Ready to reimagine your internal communications through Viva Engage and Viva Amplify. In this blog we explore the benefits of resetting your ESN, the benefits of Viva Engage / Viva Amplify, and what good looks like when it comes to internal comms.
The expiration date for Workplace by Meta is looming, and that deadline should be sparking deeper conversations about how your organisation communicates internally. Rather than treating a move from Workplace by Meta to Viva Engage as a lift-and-shift replacement, it’s a rare chance to rethink and redesign your internal comms ecosystem from the ground up.
At Engage Squared, we’re supporting teams across Australia, New Zealand and Japan to navigate the shift from Workplace by Meta to Viva Engage. And here’s what we’re seeing: this isn’t just a tool swap. It’s a once-in-a-decade opportunity to rebuild your internal communications ecosystem – intentionally, strategically, and with impact.
Reimagine how your organisation communicates
On the surface, switching from one enterprise social network (ESN) to another seems simple enough. Unlike your SharePoint intranet or Microsoft Teams environment, it’s not seen as a business-critical tool. But that assumption overlooks the strategic opportunity this move presents. When ESNs are left ungoverned, they become noisy, siloed, and disconnected. When they’re removed without a plan? You lose the heartbeat of your internal culture.
The move from Workplace by Meta to Viva Engage isn’t a leap of faith — it’s a strategic upgrade. Viva Engage has come a long way from its Yammer days and is now a robust platform built for two-way connection, visibility and belonging.
Speaking with countless organisations, there is typically one common pain point we see during discovery:
Sound familiar? If you’re moving from Workplace by Meta to Viva Engage, you have an exciting opportunity to reset and reimagine how your organisation communicates. Treat this change with the weight it deserves. This is your chance to build a clearer, more connected future.
And if you’re wondering how to bring your existing Workplace by Meta content along for the ride, Engage Squared has developed a purpose-built migration tool to help preserve historical posts, reduce duplication, and simplify the transition, making it easier to start fresh with the context you want to keep. Check it out in this blog.
Ask the right questions
Many organisations are struggling with digital tech-debt and a lack of understanding about “what tool to use, when”. Whether it’s email overload, ad-hoc SharePoint sites, or unstructured Teams channels, comms have become noisy and unclear.
The solution isn’t just replacing Workplace by Meta with Viva Engage. It’s stepping back, reflecting and asking:
- Who are we communicating to?
- What do they need to know, and how often?
- How do we know the message landed?
Organisations doing this well are standing up cross-functional working groups with HR, Ops, Technology and Corporate Affairs to baseline their current state and design a purposeful approach. They’re doing the ground work, to understand how their people want to be communicated to.
Breaking down Viva Engage & Viva Amplify
Organisations are choosing Viva Amplify and Viva Engage Premium as the foundation of a modern internal comms ecosystem, but it’s critical to understand that these are two distinct tools, built for very different use cases. So let’s break them down:
Viva Amplify
Viva Amplify is your communications campaign hub. Think of it as the internal equivalent of an external marketing campaign tool, instead, it’s built to help internal comms teams plan, manage and measure message delivery across multiple Microsoft 365 channels. It enables:
- Centralised message planning, creation and publishing
- Simultaneous distribution across Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, and Viva Engage
- Approval workflows and co-authoring to ensure governance
- Real-time analytics to measure open rates, clicks, sentiment and campaign effectiveness
Viva Engage
Viva Engage by contrast, is your enterprise social network. It’s designed to foster open dialogue, community engagement, and visibility across all levels of the organisation. It enables:
- Structured, purpose-driven communities (e.g. social ‘Pets at E2’, operational ‘what we’re working on’, strategic ‘Our Values).
- Leader connection through dedicated features like Leadership Corner and AMA-style Q&As
- Peer-to-peer interaction, recognition, and organic knowledge-sharing
Think of them this way: Viva Amplify drives top-down clarity. Viva Engage fuels bottom-up connection. Together, they enable a modern internal comms approach where communications management and community engagement work in tandem to reduce noise, increase transparency and drive stronger employee connection.
We saw this approach in action with HOYTS Group, who partnered with us to move from Workplace to Viva Engage. With a largely frontline workforce, they needed more than a tool swap – they needed structure, connection, and sustainability. Through strategy, alignment and community design, we helped HOYTS rebuild an internal comms model grounded in engagement and culture. Read the HOYTS case study to learn more about our approach.
What does a good a modern internal communications model look like?
There is no one-size-fits-all, because every organisation is unique. However, a modern internal communications model should be…
- Governed: clear ownership, naming conventions, roles and responsibilities.
- Structured: flexible but consistent, enabling curiosity not chaos.
- Authentic: space for authentic, meaningful dialogue, recognition and leadership connection
It’s important to get this right because internal communications aren’t just operational, they’re existential. We know this because according to Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index…
- The average employee is interrupted every 2 minutes, with over 275 daily disruptions
- 68% feel they don’t have enough uninterrupted focus time
- 86% of employees and executives cite poor communication as the primary cause of workplace failure
Moving forward
Workplace by Meta might be closing, but what comes next is entirely in your control. You don’t need to replace one tool with another. You need to rethink how your people connect, share and lead. With the right architecture, governance and strategic thinking, Viva Amplify and Viva Engage can help you go from chaos to clarity.
Whether you’re planning your exit or already in transition, now is your chance to build a better internal comms model. Get in touch to explore how we can help you:
- Audit internal communications channels
- Design governance frameworks and define what tool, when?
- Map personas and content strategies to communicate with purpose
- Leverage migration tools to support smooth transitions from Workplace to Viva Engage
Please note: Workplace goes read-only from September 1st, 2025. We suggest a lead time of at least 6-8 weeks from kick-off to launching Viva Engage and Viva Amplify. Chat to us before July 1st to reimagine your internal communications.
