Microsoft CEO says COVID-19 has triggered demand for employee management tech

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes that COVID-19 has given rise to demand for employee-focused tech which will outlast remote working conditions imposed by the pandemic.

Last week, Microsoft unveiled Viva, a new suite of employee management tools targeting employee engagement, learning, wellbeing and knowledge discovery. The employee experience platform is designed to help employees learn, grow and thrive, and will integrate with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.

“We have participated in the largest at-scale remote work experiment the world has seen, and it has had a dramatic impact on the employee experience,” said CEO Satya Nadella in a statement, affirming that “every organisation will require a unified employee experience from onboarding and collaboration to continuous learning and growth. Viva brings together everything an employee needs to be successful, from day one, in a single, integrated experience directly in Teams.”

Teams, which includes video calling and text chat functions, experienced a surge in popularity as COVID-19 forced businesses to adopt remote working policies and seek out virtual methods of communication.

The new tech announcement comes against the backdrop of a shift to an increasingly distributed workplace whith continual demand for solutions that emphasise corporate culture, on-the-job learning and employee wellbeing.

“From a priority perspective, empowering your people with the very best tools and systems so that they can work in spite of whatever the constraints,” the CEO said in an interview. “I don’t think anyone’s going to say, this is a nice to have. In fact, it’s essential.”

Featured Image: Instagram