{"id":11989,"date":"2023-08-14T11:26:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T18:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=11989"},"modified":"2023-09-05T14:26:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:26:40","slug":"using-microsoft-viva-to-boost-employee-engagement-with-sustainability-efforts-in-microsoft-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/using-microsoft-viva-to-boost-employee-engagement-with-sustainability-efforts-in-microsoft-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Microsoft Viva to boost employee engagement with sustainability efforts in Microsoft France"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MicrosoftAt Microsoft, sustainability is a top priority<\/a>. As a company, we aim to be carbon-negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030. Across the globe, there are around 10,000 employees who spend part of their time helping us work toward these goals; including in France, where our Green Wave team is raising awareness about sustainability efforts and building an eco-conscious community.<\/p>\n

Green Wave is the French chapter of Microsoft\u2019s set of global sustainability communities, and is operated fully by employees who volunteer their time and efforts.<\/p>\n

Our Green Wave team is using Microsoft Viva to consolidate resources and expand the reach of the team and its sustainability efforts. Microsoft Viva also helps our Green Wave team foster a sense of community among our employees in Microsoft France.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, complicated goals like improving our sustainability efforts present an array of obstacles. Effective communication and organization are made more challenging by the expansive size of Microsoft. Sourcing the right information and internal data also poses a challenge. For the Green Wave team, the first roadblock was finding a way to gather all the training, documentation, and company messaging surrounding our sustainability goals.<\/p>\n

\"Clement
The efforts of Delphine Clement (left), a director of Enterprise Data Governance and Microsoft France Green Wave co-leader, and Guillaume Rossi, a customer success manager and fellow Microsoft France Green Wave co-leader, were instrumental in using Microsoft Viva to get the word out on Microsoft\u2019s environmental goals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was no simple task, as sustainability is baked into the efforts of a myriad of teams throughout Microsoft. Training and documentation for sustainability initiatives are scattered across various tools and platforms such as SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and throughout Microsoft 365 applications. This was costly for the Green Wave team\u2014valuable time was being spent reiterating communications or tracking down information instead of advancing progress for key company initiatives.<\/p>\n

To overcome this, Delphine Clement, a director of Enterprise Data Governance and Microsoft France Green Wave co-leader, and Guillaume Rossi, a customer success manager and fellow Microsoft France Green Wave co-leader, sought a centralized solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought, what about Viva\u2014that could be the way we get our message out,\u201d Clement says.<\/p>\n

Clement consulted with Edith Dubuisson, her fellow Microsoft French colleague and employee success manager in Microsoft Digital Employee Experience, the company\u2019s IT organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw a lot of potential in Viva,\u201d Dubuisson says. \u201cIt seemed like the right way to connect with all of our employees in France.\u201d<\/p>\n

Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform designed to enhance productivity, well-being, and engagement in the workplace. It integrates with Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft 365 applications to serve as a centralized hub for employee resources, communication, and learning. Its key function is to enable employees to find everything they need for workplace success in one place.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Viva has multiple modules, each with a specific focus. They include Microsoft Viva Connections for company news and information, Microsoft Viva Insights for personal and team productivity analytics, Microsoft Viva Learning for training and development, and Microsoft Viva Topics for knowledge discovery and expertise sharing.<\/p>\n

[Click here to learn more about our vision for deploying Viva internally at Microsoft.<\/em><\/a> Visit our Viva content suite to get more examples on how we\u2019re using Viva internally.<\/em><\/a> Go here to learn more about our role as Microsoft\u2019s Customer Zero.<\/em><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

Customization with Microsoft Viva<\/h2>\n

Microsoft Viva is an adaptable platform, and best-use practices vary throughout different teams. For the Green Wave Team, Dubuisson emphasized implementing Microsoft Viva Topics, Microsoft Viva Engage, and Microsoft Viva Learning.<\/p>\n

Being able to identify what already exists in the company is fantastic because we didn\u2019t have to recreate the wheel, we could leverage what already existed.<\/p>\n

\u2014Edith Dubuisson, employee success manager, Microsoft Digital Employee Experience<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAt first, we leveraged Viva Topics to check to see if Green Wave existed as a topic in the system already,\u201d Dubuisson says. \u201cIt turned out that Green Wave was not a topic yet, but we were able to create it as a new one easily. Then, we made a huge discovery: Viva Topics automatically curated content that already existed regarding Green Wave. We found that there was already a Green Wave SharePoint and a Green Wave community in Viva Engage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowledge discovery aspect of Microsoft Viva Topics<\/h3>\n

Finding previously made documentation in SharePoint gave the Green Wave team a major boost. At the click of a button, Microsoft Viva Topics brought together everything that already existed around past Green Wave efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to identify what already exists in the company is fantastic because we didn\u2019t have to recreate the wheel, we could leverage what already existed,\u201d Dubuisson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Rossi and I took over responsibility for Green Wave, we didn’t have a central location to gather all the past information on Green Wave initiatives,\u201d Clement says. \u201cIt felt like magic to have Viva Topics pull together all this data and documentation that we didn\u2019t know existed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clement and her team were able to avoid starting from scratch, freeing up their time. Things continued to move swiftly, too\u2014Clement was able to create GreenWave as a topic within Microsoft Viva Topics the next day by filling out a quick form.<\/p>\n

