With today’s release of Viva Engage, Microsoft demonstrates an understanding of the challenges that leaders and communication departments face when it comes to engaging employees with the organisation. According to our research for the Social Collaboration Maturity Benchmark Report, about 50% of organisations report having issues with employee engagement. We also found that organisations with thriving social networks report higher rates of employee engagement.
Viva Engage is largely based on Yammer. The launch today differs from Yammer mostly in that the navigation of the communities has moved to the right. However, todays’ launch doesn’t include the killer feature that will make it easier to improve engagement: Storylines. People can start a storyline and use it to update their followers. Yes, it is that simple!
Why are Storylines important and how will they drive engagement?
At OrangeTrail, we have been working for years with the concept of key company narratives (yes, storylines sound quite similar). Leaders have strategic KPIs that often require understanding, focus, action, and change in the organisation. Achieving these KPIs and making change happen is one of the most difficult things to achieve for leaders. Unfortunately, many are not great at taking employees along on a journey and making them feel part of the narrative. Often, employees are only informed, and this breeds disengagement and passiveness.
So, what leaders need to do is create engaging communication plans around their strategic narratives. And Storylines are a great tool for doing just that! Through Storylines, leaders can Work Out Loud and share the day-to-day activities they are involved in while also highlighting how these relate to their key narratives. Furthermore, Storylines can facilitate large and engaging dialogues or Q&As with leaders, making it very easy for employees to follow along and join the conversation.
The bottom line: Storylines have incredible potential to help leaders engage employees around strategic topics!
On September 12th OrangeTrail and James Tyer (from the Viva Engage product team) will host a webinar. James will show the new Viva Engage and talk about the reasoning behind it. OrangeTrail will discuss why Viva Engage really matters for the comms profession. Register here.