An update on Copilot in Viva Glint
Microsoft 365 Copilot in Viva Glint became publicly available for Viva Glint customers in November 2024. This AI feature was developed as Human Resources (HR) users and leaders of large organizations historically spend a lot of valuable time interpreting Glint survey results and comments. Copilot in Viva Glint enables leaders to understand and act on employee feedback by quickly summarizing large quantities of comments. Five months into this feature being used by our customers - how are we doing? What are our customers' experiences? What can we learn from our customer experiences as we continue to move forward and enhance Copilot in Viva Glint? To collect feedback from our first set of users, we used the following assessment criteria: Is Copilot in Viva Glint simple to understand? Is Copilot a seamless, frictionless experience that doesn’t require additional effort? Does Copilot provide insights that you trust? Does Copilot help drive action? Overall, we’re thrilled to receive ongoing customer feedback and appreciation for this new feature. This quote from one of our largest enterprise customers says so much, “We could not perform thorough comment analysis before, but [Copilot] has allowed us to study groups we couldn’t before.” In the past, this customer had to manually read thousands upon thousands of comments. Now, they are able to summarize 8,000 comments on a theme of their choice - in just a matter of seconds! We’re encouraged by what we’ve learned: Who’s using it: As expected, HR and senior leaders are diving in first. Engagement: 86% of our enabled tenants had active usage within the last five months. We can see that once Copilot is enabled, it’s getting frequent use. User satisfaction: We’re thrilled to report users are very satisfied with Copilot in Viva Glint! The Copilot chatbox experience provides comment summarization and helpful question prompts to drill down on specific themes within the summary leading to helpful data and insights. First-time users are awed by the speed and comprehensiveness of the summaries. Fueled by early customer feedback, we have made some positive changes since our initial launch, including expanding the comment summarization limit to 8,000 comments. Retention: We see increased month-to-month retention among active Copilot in Viva Glint users. It provides insights that our customers find authentic and useful, and they’re going back to see more. As we continue to build out Copilot in Viva Glint, this is what we are working toward: Copilot to be localized: We want users to be able to ask questions in their preferred language and for Copilot to respond back to them in their preferred language. Copilot to summarize all survey results: We know that if Copilot summaries can include survey scores, in addition to comment summarization, use cases for it can increase indefinitely. Each organization would have the ability to filter their data summaries to meet their unique needs. Copilot for all managers: We want Copilot to ebb downstream to empower managers of medium to small teams. With results summarization, we can reduce the response threshold for Copilot summary from 10 to 5, giving managers of smaller teams the ability able to dive right in. Copilot to encourage action taking: We need to ensure that our feedback insights are useful and then can guide managers to use feedback to improve the employee experience and business outcomes. The Microsoft People Science team and our product teams are committed to this outcome. Copilot in Viva Glint to be ‘on’ as the default setting: With Copilot turned on as the default setting, users can be encouraged – or at least curious – to give it a try. We know once they begin to use it, they will love what Copilot can do. We’re energized to be part of the AI generation. I look forward to our next Copilot in Viva Glint check-in! Hao Liu is a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft. Hao leads the Copilot in Viva Glint product, an innovative tool designed to transform enterprise employee listening programs through generative AI. Hao is a seasoned product leader experienced in driving high-performing cross-functional teams to launch enterprise SaaS products for Fortune 500 companies.Research Drop: What Organizations Ask in Employee Surveys (Plus Three Untapped Opportunities for 2025)
Research Drop in Brief: Across 729 customers, the top 20 taxonomy items included on employee surveys remained relatively stable between 2022-23 and 2023-24. eSat, our single-item engagement metric (How happy are you working at <COMPANY_NAME>?), was the most frequently utilized item across customers. All six of the People Success elements are represented among the top utilized survey items, illustrating that organizations are capturing a holistic view of the employee experience. Heading into 2025, we identified three underutilized survey items with direct links to business and employee outcomes that can offer a potential edge in the year ahead: Role Clarity, Career Paths, and Speak My Mind. #Flexibility #DEI #SkillsEconomy #AI – we are constantly presented with new trends and topics to focus on in the employee experience space that are aligned with societal influences, technology advancements, or economic changes. But are these trends reflected in the most frequently used employee survey items? How much variance do we see in the top utilized items year-over-year? To better understand these questions, we turned to our customers to learn what items they have been prioritizing on their surveys over the past two years. The answer? Of the top 20 most utilized items between 2022-23 and 2023-24, 95% of them are the same. In essence, there seems to be a core set of employee experiences and outcomes that customers across industries are consistently measuring, forming a foundational sense of