Roles in Viva Insights
Important
This article is for the legacy Workplace Analytics app and does not reflect functionality available on the updated Viva Insights platform. Access current documentation for Viva Insights advanced insights here: advanced insights documentation.
People need the correct level of access to specific product areas to perform their required tasks. The roles are distinct in their assigned responsibilities and access permissions.
Each role only gives access to actions, pages, dashboards, and data that correspond with that role. Roles are assigned independently, are non-cumulative, and do not roll up.
The Insights Administrator and the legacy Workplace Analytics admin are interchangeable. Both have access to the same features and functions and share the same responsibilities and tasks for Viva insights.
The Analyst (Limited Access) and Program Manager roles that are listed in the following tables, are only applicable to features available within the advanced insights app for licenses assigned before October 2021. For those who are assigned licenses and the Insights Business Leader roles starting in October 2021, they can only access their applicable insights within the Viva Insights app.
Role descriptions and access levels
The following roles are assigned by your admin as described in Assign user roles:
Insights Administrator – Has access to Data sources, Upload pages within Data sources, and Analyst settings. The Insights Administrator and the legacy Workplace Analytics admin are interchangeable roles. The admin is responsible for configuring the privacy settings and system defaults and for preparing, uploading, and verifying the organizational data for Viva Insights.
Note
Insights Administrators are not Microsoft 365 admins. Unless they are also assigned the role of Microsoft 365 admin, they only have access to organizational data, not to Microsoft 365 data.
Insights Business Leader- Insights Business leaders can see organizational insights on the My organization page within the Viva Insights app.
People Manager – People managers are assigned access by the Viva Insights admin. Managers can see their team's organization trends within the Viva Insights app.
Analyst – Has full access to all service features except Upload and some Analyst settings that are only available to admins. An Analyst has the most complete access to data, including the ability to launch, manage, and track Plans in the advanced insights app.
Analyst (Limited Access) – Has the same access as people who have the Analyst role but with the following restrictions:
- No access to Query designer.
- Read-only access to Analyst settings where the meeting and attendee exclusion rules are defined.
Program Manager – Has access to organizational data for Viva Insights within the advanced insights app. A Program Manager can also open, manage, and track Plans in the advanced insights app.
Feature access
The following shows who can access what.
| Feature | Description | Insights Administrator | Analyst | Insights Business Leader | Analyst (Limited Access) | Program Manager | People Manager |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| My team | View Group insights about your team in My team within the Viva Insights app |  |
|||||
| My organization | View highlights about your organization in My organization within the Viva Insights app | |
|||||
| Home | View highlights from the latest organizational data and see the latest notifications | |
|
|
|||
| Analyze | |||||||
| Peer analysis collaboration data | |
||||||
| Analysis with the Query designer | |
||||||
| Explore the stats | Chart data based on insight recommendations | |
|
|
|||
| Plans | Create plans that help participants improve workplace behaviors | |
|
|
|||
| Controls | |||||||
| Data sources help to verify that the Microsoft 365 data and organizational data have been loaded properly and are available for analysis | |
|
|
||||
| Upload for importing an organizational (HR) data file | |
||||||
| Analyst settings to set meeting and attendee exclusion rules for analysis | |
(read-only access) |
|||||
| Analyst settings for system defaults, privacy settings, and default exclusions | |
Functional tasks
The following shows who can do what with Viva Insights.
| Function | Administrator | Analyst | Insights Business Leader | Analyst (Limited Access) | Program Manager | People Manager |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Configure system defaults, privacy settings, and manager settings | |
|||||
| Upload organizational data into the system | |
|||||
| Use the My organization page within the Viva Insights app | |
|||||
| Use the full set of analyst tools in Data sources and Analyze | |
|||||
| Help coordinate, set up, and manage Plans | |
|
|
|
||
| Use Group insights on the My team page within the Viva Insights app | |
Levels of responsibility
People who access data with Viva Insights should ideally have previous experience for their level of access. Preferably, they should have previously undergone security and privacy training in handling sensitive data.
| Access level | Administrator | Analyst | Insights Business Leader | Analyst (Limited Access) | Program Manager | People Manager |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View personally identifiable, individual-level organizational data (including email addresses and HR fields such as level and organization) | |
|||||
| View de-identified, individual-level data: Organizational data (HR fields, such as level or organization) and Microsoft 365 data (metrics about collaboration and relationships) | |
|||||
| View aggregated and de-identified Microsoft 365 data (metrics about collaboration time and relationships) | |
|
|
(team only) |
||
| Create custom plans to be deployed to groups and can influence the pages that users see in Viva Insights | |
|
|
|
Suggested personas
Consider the following personas when granting the different levels of access for Viva Insights.
| Persona | Administrator | Analyst | Insights Business Leader | Analyst (Limited Access) | Program Manager | People Manager |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administrator | |
|||||
| Executive or business leader | |
|
||||
| Analyst or data scientist | |
|||||
| Program Manager | |
|
|
|
||
| Group or team manager | |
Access to resources
In Microsoft Entra ID, you can assign access rights to users by assigning roles to them. For general information on accessing resources, and for information on the specific methods of role assignment in Microsoft Entra ID, see Related topics.
Aspects of role assignment
How many assignees
The size of your organization and your requirements for managing organizational data determine the number of people to whom you assign specific roles for Viva Insights. The number of analysts should be as many as your organization requires to perform data analysis. Viva Insights imposes no limit on the number of role assignments.
Multiple roles for one person
You can assign multiple roles to one person. It's up to your organization to choose who is assigned which role or roles. For example:
- One person can be both a Microsoft 365 admin and a Viva Insights Administrator.
- One person can be both a Viva Insights Administrator and an Analyst. However, it is a best practice to assign the admin and analyst roles to different people to prevent any misuse of or external linking of organizational data with collaboration metrics.
In the Azure Portal, you can assign multiple roles to one account, but you can assign only one role at a time. In the Azure portal, add the first role, choose Select, return to the user list, and then select the same account again to choose the next role for that account. Note that role assignment is performed in the Azure Portal and not in the Microsoft 365 or Office 365 dashboard.