News to Know – Volume 3, Edition 3, March 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. 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. User access: Roles and permission enhancements. In our March release, we’re introducing updates that improve security and provide more flexible, least-privilege access for enterprise organizations. Learn more here. New role: Survey Designer The Survey Designer role helps organizations assign access specifically for creating and deploying Viva Glint surveys—without granting broader administrative permissions. This targeted role is useful for programs such as AI transformation, hybrid work, and other change-management employee listening initiatives. New permissions: We’re introducing more granular permissions for Advanced Configuration, Question Library, Service Configuration (settings), Nudges, and Viva integrations. Existing Company Admins will be granted Advanced Configuration access by default. Company Admin is now renamed Viva Glint Service Admin. Assignment of new service admins will be restricted to the Microsoft 365 admin center for tighter governance and streamlined administration. Copilot reporting: Copilot control migration to Microsoft 365 admin center. Starting in March 2026, Viva Glint will use the Microsoft 365 admin center as the single control plane for Copilot access—consistent with other Microsoft Copilot experiences. As part of this change, the existing admin toggles for Copilot access in Viva Glint will be removed, and Copilot will default to ON at the Viva Glint platform level. Customers can transition to this new control model between March and April 2026 after completing setup in Microsoft 365 admin center using Viva Feature Access Management (VFAM) to configure Copilot access for Viva Glint. For more information, please visit: Manage Copilot access in Viva Glint, Manage Viva Glint Copilot access in Microsoft 365 admin center, and Data, privacy, and security for Microsoft 365 Copilot in Viva Glint. Reporting: Privacy safeguard for live response rate reporting. For Live surveys, the Add section side pane in reporting is now limited to response-rate visuals only: Response rate history and Response rate by demographic. All score and results visuals have been removed to reinforce privacy safeguards and ensure response rate reporting remains aligned to intended use by restricting users with access to the response rate report during survey live to view response rate information only. Learn more here. Reporting: Dashboard default tag on Reports landing page. On the Reports screen, report tiles that sit behind a dashboard experience now include a Dashboard default tag—making it easy to see, at a glance, which report is connected to a dashboard. Reporting: Benchmark refresh schedule and opt-in reminder. Global benchmarks, including High‑Performing Global benchmarks (Top 25% and Top 10%), have been refreshed and include data collected from January 2025 through December 2025. Industry, Country, and Region benchmarks are currently scheduled to be refreshed and released in July. 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. Coming soon to Viva Glint The following section offers an early look at capabilities coming to Viva Glint shaping the future of continuous listening, analytics, and AI‑powered insight. Copilot Highlights | General Availability in April. Copilot Highlights, currently in preview, moves to general availability in April 2026. This feature generates AI-powered summaries of employee survey results directly within Team Summary and Executive Summary reports, surfacing key insights like strengths, opportunities, score changes, and benchmark comparisons so managers and leaders can move from data to action faster. General availability also brings multilingual support, with summaries generated in each user's configured Viva Glint language. Unlike Copilot comment summarization, which requires a higher number of survey respondents, Copilot Highlights works wherever managers already have access to dashboard data, making Copilot in Viva Glint valuable for a broader set of leaders across your organization. The feature is automatically available for anyone with Copilot in Viva Glint turned on. To get started or expand access to more users, see Manage Viva Glint Copilot access in Microsoft 365 admin center. Additional controls for data flow from Viva Insights to Viva Glint | GA in May. When you enable data flow from Viva Insights to Viva Glint, you will now 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. Advanced Analysis: vivaglint R package | Interest form. We’re working on vivaglint, a new R package designed to make it easier to work with your Viva Glint raw data export for analysis and visualization. This package will offer functions for generating full correlation tables, conducting attrition linkage analysis, factor analysis, and more. If you’d like early access and a chance to shape what we add next, please complete this interest form so we can follow up with details. Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics | Preview. Improve actionability for Work-Life Balance and Collaboration focus areas by integrating Viva Insights workplace metrics into Viva 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 Viva 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 | Preview. Enhance your employee listening 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. Our preview cohort is currently full but watch this space as we may look to add participants in future phases of the preview before GA planned for later this year. Integrating with Organization Data | Preview. Viva Glint is bringing integration with Organizational Data in Microsoft 365 to help you connect people data across Viva experiences with enterprise-grade governance. This preview creates a consistent, trusted data foundation—so you can unlock richer insights today and be ready for what’s next with Copilot experiences, backed by Microsoft 365–level controls and management. Join the preview to see what’s possible, share feedback, and help shape the future of organization data integration in Viva Glint. Express your interest here. Raw Data Export API Egress | Preview. 