What's new in Viva Insights

This month, we’re excited to announce new features that include improved usability of the Copilot Dashboard, new controls for managing and requesting access to insights, and a sample code repository to help analysts model and structure their queries.  

First, a wider set of metrics for the Copilot Dashboard now lets customers analyze the frequency of employee usage patterns of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Let’s dive in for more details.  

Copilot Dashboard usage and retention metrics 

In response to customer requests for deeper insights into how often employees use Copilot, we’ve expanded the capabilities of the Copilot Dashboard, to now include usage intensity and retention metrics.

With usage intensity, customers can see which groups of employees are using Copilot one to five times per time period, six to 10 times per time period, and 11 times or more. Customers can also see how consistently employees are using Copilot on a monthly basis, based on the number of weeks employees are actively using Copilot each month.

Customers can also see a ranking of the most active employee groups. 

The new retention metrics, meanwhile, let customers see the number or percentage of active Copilot users who return to using Copilot on a weekly or monthly basis. Employees who take at least one Copilot action in both the current and preceding time periods are deemed to be “returning users.” Like the usage intensity metric, customers can also filter the insights by employee group. 

These new metrics can be found on the adoption page of the Copilot Dashboard. Learn more about how to access the metrics and customize the filters.  

Expanded controls for excluding employees from the Copilot Dashboard 

The Copilot Dashboard’s exclusion list feature allows Microsoft 365 global admins to exclude certain employees from the dashboard’s aggregated insights. Admins might want to exclude specific employees for legal, compliance or ethical concerns. Previously, admins could only exclude employees individually by using a .csv file. Now, we’re excited to announce that admins can also exclude employees by identifying groups of people they’d like to exclude using Microsoft Entra ID. 

This method streamlines the exclusion list process for admins. Learn more. 

New functionalities for “delegate access” in Viva Insights 

With delegate access, those with access to organizational insights or the Copilot Dashboard can “delegate” that access to others in their company on their behalf. Now, an expansion of this capability allows employees who don’t have that access to request it from their group manager. (Employees can request access to organizational insights, but not the Copilot Dashboard.) Once the employee is given access by the group manager, they’ll have the same view of organizational insights as the manager who approved their request. 

Learn more about how to request delegate access to organizational insights. 

In addition, Viva Insights admins can now assign delegate access to both organizational insights and the Copilot Dashboard using Powershell cmdlets. There are three applicable cmdlets, depending on whether the admin is assigning access, viewing existing access, or removing access. Learn more. 

Viva Insights sample code repository 

Customers who already use R or Python for analyzing data from Viva Insights might already be familiar with the open source libraries (R, Python) that are designed for creating visuals and analyses from flexible queries.

The Viva Insights Sample Code repository is an expansive new resource that contains vignettes and example code for more complex scenarios, including:  

• Top Performers modelling 

• Information Value and Weight-of-Evidence calculations 

• Pairwise Chi-square tests – for org attributes and survey variables  

Unlike the R and Python libraries, the scripts in the sample code repository are designed to serve as reference scripts to be modified and tailored for the customer’s own specific needs. This allows scripts to be easily integrated into any existing HR analytics or data science workflow, and enable maximum flexibility on controlling for filters, groups, and input variables for predictive modelling. 

If you have any questions about the new repository, please contact Martin Chan (martin.chanmicrosoft.com). 

Expanded insights for the Skills landscape report (private preview) 

We’ve broadened some of the insights and capabilities available in the Skills landscape Power BI template. These enhancements help customers search for and discover the top skills amongst their employees, identify skill groups based on subskills and adjacent skills, and facilitate discussions on resource allocation and skilling initiatives. This report is currently only available to private preview customers. 

With the report, customers can discover the top employee skills being used in their organization, see how critical skills might be distributed across employee groups, and explore other insights such as skills grouping and connections. The insights are powered by Skills in Viva. 

One of the report’s insights is focused on skills distribution. This insight category lets customers see how skills are distributed between employee groups, as determined by organizational attributes. Customers can then use these insights to understand the skill profile for a group, compare differences across groups, and identify potential gaps in skills.  

Now, as part of this update, customers can also identify other relevant skills, such as subskills or adjacent skills, after they select a primary skill. Customers can then drill down further into the skillset for distribution insights across different employee groups.  

If you’d like to participate in the Skills landscape report private preview or want to learn more, please indicate your interest through this form.