Our client is one Australia’s leading retailer for office supplies, technology, furniture, art materials, and educational resources. They offer in-store, online, and business services like printing and IT support to help people work, learn, create, and connect.
Client
Withheld
Service
Viva Engage
Organisation size
Large
Industry
Retail
When Workplace by Meta announced its retirement, our client seized the opportunity to do more than simply transition to another platform. The organisation wanted to create a modern, integrated digital hub that would better connect frontline and corporate employees. By moving to Microsoft Viva Engage, embedded directly within Microsoft Teams, they aimed to simplify communication, amplify frontline voices, and build a stronger sense of community across the business.
Engage Squared designed and delivered a holistic change program that combined technical deployment, training, and a tailored engagement strategy.
Challenge
Despite experimenting with multiple enterprise social platforms over the years, our client still faced challenges with disconnected communication:
- Fragmented channels – Corporate updates often missed frontline teams, who weren’t logging into Workplace regularly.
- Lack of integration – Workplace sat outside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, requiring staff to leave their flow of work.
- Communication “noise” – Important messages were lost in busy communities.
- Limited frontline voice – Participation from store teams was low, and leadership struggled to engage directly with frontline staff.
The risk of disengagement was high: if the transition wasn’t handled well, our client risked further disrupting communication and weakening connection with its frontline workforce.
The challenge was clear: ensure continuity during the transition while addressing long-standing gaps in engagement.
Solution
Engage Squared delivered a comprehensive program that focused on people as much as technology. The project was structured around three phases: Discovery, Enablement, and Launch with activities designed to ensure a seamless and impactful rollout.
- Discovery & Strategy – Ran stakeholder workshops to capture pain points and co-designed a tailored enterprise social network (ESN) strategy. Defined governance, community structures, and technical alignment across Teams and Viva Engage.
- Enablement & Training – Delivered role-based training for store managers, frontline leaders, and support office staff. Produced quick reference guides, FAQs, and in-store posters to support adoption. Held interactive “Week in the Life” workshops to help employees practise new communication habits.
- Launch & Change Campaign – Coordinated a multi-channel campaign including posters, email teasers, and CEO-led launch posts. Populated communities with welcome content prior to go-live, ensuring the platform felt active on day one. Provided hypercare support and clear guidance on “which tool to use when,” with Teams positioned for direct chat and Viva Engage for communities and announcements.
When our client decided late in the program to extend Microsoft Teams access to their entire frontline workforce, Engage Squared adapted quickly – onboarding thousands of new users in time for launch. This ensured every employee could access Viva Engage from day one.
Results
The transition to Viva Engage was delivered on time, on budget, and exceeded expectations:
- Connected workforce – All 9,500+ employees are now part of one unified communications hub, with every store having its own Viva Engage community.
- Frontline engagement – Within the first week, almost 30% of staff had actively posted, liked, or replied on Viva Engage – far higher than initial adoption on Workplace. Store teams, supply chain, and other historically quieter groups became active contributors.
- Leadership visibility – Executives and store managers posted from day one, fostering two-way dialogue and making leadership feel more approachable.
- Clearer communication – With Teams for chat and Viva Engage for announcements and discussions, the “noise” of fragmented channels disappeared. Messages now reliably reach everyone – including part-time store staff.
- Cultural impact – The platform was described internally as a “box-office hit,” with Corporate Communications praising how smoothly the launch went and how engaged staff became. The clean-slate approach (no data migration, just fresh content) made the platform vibrant and useful from the outset.
By reframing the transition as an opportunity to rethink internal communications, our client achieved much more than a platform swap. The business now has a vibrant, enterprise-wide conversation happening in Viva Engage, empowering every team member to have a voice.
Key outcomes
- Connected 9,500+ employees on a single platform
- Reduced communication noise with a clear channel strategy
- Significantly improved frontline participation and leadership visibility
- Achieved a smooth, disruption-free migration within a tight timeframe and budget
- Laid the foundation for future use of Microsoft Viva modules to further enrich communications
The move to Viva Engage was more than a technology change, it was a cultural transformation. With Engage Squared’s support, the company successfully connected its entire workforce, created clarity around internal communication, and fostered stronger connections between leadership and frontline staff.
The result is a more engaged, inclusive, and unified company – proof that with the right change approach, a platform migration can become a catalyst for lasting organisational impact.
