Many of you have contacted us, asking about “Have your say”, which suddenly disappeared from the Commission’s internet, after it underwent a superficial “lift”. Either you liked to follow on various discussions, share your opinions, or even, for a stronger impact, launching a topic that was important to you. However, all of that is now gone.
No discussions, no hot topics… no problem as one could say.
If you look well, at the very bottom of the intranet front page, you will find DISCUSSIONS button, and when clicked on it, you will find a MS Teams style communities, where you will also find a channel called GRP-Have Your Say.
Without doing much of advertising, the DG HR switched a well-known discussion platform to a Microsoft Employee Communication Platform called Viva Engage. There you can join discussions launched by the Commission or create your own communities. There are specific guidelines for these communities managers, including moderation rules.
However, your voices on the new GRP-Have Your Say, indicated that you are missing the old format, its accessibility and visibility. If its current “underground” status was not an objective, let’s hope we will manage to convince DG HR to put it on the front page and maybe even “resurrect” from past discussions. Additionally, on the way to the bright new future, all past conversations got lost.
Last but not least. On 11 March 2024, the European Data Protection Watchdog (EDPS) issued a negative opinion on European Commission’s use of Microsoft 365, which infringes data protection law (also see our Newsletter of March 2024). Being a MS365 product, Viva Engage equally breaches the Data Protection Regulation.
We’d love to have your views on Viva Engage discussion platform. Feel free to post a comment below this article and after the summer holiday break, we will address DG HR on this topic.
As always, we would love to hear from you. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us or leave a comment below.
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