pulse, which are employee feedback tools that measure employee sentiment and engagement.

 

After a few months of using these features, Sayta sees a positive change in the organization's culture and performance. He is able to increase the organization's learning score by promoting a culture of continuous learning and providing access to relevant learning content through VIVA Learning. He is also able to increase the organization's diversity score by promoting a culture of inclusion and belonging and providing opportunities for cross-functional and cross-cultural collaboration. He is also able to reduce the organization's burnout risk by promoting a culture of wellbeing and balance and providing support for employee wellbeing through VIVA Insights.

 

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I hope this blog post helps you understand how Microsoft VIVA Insights can help you and your team thrive in the hybrid workplace. If you want to learn more about Microsoft VIVA Insights  contact Us.

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.in