New integrations with Team and other applications are designed to promote use of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), as new research shows employees who have clarity around goal setting are make for more motivated employees. Credit: Martyn Williams/IDG Microsoft Friday announced new features for Viva Goals designed to make it easier to accelerate the adoption of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) through enhanced integration with Microsoft applications such as Teams and Planner, as well as new analytics capabilities that aim to help business leaders better understand how employees are engaging with goals. Research commissioned by Microsoft and undertaken by Forrester found that 47% of leaders said poorly structured goal setting reduces employee motivation. Additionally, 50% of employee respondents said that having more clarity around their goals gives them a greater sense of purpose and motivates them to work harder, a sentiment echoed by 60% of leaders that were surveyed. New research from Forrester and Microsoft shows employees who have clarity around goal setting are make for more motivated employees However, while 78% of the survey respondents said they fully understand their personal goals at work, only 63% said they understood what their team’s goals were, with clarity around company goals dropping to 39%. In order to improve the level of understanding and foster a greater sense of cohesion around goal setting, Microsoft has announced it is enhancing Viva Goals integration with the company’s Teams collaboration software. This will allow leaders and employees to receive notifications around OKR activity, bring goal-setting into conversations, and create, edit, and make check-ins to OKRs directly in a Teams chat. In addition, Viva Goals will also integrate with Microsoft Planner, Power BI, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Excel bulk import, and Microsoft Project — meaning that Viva Goals can be directly accessed from inside those apps. Viva Goals language capabilities, meanwhile, will be expanded to a total of 37 languages. Currently, the software supports 10 Tier 1 languages, defined by Microsoft as localized language versions that are shipped to the most important target markets. A new analytics feature has also been introduced to Viva Goals, designed to help accelerate OKR deployments by providing leaders with a “holistic dashboard view” of metrics such as total users, teams and OKRs, active users, and check-ins. This will enable leaders to better understand how employees are engaging with goals and see how many have been achieved. Finally, Microsoft has rolled out EU data residency to Viva Goals, meaning that EU-based or multinational customers can store their data in EU data centers, while new updates using Azure Active Directory (AAD) allows Viva Goals admins to set up Conditional Access policies ensuring the “right users have access to the right data.” New identity updates also include AAD identity federation using 3rd party identity solutions OKTA and Google. In a blog post announcing the updates, Vetri Vellore, corporate vice president for Microsoft Viva Goals, said that providing a successful goal-setting experience helps employees to work independently, take ownership of their goals, and be motivated day to day. The clearest way to ensure that there is a shared understanding of the goals, he wrote, “is by using a transparent goal-setting and management process that everyone has access to, which may also be one of the biggest challenges for businesses today,” he wrote. Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe