Forum Discussion
What are people using to measure manager effectiveness across the org?
Our CHRO wants to start tracking how effective managers are, things like do they hold regular 1:1s, do they give timely feedback, are their team's goals on track. Right now we have zero visibility into any of this. We can pull some data from Teams usage reports but that just tells us who's chatting a lot, not who's actually managing well. Anyone found a tool or approach within the M365 ecosystem that gives you a real picture of manager effectiveness?
3 Replies
Viva Insights – Manager Effectiveness report
This is probably the closest fit to what you're describing. It's a Power BI template populated by Viva Insights data that analyzes people-manager behaviors across five themes: manager capacity, coach, empower, connect, and model. You set it up by running a predefined Manager Effectiveness query in Viva Insights, which can be configured to auto-refresh as new collaboration data comes in. It pulls from calendar/email/Teams metadata (meeting patterns, 1:1 frequency and duration, after-hours activity, etc.), so it gets you real behavioral signal — it can track things like 1:1 meeting consistency, team meeting load, and after-hours communication spillover — rather than just raw chat volume.
Yeah Teams usage reports are basically useless for this. High message count doesnt mean someone is a good manager, sometimes its the opposite haha. We had the same ask from leadership and looked at a bunch of options. What actually worked for us was the PMS we were using, Teamflect. It gives HR a dashboard that tracks the real stuff your CHRO is asking about, like are 1:1s happening on schedule, how often are managers giving feedback, whats the goal completion rate per team. All of it happens inside Teams so managers dont have to change their workflow at all. They just run their 1:1s, track goals and do reviews in the same place they already work. The nice thing is it gives you actual data to have conversations with managers instead of just guessing who's doing a good job.
Teams usage reports are the wrong primary measure: message volume shows activity, not coaching quality or team outcomes. Use a three-part scorecard.
First, run Viva Glint’s Manager Effectiveness survey for direct-report feedback on useful feedback, clear priorities, support, recognition, communication, and decision-making. Second, use Viva Insights for indicators such as recurring 1:1 coverage, meeting habits, and after-hours collaboration. Make sure the manager hierarchy is accurate in Entra ID or uploaded HR data, and keep the minimum group size high enough to protect confidentiality.
Third, bring goal progress and business outcomes from your HR, project, or OKR system; Microsoft 365 interaction data cannot prove that goals are on track, and Viva Goals is already retired.
Pilot this for 8–12 weeks with several departments. Review trends with managers as coaching data, not a leaderboard, and require qualitative context before drawing conclusions. Glint and advanced Insights capabilities also need the appropriate licensing.
