A new year brings renewed focus and fresh opportunities to listen, learn, and act. In this month’s newsletter, we’re sharing the latest updates and insights from Viva Glint & Pulse—designed to help you start the year strong and continue building meaningful, actionable employee listening programs.

New on your Viva Glint platform

Reporting: Enhancements to Executive Summary Report Export. With this release, Managers will be able to export the default sections from the Executive Summary report in Viva Glint directly to editable PowerPoint slides. This enhancement allows for easier and quicker consumption of this report outside Viva Glint, compared to the previous export method which included static screenshots.

Action Taking: Focus Area Enhancements. Customer feedback highlighted that the relationship between Focus Areas (previously referred to as goals) and survey administrations was not always clear. This was largely due to Focus Areas not being directly tied to the survey cycles from which they originated. To address this, Focus Areas are now directly connected to survey cycles, and goal periods have been removed (note that no Focus Areas were deleted as part of this update). This improvement simplifies reporting and ensures Focus Areas more accurately represent the insights gathered from your surveys. Learn more about Focus Areas here and here.

Product release strategy: a more continuous, reliable Viva Glint release experience. We’re updating how we release Viva Glint so you get value sooner—and with less waiting when dates shift.

Instead of concentrating every change on a single monthly “release day,” we’re moving to a more continuous pace. That means smaller, more frequent updates, and progressive feature rollouts.

What this means for you

• Faster access to improvements. Features ship when they’re ready—no waiting for a full month if a target date moves.
• Higher reliability. Smaller, incremental releases reduce risk and make issues easier to prevent or quickly correct.
• Clearer expectations. We’ll continue to share GA timing on the public Microsoft 365 Roadmap and call out any changes that require action.
• Minimal disruption. Most updates occur with low or zero downtime, and we’ll provide advance notice for any impactful changes.

Thank you for partnering with us as we adopt a cadence that’s better aligned to speed, quality, and your planning needs.

Coming soon to Viva Glint 

Upcoming Role Enhancements. In our February release, we’ll be making some changes to roles and permissions in Viva Glint. These changes are designed to increase security, while also providing the flexibility for enterprises to assign the appropriate responsibilities to the right users in their organization.

New Permissions in Viva Glint

By allowing enterprises to assign admin responsibilities in Viva Glint without providing complete Company Admin rights, the below changes enhance data security and offer greater flexibility for tailored workflows and specific needs.

• • Five new permissions are being introduced: Advanced Configuration, Question Library, Service Configuration (settings), and Nudges, offering more granular control over platform access and management. All existing Company Admins will be granted Advanced Configuration access by default.
  • Company Admin is now renamed to Viva Glint Service Admin, standardising the role name throughout the Microsoft ecosystem for clarity and consistency.
  • Assignment of new service admins will now be restricted exclusively to the Microsoft Admin Centre (MAC), ensuring tighter governance and streamlined administration.

Survey Designer Role

The Survey Designer Role in Viva Glint will empower organizations to assign users only the access they need to create and deploy Glint surveys, without granting broader administrative permissions. This targeted role is especially valuable for initiatives like AI transformation, hybrid work, and other change management employee listening programs, enabling teams to quickly launch feedback cycles while maintaining security and control. By streamlining survey creation and deployment, organizations can more efficiently capture employee insights and drive meaningful change.

Copilot will default to ON and move to VFAM as the single control. Starting in March 2026, Copilot in Viva Glint will default to ON for all customers, and the existing Glint admin toggles for Copilot access will be removed. From that point forward, Copilot access will be managed exclusively through Viva Feature Access Management (VFAM), providing a single, streamlined control consistent with other Microsoft Copilot experiences. This change reduces admin workload and ensures a more consistent governance experience. Please review your VFAM settings to prepare for this update. Should you have any questions about managing Copilot access through VFAM, please use this form to reach out to us.

Sign Up for Copilot Highlights | Preview. The private preview of Copilot Highlights—a dashboard feature that instantly summarizes survey results, highlighting team strengths, opportunities, and engagement trends—is now live, with customer access being enabled in phases. This feature helps managers and leaders quickly assess team status, pinpoint focus areas, and celebrate achievements. Customers can continue to express interest in joining by signing up here.

Sign Up for Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics | Preview. Improve actionability for focus areas like “Work-life balance” and “Collaboration” by bringing in workplace metrics from Viva Insights. This feature will help Senior Leaders in your organization look at supplementary data points to understand survey responses and have a more data-driven discussion with their organizations on what can be improved in these areas.  Between survey cycles, this continuous data will also help you keep your teams on track. Private Preview is targeted in March 2026, but earlier builds are available starting in January, with the opportunity to give feedback. You must enable data flow from Insights to Glint on your tenant to use this feature. Express your interest here.

See our public roadmap for more feature updates.

Events and learning opportunities

January 15^th VCCP Glint & Pulse Customer Advisory Session: Beyond HR Surveying

This month, we hosted a session on how Viva Glint is developing to support ‘Beyond HR’ scenarios and use cases. Our product team shared insights into how the next generation of Viva Glint will have a greater impact across the organization. The session aimed to confirm the direction of Viva Glint, especially regarding ‘Beyond HR’ surveys and the responsibilities of Viva Glint survey admins. If you are a VCCP member and missed the session, you can find the recording in the Teams channel.

Stay tuned for your opportunity to take part in upcoming Copilot and AI Transformation sessions coming next month!

If you are not yet a member of the Viva Customer Connection Program (VCCP) but would like to participate in upcoming sessions, as well as gain access to numerous other engaging and valuable Glint and Pulse customer activities, please see the sign-up information under "Connect with us."

Product Guidance Documentation

Have technical questions about Viva Glint? Microsoft Learn is the best go-to resource for clear, up-to-date guidance. Recent updates explain new capabilities and address common questions for topics such as:

• Adding new employee attributes
• Score calculations
• 360 report categories
• Team Conversations user experience
• Phased reporting access
• Survey program hyperlink options                            

...and more!

These updates are part of our continuous effort to keep documentation current, practical, and aligned with how Viva Glint is being used today.

New Thought Leadership

Research Drop: Designing AI Feedback Systems by Industry. Employees want a voice in AI transformation, and our latest research shows that when organizations listen early and often, adoption accelerates. And across industries, one pattern stands out – AI feedback is social. Informal conversations and team meetings remain the most powerful channels for surfacing real‑time signals about what’s working and what’s not. By designing feedback systems that meet employees in the flow of work, leaders can iterate faster and turn everyday interactions into engines of AI readiness and impact. Read it here.

Connect with us 

Join the Viva Customer Connection Program (VCCP) 

Viva Customer Connection Program (VCCP) is Microsoft’s premier customer engagement initiative designed to connect Viva product teams directly with customers like you. By enrolling, you’ll gain access to a wide range of Viva product engagements, including dedicated sessions for Viva Glint & Pulse. 

As a participant, you’ll have the opportunity to: 

• Explore Viva and Glint product visions through exclusive previews and roadmap discussions. 
• Shape product development by providing direct feedback on features, designs, and measurement models. 
• Engage with Microsoft product teams in virtual sessions that run throughout the year, including monthly meetings and iterative design reviews. 
• Network with other customers across industries and regions, sharing best practices and learning from peers. 
• By joining you will also be part of a strategic advisory group focused on Glint-specific HR, AI and People Science topics. 

If you’re interested in joining, please fill out this form so we can guide you through the enrollment process and help you get started. 

We look forward to partnering with you to build better products—together.