Nurturing communities on Viva Engage – tips from the experts
Successful Viva Engage communities are often created organically to address a need, they follow organisational guidelines, they have a clear purpose and quality content, and community managers are given access to data to measure performance.
Most organisations with thriving Viva Engage networks have some core official communities, and the rest are organically created as needed, to meet a specific purpose. Many successful networks provide training sessions and guidance documents setting out roles and responsibilities, and they encourage community managers to use SWOOP Analytics for Viva Engage to keep track of their community activity and engagement.
And don’t forget governance! An annual spring clean of no-longer-used communities can be a valuable exercise.
These are some of the top tips from the best Viva Engage managers in the world. SWOOP Analytics contacted people we believe to be the world’s experts in managing and facilitating Viva Engage networks as part of the research into our 2024/25 Viva Engage Benchmarking Report.[1] We asked our experts:
How did you decide which communities should be created and used, or has it been an organic process? How do you best launch communities? How do you ensure they are successful? Do you manage/facilitate/govern communities?
Here are some of their responses.
Sage – British-based multinational business software group
Sean Zintl, Global Intranet & Channels Manager at Sage, said a core group of communities broadly aligned with key focus areas were established for the launch of Sage’s Viva Engage network in 2020. These focus areas were Customer Success, Colleague Success, and Innovation. Within these areas, specific interest groups were identified that would benefit from a more open and collaborative platform.
“So, for example, within the Customer bucket we identified groups of customer service advisors who were keen to share examples of great customer service and who would use the platform for recognition within the teams,” Sean said.
“Inside of Colleague Success we focused on an existing network of Sage colleagues who had already formed discussion and activation groups around topics like Diversity and Inclusion, Pride, Parenting or Gender – knowing that they would benefit from more easily sharing information and support across networks that span geographies and functions.
“Initially this was a fairly organic process as we wanted colleagues to discover the benefits of belonging to communities themselves.”
Apart from business updates and collaboration, Sean said Sage also wanted colleagues to have fun on Viva Engage and not view it as a serious, top-down communication channel.
“So we set up communities for things like our yearly strategy kick-off events, where we encouraged colleagues to post photographs of their various sites and activities, dressing up and generally having fun,” he said.
“We also used our 40th anniversary as an opportunity to engage all colleagues on the channel, inviting them to share stories and recollections of their time at Sage during that time. We received an overwhelming response with colleagues sharing old photos, videos, product demos and stories from across the decades, many of them quite emotional and heartwarming.”
Sean said four years later, with an ever-increasing number of users, business areas are now actively and extensively using Viva Engage to share information and connect with colleagues.
“Given the nature of our business and the geographies we operate across, we have a decentralised system of management, with key owners of each community actively involved in monitoring the health of their community,” he said.
“Giving these community owners access to SWOOP for Viva Engage has been pivotal for them in understanding how their communities are performing.
“At an organisation level we do also use the tool to monitor communities and check up with those that are obviously flatlining, to understand whether they are still needed, or need additional support to keep them going.”
Air Canada – Canadian airline
Andrew Clarke, Manager, Employee Social Media Communications at Air Canada, shares a similar story. Air Canada launched Viva Engage (then Yammer) more than 10 years ago, and Andrew said the creation of new communities was, and still is, an organic process.
The airline’s key operational branches, such as In-Flight Service, Airports, Flight Operations, Contact Centres, and Cargo, were the first to launch, allowing employees to connect and engage with others in their own branch, no matter where they were in the global Air Canada network.
Important corporate departments and focus areas of the business, such as Air Canada’s health and wellness program UBY (Unlock the Best in You), Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), Environmental Affairs, Human Resources, IT, Cyber Security and Privacy, and many more, followed suit.
“These communities help employees share knowledge, ask questions, and find answers from community admins, subject matter experts, and each other,” Andrew said.
“Over time, Air Canada’s Viva Engage network of public and private communities expanded to include social and special interest communities such as Employee Milestones, Community Photo Gallery, Travel Photography, Employee Discounts, Lost and Found, and more.”
