Your Communications Team is eyeing Microsoft Viva Engage. The platform promises a lot, but you’re wondering “Where do we start? What should our adoption plan look like? How will you measure success?”
As Transformation Change & Communication Lead, I’ve steered organisations through Digital, IT, ERP, and Finance Transformations. More importantly, I’m a fervent advocate for employee social networks, having experienced first-hand how they revolutionise the way we work.
I will tell you the story of how Shell brought in Viva Engage to solve real pain points, overhaul cross-silo collaboration and boost productivity.
I’ll offer a two lens perspective – as someone who lived through the change daily, sprinkled with a bit of advice as a strategist.
Finding the Real “Why”
Let me start with the spark that ignited everything: “We get too many emails.”
This wasn’t just another employee grumble – it was the catalyst for transformation. When Shell’s leadership truly listened, they heard beyond the complaint about full inboxes. They understood people were drowning in newsletters, announcements, corporate stories and line manager updates. Yes, all this information was crucial, but it was stealing precious time from productive work that kept the business running.
The goal became crystal clear: transform from broadcast communications to meaningful conversations. On Viva Engage, content had to earn attention through value, creating a space where employees could share insights, voice opinions and help each other succeed.
The Bold Move That Changed Everything
The moment that turned heads across the organisation – Shell’s leadership made an unprecedented decision: no leader – not one – could send newsletters or announcements via email to large groups. Only our CEO retained this privilege. Imagine that – a global energy giant essentially “turning off” email newsletters almost overnight.
Did they face pushback? You bet. But this bold move sent an unmistakable message: this wasn’t just another IT initiative. This was a business transformation backed by the C-suite, driven by clear ROI and employee needs.
Building the Foundation for Success
Let me walk you through three-pillar strategy that made this work:
1. The Face of Change
The secret weapon – “Mr. Viva Engage.” This dedicated Senior Engagement Manager evangelist became the heartbeat of the transformation.
Every day, he:
🔹Created bite-sized learning materials that made adoption feel effortless
🔹Led engaging drop-in webinars that built confidence
🔹Championed proper etiquette (yes to informal speak, no to shutting down negative comments)
🔹Guided community managers in understanding their crucial roles
🔹Ran campaigns on how to minimise “noise” with clever notification settings
2. Champions Network
I’ll let you in on another secret sauce factor – they built a network of enthusiasts like myself who already understood the power of #workoutloud culture and managed communities.
We became the amplifiers, taking the materials and message deeper into our business areas, showing rather than telling how this new way of working could transform productivity.
3. Data-Driven Confidence
Here’s something you should know about Shell – they are an engineering company that loves data. So they armed every new community manager with real-time dashboards showing:
🔹Membership growth (at country, business and global level)
🔹Engagement rankings
🔹Top contributors
🔹Trending topics
When sceptics claimed “nobody uses Viva Engage,” I’d pull up the dashboard showing 30,000 employees actively engaged. That number eventually grew to 70,000.
Success Stories that Proved the ROI
The IT Helpdesk Revolution
Picture this: cutting support time from 45 minutes to 5 seconds. With 60,000 members in this new IT community, posting an IT issue meant instant solutions from colleagues. IT agents monitored and advised on both global & frequently raised issues, but the community became my first point of call.
I believe phone calls and online chat volumes plummeted.
Insights from Alex
This insight for the Shell Helpdesk is a great example of how finding the right answer quickly can aid productivity and improve the employee’s experience. A new Engage feature called ‘Community Experts’ will support the trust in answers that are verified in a community and can be applied to a topic so that technical or niche questions are answered with confidence in the response.
Knowledge at Your Fingertips
Over time I watched Viva Engage evolve into something remarkable – a living knowledge repository that outperformed our SharePoint intranet. Instead of finding 12-year-old documents, I could find recent, relevant information in seconds. Better yet, I found subject matter experts who were vocal on Viva Engage and reached out for help.
Insights from Alex
Viva Engage is becoming more engrained in how organisational knowledge is captured and shared with the arrival of M365 Copilot and Answers in Viva within Engage. These two features are enabling access to people and trusted information faster than ever before. To make this effective, the organisation culture of ‘working out loud’ needs to be promoted by key leaders to influence wider change of habits.
Cross-Silo Collaboration
Team meeting recordings, best practice examples, lessons learnt case studies found a new home on Viva Engage. The impact was immediate:
🔹Knowledge flowed freely, accelerating team performance
🔹Leadership earned trust through transparent, real-time dialogue
🔹Global teams connected seamlessly, erasing geographical distances
🔹Success stories sparked motivation, inspiring others to share and engage
The Change Management Challenge
I’ll share a personal story. I remember one resistant leader who simply wouldn’t engage. After trying every change management technique in my toolkit, it took his manager’s intervention to create the breakthrough moment.
Sometimes, the most powerful adoption tool is seeing your leaders embrace change.
The Final Word
Let me leave you with this: before you embark on your own Viva Engage journey, start with your business problem.
Ask your C-suite about their key challenges and understand if Viva Engage is truly the solution. If yes, you’ll know exactly what metrics to track for ROI. If no, save your resources for initiatives that deliver bottom-line value.
Remember this: true digital transformation isn’t about tools – it’s about fundamentally changing how people work together.
Shell’s story proves that with clear vision, strong leadership support, and proper change management, you can turn a common workplace frustration into a productivity revolution.
If you liked reading this story, let me know via LinkedIn
Insights from Alex
With Meta withdrawing from the market, Viva Engage is positioned to become the leading product for workplace social communities. The investment into the product that Microsoft have made over the last 3 years and including of Copilot makes is the number one choice for those looking for the best alternative to Meta Workplace.

Dana Poole
Managing Director, AI & Automation Consultant and Productivity Coach
Demystifying Microsoft Viva
Hear from Microsoft Employee Experience Expert, Alvin Ashford-Quaye, on how Viva Engage – and other Viva tools – can help you build a connected and engaged culture.Â