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. Join us at SIOP: Viva Glint & Pulse Customer Happy Hour 🍸 We’re excited to invite Viva Glint & Pulse customers attending SIOP to a relaxed, in‑person happy hour reception on the opening day of the conference. This is a great opportunity to connect with fellow practitioners, swap perspectives, and spend some informal time with the Viva Glint & Pulse team. 📅 Date: April 29 ⏰ Time: 5:00–7:00 PM (approx.) 📍 Location: New Orleans (venue TBD, close to the SIOP conference site) 🍹 Format: Drinks and hors d’oeuvres, happy‑hour style 👥 Capacity: Limited to 30 attendees What to expect 5:00–6:00 – Networking & refreshments 6:00–6:20 – Short featured talk 6:20–7:00 – More networking and conversation Space is limited and expected to fill quickly. Register your interest using the link below to reserve your spot. We’ll share venue details with confirmed attendees closer to the event. 👉 Register to save your spot We hope you’ll join us for an easy, social way to kick off SIOP in New Orleans. 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 updates now live on Microsoft Learn: Importing employee data & adding new attributes: new guidance for reviewing employee data and how to introduce new employee attributes without disrupting your existing configuration. Retroactive updates: options & requirements: we've clarified how to make employee data updates to closed surveys, with scenarios that help admins choose the right approach. Bulk Custom Access: now featuring a single source-of-truth for guidance on making updates to users’ custom access in bulk. Survey deactivation timing & time‑zone behavior: new specifics on how scheduled survey deactivation works when enabling notifications in user time zone. Nudge setup & eligibility clarification: expanded detail on how nudges are triggered, eligibility rules, and common setup questions. Focus Areas: now includes common FAQs when creating focus areas and using the Focus Area Overview Report. Previous EECC Customer Engagement Sessions: March 5th – Viva Glint Admin Experience In this session, members from our product team walked customers through upcoming enhancements to the Viva Glint product for survey admins and fielded a variety of questions and considerations from customers tied to those changes. If you or members of your team oversee the Viva Glint survey administration for your organization and are part of EECC, please visit the Teams channel to access the recording. March 12th – How to Drive AI Transformation at Your Org - Becoming a Frontier Firm This session was designed for HR teams to explore how AI, Copilot, and agentic workflows can accelerate AI transformation across their organization and to walk away with an understanding of where their orgs are currently on their AI transformation journey, ideas on how to further embed AI into key workflows, and a connection to Microsoft experts to support their efforts. During this session, our Copilot Growth colleagues walked through Frontier Firm Playbook, Frontier Playbook Assessment and Functional & Workforce Transformation Scenarios with the aim of empowering our customer contacts to understand how to drive AI transformation. If you are part of EECC, please visit the Teams channel to access the recording and deck. As a compliment to this session, we also published a new blog Spotlight on... AI Transformation & the Frontier Firm Playbook that highlights how Viva Glint and Viva Pulse and other tools can support becoming Frontier‑ready and sustaining value from AI investments. If you are not yet a member of the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC-formerly VCCP) but would like to participate in upcoming sessions, as well as gain access to numerous other engaging and valuable Viva 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: Evolving Transformational Leadership in the Age of AI. AI is changing how work gets done, but it hasn’t changed what employees need most from their leaders. Our latest research shows that employees who feel supported to integrate agentic AI are 1.8x more likely to use it daily, yet a 28‑point gap separates how supported leaders feel versus how supported employees feel. How leadership behaviors show up in practice can make a big impact: When leaders model thoughtful AI use, personalize support beyond what technology can deliver, and share how AI is shaping their own work, employees show higher meta‑cognition, trust, and realized value. Transformational leadership still works, but in the AI era, it has to evolve. Read it here. Customer Success Stories See how organizations are using Viva Glint, Pulse, and Copilot to turn employee insight into measurable impact. Culture + Viva Glint + AI = A Scalable Model for Growth Ipsen, a global biopharmaceutical company with 5,500 employees, is transforming its culture to fuel an ambitious growth strategy—and using Microsoft Viva Glint, Copilot, and Copilot Studio AI agents to make the shift measurable, actionable, and scalable. Driving a Culture Shift with Measurement at the Core Ipsen launched a Culture Manifesto with 18 behavioral attributes aligned to strategy. These are measured annually through Viva Glint, using a transparent traffic‑light system that cascades results to every manager. This has created clear accountability and reinforced the company’s philosophy that culture is shaped through daily leadership choices. Accelerating Insight with Copilot Copilot is now used to speed the analysis of Viva Glint results—reducing time spent interpreting employee feedback and helping leaders focus on targeted, high‑impact actions. AI Agents Boost Consistency and Reduce Support Workload To further scale productivity, Ipsen introduced Copilot Studio–built AI agents in Microsoft Teams for HR, Legal, Business Ethics, and Finance (Ariba). Employees can ask natural‑language questions and get grounded, source‑linked answers, reducing repetitive requests and smoothing peak workloads. Measurable Results 📈 Engagement scores rose three points above benchmark 🟢 Culture attributes rated “green” increased from 10 to 12 🤖 AI agents are reducing routine support demand and improving consistency 🎯 Ipsen now attracts ~90,000 spontaneous applications per year, reinforcing its position as a talent‑magnet in mid‑pharma Why This Matters Ipsen shows how culture, leadership, and AI‑enabled productivity can work together. By combining Viva Glint’s measurement rigor with Copilot and function‑specific AI agents, Ipsen