Levelling Up Workforce Engagement with SharePoint and Viva Engage

The quickest way to improve workforce engagement in a Microsoft 365 organisation is to combine a SharePoint intranet for news, policies and documents with Viva Engage for two-way conversation. SharePoint gives people one trusted place to find information, and Viva Engage gives them somewhere to ask questions, share ideas and recognise each other's work. Neither will help on its own without a plan, good content and someone looking after it.

Why is employee engagement harder with hybrid and remote teams?

When people are spread across offices, sites and homes, the informal conversations that kept everyone connected stop happening. Information ends up scattered across email, Teams chats and shared drives, and people who are not in the office every day miss things. Employee experience platforms try to fix that by giving everyone the same place to find information and the same place to talk.

What does an employee experience platform do?

In Microsoft 365 the employee experience platform is usually a combination of tools you already have:

• a SharePoint intranet for company news, announcements, policies, documents and resources
• Viva Engage for communities, conversations, questions, polls and praise
• Viva Connections, which brings intranet news and resources into Microsoft Teams

SharePoint news posts can be cross-posted to a Viva Engage community or storyline, so a single announcement reaches people where they are and the comments are kept in one conversation across both products. Microsoft makes that available to all users with a Microsoft 365 licence.

How does a SharePoint intranet help transparency?

An intranet gives company news and announcements a dedicated home, which helps people trust that what they are reading is current and official. It also becomes the central place for policies, documents and resources, available to everyone from any device. When it is well organised, people spend less time asking colleagues where something is and more time getting on with their work.

How does Viva Engage support two-way communication?

Viva Engage moves communication beyond top-down announcements. Employees can join communities around a department, a location or a shared interest, post questions and get answers, run polls, and give praise to colleagues. Leaders can use storylines to share updates and hear back from staff directly.

The core Viva Engage experience, including communities, storylines, polls, praise and questions, comes with Microsoft 365. Premium features such as leadership corner, Ask Me Anything events, storyline announcements and engagement analytics need a Microsoft Viva Suite or Viva Employee Communications and Communities licence.

What else can an employee experience platform help with?

Onboarding new starters

Put training materials, policies, team introductions and first-week checklists in one place on the intranet, and set up a Viva Engage community where new starters can ask questions without feeling they are bothering anyone. New recruits find their feet faster when everything they need is in one place.

Collaboration across teams

Document libraries, Teams channels and Viva Engage communities give people places to work together whether they sit next to each other or in different countries. The intranet ties it together by making it obvious where to go for what.

Wellbeing and recognition

A wellbeing area on the intranet can bring together support services, employee assistance information and wellbeing resources. Praise in Viva Engage gives colleagues a simple, public way to recognise each other's work, which is easy to start and costs nothing.

What do you need to get right first?

These are tools, not a fix in themselves. The things that make the difference are:

• a clear plan for what the intranet and communities are for, and who they serve
• content that is kept current, with a named owner for each section and a review date on each page
• training and support for content editors and community managers, so the platform does not depend on one person
• leaders who take part in the conversations rather than only posting announcements

Our article on digital employee experience strategy covers the planning side in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

Is Viva Engage included in Microsoft 365?

The core Viva Engage experience, including communities, storylines, polls, praise and questions, is included with Microsoft 365 through the Viva Engage Core service plan. Premium features such as leadership corner, AMAs and advanced analytics need a Microsoft Viva Suite or Viva Employee Communications and Communities licence.

What is the difference between SharePoint and Viva Engage?

SharePoint is where official content lives: news, policies, documents and department sites. Viva Engage is where conversation happens: communities, questions, polls and praise. They work best together, and SharePoint news can be cross-posted into Viva Engage so the conversation sits alongside the announcement.

How much does a SharePoint intranet cost?

ThinkShare's pre-built SharePoint intranet costs £12,500 for up to 100 users and £17,500 for up to 500 users, with a quote for larger organisations. The SharePoint and Viva Engage core licences are normally already part of your Microsoft 365 subscription.

How do you measure employee engagement on an intranet?

SharePoint provides site usage analytics and Viva Engage includes community insights showing activity and engagement. Combine those with a short pulse survey before and after launch, and track whether questions to HR and IT about where to find things go down.

Talk to us

If you want to improve engagement using the Microsoft 365 tools you already have, get in touch or read more about our Viva Engage services.