Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Viva Goals For Objectives Tracking

Microsoft is previewing a new module for business goal setting and management with Microsoft Viva Goals, a new tool for customers of its employee engagement and experience platform to bring more clarity on employees’ work and its impact on the business.

The announcement comes after Microsoft’s October 2021 acquisition of Ally.io, an objectives and key results software provider. Viva Goals features the ability to share objectives and key results and their progress across the organization with customized dashboards and key links.

Microsoft bills the new platform as a tool to help organizations keep track of objectives and key results across the organization via customized dashboards and quick links, in addition to integrations with Microsoft Teams, Azure DevOps and other work management and data tools. Integrations with Viva, Power BI and other Microsoft 365 apps and services will also be announced at a later time.

“With Viva Goals, OKRs no longer exist in a silo separate from the employee experience and where people work,” writes Vetri Vellore, corporate vice president of Microsoft Viva Goals, in a blog.

Viva Goals is currently available via private preview, and will be included in the current Microsoft Viva suite subscription when it becomes generally available later in the third quarter.

Citing a recent Microsoft study, Vellore writes that 77% of employees say it’s important or very important for their employer to provide a sense of purpose and meaning at work, and 69% say its important or very important to be rewarded for impact instead of hours worked.

Vellore write that having clear goals and measures of success at the highest levels of organizations helps everyone understand what’s important and align their work to the most valued priorities, creating a shared vision and common language across the organization – especially in a hybrid work environment.

“This gives departments and teams a framework to focus their own priorities and define what success looks like together in connection with the business goals,” Vellore writes.

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