has created a sustainable, data‑driven model for growth—anchored in empowerment, inclusion, and modern ways of working. Connect with us Stay engaged with the Viva Glint & Pulse community through the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program. We’re excited to share an important evolution of our VCCP community. The Viva Customer Connection Program (VCCP) is now the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program — a name that reflects the expanded scope and value of this community as employee experiences continue to evolve with Viva and Microsoft 365 Copilot. What’s changing Viva Customer Connection Program is now the Employee Experience Customer Connection program Our shared mission: “Employee experiences powered by M365 Copilot and Viva.” Invites & communication will be from Employee Experience Customer Connection What’s staying the same Continued expansion of 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.Azure Database Security Newsletter - January 2026
Happy New Year and welcome to our first newsletter of 2026! This year, we’re doubling down on something that matters to every one of us: keeping data safe without slowing innovation. Security isn’t just a checkbox—it’s the backbone of everything we build. That’s why our database security strategy is rooted in the Zero Trust model, a simple but powerful idea: never assume, always verify. Here’s what that means in practice: Identity first: Every user and workload proves who they are, every time. Devices matter: Only trusted endpoints get through the door. Networks stay clean: Segmentation and encryption keep traffic locked down. Apps and workloads: Least privilege isn’t optional—it’s standard. Data protected everywhere: Protected at rest, in transit, and under constant watch. Driving all of this is our Security First Initiative (SFI)—a mindset that makes security part of the design, not an afterthought. It’s how we ensure that trust isn’t just a promise; it’s a practice. 2026 is about scaling this vision and making security seamless for everyone. Feature highlights of 2025 Dynamic Data Masking in Cosmos DB Now in public preview, Dynamic Data Masking is a server-side, policy-based security feature that automatically masks sensitive fields at query time for non-privileged users, while leaving the underlying data unchanged. Masking policies are enforced based on user roles and Entra ID identity, supporting privacy and compliance scenarios (PII/PHI) and reducing the need for custom app logic. This enables granular, real-time protection, secure data sharing, and safe testing with anonymized production data. Auditing in Fabric SQL Database Auditing is now in public preview for Fabric SQL Database. This feature allows organizations to track and log database activities—answering critical questions like who accessed what data, when, and how. It supports compliance requirements (HIPAA, SOX), enables robust threat detection, and provides a foundation for forensic investigations. Audit logs are stored in One Lake for easy access, and configuration is governed by both Fabric workspace roles and SQL-level permissions. Customer-Managed Keys in Fabric SQL Database Now in public preview, Customer-Managed Keys (CMK) let you use your own Azure Key Vault keys to encrypt data in Microsoft Fabric workspaces, including all SQL Database data. This provides greater flexibility and control over key rotation, access, and auditing, helping organizations meet data governance and encryption standards. SQL Server 2025 SQL Server 2025 raises the bar for enterprise data protection with a suite of powerful, built-in security enhancements. From eliminating client secrets through managed identity authentication to adopting stronger encryption standards and enforcing stricter connection protocols, this release is designed to help organizations stay ahead of evolving threats. With these updates, SQL Server 2025 simplifies compliance and strengthens data security—right out of the box. Best Practices Corner Don’t use passwords—use Entra instead Modern identity security for Azure SQL means eliminating SQL authentication wherever possible and adopting Microsoft Entra ID–based passwordless authentication. This strengthens security, simplifies identity governance, and aligns with Zero Trust and Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative principles. Failover Ready? Don’t Forget Your TDE Keys For successful geo-replication setup and failover, all necessary encryption keys for Transparent Data Encryption must be created and available on both primary and secondary servers. It is possible and, in certain cases, required to configure different TDE protectors on replicas, as long as the key material is available on each server. It’s time for TLS 1.2 Legacy TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are no longer secure and are being retired across Azure services. To avoid connection failures and strengthen your security posture, make sure all applications, drivers, and clients connect using TLS 1.2 or higher. Blogs and Video Spotlight Geo-Replication and Transparent Data Encryption Key Management in Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Community Hub Everything you need to know about TDE key management for database restore | Microsoft Community Hub Secure by default: What’s new in SQL Server 2025 security | Microsoft Community Hub Secure by Design: Upcoming CMK and Auditing Features in Fabric SQL Database | Data Exposed Latest progress update on Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative | Microsoft Security Blog Community & Events The data platform security team will be on-site at several upcoming events. Come and say hi! SQL Konferenz SQLCON - Microsoft SQL Community Conference Call to Action Last year brought some seriously powerful updates—Dynamic Data Masking in Cosmos DB, Auditing in Fabric SQL Database, and Customer Managed Keys that give you full control over your security strategy. These features are built to help you move faster, stay compliant, and protect data without friction. Try them out and see the impact firsthand. If this got you fired up, share it with your team and drop a comment to keep the momentum going. And don’t wait—download SQL Server 2025 today and experience the newest security capabilities in action. Let’s push data security forward together.
