Microsoft released a Work Trend Index Pulse Report, “Hybrid Work Is Just Work. Are We Doing It Wrong?” on Thursday. They also unveiled updates to Microsoft Viva, its employee experience platform, that are intended to empower and energise staff members during a period of economic uncertainty.
The information shows that there is a widening gulf between workers and leaders as a result of hybrid work. They disagree on the definition of productivity, the advantages of flexibility, the function of the workplace, and how to retain autonomy while guaranteeing responsibility. To close this gap, a fresh strategy is required that acknowledges that the workplace is no longer only a physical location, but rather, it is an experience that must transcend time and space to enable workers to remain connected and engaged wherever they are.
“Thriving employees are what will give organizations a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic economic environment,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Today, we’re announcing new innovations across our employee experience platform Microsoft Viva to help leaders end productivity paranoia, rebuild social capital and re-recruit and re-energize their employees.”
Leaders can negotiate the brand-new realities of hybrid work with the guidance of the Work Trend Index Pulse Report. It is based on an outside study of 20,000 individuals conducted in 11 different countries, five of which are in the Asia-Pacific area (APAC).
Additionally, it makes use of insights from Glint People Science, LinkedIn labour trends, and analysis of billions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals. It identifies three critical pivots that every leader has to make:
- End productivity paranoia – While 83% of workers in APAC claim they are productive at work, 89% of executives say the transition to hybrid work has made it difficult for them to have faith in their staff members’ productivity. Leaders must establish alignment and clarity on the company’s objectives, get rid of busy work that undermines those objectives, and pay attention to their employees. 58% of businesses hardly ever or never gather employee input.
- Embrace that people come in for each other – 76% of employees say they need a stronger reason than corporate expectations to come into the office, but they would be driven to do so if they could interact with their coworkers (83%), or if they could strengthen team ties (83%).
This year, communication is rated as the most important ability needed for success in the workplace by both employees and leaders. - Re-skill to re-recruit your employees – According to 59% of APAC employees, switching jobs is the greatest method to advance one’s career. However, they also claim that they would remain at their firm longer if internal job transfers were simpler (72%), or if learning and development support was more beneficial (78%).
Microsoft is expanding its employee experience platform Microsoft Viva to assist businesses create an employee experience that is optimised for the way people currently work in order to solve these concerns. The updated Viva includes :
- A new app called Viva Pulse will let managers and team leads receive regular, private feedback on how their teams are doing. Viva Pulse helps managers identify what’s going effectively and where to focus by using clever templates and research-based queries. It also offers advice on what to study and how to act to meet the demands of the team.
- Viva Amplify will enable communicators and executives to communicate more effectively and consistently with their workforce. The software unifies communication campaigns, gives writing advice to enhance message resonance, enables publication across numerous channels and distribution groups in Microsoft 365, and delivers analytics for development.
- Answers in Viva, a brand-new feature that will utilise AI to match employee queries to solutions and experts from throughout the company to enable all employees benefit from collective knowledge.
- People in Viva, a feature that will make it simple for colleagues to find connections, expertise, and insights throughout the company by using AI to produce comprehensive profile cards with information on each employee’s hobbies, knowledge, and team objectives.
- Viva Engage promotes the creation of online communities through dialogue and tools for individual expression that include stories and narratives. Viva Engage will soon have a Leadership Corner where staff members may contact management directly, express opinions, take part in organisational projects, and more.
- Viva Goals assists businesses in connecting employee work to corporate objectives. A better interface with Microsoft Teams to track Objectives and Key Results is one of the new integrations in Viva Objectives that will put goals into the workflow.
OKRs, an extension to Azure DevOps to finish tasks, a connector to Power BI datasets to measure KPIs and Key Results, and connections with Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Project to update project management automatically - Improved integrations between Viva Learning and LinkedIn Learning will make it even simpler for individuals to access information from the LinkedIn Learning Hub while working in Teams. Learners will see all of their LinkedIn Learning Hub material synchronised, including personalised content, selected learning pathways, and previously completed courses, all of which will be represented right inside Viva.
Administrators will be able to set up the integration simply inside their LinkedIn Learning Hub settings – no APIs required. - Viva Sales, the platform’s first role-based experience app, will be broadly accessible on 3 October. Viva Sales integrates a seller’s CRM with Microsoft 365 and Teams to give a more simplified and AI-powered selling experience – directly in the tools they use to communicate with customers and close sales every day. Microsoft and Seismic have announced a collaboration to customise and expand client experiences using AI-generated content suggestions.
- A redesigned home experience in Viva Connections will bring all the Viva applications together in one spot to help employees start their day on track, and enhancements to the Viva briefing email will deliver more targeted productivity tips to assist employees catch up on work, meetings, and learning.
The new Viva capabilities will begin rolling out to customers in early 2023.
To learn more, visit the Official Microsoft Blog, Microsoft 365 Blog and the new Work Trend Index Pulse report.