employee sentiment to track and evaluate year-over-year (YoY). Beyond the top 20 most utilized items, we start to see some changes in item utilization, with items varying up to 5 percentage points in more or less customer utilization YoY. These shifts show the flexibility within employee surveys for organizations to seek feedback on experiences that may be unique to their context or to trends that are particularly relevant to their industry or size. In the top 20 most utilized items, one item broke into the top 20 in 2023-24, up 5 spots from the 25 th most utilized in 2022-23. This was our Wellbeing item (<COMPANY_NAME> takes a genuine interest in the employees' well-being). Employee wellbeing is a multi-faceted experience and continues to gain traction as a top priority for organizations and employees, and we see this reflected in the increase of customer utilization in the past year. More organizations are recognizing the tangible benefits of employee wellbeing at work 1 , and the U.S. Surgeon General released a framework for workplace mental health & wellbeing, underscoring systemic support for holistic employee health 2 . With the uptick in Wellbeing utilization, we see an example of societal changes reflected in topics of focus for our customers. Employee engagement remains the north star, but retention intentions remain relatively unexplored We recommend that your employee surveys include at least one outcome item – something to capture whether the overall employee experience promoted thriving. The current analysis showed that the most frequently utilized survey item year-over-year is eSat, our employee engagement item (How happy are you working at <COMPANY_NAME?), with 90% of customers including this item on their surveys. This aligns with our People Science recommendations, as eSat captures the end result we hope employees feel at work and has been validated as the strongest general predictor of talent and business outcomes of all 11 of our outcome items 3 . Our research shows that, on average, each additional point of engagement (via eSat) reported by employees correlated with a +$46,511 difference in market cap per employee 4 . Therefore, we are encouraged by the consistent utilization of this item by our customers as it can help them continue to measure and understand their organization’s engagement levels. Beyond engagement, our research has also shown that understanding the intended behaviors of your employees can provide a pivotal insight into whether they currently feel committed enough to the organization, their team, or their role to plan to stay onboard for the foreseeable future. Our Intent to Stay item (I plan to be working at <COMPANY_NAME> two years from now) captures this employee intention and we previously found that employees who rate this item unfavorably (Strongly Disagree or Disagree) are 10x as likely to leave their organization within 90 days as those who rate it favorably (Strongly Agree or Agree) 5 . However, we discovered that only 24% of our customers included this item in their surveys in the past year. With an ever-present competition for talent, especially within the context of AI workplace transformation 6 , it can be vital for organizations to get a pulse on the current long-term intentions of their employees. Keep an eye out for our January Research Drop where we will dive deeper into measuring and predicting employee retention! The top 10 most utilized driver items include all six People Success elements On the Viva People Science team, we ground our work in our foundational research on what makes employees happy and successful at work. We found six People Success elements that organizations can use to build their own thriving People Success culture: Wellbeing, Connection, Clarity, Empowerment, Growth, and Purpose (learn more here). Our research shows that these elements are imperative to a holistic and successful employee experience and when we took an even closer look, this time at the top ten driver items included on customer surveys last year (i.e., excluding outcome items such as eSat), we see that these items covered all six of the People Success elements. From this we can see the distribution of driver items across the People Success elements and that over half of customers integrated these top ten items into their surveys last year (even with over 200 Glint taxonomy items included in customer surveys in the same time frame). While every organization is different and has varying priorities that they need to include in their employee surveys, this broad-based distribution of People Success elements illustrates how Glint customers are not solely focused on one aspect of the employee experience, but instead taking a holistic approach to EX. Beyond the basics: Three metrics to gain an edge in 2025 For the most part, the foundational survey topics remain consistent year-over-year. But it can be helpful to plug-and-play new items into your employee surveys to continue to evolve your understanding of your employee base and their experience at your organization. To get you started thinking about topics to measure in the new year, we looked at our business outcome and engagement analysis to discover potential high-impact opportunities. Based on this, three items emerged as high value opportunities for survey inclusion: Role Clarity: I clearly understand what is expected of me in my role. Aligned with the People Success element of Clarity. Career Path: <MY_MANAGER> has meaningful discussions with me about my career development. Aligned with the People Success element of Growth. Speak My Mind: I feel free to speak my mind without fear of negative consequences. Aligned with the People Success element of Empowerment. The current utilization rate for these items ranges from 23-27%, indicating some customer use but room for growth. We