From Workplace to Viva Engage: Unifying 8,000+ Employees at TPG Telecom

TPG Telecom, a major Australian telecommunications company that offers mobile and fixed internet services under its own brand and others like Vodafone, iiNet, and Lebara, operating extensive fixed and mobile networks.

Challenge

While Workplace was popular, particularly among retail employees, TPG Telecom faced several issues that needed to be addressed before launching a new platform:

• Platform retirement: Meta’s Workplace was being retired in 2025, requiring TPG Telecom to find a new enterprise social network by June leaving a tight timeline to roll out Viva Engage.
• Overwhelming channels: Employees reported confusion and fatigue from too many communication channels, making it hard to find information.
• Limited governance: Communities proliferated without clear ownership or strategy, creating noise and content sprawl.
• Disparate tech stack: Workplace existed outside the Microsoft ecosystem, complicating integrations and analytics. TPG Telecom wanted to simplify tools and leverage its Microsoft 365 investment.
• Migration risks: With no content migration planned, there was a real risk of adoption challenges if Viva Engage felt empty on day one.

The challenge was not just to replace a tool, but to simplify communications, build governance from the ground up, and create a vibrant, sustainable engagement platform.

Solution

Phase 1: Discovery & Strategy

We began by running a deep discovery process to understand TPG Telecom’s culture, workforce, and communication challenges. Through employee research, workshops, and analysis of existing survey data, we confirmed key pain points including too many channels, unclear guidelines, and the need for a simplified experience. These insights directly shaped a tailored communications strategy for Viva Engage, ensuring the platform launched with purpose, structure, and clear governance. The result was a strategic blueprint defining how Viva Engage would complement Teams and the intranet, supported by a channel framework and governance model designed to reduce noise and improve clarity.

Key deliverables:

• Workshops, focus groups, and surveys to capture employee pain points and aspirations.
• A Digital Workplace Communications Strategy, defining the role of Viva Engage alongside Teams, the intranet on SharePoint modern including recommendations for improvements across all platforms.
• Governance guidelines and a clear community structure to ensure purposeful, well-managed engagement from day one.

Phase 2: Implementation & Enablement

With the strategy in place, the next phase focused on configuring Viva Engage and preparing TPG Telecom’s people for change. Our consultants set up the new platform within Microsoft 365, creating key communities, enabling Viva Amplify, and embedding Viva Engage into Teams to make it accessible in the flow of work. At the same time, we placed a strong emphasis on adoption: equipping leaders, training community managers, and establishing a Champions network to seed vibrant activity from launch. This people-first approach ensured the new platform was not just ready technically but primed for engagement.

Key deliverables:

• Configuration of Viva Engage and Viva Amplify within TPG Telecom’s Microsoft 365 environment
• Creation of initial communities with clear ownership and governance
• Executive briefings and a Leaders’ Pack to build buy-in and model active use
• Training workshops and guides for community managers, leaders and Internal Communications and Change teams
• Quick reference guides, video tutorials, and mobile-friendly “how-to” resources for end users
• A Champions network established across frontline and corporate teams to drive peer-led adoption

Phase 3: Launch & Future Planning

Our final phase focused on launch readiness, rollout, and sustaining momentum. After a soft pilot to gather feedback, Viva Engage officially went live with a coordinated communications campaign supported by leaders and champions. Post-launch, we monitored adoption, captured analytics, and provided TPG Telecom with insights and recommendations to embed new habits. By combining clear governance, strong leadership engagement, and targeted comms, TPG Telecom was positioned for long-term success with a vibrant, sustainable enterprise social network.

Key deliverables:

• A successful soft launch pilot to validate readiness and gather feedback
• Company-wide launch campaign including leader-led posts, comms collateral, and in-office promotion
• Day-one adoption support including quick guides, FAQs, and a dedicated help community
• A post-launch adoption report, including early usage analytics and recommendations to sustain engagement
• A roadmap for ongoing optimisation, including future survey design and quarterly engagement review

Results

TPG Telecom successfully transformed its enterprise social network, delivering a seamless migration from Workplace to Viva Engage on time and with strong adoption across the business. By embedding clear governance, targeted communications, and leadership engagement, the project not only preserved high levels of frontline participation but also extended meaningful dialogue to corporate teams. Within the first month, adoption targets were exceeded with 80% active usage and ongoing reach above 95%, while official communities averaged 92% reach within three months. Positive sentiment was achieved early and sustained, reinforcing a modern, integrated platform that streamlines communication, strengthens culture, and positions TPG Telecom for long-term employee engagement.

Key impacts

• Seamless migration: Smooth, on-time transition from Workplace to Viva Engage with minimal disruption
• High adoption from day one: Thousands of employees actively engaged at launch, sustaining strong usage culture
• Simplified communications: Viva Amplify reduced noise and improved reach across diverse audiences
• Governance embedded: Clear roles and structures made information easier to find and more trusted
• Leaders more visible: Executives and senior leaders embraced Viva Engage, fostering authentic, two-way dialogue
• Cultural uplift: Employees reported feeling more connected and recognised, reinforcing TPG Telecom’s “one team” culture
• Future-ready platform: Integration with Teams provides a foundation for continuous evolution of employee experience

Measured outcomes

To ensure that success was tracked across TPG Telecom the team established a robust measurement framework including usage, readership and engagement analytics leveraging the Viva Engage Premium analytics suite. The team also took advantage of the annual employee survey to benchmark sentiment and favourability across the communications function.

Viva Engage & Amplify exceeded original success measures in the following areas:

• Engagement: Within the first month, Viva Engage achieved engagement levels comparable to Workplace’s peak, with early analytics showing higher interaction rates on company news posts
• Corporate adoption: 98% reach among corporate employees; 49% actively engaged (up from 25% on Workplace), and 19% posting content
• Retail reach: 95% reach across key retail communities within three months, despite minor app issues
• Executive visibility: Average 89% reach across leadership posts, with some executives achieving up to 99%
• Sentiment uplift: A huge 16% uplift in positive sentiment rose from 63% to 79% across the network

Survey improvements:

• Overall internal communications favourability up 6 points (71% → 77%)
• Executive communications email score up 4 points (81% → 85%)
• Weekly wrap newsletter up 5 points (68% → 73%) following redesign in Viva Amplify

Overall, the results demonstrate that Viva Engage has not only replaced Workplace at TPG Telecom, but significantly elevated the organisation’s internal communications capability. Strong adoption, sustained engagement, and measurable improvements in sentiment and survey scores confirm the success of a well-governed, people-centred rollout. By combining clear measurement with leadership advocacy and targeted amplification, TPG Telecom has embedded a scalable, future-ready platform that strengthens connection across frontline and corporate teams and supports a more informed, engaged, and united workforce.