Viva Engage provides a unique solution to our customers to drive two-way communication between leaders, internal communicators, and all employees in a way that fosters a deep sense of community and belonging across digital and hybrid working models. In the process of managing conversations at scale, we have learned that our customers increasingly need stronger content moderation capabilities in order to drive respectful conversations while promoting an open culture in their organizations. And we have been investing in addressing those needs.
We are excited to announce that we have deepened the integration between Viva Engage and Communication Compliance (in Purview), to leverage enhanced incident management capabilities for ‘Report Conversation’ feature. This means that customers who are licensed for Communication Compliance will receive the ability to report concerning conversations for further review within Communication Compliance, making the incident management process more streamlined, secure, and stronger.
How reporting a conversation works
The ‘Report Conversation’ feature in Viva Engage allows the users to report any message (post, comment, or reply) to the admin if they find it to be inappropriate. The tenant admin must switch the feature on for the tenant to allow the users to be able to report.
In its current ‘native’ form, any reported conversation will trigger an email that will be sent to a designated mailbox (set by the admin). This email contains information as well as a link to the reported message.
Harnessing the power of Communication Compliance
Integrating this feature with Communication Compliance allows moderators to leverage enhanced moderation capabilities. With this integration, a user report will be routed to the Communication Compliance policy, where specific designated roles can review and act on the incidents within the scope of their assigned role and access. This replaces the existing mechanism of sending emails to the designated mailbox.
Requirements
To be able to use the Communication Compliance policy for user reported conversations in Viva Engage, the tenant must:
1. Have an appropriate M365 license
2. Have the appropriate ‘User reported messages’ policy set up in Communication Compliance (within Microsoft Purview)
3. Have enabled the ‘Report conversations’ feature in Viva Engage and set it up appropriately.
How to use this feature
Step 1: Configuration
Much like the existing version, the tenant admin will need to enable and configure ‘Report Conversation’ feature for the organization from the network admin settings screen. This can be done through the steps explained in this support article.
Please note that while this solution replaces the existing process of sending emails, the admin will still need to designate a mailbox. This mailbox will be used for receiving reports in case of any missing configuration for Communication Compliance user reported message policy.
Step 2: Reporting conversation in Viva Engage
Once the admin has enabled the feature for the tenant, the users will be able to find the option to ‘Report Conversation’ by clicking on ellipses next to the message or reply. Additional details on how to report a conversation can be found in this support article.
There are some changes in the experience for reporting conversations, including:
- When the user selects ‘Report Conversation’ option, in the next screen to confirm the submission, The ‘Reason’ field is no longer available. The users can directly confirm the submission.
Users can immediately see confirmation that the conversation has been submitted.
- Once the user has submitted the report, no emails are sent to the designated mailbox as well as the user.
To maintain the privacy of the user reporting conversation, their contact information is not shared either with the report or with the moderators.
Step 3: Reviewing report in Communication Compliance
Reported content will now show up in the ‘User-reported messages’ policy within Communication Compliance instead of emails in the designated mailbox.
See reported content within Communication Compliance
Once the report is surfaced in the policy, the designated Communication Compliance roles (such as the Communication Compliance Investigator) can view the report and take one of the following available actions:
a. Resolve
b. Notify user
c. Notify user’s manager
d. Escalate to another investigator
e. Escalate to Advanced eDiscovery (creates a AeD case)
f. Tag/Comment
g. Download
Explanation of each remediation action: Investigate and remediate communication compliance alerts | Microsoft Learn
This updated experience of reviewing and acting on the user-reported incidents is now consistent with moderating incidents reported through other policies in Communication Compliance and standardizes the moderation experience across other Microsoft products such as Microsoft Teams in Communication Compliance.
Please note that it may take up to 1 hour from the time someone reports a conversation until the time it shows up in Communication Compliance policy dashboard.
Getting access to Communication Compliance
To access this feature, customers must have appropriate Microsoft licenses to be able to use Communication Compliance solution. Refer to this documentation to see the licensing requirements.
Rollout Timeline
Please see our public roadmap and Message Center post MC694650 for reference. We will start rolling out this feature mid-December 2023, and will continue rolling it out in phases to all eligible customers through Q1 2024.
What’s next
Reach out to your account teams to onboard Communication Compliance for your tenant, if not already. If you already use it, no action is required from your end. When the solution is rolled out for your tenant, the feature will automatically switch to this Communication Compliance-powered solution.
References
Here are some links for your reference to learn more about these features:
1. Get started with communication compliance | Microsoft Learn
2. Create and manage communication compliance policies | Microsoft Learn
3. Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance: Safeguarding Your Business in the Digital Age