Microsoft Viva for Internal Comms
Exploring The Employee Communications & Communities Plan
Viva is no longer a mystery. It’s the missing layer in your digital workplace — built to unify communication, engage employees, and simplify how Internal Comms (IC) teams operate.
This guide explores Microsoft Viva’s Employee Communications and Communities plan — breaking down what’s included, how it works, and why it’s fast becoming a no-brainer for internal communicators using Microsoft 365.
A Sneak at What’s Inside
Since its launch, Microsoft Viva has helped organisations engage and connect their employees by unifying key tools. But despite its continued success, Viva remains a bit of a mystery to many internal communication (IC) professionals.
This guide dives into Viva’s ‘Employee Communications and Communities’ plan to explore the different ways it can elevate your internal comms and improve the overall employee experience.
The ‘Employee Communications and Communities’ plan has been created for organisations to access the Viva apps that focus specifically on internal communication and employee engagement.
It focuses on connection, integration and engagement, and it’s here to make your life easier.
Throughout this guide, we’ll explain how Microsoft Viva works and how the ‘Communications and Communities’ plan can help you take your approach to internal communications to the next level.
Section One: What is Microsoft Viva?
In simple terms, Microsoft Viva is a suite of applications that come together to form an all-in employee experience platform. We like to think of it as the next layer of the digital workplace, building on the solid foundation laid by SharePoint and integrating applications that are purpose-built for IC and engagement.
Before Viva was introduced, Microsoft’s employee experience solution involved internal communicators working across numerous different M365 applications for different tasks, such as SharePoint for news and broadcast comms, Yammer (now Engage) for company-wide discussions, Teams for building communities, and entirely different third-party platforms for things like campaign management and scheduling.
While each of these tools might function perfectly well, the approach was all quite… fragmented.
Juggling too many digital tools and channels can lead to tech overload and cause inefficiencies, which ultimately damages the quality of our communications.
Gallagher’s 2025 Employee Communications Report highlighted that less than half of internal communicators believed their tools and channels provided a good user experience for employees (45%), and only 46% said they have the ability to create interaction and engagement via their existing channels. Many IC teams are over-capacity, under-resourced, and lacking in the right tools to do the job.
Download to continue reading and get a deep dive into Viva Connections, Viva Engage, Viva Amplify and Viva Goals.
Or, try our webinar
If you’re a watcher, not a reader – we’ve got you covered.
Demystifying Microsoft Viva
Catch up on our on-demand webinar. Focusing only on the apps that IC need to know: Connections, Engage, Amplify and Goals.
In partnership with the Institute of Internal Communication.
Get the guide
