In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, the ability to continuously develop and refine one’s skills has become increasingly critical for both individual and organizational success. At the heart of this necessity lies Microsoft Viva Learning, a transformative solution that seamlessly integrates learning into the daily workflow, empowering employees to upskill, reskill, and maintain a competitive edge.
Continuous Skill Development with Viva Learning
Personalized Learning Experiences
Viva Learning’s personalized approach to learning sets it apart from traditional training programs. By leveraging AI-powered recommendations and employee data, the platform delivers tailored content and learning paths that cater to the unique needs and goals of each individual. Whether an employee is looking to develop technical proficiencies, hone their leadership abilities, or explore new domains, Viva Learning ensures that the right learning resources are readily available at the right time.
“We want learning experiences to be relevant to each person,” explains Christopher Mead, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft Digital Employee Experience. “As such, Viva Learning is designed to understand who each learner is, including needs such as location, goals and ambitions, and learners’ previous experiences and existing skills.”
Targeted Skill Gaps
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations must be agile and adaptable to stay ahead of the curve. Viva Learning empowers IT professionals and teams to identify and address skill gaps proactively, ensuring that they possess the necessary capabilities to navigate emerging technologies and industry shifts.
“We’re helping our employees learn, grow, and succeed as they develop and foster skills that drive innovation in a competitive marketplace, ensuring that Microsoft will be better positioned to attract, engage, and retain talented people,” says Joe Whittinghill, Corporate Vice President of Talent, Learning, and Insights at Microsoft.
Learning Integration
Seamless integration is a hallmark of Viva Learning, as it seamlessly blends into the daily workflow of employees. By leveraging the power of Microsoft Teams, Viva Learning brings learning resources and opportunities directly to users, eliminating the need to navigate multiple platforms or interrupt their workflow.
“Our employees start their day in Teams and work much of the day within the Teams interface,” Mead notes. “Viva Learning integrates with multiple Teams features and contributes to learning in the flow of work.”
The Benefits of Viva Learning
Increased Productivity
Viva Learning’s integration with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem streamlines the learning process, enabling employees to access relevant resources and develop new skills without disrupting their daily tasks. This increased efficiency translates into higher productivity, as employees can quickly find the information and training they need to excel in their roles.
“Viva Learning’s content-discovery capabilities provide easy surfacing of relevant training materials to our learners and ease of access to the learning that they need,” Mead explains. “We’ve experienced a significant increase in optional learning-resource usage as a result.”
Improved Employee Engagement
When employees feel empowered to grow and develop their skills, they become more engaged, motivated, and invested in the organization’s success. Viva Learning fosters a culture of continuous learning, where employees are encouraged to take ownership of their professional development and are provided with the resources and support they need to thrive.
“We want engaged employees who feel they are supported in great careers, and so much of that is supported by learning and skilling,” Whittinghill emphasizes. “We can connect them to the learning resources they need and, through other Viva products, different aspects of learning such as knowledge management, sharing with their peers, engaging with a mentor, or better understanding how they make the most effective use of their day.”
Enhanced Career Growth
Viva Learning’s comprehensive learning platform empowers employees to explore new career paths, upskill in their current roles, and develop the skills necessary for future advancement. By providing access to a vast library of learning content, including both internal and third-party resources, Viva Learning enables employees to take control of their professional development and chart their own course for growth.
“Expanding the learning experience also helps Microsoft employees to learn different ways to do the same thing,” Whittinghill explains. “For example, running agile development teams is a big part of the software development process at Microsoft. There are many ways to these kinds of teams, and a large and diverse learning catalog exposes learners to those different formats, formulas, and approaches for a topic such as agile development.”
IT Infrastructure for Viva Learning
Azure Cloud Services
Viva Learning’s seamless integration with Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform ensures that IT professionals can leverage the latest technologies and infrastructure to support their organization’s learning initiatives. From scalable storage and computing power to advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, Azure provides a robust foundation for Viva Learning to thrive.
“We didn’t need to invest in a platform to host the front-end,” Mead explains. “We simply took advantage of our existing investment in Microsoft 365 with SharePoint and Teams.”
Microsoft 365 Integration
Viva Learning’s deep integration with the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity tools, including Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook, enables a truly comprehensive and interconnected learning experience. IT professionals can leverage these familiar platforms to deliver learning content, track employee progress, and foster a collaborative learning culture.
“Learning resources can be delivered through Teams in a one-on-one chat, a group chat, or a meeting,” Mead notes. “Our employees can infuse learning into the conversations already happening at work by sharing learning content and courses with a single-click.”
Modern Learning Management
Viva Learning’s platform-agnostic approach allows IT teams to seamlessly integrate existing learning management systems (LMS) and content repositories, ensuring a unified and streamlined learning experience for employees. This flexibility empowers organizations to capitalize on their existing investments while embracing the transformative capabilities of Viva Learning.
“We used the Viva Learning APIs not only to make the LinkedIn Learning content available through Viva Learning, but also to send data from LinkedIn Learning back to Viva Learning to track course completion and other important metadata,” Mead explains. “We can use the APIs in the same way across many learning sources, creating a unified catalog and a unified learner experience.”
Learning Trends and Strategies
Upskilling and Reskilling
In an era of rapid technological change, the ability to continuously upskill and reskill has become a crucial competitive advantage. Viva Learning supports this imperative by providing employees with access to a vast library of learning resources, enabling them to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to evolving industry demands.
“We believe training can include more than formal instruction, and our philosophy focuses on providing the right learning at the right time, in the right way,” Whittinghill explains. “In a culture of learning, our employees demonstrate a growth mindset and develop personally and professionally.”
Microlearning Approaches
Viva Learning’s integration with the daily workflow aligns with the growing trend of microlearning, where employees can access bite-sized, easily digestible learning content that can be consumed in the flow of work. This approach to learning enables IT professionals and teams to upskill and reskill in a manner that is both efficient and effective, without disrupting their productivity.
“We want our employees to be free to ask ‘why not’ and ‘what if,’ empowering them to be consistently curious and continuously learning,” Whittinghill emphasizes.
AI-Powered Recommendations
Viva Learning’s integration of AI-driven recommendations and personalization features ensures that employees receive the most relevant and valuable learning content, tailored to their individual needs and goals. This intelligent curation of learning resources helps IT professionals and teams stay ahead of the curve, quickly addressing skill gaps and adapting to emerging technologies.
“Viva Learning is structured as a hub that enables learning in the flow of work,” Mead explains. “The Viva Learning tab in Teams gives our employees access to all available learning resources in an easily navigable single view.”
As the IT landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the ability to maintain a culture of continuous learning has become a critical differentiator for organizations and professionals alike. By embracing the transformative power of Microsoft Viva Learning, IT teams can empower their employees to upskill, reskill, and thrive in an ever-changing technological landscape, ultimately driving innovation, productivity, and long-term success.
To learn more about how Viva Learning can benefit your organization, be sure to visit the IT Fix blog for the latest insights and strategies from our team of IT experts.