may already be seeing an uptick in interest for these items heading into 2025, as Role Clarity and Career Path had the highest YoY increase in usage across customers (up 5 and 3 percentage points, respectively) across all driver items. In addition to predicting critical business and employee outcomes, research demonstrates the importance of these topics: Role clarity is a critical predictor of job performance, efficiency, intrinsic motivation, and innovative work behaviors 7 . Effective career conversations with your managers can impact employee retention, as companies that excel at internal mobility retain employees for 5.4 years, almost 2x longer than companies that struggle with internal mobility 8 . The Speak My Mind item gets at a component of Psychological Safety, which has a positive impact on turnover, stress, and productivity (Watch our recent webinar on Building Psychological Safety). Heading into 2025, these three survey items could deepen your understanding of your employees’ experience, especially as the workforce continues to undergo an AI transformation and many employees’ job tasks and career paths are being reimagined. Employees may feel uncertain about their changing role expectations and development opportunities, and anxious about sharing their feelings surrounding the changes. Providing your employees with the opportunity to share their perspective can be a differentiator in maintaining a thriving workforce amidst ongoing changes. Consider whether including one or more of these items on your surveys in 2025 would help you be better informed on your employees’ experience! The bottom line: find the balance between consistency and flexibility What we learned from this month’s research drop was that the topics that are top-of-mind for our customers have been consistent, focusing on a wide range of items spanning the six People Success elements. While this stability is helpful in being able to track employee sentiments over time, there is an opportunity to explore additional topics that may be surfacing for your employees. Try not to get caught up in flashy trends and instead focus on experiences that your employees may not have had the opportunity to provide feedback on in the past that could be critical for your organization’s strategy. But don’t forget – the most important aspect of employee surveying is acting on the feedback you receive. Want to learn more about action taking? Check out our September Research Drop on Empowering Managers to Take Action on Survey Results. Stay tuned for our January Research Drop to keep up with what the Viva People Science team is learning! The analysis for this month’s research drop examined LinkedIn Glint customer item utilization between two annual time frames, September 2022 to August 2023 (n = 729 customers) and September 2023 to August 2024 (n = 728 customers). Only items in the Glint taxonomy were included in this analysis, therefore custom items were not analyzed. 1 Forbes. (July 30, 2024). The business case for mental health: Investing in employee well-being. 2 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Workplace Mental Health & Wellbeing. 3 This research draws from employee survey responses from 1,000+ customers, collected from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022. The eSat item was utilized in various tests (e.g., multiple regression) to validate its impact on talent outcomes (e.g., attrition, performance) and business outcomes (e.g., stock return, market cap per employee). 4 Microsoft WorkLab. (April 20, 2023). The new performance equation in the age of AI. 5 Cross-customer attrition analysis (n = 33 customers) from June 2023 examining the proportional difference of all employees who have voluntarily left their companies whose item scores were unfavorable compared to those whose scores were favorable. 6 Mercer. (December 11, 2024). Future of work: 2024 global talent trends. 7 Kundu, S. C., Kumar, S., & Lata, K. (2020). Effects of perceived role clarity on innovative work behavior: a multiple mediation model. RAUSP Management Journal, 55(4), 457-472. 8 LinkedIn. (2022). Workplace Learning Report: The Transformation of L&DJanuary 2025 Viva Glint Customer Town Hall: Recap & Recording
On January 22, 2025, we held our first Viva Glint customer town hall with the goal of informing and inspiring attendees by sharing new and upcoming Viva Glint features, Viva People Science thought leadership, and programming. We started off by sharing what’s “in” and “out” for 2025. HR and IT collaborating on solving business challenges, taking advantage of all the features that Glint has to offer, and applying research from the Viva People Science team are all “in” for this coming year! Liz Pierce, Head of Product for Viva Glint and Viva Pulse, shared product updates including the importance of commercial and technical migrations to Viva Glint for those still on the LinkedIn Glint platform. She also highlighted our commitment to customer data security and privacy. Liz spoke about five key features new to Viva Glint, including self-service employee ID updates, the ability to edit questions in live surveys, the Glint and Insights integration, Copilot in Viva Glint for comment summarization, and the availability of Glint survey results in the Copilot Dashboard. We wrapped up the product section by outlining three key areas for future product investments: frictionless deployment and management, manager empowerment, and Copilot and AI transformation. We were proud to share a customer story featuring ICF, a global consulting firm. Nicole Mroczek, Senior Project Manager at Microsoft, interviewed Kate Zhdan and Colleen Scout from ICF. They shared their experience of collaborating between HR and IT to implement Viva and Copilot. They discussed their continuous listening strategy, the impact of their Viva launch on the business, and their excitement for future Viva and Copilot features. Caribay Garcia, head of Viva People Science Product Consulting and Thought Leadership, shared recent findings and upcoming research from the Viva People Science team. She discussed the importance of manager effectiveness, insights for organizations to consider in AI transformation, and provided recommendations for 2025 by highlighting their new monthly Research Drop series. We wrapped up the town hall by sharing upcoming events and programming, including the Ask the Experts series, Learning Circles program, and additions to our popular manager sessions on psychological safety. Rewatch the session here, and we welcome comments and feedback below.Harness the power of Viva Glint and Viva Pulse to drive continuous improvements
