News to Know – Volume 3, Edition 5, May 2026
This month’s newsletter brings you the latest updates, insights and learnings to help you turn employee listening into action with Viva Glint & Pulse. As organizations continue to navigate AI-driven change, we’re focused on helping you measure what matters, understand impact, and sustain momentum across your employee experience strategy. Important Note: There is a planned maintenance window taking place in the Viva Glint platform on May 31, 2026, starting at 1:00am Pacific time (PDT) to make updates to the SFTP infrastructure used for file-based integrations. The maintenance window is expected to last approximately 3–4 hours, during which time customers may experience limited access to both Viva Glint surveys and the platform. For more detail on what is changing and to understand what steps your organization may need to take before and after May 31st please read this blog post and visit this recently updated Learn article. New on your Viva Glint platform This section highlights new capabilities and updates now available to help you strengthen security, reporting, and administrative control in Viva Glint. Benchmark Refresh: Country and Region benchmark suites. Country and Region benchmarks have been refreshed as part of the annual benchmark update cycle. These benchmarks are labeled “Country/Region 2025 (Calendar Year)” to reflect that they are based on data collected between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. As part of this refresh, coverage has been updated—Costa Rica has been added, while Serbia has been removed due to insufficient data coverage—ensuring that all published benchmarks meet minimum data thresholds for reliability. We will be refreshing the Industry benchmark suite in the coming months. To access external benchmark comparisons in reporting, customers must opt in to benchmarking. Opting in increases the overall benchmark data pool, improves data coverage, and supports a broader set of benchmark suites. Customers who have not opted in won’t be able to view or include external benchmarks in their reports. Reporting Integrations: Additional controls for data flow from Insights to Glint. Now when you enable data flow from Insights to Glint, you will have the ability to exclude specific users and groups from having their metrics sent over. The control will be available in the Viva Glint section of Viva Feature Access Management in the M365 Admin Center. This is useful for tenants who operate in regions or parts of the organization where further approvals are needed to use workplace metrics data. You can exclude those users and groups from the feature until you get the approvals needed. More information can be found here. Coming soon to Viva Glint The following section offers an early look at capabilities coming to Glint shaping the future of continuous listening, analytics, and AI‑powered insight. Please note that public documentation (e.g., MS Learn articles) is not typically published until a feature is generally available. Copilot-supported commenting for Viva Glint survey takers | Private preview starting May. *Update: We previously shared that this would be generally available in May; instead, we’ll start with a private preview to allow additional development and testing ahead of broader release later this year. Soon, Viva Glint survey participants will be able to use an in-survey Copilot experience to polish their written feedback (please note: this capability is not available for respondents accessing surveys via attribute-based login or personalized links). Copilot can rephrase comments so employees can communicate more clearly and with greater confidence. By helping reduce distinctive writing patterns and making it easier to provide thoughtful input, the feature can increase comfort and perceived privacy—driving higher participation, richer responses, and more candid insights that organizations can act on. Custom data retention policy | Generally available starting June. Viva Glint admins will be able to configure a data retention policy for their Glint instance, defining how long Glint data is retained before it is deleted in accordance with organizational and compliance requirements. This feature enables admins to align Viva Glint data retention with company policies and compliance standards without relying on manual or backend-only processes. Custom confidentiality statement | Generally available starting June. Viva Glint admins will have the option to use Glint’s default confidentiality statement in their survey programs, or they can opt to turn off the default Glint confidentiality statement and define their own organization‑specific privacy messaging. This enables clearer, context‑appropriate communication to survey participants while maintaining Viva Glint’s core confidentiality protections and trust standards. The update helps organizations meet legal, compliance, and cultural requirements without compromising employee trust. “Select All” toggle for report filters | General availability coming soon. A new “Select All” option in the reporting filter panel will let users select or clear every attribute value in one click. This removes the pain of managing filters with long value lists, speeding up analysis and reducing manual effort. We aim to make this feature generally available in the next couple of months. Copilot Reporting: Dynamic Topics with Copilot | General availability coming soon. By leveraging Copilot, this functionality is designed to enhance the relevance and context of comment themes by extending beyond the current static set of topics and identifying customer-specific topics that can be tracked over time. These custom topics will remain confined to your platform and will not be accessible to Microsoft or other customers. This feature will also improve the accuracy of assignment to topics for both standard and dynamic categorization. We aim to make this feature generally available in the next couple of months. Seamless Entra authorization for MTO organizations | Private preview starting May. This new feature will simplify sign‑in for multi‑tenant organizations by introducing automatic tenant discovery. This new Entra‑based experience reduces reliance on MTO policies, lowers admin overhead, and aligns Viva Glint access with standard Microsoft 365 sign‑in—delivering a more scalable and seamless authentication experience. For scenarios where users need to explicitly access a different tenant (for example, guest or support access), domain selection remains available to ensure flexibility and control. We are aiming to make this generally available to our MTO customers starting in June. Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics | Private preview starting May. Improve actionability for Work-Life Balance and Collaboration focus areas by integrating Viva Insights workplace metrics into Glint reporting. This feature will help Senior Leaders in your organization access supplementary data points, in conjunction with survey responses, to better understand their team's experience and conduct more data-driven discussions on what can be improved in these areas. Between survey cycles, leaders can also enable notifications to keep track of changes in their team's workplace patterns, allowing them to keep a better pulse on behavior change commitments. Private Preview is targeted in May 2026. Future capabilities will include the ability to map Viva Insights and Copilot metrics to survey items and bring in additional data sources from M365, such as meeting metadata and content. To express your interest, please complete the following: Private Preview: Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics. If you are already part of the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program, request to join our Workplace Patterns & Continuous Listening EECC Teams subchannel through the main Glint EECC Teams channel so you can iterate on the future of continuous engagement with the product team in monthly calls. If you aren’t already part of the EECC, see the Connect with us section in this newsletter for more detail on how to join. Employee Feedback Agent | Private preview ongoing. Enhance your Employee Listen program with The Employee Feedback Agent a dynamic, AI-powered conversation, where employees can share what matters most through natural, chat-like interactions, whether prompted or always-on, enabling real-time feedback and deeper insights into the drivers behind their experiences. By combining Copilot intelligence and People Science principles, the agent streamlines feedback collection and reduces administrative overhead for HR and leaders. Unlike traditional Copilot tools that simply summarize information, the Employee Feedback Agent collects experiential data through probing questions and back and forth dialogue with employees. Future capabilities will expand impact with an actionable insights reporting experience, accelerating the “feedback-to-action” cycle. Raw Data Export API Egress | Private preview ongoing. Unlock seamless, automated access to raw survey data—no more manual downloads. Built on Microsoft Graph, these APIs make integrations easier and help admins move faster with greater efficiency. Express your interest here. See our public roadmap for more feature updates. Events and learning opportunities Stay up to date with upcoming events, recent documentation updates, and highlights from EECC customer sessions—designed to help you learn, connect, and get more value from Viva Glint & Pulse. Recent documentation enhancements: Have technical questions about Viva Glint? Microsoft Learn is your best source for clear, current guidance. We’ve expanded and refined our documentation to add detail on new capabilities, address frequent questions, and strengthen the topics customers rely on most. These updates improve clarity and consistency, making it easier to use Viva Glint with confidence. Below are a few of the most impactful recent updates now live on Microsoft Learn: Copilot access when using the “Log in as” experience added to FAQ Additional guidance around attribute configuration for Alert reports Important note added pertaining to Viva Insights data being sent to Viva Glint Clarification about Broader Team Insights configuration New SFTP IP exception details and current guidance for managing upcoming changes added EECC Customer Engagement Sessions: Upcoming sessions: May 28th, 8am PT/4pm ET – Help Shape What’s Next for Viva Glint 360 Assessments If you have opted in to EECC and are interested in participating in this session, please mark your calendar. Invites with registration link will soon be sent to all EECC members and an EECC Teams post with registration link will be posted soon! Target Audience: Viva Glint 360 Admins We’re inviting all Viva Glint 360 Assessment admins for an interactive listening session focused on the real-world experience of running 360 assessments in Viva Glint and we’d love your voice at the table. This is an opportunity for you to directly influence what comes next for Viva Glint 360s. While 360s exist in Glint today, they haven’t evolved significantly—and your insights will help determine where we invest going forward. What we’ll focus on: Where the 360 process creates friction for admins, managers, and participants Moments where workflows slow down, break, or require manual workarounds Small, high-impact improvements that could meaningfully improve the experience Expect a candid, discussion-driven session with peers who are actively running 360s and ready to share what’s working—and what’s not. Previous sessions: April 23rd - Notifications and Nudges Admin Experience in Viva Glint In this recent EECC session, we discussed how organizations are using survey notifications and Nudges in Microsoft Glint today and explored opportunities to improve the overall experience. The forum brought Viva Glint admins together to validate early ideas, share practical approaches, and provide feedback to help shape future enhancements to notification capabilities. The session covered current notification workflows used in survey programs, insights gathered from existing customer feedback channels, and early concepts for enhancements in the notifications and Nudges space. Participants highlighted gaps in the current admin and program-design experience and offered direct input on where the platform could better meet day-to-day needs. Key takeaways from the discussion included: Consensus of pain points across customer orgs and the need for foundational improvements to the notification configuration process Current Viva Glint prioritization of notification enhancements aligns well with customer expectations/enhancement desires Tangential enhancement opportunities exist that would support more seamless user experience around notifications (e.g., in-platform usage metrics, testing, etc.) If you are not yet a member of the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) 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 below. New Thought Leadership Explore the latest research and perspectives from our People Science team on leadership, AI, and the evolving employee experience. Research Drop: The Human Conditions Behind AI Value at Work. Not all employee experience factors predict AI value equally, and across three People Science surveys, they haven't held steady either. This Research Drop maps which EX conditions are stable, which are rising, and which fluctuate with context, pointing to what organizations need to build, not just deploy, to sustain real AI value. Read it here. Connect with us Stay engaged with the Viva Glint & Pulse community through the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program. The Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program offers our customers an opportunity to be part of a feedback community as employee experiences continue to evolve with Viva and Microsoft 365 Copilot. What the program provides: Product team engagement for Employee Experiences powered by Viva and M365Copilot Forums for you to influence product direction & unlock value for your organization Early insight into product roadmap Private preview engagement opportunities Connection with other enterprise customers 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.
Viva Engage for recognition feels limited, what are you all using?
We rolled out Viva Engage hoping the praise feature would help build a recognition culture but honestly its kinda buried and most employees forget its there. Our managers want something where giving recognition is part of the daily flow, like right inside a Teams chat or after a meeting. Are you running into difficulties with praise? Any best practices you can recommend so we can use it better? Or are you using something else?
Notification Experience in Viva Engage
Our company has recently adopted Viva Engage, and we've been receiving a lot of feedback from our users regarding the notification system, particularly around how it affects their ability to stay informed without being overwhelmed. We have also noticed a significant reduction in engagement from users since moving from WorkPlace to Viva Engage. Here are the main concerns we've encountered: Users who have email notifications enabled are receiving far too many alerts. Many have expressed a desire to receive email notifications only for new posts, not for every comment or reply. Those who have turned off email notifications often forget to check Viva Engage because the only way to see new activity is to manually open the app and check The app icon doesn’t show any indication of new activity. We have not adopted using the announcement feature and we don't intend to as: Only defined community specialists and admins are allowed to use this feature and we do not want to make every employee a specialist/admin for every Engage Community It requires people to remember to use the feature for every new post There are no pop-up notifications like in Microsoft Teams. The counter in Viva Engage shows updates for both new posts and comments, which many users find distracting. They would prefer to have the option to see in-app counters only for new posts, not for every interaction. I have seen people suggest the following workaround: manually unfollowing each post to avoid comment notifications. This solution is not scalable or user-friendly IMO. A more elegant solution would be to reverse the logic: users should only receive comment notifications if they choose to follow a post. Suggested Improvements: Add granular notification settings (e.g., toggle for “new posts only” vs. “all activity”). Introduce pop-up notifications for new posts, similar to Teams. Allow users to follow posts only if they want updates, rather than being auto-subscribed. Improve visual indicators on the app icon to show unread activity. We believe these changes would significantly improve the user experience and help drive engagement without overwhelming users. Has anyone else faced similar issues? Would love to hear your thoughts or if Microsoft has any updates planned in this area. Thanks!
Shopify Campaign Buy X Get Y fullfillment.
Hi, I understand from an article that campaign articles Buy X Get Y (campaign items) in Shopify must currently be fulfilled manually. But I’m wondering if anyone has found a workaround for this limitation. Specifically: - Is it possible to adjust the Shopify Connector so that the fulfillment process can be automated? - Alternatively, can we fulfill the order in Business Central and then have that fulfillment successfully sync back to Shopify? Here’s what I’ve found so far: - There is a synchronization function in Business Central: Sync Shipments to Shopify. - The Sales Shipment Line (Table 111) in BC has a row number that matches with the Shopify Order Line (Table 30119). - However, the Shopify Fulfillment Order Line (Table 30144) does not have a row number that links back to the Shopify Order Line (30119). This creates a problem: If the order contains both “normal” items and campaign items, then the normal items are fulfilled as expected. But the campaign items are ignored during the fulfillment process, because of the Shopify Product IDs and Variant IDs are identical. Has anyone found a way to handle this? Maybe through a modification of the connector? Or another method to make sure campaign items also get fulfilled automatically when syncing shipments from BC to Shopify? Any tips, experiences, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!Adding external guest users
Hi, New to Viva and have a question about external/guest users. We are trying to add external users from multiple companies into select communities. A test external user has been created and accepted a B2B invitation, but there is no option to add the user into any communities by the community admin. What is the correct way to go about adding external users in Native mode?
Usage Of Custom Email Domain for Viva Engage communications
Can you use a custom domain for all Viva Engage communications? Currently there's security concerns that emails from Viva Engage can not be allow listed since they use the same domain other tenants use. We have security concerns this maybe exploited by attackers looking to exploit the platform in malicious email attacks. What controls are there (if any) to send engagements from our custom accepted domain for the tenant so our cybersecurity teams don't have security concerns? Also can you provide documentation that keeps the platform from being exploited by a threat actors from targeting other Microsoft 365 tenants? What controls have been implemented to keep this from being active exploited? Or has this been considered? This has legitimate concerns from our cybersecurity teams. Defender 365 solutions are not an acceptable answer.
