The Evolving Needs of the Hybrid Workforce
In the new era of hybrid work, employee expectations and priorities have undergone a significant shift. A recent Microsoft study found that 48% of the 20,000 people surveyed across 11 countries reported feeling burned out at work. Additionally, over 53% of the 31,000 participants in another Microsoft study prioritized health and wellbeing over work more than they did three years ago.
Employees now view a positive culture, personal wellbeing, and mental health as crucial aspects that employers must provide. To meet these changing needs, organizations must evolve their employee experience, fostering a sense of connection, collaboration, and productivity, even in a distributed workforce.
Leveraging Microsoft Viva Insights for Wellbeing and Productivity
At Microsoft, we’re using Microsoft Viva Insights as a key tool to assess and address the critical needs of the hybrid workplace. Viva Insights provides personalized insights and recommendations to help employees prioritize their wellbeing and improve their productivity within the flow of work.
The Personal insights feature in Viva Insights gives employees access to their own data, offering recommendations and opportunities to help them work smarter and achieve better work-life balance. These insights are kept private and are only accessible to the individual employee, ensuring their personal information remains confidential.
Promoting a Culture of Wellbeing and Productivity
In addition to empowering employees, Microsoft Viva Insights also provides managers and leaders with a deeper understanding of how work impacts their teams and individuals. This enables them to evaluate their leadership practices and identify opportunities for development, taking corrective measures to create positive changes.
To protect employee privacy, Viva Insights uses advanced techniques such as de-identification, aggregation, and differential privacy. This ensures that no individual activity or metric is visible to managers or organizational leaders, striking a balance between providing useful information and safeguarding personal data.
Aligning Viva Insights with Existing HR Initiatives
The implementation of Microsoft Viva Insights at Microsoft has been a collaborative effort, integrating the tool with existing HR programs and embedding it into the flow of work. This approach helps reinforce behaviors that improve wellbeing and productivity, rather than introducing Viva Insights as a standalone tool.
Our HR teams played a crucial role in defining the specific aspects of the employee experience, aligning expectations, language, and focus for the Viva Insights implementation. This collaboration ensured that Viva Insights seamlessly integrated with our existing work culture and initiatives.
Driving Change through Hybrid Approaches
To ensure the successful deployment and adoption of Viva Insights, we employed a hybrid change management approach. This involved using centralized communications alongside activities driven by local adoption teams. This hybrid strategy helped simplify and unify the overarching communications while allowing the local teams to reinforce the messaging and align it with their specific initiatives and work culture.
Our collaboration with workers’ councils in the European Union regions was also instrumental in our Viva Insights rollout. By including employee representatives in the process, we were able to accurately measure the pulse of our organization and address any privacy or data-related concerns.
Embedding Viva Insights into Team Workflows
Microsoft Viva Insights has had a significant impact on the team culture across our internal business groups. For example, one of our teams consciously chose to set their work calendar from 9 AM to 3 PM Pacific Time, allowing team members to have breakfast and dinner with their families without interruptions.
The team also dedicated two-hour focus time blocks twice a week for each team member, as well as a meeting-free Friday to help everyone focus on outstanding tasks before the week’s end. These intentional choices, supported by Viva Insights, have helped the team establish healthier work patterns and expectations, improving both productivity and wellbeing.
Lessons Learned and the Way Forward
Our journey with Microsoft Viva Insights has taught us valuable lessons. We’ve learned that integrating the tool with existing HR programs and embedding it into the flow of work is crucial for successful adoption. Viva Insights should support and affirm behaviors that improve wellbeing and productivity, rather than being introduced as a separate tool or experience.
As we continue to use Viva Insights to guide individuals and teams toward better work habits and norms, we’re also leveraging the broader insights to champion beneficial organizational practices, bring our hybrid workforce together, and address complex business challenges.
However, our work is not done. Viva Insights is a catalyst for positive change at Microsoft, and we’ll continue collaborating with the product team as Customer Zero to ensure that opportunities to assess and improve wellbeing and productivity increase for every Viva Insights customer.
When introducing Viva Insights to an organization, some key takeaways include:
-
Align with Existing HR Initiatives: Integrate Viva Insights with your organization’s existing HR programs and work culture to ensure seamless adoption and reinforce desired behaviors.
-
Embrace a Hybrid Change Management Approach: Utilize a combination of centralized communications and locally driven activities to simplify and unify the overall change management process.
-
Prioritize Privacy and Compliance: Collaborate with employee representatives, such as workers’ councils, to address privacy concerns and ensure compliance with local regulations.
-
Empower Teams to Establish Healthy Workflows: Encourage teams to consciously define their work patterns and expectations, leveraging Viva Insights to support their wellbeing and productivity.
By embracing these principles and continuing to work closely with the Viva Insights product team, organizations can unlock the full potential of this powerful tool to enhance employee productivity and wellbeing in the ever-evolving hybrid workplace.
To learn more about Microsoft Viva Insights and how it can benefit your organization, visit https://itfix.org.uk/.