Empower your managers and leaders to gather additional information and check in on team progress by using Pulse after an org-wide Glint engagement survey. Using the Glint-identified top strengths and opportunities, the Pulse survey recommends questions that managers and leaders can use to gather a timely understanding of the team’s progress in addressing key focus areas, make mid-point adjustments if needed, and maintain momentum in their efforts to improve engagement and employee experience. This Viva Pulse and Viva Glint integration has 8 new features! Glint follow-up template: A Glint question topic will be added to the question library. When creating a survey, questions are automatically selected based on Glint drivers chosen by the author. Automated Glint email: 6 weeks after an org survey, Glint sends an email with a Pulse call-to-action to remind managers to follow up with their teams to track team progress to date. Pre-populated recipient list: Pulse prefills the survey recipient list based on the direct recipients from the Glint survey program. Glint admin controls: The Glint admin can configure which Glint survey programs the Pulse follow-ups are enabled for, the Glint roles who will receive the email notification, the timing of the Glint email notification, and preview and edit the content in the email notification. Pulse content admin: The Pulse content admin can configure the content in the Glint follow-up template and question topic by editing, removing, or deactivating content. Glint banner entry point: In addition to the Glint email notification for managers to start a Pulse follow-up, managers can access the Glint banner in the team summary and executive summary pages to start a Pulse follow-up. Confidential team conversations: Managers can use in-app support in Pulse to ask their team for more feedback around specific questions for further engagement to make progress on results. Copilot report summarization: A Copilot-powered summary based on the team’s question scores and open-ended responses is displayed at the top of the Pulse report. We’re encouraged by what we’ve learned so far: Internally, Microsoft has enabled Pulse follow-ups for the biannual Glint engagement surveys to empower managers to show their employees what matters to them. We saw a 7x increase in Pulse follow-ups sent in February 2025, compared to January 2025 and a 7.5% clickthrough rate on the email we sent to Microsoft managers. We had 9 customers participating in our Private Preview. Both within Microsoft and through our Private Preview, managers have reported feeling like this capability fills a much-needed gap between survey cycles. Customers previously reported managers were sending their own surveys to collect data between engagement surveys, but now they can collect data with a standardized, HR-sponsored method across their teams. We continue to receive feedback that highlights how this feature makes it easier to share results and obtain continuous and honest feedback between managers and their teams. As we continue to iterate on this integration between Viva Pulse and Viva Glint, we’re working towards: Inline survey creation in Glint: Managers can follow up with their teams with a Pulse survey directly within Glint, without needing to be directed to a separate app. Copilot authoring to personalize Pulse follow-up: Copilot recommends survey questions and titles based on Glint scores, open-ended comments, and Glint top opportunities and strengths. Pulse follow-up telemetry for Glint admins: Glint admins can see Pulse follow-up usage telemetry in the Glint admin dashboard for a funnel view of number of Pulse follow-ups sent and number of users who have higher scores after using Pulse follow-ups. Delegate access to send Pulse follow-up: Delegates will automatically be granted access to send Pulse follow-ups on behalf of their leaders, without manual configuration required. Pulse data can be analyzed in Glint: Pulse data collected in the follow-up survey, with scores, verbatims, and Copilot report summarization will be visible in Glint alongside the Glint survey results. Managers can slice and dice the Pulse data in Glint. Getting started and resources To use Pulse to follow up with your teams after your Glint engagement results, you must have one of the following subscription licenses: Viva Suite Viva Workplace Analytics and Employee Feedback For more information on what we've released and documentation for how to set up the integration, please review the following Microsoft Learn documentation: Take actions with Viva Pulse after Viva Glint engagement surveys. We’re excited to help you drive continuous improvements in your organization by leveraging the power of Viva Glint and Viva Pulse. Stay tuned as we continue iterating on this feature! Michelle Hu is a Product Manager 2 at Microsoft. Michelle leads the growth strategy for Viva Glint and Copilot Analytics to support HR Copilot transformation efforts, improve M365 Copilot GTM and deployment, and help organizations measure Copilot ROI.
