Introduction

Company Overview 

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) is Scotland's national body for tertiary education and research. The organisation responsible for funding and supporting the country's colleges, universities and research institutions.

With around 200 staff split across Edinburgh and Glasgow, SFC is relatively small for a public body, but that's part of what makes it tick. It's an organisation where culture, relationships and the ability to communicate openly really matter. People know each other, leaders are visible, and the sense of community is central to how the place works.

Situation Overview 

Scottish Funding Council (SFC) wanted to transform the way it communicated and engaged with employees. Its internal communications strategy focused on moving away from a traditional broadcast approach towards a culture of two-way engagement, with a particular emphasis on strengthening connections between colleagues and leaders.

Having chosen Viva Engage as its employee engagement platform, SFC's challenge was not simply implementing new technology, but encouraging employees and leaders to adopt new ways of communicating. The organisation wanted to create a more connected and collaborative employee experience, helping colleagues engage with one another in meaningful ways while fostering a stronger sense of community and belonging following the pandemic.

The Challenge

From Broadcast to Conversation: Rethinking Internal Communications

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) is Scotland’s tertiary education and research authority, a public body with around 200 staff across Edinburgh and Glasgow. As a relatively small but highly connected organisation, the quality of internal communication matters enormously to culture, trust and engagement.

SFC had no enterprise social network or modern intranet. Internal communications relied on email and lacked two-way engagement, limiting connection across a hybrid workforce. The pandemic had further eroded the sense of community and belonging that smaller organisations depend on.

The ambition was clear: shift the communication culture from a broadcast mentality to one that facilitates genuine two-way engagement, with a particular focus on connecting colleagues with leaders and vice versa. Having chosen Viva Engage as their platform, SFC wanted an experienced partner who would support adoption while giving them the freedom to lean into their own expertise and apply lessons from previous change programmes.

The Innovation

A Phased Launch Built on Adoption, Not Just Technology

Cocentric delivered a Viva Engage Launch Accelerator across two carefully designed phases, completed in under eight weeks from kick-off to live launch.

Phase one focused on helping people gain confidence and a sense of community and belonging lost during the pandemic. Phase two supported leaders in using more advanced features including Storylines, Leadership Corner, Campaigns and the mobile app.

The full scope of Cocentric’s delivery included:

• Change management and needs assessment to shape the deployment around SFC’s culture and objectives
• Technical deployment and community structure design
• Ambassador programme with recruitment, bespoke training sessions and drop-in support
• Leadership engagement programme to build visible, authentic leader participation from day one
• Technical upskilling for the SFC team to enable self-sufficiency in managing Viva Engage post-launch

Crucially, Cocentric adopted a “stealth” change management approach, embedding adoption naturally rather than forcing it. For a smaller, close-knit organisation like SFC, this proved far more effective than a traditional top-down rollout. Visible leadership engagement from day one was the biggest single driver of adoption and trust.

"Cocentric were everything we could have asked for in a delivery partner. Their experience and empathetic approach helped us transform our communication approach in line with our strategic objectives. The project has become a blueprint for other change initiatives, with those involved gaining a platform to share experiences with other companies and practitioners across the globe.” 

Martin Stubbs-Partridge, Scottish Funding Council

The Result

Transformational Engagement. A Blueprint for Change.

Two years on, the results remain exceptional. SFC sits in the top 25% of organisations globally for Viva Engage user adoption, as validated by Microsoft, demonstrating that strong adoption is not just a launch moment but a sustained cultural shift.

The Chief Executive regularly reaches over 90% of the 200-person organisation with their updates, with engagement exceeding 70% in employee-owned communities. Senior leaders have become champions of amplifying and celebrating other people’s work alongside their own news. A mix of topic-based and social communities has proven to be the right balance, with 70% engagement a consistent benchmark.

Perhaps most powerfully, the cultural shift from closed, email-based communication to open, visible dialogue has been profound. New EDI conversations led by a dedicated colleague via Viva Engage would simply not have been possible under the old model. Colleagues now engage in the moment, wherever they are, supported by seamless integration with the intranet and weekly newsletter.

Martin Stubbs-Partridge, who led the project at SFC, won the Reworked IMPACT Employee Experience Leader of the Year Award in 2025, a recognition that speaks to the wider organisational transformation this project helped enable.

Conclusion

The Scottish Funding Council’s Viva Engage story demonstrates what is possible when technology, change management and genuine partnership come together. By starting with culture and adoption rather than configuration and features, Cocentric helped SFC build something that is bolted to strategic bedrock, ensuring the platform remains relevant for everyone two years later.

For public sector bodies, education organisations and SMEs launching Viva Engage for the first time, SFC’s experience is a compelling model. The combination of a phased approach, ambassador networks, visible leadership engagement and a partner who truly understood the organisation made the difference.

What they said, they did. And what they built together continues to deliver.

To learn more about how we can help your business achieve similar success, explore our case studies or get in touch for a consultation. 

Platform: Microsoft Viva Engage
Services: Change Management, Needs Assessment, Technical Deployment, Adoption