Microsoft Viva Goals is a new platform for setting and managing business goals that match your organisation’s strategic priorities from the Microsoft Viva employee experience and engagement platform in Microsoft Teams. In this blog, we take a look at the features of the new app and how it can bring purpose and alignment to your organisation.
Most organisations have made hybrid work the norm – but now the digital imperative is to ensure that the enabling technology can meaningfully connect people, places and processes. As 48% of employees and 53% of managers report finding themselves burned out, we have to look at prioritising work rather than adding to teeming task lists. Microsoft Viva Goals does just that by enabling leadership teams to bring clarity and purpose to the work their people are doing.
Integrated in Microsoft Teams, this goal setting and management solution connects employees to wider organisational goals, by bringing goals into the flow of their work. It empowers your people to align with and drive business results at scale, with a clear understanding of their impact on your organisation’s objectives and key results.
This means that business leaders can nurture high-performing teams, HR teams can improve employee experience, and your people have a better sense of purpose.
So, how exactly does the Viva Goals app do this?
Creating clarity around organisational strategic priorities
With Microsoft Viva Goals, your organisation has a single source of truth to define success by setting strategic goals, monitoring progress and assessing performance. This goes right across the organisation, scaling down from senior leadership teams to the various functions. Teams within those functions have visibility of the impact of their work on those goals. This will create clarity and alignment between daily tasks and the organisation’s goals at all levels.
Shifting focus to impact, not output
With a clear idea of the organisation’s goals, your people can shift focus from their individual day-to-day activity to the wider impact of that work. Anyone can share progress of the entire organisation or just one team with customisable dashboards, turning data into insights. This helps to align teams, allowing your organisation to stay agile at scale.
Making goals a part of everyday work
Microsoft Viva Goals is integrated in Microsoft Teams, which is the hub of work in the new hybrid workplace. With this integration, you can keep goal setting and management front of mind, alongside your project management tools. Your people will be able to update progress and view actions within the tools they are already using with the added clarity and focus that Viva Goals brings.
Getting to know OKRs
The Microsoft Viva Goals app has come about as a result of Microsoft’s acquisition of objective and key results (OKR) specialist Ally.io. But what are OKRs?
Objectives are statements of what you want to achieve and define success, while key results set out how you measure that success as you make progress on your goals. Together, OKRs are a goal-setting framework designed to give clarity. They align and focus teams to build a productive and engaged work culture – seamlessly driving your organisation’s outcomes across all levels.
With this framework in place, your organisation can shift focus from everyday output to the outcomes of that work. This helps to keep your people engaged and give them a clear sense of purpose and understanding of how their work contributes to your organisation’s strategic priorities.
What are the key features of Viva Goals?
Now we know that Viva Goals is designed to bring clarity and focus on your organisation’s objectives into everyday work, let’s find out about the tools available in the app.
Defining success with OKRs is made easy with Viva Goals, whether you’re familiar with the framework or just getting started. You can create OKRs from scratch yourself or use built-in templates.
Screenshot of the OKR template function in Microsoft Viva Goals
Viva Goals allows you to approve OKR workflows and display goal pages for teams, groups or individuals. With this context, your people can align at all levels.
Screenshot of a team view of OKR progress in Microsoft Viva Goals
For anyone working in Microsoft Teams, Viva Goals allows them to connect projects and tasks to OKRs. All of your people will be able to understand how their day-to-day tasks contribute to the organisation’s strategic priorities.
Screenshot showing how to link an OKR to a task or project in Microsoft Viva Goals
With Microsoft Viva Goals, you can create customised, dynamic dashboards to provide real-time insights into your organisation’s progress. Leadership teams can share progress, presenting at group and team meetings, as well as sending shareable links to simplified reports.
Screenshot of a custom team OKR dashboard in Microsoft Viva Goals
All of the OKR progress tracked in Microsoft Viva Goals can be shared across your organisation – your people can see the impact of their contributions as they work within Microsoft Teams. This means you can keep everyone engaged and aligned with your mission.
Empower your people with insights into your organisation’s goals
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We can support your implementation of the Microsoft Viva suite, with expert advice on the modules you can reap the most benefits from, including Viva Goals. With our Microsoft FastStart service, we can get you up and running within days so you can get started on your OKRs.