News to Know - Volume 2, Edition 1 - January 2025
Welcome to the first Viva Glint newsletter for 2025. Recurring communications coincide with platform deployments to help you get the most out of the Viva Glint product. You can access the current newsletter and past editions on the Viva Glint blog. Glint released its latest new features and enhancements on January 18, 2025. Follow along with what features are ahead on the Viva Glint product roadmap. In case you missed our Viva Glint Town Hall... On January 22, we hosted our first Viva Glint town hall of 2025. Hundreds of customers joined us to catch up on product updates, to learn about our newest thought leadership, and to hear customer success stories. You can read the recap and watch the recording here. New on your Viva Glint platform Additional encoding options and fewer upload challenges. In addition to Unicode Transformation Format 8 (UTF-8), Viva Glint now accepts UTF-8 Byte Order Mark (UTF-8 BOM) data files. Organizations can now upload either encoding for CSV files to transfer employee data to Glint. Learn more about Glint data file requirements. Expanded raw data export options! More options enhance the analysis and reporting experience of your raw data exports. New export options for admins include the ability to see the survey cycle UUID, survey start date, comments topics, and sensitive comments flagged. A date filter option is also available. Learn more. Multi-page Comment Report exports now available! When Comment Report exporting was first deployed, the export was limited to one page only. Now your entire report is available for export. Lengthy reports will take extra time to export, of course! Learn more. Get ready for these upcoming platform changes Zero downtime during monthly Glint platform deployments begin on February 15! Previously, as we deployed new product features and enhancements, an in-platform banner let you know that the platform would be shut down for 4-8 hours and that your employees wouldn’t be able to access their Glint surveys. Beginning February 15, no need to mention upcoming downtime to survey takers or to schedule survey windows around deployments. Viva Glint language support code updates are on their way. As part of our ongoing transition to align to Microsoft standards and best practices, beginning on April 10, 2025, some supported languages and codes will change to reflect current standards and improve the user experience. A new column in the Language Codes tab of the Employee Attribute Template shows the changes effective April 10, 2025. Upcoming events Ask the Experts | January 28, February 11, February 18 Ask the Experts sessions provide you with an opportunity to interact with Viva Glint experts and Viva Glint customers on common challenges and topics related to implementing an employee listening strategy. Register: January 28: Viva Glint support options and resources February 11: data file preparation February 18: user roles and permissions Learning Circles | January 29 Open to all customers, Learning Circles provide connection with like-minded industry professionals to share knowledge, stories, and challenges related to the employee experience. Register for the event. Read this blog to learn about our redesigned program based on your feedback. Psychological Safety for Managers | February 19 Employees with lower psychological safety at work are 4x as likely to indicate a desire to quit their jobs, and 31% indicate they are not motivated to do their best work. Psychological safety is a key component of healthy team dynamics. Register for this popular manager webinar. Building Psychological Safety Amidst Change | March 3 A majority of organizational change efforts fail, even while much attention is given to best practices, frameworks, and methods for rolling out organizational change. What do people need when facing change? How can managers best facilitate this process? Register for this manager webinar. New Microsoft Viva blogs Top 10 Tips for Measuring Your AI Transformation with Viva Craig Ramsay, Principal People Scientist, provides a comprehensive guide on measuring the implementation and impact of Microsoft 365 Copilot using Viva measurement apps. This new blog offers practical tips and strategies for AI Change Leaders to ensure successful AI transformations within their organizations. How Microsoft Viva became a business transformation engine at Microsoft Microsoft leverages the Microsoft Viva experience to focus on human-centered transformation that aligns with the company’s culture of growth, achievement, and inclusivity. Read our story and learn how to adopt this framework at your organization. Research Drops: Viva People Science publishes new research analyses and insights across a variety of EX topics as a part of this monthly series. What Organizations Ask in Employee Surveys | Heading into 2025, we identified three underutilized survey items with direct links to business outcomes and employee experience. Understanding Voluntary Turnover through Employee Sentiment | Learn about the implications of turnover and how to measure turnover intentions. If you have any feedback on this newsletter, please reply to this email. Also, if there are people on your team that should be receiving this newsletter, please have them sign up using this link. *Viva Glint is committed to consistently improving the customer experience. The cloud-based platform maintains an agile production cycle with fixes, enhancements, and new features. Planned program release dates are provided with the best intentions of releasing on these dates, but dates may change due to unforeseen circumstances. Schedule updates will be provided as appropriate.What’s New with Viva Glint Benchmarks?