Andrew said private communities are also leveraged for focused initiatives, such as corporate pilot projects, to engage participants in sharing their opinions and feedback, as well as training and discussion groups for newly hired flight attendants.
Department of Transport and Main Roads, Queensland Government - Australian state government department
At the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), the approach to community management has been largely organic, evolving over the years to meet the diverse needs of the workforce and changes in the working environment.
Leonie Challacombe, Principal Advisor (Digital Culture) at TMR, said a core set of Viva Engage communities based on business objectives were initially established, and from there, it has grown to encompass a wide range of interests and functions.
“TMR employees are empowered to create new communities, with guidance provided to support their success,” she said.
“Our team continues to educate and upskill employees, enabling them to manage their communities effectively. This involves offering training sessions and resources on best practices for community engagement and management.
“To maintain active and engaging communities, each year we conduct a ‘spring clean’ to declutter and remove long-term inactive communities. This helps make active communities more easily discoverable and keeps conversations thriving across TMR.”
By creating an environment where employees can manage their own communities, Leonie said it ensures Viva Engage remains a dynamic and integral part of TMR’s Digital Workplace Strategy.
National Grid - British energy group
National Grid also allows its Viva Engage network of communities to grow organically, although there is a core set of official communities that are proactively managed. These core communities include Business Unit and Function communities which are managed by the relevant colleague communication teams.
National Grid is planning to give all community managers access to SWOOP Analytics to give them a better understanding of their communities and to better run them.
“We are planning work to roll out SWOOP Analytics to community managers for our official communities later this year – to help them run their communities more effectively.”
“We have also provided training sessions and guidance documents in the past for key community managers. We have a governance document which sets out roles and responsibilities, and when and how certain functionality should be used (such as All Company announcements and featured posts).”
Sally said National Grid also has a set of “have your say” guidelines for colleagues to follow when posting, along with a moderation process for reported posts.
“However, we find we very rarely need to intervene, and usually only on extremely emotive subjects,” she said.
“We find that we don’t need to moderate proactively.”
Network Rail – owner, repairer and developer of railway infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales
Like most of the other organisations surveyed, the creation of Network Rail’s Viva Engage communities has often been organic, with the exception of certain employee communities which were launched to support the growth of particular networks.
“Administrators own certain groups but Storylines have also become a medium for individuals to use to engage colleagues – as their own personal area to share thoughts, stories etc,” said Rajinder Pryor, Head of Business Partnering at Network Rail.
Danfoss – Global engineering technology organisation
At Danfoss, anybody and everybody can create and launch a Viva Engage community. The caveat is that the community must abide by Danfoss’ internal guidelines, for example, no buying and selling, no political content, and a respectful tone.
“Many of our communities are created in connection with our sites where they share local information, but we also have a lot of communities of interest, for example, Danfoss Photographers' Group, Power BI Experts or Danfoss Assistant Network, created by colleagues with a common interest,” said Jorn Nurkka, Senior Communication Advisor at Danfoss.
“Launching a community is not a 5km run, more like a half-marathon, and it takes a lot of nurturing to make a community a success.
“To help our community owners to make their communities a success we have created a page on our intranet with tips and tricks on how to run a community, and we also have a community for community owners where they can share experiences with each other. ”
Jorn said it’s also important to ensure there is relevant and interesting information posted in the community.
“Otherwise your audience will not come back,” he said.
“It’s like going into a bar for a beer and then they don’t have beer – well, I guess you will not come back to that bar again.”
Juniper Networks – US-based networking technology company
Kevin Crossman, IT Manager and Content Collaboration Service Owner at Juniper Networks, said the creation of Viva Engage communities is organic, although some parts of the business have taken a purposeful approach to creating communities for specific audiences. For example, HR has various geographical benefits communities for people to ask questions in.
“We have branding guidelines and the Network Admin provides guidance on best practices, auto-population options, and more,” Kevin said.
“The Network Admin serves as the ‘enterprise community manager’ for the network, providing editorial guidance and taking care to keep messages on track and to weed out dead communities or test communities.”
Westpac New Zealand - bank
Initially, Westpac New Zealand took an organic approach to creating Viva Engage (then Yammer) communities.
