Hey there, I'm Devin!
Most of the time you can catch me deep in the world of internal comms at Workshop (yes, the Happy Mondays folks!), and while I love AI, there are just some comms questions that need a human who really gets it… that’s me!
Hey Devin! We launched Viva Engage for colleagues at our UK digital retailer business around 6 months ago and uptake was good to begin with. A few months in, a change programme involved significant redundancies and a 45-day consultation period, during which time colleagues went quiet on the platform. We’re now through that phase but struggling to get engagement back up. Any ideas on how we could support this and energise people again?
Let me first just say that it is absolutely normal to see engagement trend down after reductions in the workforce. When people are processing this sort of uncertainty (both personally and professionally) it can really impact how they show up to work each day. And so this is a situation where internal comms or the platform didn’t do anything wrong, and it doesn’t mean that your people have lost interest for good. It’s just that trust and energy need a little bit of time to rebuild!
Before I get too deep into this question, I also want to shout out that this is where all-in-one destination tools can sometimes struggle. When things feel heavy, people aren’t naturally going to seek out a single platform. They’re engaging where they already are… or at least where they have to be for their day-to-day work. And that’s why rebuilding engagement usually takes a multi-channel approach. That could look like email, an instant messaging tool like Slack/Teams, having a knowledge base like an intranet, and so forth. One place can’t do all the work.
But anyway, to get things moving again, I’d suggest letting your leaders and managers take the first step. When employees see familiar/trusted faces sharing context or even just acknowledging where things stand — it signals that it’s okay to re-enter the conversation, and it puts some clear guardrails around what can be expected in the days and weeks to come. And this shouldn’t be super polished! A very corporate/professional-sounding memo can read insincere, instead, lead with honesty and consistency, and try to show up in a regular way.
Speaking of that, one of the things you can do is host an open Q&A with leadership. I know it can feel a little daunting, but having this on a recurring basis (as opposed to a one-off) really helps build an opportunity for employees to engage and share feedback. You can even share recordings or short summaries of those Q&A sessions on Viva Engage, which gives people a reason to come back over time, especially if they’re not quite ready to engage live but still want to stay up to date.
Then, as you start to see an uptick in engagement, I’d keep the bar really low. Not every interaction needs to be a big discussion. Those small moments still count — reactions, quick shout-outs, people highlighting good work, etc. All of those lighter touch points can help the space feel warm again without asking too much of people right away.
And last but not least, I’d give yourself permission to reset what success looks like for a little while. The benchmarks from before might not apply right now, and that’s okay.
Ultimately, the encouraging thing here is that you saw good engagement when you first launched Viva Engage, and that tells you there’s an appetite for connection in the company. You’re not starting at zero — you’re just helping employees reconnect after a difficult chapter. And with patience, a lot of that energy can come right back.