Viva Glint has some exciting news! We’ve streamlined the benchmark generation process and released new global benchmarks for 2025. Read on for the latest about our benchmark types, automated generation methodology, and a review of how scores have evolved since our last release in 2024. Viva Glint maintains a rich normative database of these cross-company scores. With over 10+ years of benchmarking experience, Glint’s database includes data from 700+ global customers across virtually every industry. Because most Viva Glint customers use a common set of core survey questions, Viva Glint can calculate robust benchmarks on a large number of survey items using customer data exclusively. This extensive dataset provides breadth (many companies, regions, industries) and recency (rolling 12-month data) for each benchmark comparison. The Viva Glint benchmarks are only generated for Viva Glint standard items. Our benchmark suites give you options for the best score comparison Viva Glint offers a variety of benchmark datasets, called “suites” for different contexts, all drawn from that common dataset. Key benchmark suites include: Global benchmark – An average of scores across all Glint customers (all industries and regions). High-Performing benchmarks – Top 10% or top 25% of organizations (sometimes called “global top 10% / 25%”) for a given item, providing an aspirational norm. (Note: These are calculated as the threshold score to be in the top tier, not a simple average of top companies.) Industry benchmarks – Norms computed from companies in a particular industry (e.g. Tech, Healthcare, Finance, etc.). Country or Regional benchmarks – Norms from companies in a given country or geographic region (available for common regions like North America, Europe, etc.). Employee Lifecycle (i.e., onboarding and exit) are included in the Global, Industry, Country and Region suites when there is sufficient data. Specialized benchmarks – For specific use cases, such as Nursing Excellence in healthcare, Viva Glint provides tailored comparisons for those populations. Getting your 2025 benchmarks Note that in Viva (the M365 environment), organizations must opt in to use external benchmarks. Opting in ensures your company consents to your data being used in the anonymous pool for benchmarks – which also enables you to see the benchmarks. Opt-in is a one-time step by survey administrators which allows external benchmark processing for their survey data. This ensures benchmarks will be available in their company reports. To opt in and gain access to the 2025 benchmarks, follow the steps outlined in this Learn document. If a company has not opted in, they will not see benchmark comparisons in any reports. They will only see internal comparators. Admins can Opt-in or Opt-out at any time. Viva Glint’s new benchmark generation process ensures greater confidentiality In compliance with Microsoft data security standards, the People Science team has implemented an automated process that enables us to generate and review benchmark suites without accessing or seeing customer data directly. Here’s an overview of how Viva Glint automatically creates and refreshes the benchmark suites: Note: Customers who opt out are not included in this process. This new process ensures that Viva Glint’s benchmarks are robust, current, and reflective of real-world data. A few important points about our benchmark methodology: Refresh Cadence: Viva Glint refreshes Global benchmarks twice yearly (for example, “2024 Global June” and “2024 Global December” versions). High-performing global benchmarks (top 10% / 25%) are also refreshed twice a year. The industry and country benchmarks refresh annually. Rolling 12-Month Data Window: Viva Glint uses a rolling one-year window of data for benchmark refreshes to ensure recency. The database contains hundreds of millions of responses – so one year of data provides a reliable sample for most norms*. This 12-month cadence provides: Statistical Stability: Ensures benchmarks capture true norms but are not overly reactive to short-term fluctuations. Planning Alignment: Annual updates align with organizational planning and goal-setting cycles. Actionability: Frequent enough to reflect change, but stable enough to guide decisions. Client-Only Data: With Viva Glint’s robust customer base, we’ve used a client-only approach for benchmark data since 2021. Representativeness: Thanks to hundreds of organizations and millions of employee responses in the data, Viva Glint’s benchmarks are very robust across industries and regions. Industry suites similarly aggregate dozens or hundreds of companies in each sector. Coverage: Benchmarks are only provided for items that meet a strict usage threshold. At present, over 175 survey items are benchmarked, covering all the common engagement and experience topics in Viva Glint’s surveys. Survey response confidentiality and data security: The benchmarks generation process is completely eyes-off. This automated process generates only aggregated scores. This process ensures data security and individual respondent confidentiality. *To ensure adequate data coverage, some specialty benchmark suites may use a 24- month data window. Using your benchmarks in the Viva Glint reporting experience In Viva Glint’s reporting dashboard, benchmark comparisons are integrated into the results views so that managers and leaders can easily see them. Here’s a brief review of key features. Default Comparison: When a survey is configured, the program admin selects a default comparison setting for reports. This could be an internal baseline (like “Company Overall”) or an external benchmark (such as “Global benchmark”). Report Settings – Changing Comparators: Users with access to reports (e.g., HRBPs, managers) can change the external benchmark suite (or select another comparison group) interactively in the Reports tab for a survey Accessing Specific Benchmark Values: In some parts of the Viva Glint report (such as detailed views for each question), you might see the actual benchmark score provided for reference. For example, clicking on a particular question could show a breakdown like: Team X score: 60; Company: 65; Benchmark: 70. Benchmark Suites Names: The specific benchmark being used is often identified by name/year. For example, you might see “Global 2024 (Jun)” or “Tech Industry 2023” as the benchmark label. Viva Glint updates these names with each refresh (see the latest nomenclature in the ‘benchmark suites’ section above). Typically, the admin will choose the most appropriate suite (often the overall Global benchmark or a high-performing global) as the default external comparator. If needed, multiple external benchmarks can be made available. Heatmaps and Exports: Benchmark data can also be included in heatmap reports and Excel exports. In summary, Viva Glint makes benchmarks readily visible within the reporting experience. Benchmark scores are integrated as another comparison