“In the beginning we wanted people to set up the communities that made sense or mattered to them so they could get started (with Yammer) with a sense of passion for their topic, and curiosity for what was possible,” said Fiona Roberts, Senior Digital Engagement Manager at Westpac New Zealand.
“No approvals were required, just a drive to start a conversation with a bunch of like-minded colleagues!
“However, we’ve always had support available for those wanting to start a new group, and keep it going, with coaching, advice, materials (like imagery) and resources such as templates.”
Over time, Fiona said she has noticed many of those original communities have foundered, or been deleted, and replaced with fit-for-purpose communities around a single compelling proposition like a team, a project, or an initiative.
“These are far more successful because they’re set up for a specific purpose, and managed by people who have a clear idea of what they want to achieve and communicate, i.e. they’ve started with one or more key objectives,” she said.
Westpac New Zealand now has an online request process for new communities.
“As part of this, we have an intensive approach available to admins, working with them on their objectives/outcomes before they start, and helping them set their communities up for sustainable adoption and success, including communication ideas and plans to keep things fresh,” Fiona said.
“The combination of templates, resources, coaching and a support model has really helped some new or floundering communities move, over time, to the top of the most engaged communities, as measured by SWOOP.
“Even though we do provide that foundational support, mostly we take a hands-off approach to administering or managing communities and this encourages individual nuanced approaches that better connect with their respective audiences.”
Schneider Electric – Global specialist in energy
At Schneider Electric, Cecile Kozinski, Global Brand and Communications, Channel Owner – SPICE+ and Viva Engage, said the creation of communities has been a mix of organic creation and systematically creating communities for communications for the functions, countries and other entities which help ensure every employee has access to effective communication and collaboration.
“Governance model is in place with the community owners and comms leaders being the catalyst in driving communications among the important and official communities,” she said.
“The community members are also encouraged to participate and engage on the topics of their relevance and interest to keep the engagement levels high and very often above benchmarks.”
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank – Australian bank
Evita Puccio, Senior Communications Manager, Internal Engagement - Digital Channels at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank said governance is key to creating new communities, with owners of the community given clear guidelines of their responsibilities.
“Internal Communications have established a governance approach that outlines community management responsibilities, community lifecycle and how requests for new communities are managed.”
Microsoft Viva Engage Adoption and Training Consultant
Bernie Murtagh
“Don’t invite me to join your community unless you are offering canapés and fizz - aka engaging content and meaningful discussions that I can actively participate in!” – Bernie’s words to remind people to make their community engaging and worth participating in.
Bernie says communities are at the heart of the Viva Engage experience, and her approach to community creation combines strategic planning with organic growth.
“Initially, communities are established based on key business needs, such as an increase in employee engagement, enhanced communication, knowledge sharing and innovation,” she said.
“Over time, employees naturally begin to form their own communities based on common interests and emerging topics. ”
Bernie emphasises the importance of a strong launch, ensuring each community has a clear purpose and gains initial momentum through active promotion and engagement from key stakeholders.
“Viva Engage is only as good as the content we feed it through excellent community management,” she said.
To ensure success, Bernie advocates for ongoing facilitation, planning ahead with content, encouraging leader participation, and maintaining a balanced approach between governance and organic development. This allows communities to thrive naturally while aligning with the community goals. Bernie also recommends a mix of both business and social communities to foster a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
Bernie’s top community recommendations include:
All Company community: Strategically aligned and restricted in terms of who can post, but open to participation from everyone to engage with shared content.
Hobbies and Passions community: A space to showcase talents, passions, and skills outside of the workplace.
Viva Engage Training community: Dedicated to offering and delivering training, as it’s crucial to the platform’s success. Bernie stresses the importance of not assuming people will naturally understand the platform—they need support and guidance to feel confident using Viva Engage in their daily work routines.
[1] The experts contacted by SWOOP Analytics for this research are people who have been top performers in our previous benchmarking studies and recipients of a SWOOP Analytics Award for Outstanding Collaborative Performance or nominated by peers for the annual SWOOP Analytics Community Manager Award.