For me, the keyword I would use to describe the benefits of Viva for us as leaders of the Green Wave program is simplicity. Maintaining SharePoint content and ensuring that what we share as a team is up to date is critical\u2014and Viva saves us a lot of time with this.<\/p>\n

\u2014Guillaume Rossi, customer success manager, Customer Success<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Once the topic for Green Wave was created, the team was able to accelerate further by using a feature that allows users to \u201cpin\u201d people as relevant to a particular topic. With this feature, Clement was able to add Guillaume Rossi.<\/p>\n

Rossi quickly felt the benefits of using Microsoft Viva Topics.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the keyword I would use to describe the benefits of Viva for us as leaders of the Green Wave program is simplicity,\u201d Rossi says. \u201cMaintaining SharePoint content and ensuring that what we share as a team is up to date is critical\u2014and Viva saves us a lot of time with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rossi also frequently used Microsoft Viva Topic\u2019s hashtag feature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hashtag feature enables us to engage with others in online conversations about Green Wave,\u201d Rossi says.<\/p>\n

This saved time by reducing the need for back-and-forth emails and repetitive explanations about the Green Wave team and its ongoing projects. When Clement and Rossi shared the Green Wave Microsoft Viva Topics hashtag, other Microsoft employees could easily view all relevant content containing that hashtag\u2014the same way hashtags work on social media platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt saves us a lot of time, because we don\u2019t have to go back and forth to grab links or specific information, and we don\u2019t have to make sure that the person we talk with is already aware of the Green Wave,\u201d Rossi says. \u201cIt brings simplicity in communicating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expanding the reach of Green Wave initiatives<\/h2>\n

Beyond being able to send hashtags to fellow employees for communication purposes, the Green Wave team has also found that the use of Microsoft Viva Topics hashtags has grown its community and expanded the reach and impact of its efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people coming to us because they saw our face in some event or some communication that used the Green Wave hashtags in their feed,\u201d Rossi says. \u201cThey become interested in what we are doing and ask questions. And we can answer with this hashtag\u2014that has been really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about connecting the dots.<\/p>\n

Industry research supports the notion that when sustainability engagement reaches a 10 percent threshold, it becomes a formidable catalyst for transforming the company from within and achieving ambitious sustainability goals. Microsoft Viva has sparked increased involvement, paving the way for further progress.<\/p>\n

\u2014Delphine Clement, director, Enterprise Data Governance<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very practical for us, because when you lead an employee community like this, especially around topics like sustainability, you want this community to expand,\u201d Clement says. \u201cBy using Viva Topics hashtags and @mentions in Viva Engage, the community around our team keeps growing itself with just basic community management.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Green Wave represents around 250 to 300 employees in France, which represents a large percentage of the Microsoft workforce in France. Growth has risen lately for the team, with Green Wave events seeing 10 percent new attendees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndustry research supports the notion that when sustainability engagement reaches a 10 percent threshold, it becomes a formidable catalyst for transforming the company from within and achieving ambitious sustainability goals,\u201d Clement says. \u201cMicrosoft Viva has sparked increased involvement, paving the way for further progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using Viva Learning to get employees up to speed<\/h3>\n

While Microsoft Viva Topics is a powerful tool for knowledge discovery, sometimes it\u2019s still helpful to do training on a platform that serves as a learning-prioritized space with in-depth content.<\/p>\n

For the Green Wave team, this means using Microsoft Viva Learning in conjunction with Microsoft Viva Topics and Microsoft Viva Engage.<\/p>\n

\u201cViva Learning is also very, very important,\u201d Dubuisson says. \u201cMany times, for training, we have a presentation with a PowerPoint deck. And there will be 10,000 links for training recommendations. It\u2019s hard to get employees to go back to the presentation deck to follow through with those links.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Dubuisson suggested that Rossi and Clement create a \u201ccollection\u201d within Microsoft Viva Learning to help onboard future members and anyone else interested in learning about sustainability efforts such as Green Wave. In Microsoft Viva Learning, the team was able to curate training materials that include internal resources, and external resources such as LinkedIn Learning sessions.<\/p>\n

To create the collection, Clement and Rossi gathered key information and documentation that they felt was relevant for training. The Green Wave collection was then made available to anyone new\u2014instead of sharing 10 links from different locations, everything is in one place.<\/p>\n

This made training easier, quicker, and less overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\"Key
\nThere are lots of ways you can use Microsoft Viva\u2014what are some ideas you have? What additional use cases would you like to hear from us around how we use Viva internally at Microsoft. Drop us a note at mdeenews@microsoft.com<\/a> and we\u2019ll see if we have a related story we can share or check to see if have an idea that we can report on and share on this platform.<\/p>\n

\"Try
\nClick here to try Microsoft Viva yourself.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Related<\/p>\n