Assemble business stakeholders and define goals

  • 10 minutes

Leadership buy-in is key to the success of your new employee experience plan. Finding out what your leaders value and the goals they have for the organization will help to drive support. Rope their attention, tell a compelling story, and clearly communicate next steps.

Here are some of the main concerns of the decision-makers and stakeholders in your organization that Viva can address:

  • How can we positively redefine our employee culture?

  • How do we assure that employees' daily work is aligned with our organizations' priorities?

  • What tools are in place to support our employees in a hybrid work environment?

  • What tools are utilized to help people collaborate in the hybrid environment?

  • How is leadership encouraging employee well-being?

  • How is leadership promoting best practices for productivity and healthy rest?

Overall, each leader needs to understand why improving employee experience matters and how their role in the plan will benefit them personally as well as the organization. Key roles and the responsibilities of each are listed in the following table.

Key roles Responsibilities
Executive Sponsors Communicate the values and vision of the new employee experience plan through Viva to the organization.
Super Champions Ensure the business goals are realized from Viva adoption.
Champions Help evangelize the Viva plan and manage objection handling.

Build your Viva team with key organization leads

Your employee experience team will work with you to plan and deploy Microsoft Viva, support employees who need help, troubleshoot problems that arise, and champion your new employee experience plan. If your organization is large enough, you might have a different manager for each Viva app or go-to technicians who can specialize in Viva. In smaller organizations, team members may need to take on multiple roles.

There are additional team roles for specific Viva apps that will be introduced later. The roles in the following table make up your core team that nurtures the new employee experience plan to success.

Team members Responsibilities
Project Lead Oversee the Viva deployment process and logistics.
Department Leads (Stakeholders) Identify how departments will use Viva and encourage engagement to help identify and smooth out issues ahead of broad launch to the whole organization.
Communications Lead Manage organizational communications and strategies for employee outreach and engagement.
Employee Training Lead Manage and communicate training content.
Objectives and Key Results (OKR) Community Own the creation and management of an internal community focused around OKRs, enabling broad discussion, and coordinating learning opportunities across the company.
L&D Leads Coordinate learning opportunities across the company, tied to OKRs.
Early Adopters Use Viva early on to provide key insights and feedback to team leaders before Viva is launched org-wide.
HR Manager Help develop plan for how Viva will fit into the rest of the employee ecosystem, inform company rollout, and drive adoption.