Microsoft Viva is a new part of Teams that helps manage remote work better

(Pocket-lint) – Microsoft has introduced Vivo, a new area of Microsoft Teams that will help employees access all the extra information they need for working and remote working in particular. 

So for new starters it would give them all the information they need that they would otherwise have received during a physical induction. 

For longer-term employees it might be information on benefits or show them when expenses are due. It’ll also give access to things like asking questions to management, company policies, finding out how much holiday you have left or even when your next bonus is due. 

In other words, it goes beyond the existing features of Microsoft 365 – such as email, Teams calls and file sharing and collaboration. Microsoft calls it an ’employee experience’ platform and basically that means filling in the gaps that fall outside of the remit of the existing apps. 

Many companies manage these extra employee benefits, schemes and information through a smorgasbord of third-party apps, shared documents and intranets. Microsoft hopes that it can bring all these things together for scattered teams and in doing so – of course – make businesses even more dependent on Microsoft 365 than they are already. 

In a way, Viva is like a Dashboard for the business you work in and it’s probably how many employees will use it – perhaps having a glance at it first thing in the day. Access can also be different for different layers of management, so managers can use a special Viva Insight function that gives recommendations on whether employees have too much on their plate. Of course, this uses analytics from how people use Teams. 

According to Microsoft, 30 percent of workers say the pandemic has increased their sense of burnout. Employees can also access Headspace and other features designed for wellbeing and ensure they take breaks. 

Viva Learning enables employers to design and employees to access training, while Viva Topics provides proactive help – even working with third-party tools such as Salesforce and integrations from companies like Accenture. 

Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) is used by over a million businesses worldwide according to Statista – it has around 40 percent of the business suite market behind Google’s G Suite on 55 percent. 

Writing by Dan Grabham.