lens, alongside internal and historical comparators. As a user, you don’t need to go to a separate place to “get” the benchmark data – it’s right there in the context of the scores you’re examining. More details about setting up your benchmarks here. Tip: As an admin or power user, ensure you’ve enabled external benchmarks (opted in) and selected the appropriate default comparator for your audience. What 2025 benchmark data trends tell us As with all new benchmark releases, we typically see most of the items are either flat (no year-over-year score changes) or may tick up or down by a point. Comparing the 2025 score patterns to our last run (2024), about half the items had no change, and half the items had a 1 point change. Drawing from prior benchmark trend analyses, several factors likely explain the patterns observed in the latest benchmark refresh: Customer Composition: The 2025 refresh was the first in which customers could opt out and be excluded from the data set. A small number of Viva Glint customers opted out, changing the mix of customers included in this refresh which could have impacted the scores. Separate Time Window: Global benchmarks are typically generated every 6 months and include 12 months of data, ensuring a 6-month overlap in the data between a current refresh and last refresh. But given the LinkedIn to Microsoft Viva migration, we paused the regular refresh in December 2024. Therefore, the current 2025 refresh (July 2024 - June 2025) is comparing against the 2024 refresh, which was more than a year ago (April 2023 - March 2024) instead of 6 months. Shifts in item utilization: Item score changes can be due to existing customers dropping and adding items and new customers adding new items to their surveys which presents a different mix of customers from which the data is pulled YoY. Note: The change for benchmark generation from 2024 to a completely eyes-off process in 2025 did not affect calculations. Next Steps Learn more about Viva Glint’s benchmarks on MS Learn: Viva Glint benchmark collateral | Microsoft Learn Survey Admins, don’t forget to Opt-in and gain access to the 2025 benchmarks by following the steps outlined in this Learn document. For more detailed information on Viva Glint Benchmarks, comparison types, and tips on usage, download our People Science Explained - Benchmarks Document:News to Know - Volume 1, Edition 13
Welcome to the last Viva Glint newsletter for 2024. Recurring communications coincide with platform releases and enhancements to help you get the most out of the Viva Glint product. You can access the current newsletter and past editions on the Viva Glint blog. Glint released its latest new features and enhancements on December 7, 2024. Scheduled monthly releases and regular maintenance are how we best serve our customers. Your dashboard provides date and timing details two or three days before releases. See our future release and downtime dates. Follow along with what features are ahead: Viva Glint product roadmap. Viva Glint Customer Town Hall Join us for our first customer Town Hall of 2025 where we'll share the latest news, product updates, and stories to help you make the most out of your experience with Viva Glint. Register here: Option 1 - January 22, 10am EST Option 2 - January 22, 1pm EST New to Microsoft Viva Integrate Viva Glint survey notifications and manager Nudges into Microsoft Teams | Private Preview December 2024 Bring survey notifications (invites, reminders, and results notifications) and Nudges into the flow of work by integrating Microsoft Viva Glint and Microsoft Teams. You're eligible for the private preview if your organization: has an enterprise Teams license is interested in testing and giving feedback on this feature has a dedicated Viva Glint Customer Experience Program Manager Contact your Viva Glint Customer Experience Manager to participate. Microsoft's Online Service terms apply for Previews. Viva Pulse & Viva Glint Integration to support post-engagement survey follow-up and continuous listening | Private Preview January 2025 Prioritize manager enablement to drive employee engagement. With the Glint-Pulse integration, managers can follow up on Glint survey results to check in on team progress and address key focus areas to maintain momentum toward improving engagement and the employee experience. With the lightweight Pulse survey tool, managers have access to a Pulse template that pulls top opportunities and strengths from their Glint results. Sign up for the Private Preview using this form. New on your Viva Glint platform Enable automated emails during a live survey to alert participants that a change was made to a survey they’re in the process of taking. Organizations which use Entra ID or personalized links for survey access can take advantage of this timesaving, automated feature. Read more. Easily manage employee data during organizational changes. Viva Glint admins can update users’ employee IDs in bulk to account for role changes, rehires, transitions in HR information systems, or any change in your organization that prompts for large scale ID updates. Learn more about employee ID updates. Upcoming events Ask the Experts: Employee Lifecycle surveys and feedback essentials | December 10 Each month, Viva Glint hosts an Ask the Experts session to provide you with an opportunity to interact with Viva Glint experts and Viva Glint customers on common challenges and topics related to implementing an employee listening strategy. Join us this month to focus on Employee Lifecycle surveys and feedback essentials. Register. Viva Retail Cohort Session | December 12 Join us for our cohort session featuring perspectives from both People Science and Customer Experience teams to discuss current industry trends and key challenges our customers are currently facing. Register. Learning Circles | January 29 Open to all customers, Learning Circles provide connection with like-minded industry professionals to share knowledge, experiences, and challenges related to the employee experience. To join this group or learn about our redesign, read this blog or register for the event. New Microsoft Viva Blogs Diving into AI transformation profiles to understand unique needs across employee personas | This research drop discusses five AI transformation profiles which highlight five key differences in how employees approach AI at work. 8 Viva People Science predictions for 2025 | Read this glimpse into the future world of work, highlighting key trends that Viva People Science researchers believe shape the way HR leaders drive organizational success. Enhancing manager insights and action at Derivco with Viva and Copilot | Watch the recording and read the summary of the recent Viva People Science webinar which featured our customer, Derivco, a leading gaming technology and software development company, speak about how their teams use Viva Insights and Copilot to improve employee listening. Don’t miss this customer story!
