Building a 10 out of 10 Employee Experience with M365

At the start of the summer, I attended the IoIC Festival, where I had the opportunity to connect with over 200 internal communicators. The event prompted me to reflect on the different ways we can put employees at the front and centre, and on the true value of authentic human connection.

We talk a lot about tools, channels and platforms. But everything we do has, and will, always come back to enabling that all-important human connection.

The release of the IC Index 2025 a few weeks later further embedded this point. A standout takeaway from the report was the need to focus our attention on the core elements that contribute to a “top-rated” employee experience, and the role effective internal communication can play in achieving it.

Investment in the right IC strategy, and the best tools and technology to implement it, has been proven to increase employee engagement and ultimately improve business outcomes. Last year’s report highlighted a stark 39-point gap in engagement between team members who said their organisation’s IC was “good” (34%), versus “excellent” (73%).

This year’s report went one step further by exploring the different factors that resulted in that “excellent” rating. Three clear things came out of the findings:

• Strong leadership connection
• Authenticity and empathy
• Active feedback loops

M365 has leading applications, tools and features that help organisations to address all these elements. We’re starting to see a significant shift as more organisations move away from high-cost third-party platforms and towards a more seamlessly integrated approach within M365.

Microsoft Viva directly addresses the need for employee experience (EX)-focused tech that is part of an organisation’s technological ecosystem, rather than a standalone platform with a separate entry point and a higher number of barriers to adoption.

On top of this, the introduction of the Viva Employee Communications and Communities bundle has made it easier, and notably tidier, for IC leads to include the required licensing as part of their annual budgets. It provides access to Viva Amplify, Microsoft’s industry-leading campaign management platform, along with the premium versions of Viva Connections and Viva Engage – all of which are easily accessed via one “front door” in Teams and underpinned by SharePoint.

This section explores how Viva’s suite of applications, along with the broader M365 ecosystem, can help address each component of a top-class employee experience.

Strong leadership connection

What the report says

Leaders are “visible, human and approachable” in organisations where employees rate their IC experience as “10 out of 10”.

These employees are more likely to hear from their CEO (or most senior leader) at least every few weeks and hear from their departmental/senior leader every few days. They are also more likely to receive communications about business priorities from their CEO/most senior leader rather than anyone else in the business, and say the CEO/most senior leader’s communication style “openly tells it as it is, inspiring, clear, authentic and approachable”.

How M365 can help

Viva Engage connects people across the organisation with leaders, colleagues, news and updates. It empowers leaders to reach, engage and listen – at scale.

There are a few Engage features that help you take leader communications to a new level.

Firstly, Leadership Corner. As the name suggests, it offers a dedicated space within Viva Engage (easily accessed via either Teams or the browser) that aggregates content from different leaders right across the organisation. It pulls together things like discussions, campaigns, posts and events, giving employees the opportunity to filter the feed to their local leaders, or set to display “all conversations”, “new conversations” or “announcements”. It also provides a comprehensive “leader directory”, and a dashboard where leaders can see recommended actions and analytics.

Another key feature within Viva Engage is the ability to host live AMA – or Ask Me Anything – events within the application. These moderated Q&A events provide a valuable opportunity for employees to connect with leaders and hear from them directly, with the support of the IC team, where needed. When combined with content, information and features from other tools within M365, creating a strong leadership connection through enhanced leader communications becomes completely achievable for companies of all sizes.

Authenticity and empathy

What the report says

Employees want communication and conversation that feels personal and motivational.

As well as regularly hearing from their leaders, the people giving their organisation’s IC that “10 out of 10” rating feel their leaders genuinely understand their challenges. They believe them to be authentic and approachable. And the research shows that this authentic and empathetic style of communication goes hand-in-hand with trust, which is a key driver of an engaged, productive and happy workforce.

In an era of mistrust, often driven by unregulated and ungoverned use of AI both internally and externally, organisations must focus on trustworthy human connection.

How M365 can help

There’s no denying that we’re in an age of AI uncertainty, with many organisations still finding their feet.

Microsoft Copilot and other AI tools are providing a revolutionary opportunity to increase productivity, cut the admin burden and take internal communication capabilities to new levels. But there are, of course, times when it’s not appropriate to outsource a task to AI.

We might all still be feeling our way through, but my take on best practice is to use Copilot as an additional resource to support your team – a friendly helper that analyses complex data in seconds and gives you a digestible summary. An employee listening whizz that gathers data and sentiment from across all of your M365 channels. It’s not a full replacement for authentic written updates from the CEO. It’s not a substitute for team leader 1:1s, and it’s also not appropriate for 100 per cent drafting and publication without moderation or human input.

There are plenty of other M365 applications and features that help you to put authenticity and empathy at the heart of your IC strategy.

Answers in Viva allows people across the organisation to learn from each other by asking and answering questions within Viva Engage, with Microsoft now introducing “Verified Answers” to build that all-important trust and credibility.

A central SharePoint intranet is also still critical for becoming the single source of truth where employees know they can access up-to-date and company-verified information.

Active feedback loops

What the report says

Organisations should prioritise two-way communication where employees not only feel heard, but can also see how their input is shaping decisions. Those who rated their IC as “10 out of 10” felt that leaders understood the challenges that people across the company were facing, and also that their organisation was good at showing how staff feedback informs strategy.

There’s still work to be done in this area, because only 60 per cent of employees said that their organisation welcomes open and honest feedback.

How M365 can help

It’s one thing for an organisation’s leadership to be receptive to open and honest feedback, but it’s another challenge entirely to have the tools in place that actively gather and analyse it. Particularly within larger companies, the practicalities behind effective employee listening can overshadow good intentions.

The important thing about employee listening – the precursor to being able to act on and communicate the impact of feedback – is that it needs to have a wide net across multiple tools and platforms. This is an area where I see many non-M365 organisations struggling. They send out one employee survey once a year and keep half an eye on their intranet analytics. This simply isn’t enough.

A true “active feedback loop” is continual, and pulls data from multiple sources right across the tech ecosystem. SharePoint analytics need to be integrated with campaign performance analysis from within Viva Amplify, which needs to be combined with data from Viva Connections. Microsoft Copilot 365 comes in handy here for automatically gathering and analysing the data across all of these platforms.

Viva Engage’s brand new Communications Dashboard also provides employee listening capabilities and sentiment analysis. The central dashboard for IC teams (and network admins) combines several different features into a single display to provide advanced moderation with keyword monitoring across all communities. The premium version of Engage goes even further with communication activity insights, plus leader and audience visibility stats.

By combining thoughtful internal communication with the right tools, organisations can create an environment where employees feel connected, valued and supported. The result is a stronger culture and a more engaged workforce, ready to meet the challenges ahead.

Originally posted by The Institute of Internal Communication.