News to Know – Volume 2, Edition 7, September 2025
To help you get the most out of the Viva Glint product, this September 2025 newsletter is full of need-to-knows which coincide with this month’s platform deployments and enhancements. New on your Viva Glint platform Export Team Summary report to editable PowerPoint slides. We’re thrilled to announce the worldwide release of the new PowerPoint report Export in Viva Glint. This capability will enhance the way users export survey results into PowerPoint presentations by enabling full editability and customization of exported content. It addresses current challenges with excessive whitespace and static screenshots, allowing users to leverage built-in PowerPoint features for a more professional and tailored presentation experience. This feature will be available only for Team Summary report in this release and will eventually expand to other reports as captured on the product roadmap for Viva Glint. Read more. Self-serve retroactive updates. Admins can now retroactively update attributes in a new wizard experience in Survey Programs. This excludes manager hierarchy updates, which can still be done through Advanced Configurations. The new wizard experience requires zero file uploads and provides a streamlined user experience. Read more. Industry benchmark refresh. Additional benchmark cuts have been added! In July we refreshed the Global, top 10% and top 25% benchmark suites in Viva Glint. At the end of August, we refreshed our Industry benchmark suites and those are now available in the platform as well. Be sure to opt into benchmarks in the platform to unlock access to benchmarks and associated collateral. Spotlight on Copilot Comment Analysis: Copilot Licensing — No Microsoft 365 Copilot License Required. Copilot in Viva Glint is separate from the Microsoft 365 Copilot license. It’s included with either a Viva Glint or Microsoft Viva license. For enablement details, follow these instructions. Copilot Company Admin Toggle — Simplified Copilot Enablement | GA. Viva Glint now empowers Company Admins to enable Copilot for themselves directly in General Settings, removing the need for redundant custom roles and streamlining deployment. This update preserves critical admin safeguards while eliminating a major friction point for Copilot adoption. Click here for step-by-step instructions. Coming soon to Viva Glint Copilot Localization — 70+ Languages Supported | Preview. Copilot in Viva Glint now supports comment summarization in 70+ languages, allowing users to prompt and receive responses in their native language. Reach out to us here to opt in. Sign Up for Copilot Highlights | Preview - Launching November. Be among the first to experience Copilot Highlights, a new dashboard feature that delivers instant, actionable summaries of survey results—spotlighting team strengths, opportunities, and engagement trends at a glance. This preview is designed to help managers and leaders quickly understand team status, identify critical focus areas, and celebrate successes. Reach out to us here to sign up. Integrating with Organization data | Preview. Looking for ways to make your data imports more secure or do your updated enterprise security standards recommend moving away from SFTP based solutions? Viva Glint now supports data ingestion via Azure blob store, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday and API-based connectors to import your organization data. The integration with Organization data in Microsoft 365 also enables enterprise people data teams and admins to bring in people data only once for all of Microsoft and Viva suite products with advanced data controls and security. Express your interest here. Upcoming events and learning opportunities Register Now for Our Upcoming VCCP Session. For current VCCP members, we will be hosting our first Glint/Pulse customer advisory session on September 25 th 11am EST where we will have a lively and engaging discussion with members of our product team. This session’s topic will explore the linkages of Copilot usage tied to employee experience by leveraging the robust reporting capabilities of Viva Insights. Whether you’re just starting out in your AI journey, or whether you’re well into your AI adoption efforts, this session will provide you with a better understanding of how you can assess the impact AI can have on your organization. Register Here! Curious about joining the Glint/Pulse VCCP community? See below for sign-up information. New Thought Leadership People Success Summer Blog Series. Throughout the summer, the People Science team will be publishing a monthly blog series on new trends and insights related to People Success. For this series, we analyzed survey responses from over 6.8M employees across more than 235 companies from 2022 – 2025 to examine how workers’ expectations have evolved over the past three years. The insights offer a unique perspective on evolving employee priorities, highlighting subtle but meaningful changes in how people think about growth, leadership, and the employee experience. Empowerment Unlocked: Key Conditions for Thriving Teams People Science Explained. In support of the recent and upcoming Viva Glint benchmarks releases, the People Science team released a Viva Glint Benchmarks blog, explaining our benchmark offerings, how you can opt-in to gain access to them, and tips on how to best use them in Viva Glint. To answer more detailed questions about the Viva Glint benchmarks, we’ve also updated the People Science Explained (PSE) playbook (download 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.
