Import employee data from Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service

About Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service

Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service provides a centralized way to import and manage employee data for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva experiences, including Viva Glint.

Organizational data is employee data that describes the users in your organization - such as names, job titles, departments, locations, manager relationships, and other employee attributes. You can import this data into Microsoft applications and services through Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service in the Microsoft 365 admin center and then control which applications and services can access the imported attributes.

Key benefits of using Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service include:

• A single employee data source for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva applications and services.
• Enhanced data governance, data quality, and data freshness across Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva Suite experiences.
• Flexible employee data ingestion through multiple import methods, including Workday and SuccessFactors connectors, APIs, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), and file-based imports.

Required permissions

To create and manage employee data imports in Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service, you must be assigned the Organizational Data Source Administrator role.

The Organizational Data Source Administrator role is assigned by a Global Administrator. Viva Glint service administrators can also be assigned this role when they need to configure employee data imports through Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service.

Import employee data through Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service

The following steps describe how to create a data connection in Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service, configure access for Viva Glint, and import employee data. Before proceeding, ensure that Viva Glint onboarding has been completed and that Organizational data imports are enabled in Viva Glint.

1. Ensure you're assigned the Organizational Data Source Administrator role.

2. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service page in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

3. Select Data connections, you may need to choose + New import.

   

4. Select a connector type. The following example uses CSV import.

   

5. Choose apps & services

   Select the applications and services that should receive employee data from this connection. Select the Viva Glint.

   

   Note

   If Viva Glint doesn’t appear as a option in the Choose apps and services page, it means that the Organizational Data imports feature is disabled in Viva Glint. This instruction assumes that schema setup has been completed and this feature is enabled in Viva Glint. Please check this in General settings.

   

6. Prepare your data.

   The next steps offer templates and help you prepare employee data for import and review the Organizational data attributes that will be available to the applications and services selected for this connection.

   Organizational data attributes fall into two categories:

   • Reserved attributes
   • Custom attributes

   Reserved attributes are Organizational data attributes with predefined meanings that can be understood across Microsoft applications and services. Reserved attributes can be shared with supported Microsoft applications and services based on the access configuration selected during connection setup.

   When Viva Glint is selected as an application for the connection, reserved Organizational data attributes become available for import into Viva Glint. Reserved Organizational data attributes are imported into Viva Glint only when a corresponding mapping exists between the reserved Organizational data attribute and a Viva Glint attribute. Viva Glint supports imports for 28 reserved Organizational data attributes.

   For more information about how reserved Organizational data attributes are mapped to Viva Glint attributes, see Consuming data from Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service into Viva Glint.

   Definitions of all the reserved attributes can be found here: Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service - Attribute reference

   Custom attributes are Organizational data attributes that are unique to your organization's employee data and aren't predefined as reserved attributes.

   When shared with Viva Glint, custom Organizational data attributes are imported only if a corresponding Viva Glint attribute already exists. The custom Organizational data attribute name must exactly match the Viva Glint attribute name, including letter casing. If no matching Viva Glint attribute exists, the custom Organizational data attribute isn't imported.

   Note

   Attribute access is configured separately for each application and service. Review the attributes being shared with each destination before completing the connection configuration.

7. File upload, import method, and data staging

   

   Upload the employee data from SharePoint or from your local drive. Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service supports files up to 2 GB. Incremental imports are selected by default, but administrators can choose a full import instead.

   

   Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service lets you review uploaded records in a staging environment. When the data staging option is turned on, the uploaded file doesn't flow to Viva Glint until an Organizational Data Source Administrator explicitly approves it. Data staging is available for all connectors, so administrators can review the actual data before it flows to downstream applications and services.

8. Map reserved attributes to your imported data

   After preparing and importing your employee data, map imported attributes to the appropriate reserved Organizational data attributes.

   Reserved attribute mapping associates attributes from your imported data with Organizational data attributes that have predefined meanings understood across Microsoft applications and services.

   Imported attributes that aren't mapped to reserved Organizational data attributes are treated as custom Organizational data attributes and can't be renamed.

   Under Reserved attributes, you'll see the reserved Organizational data attributes available for the applications and services selected for this connection. Under Imported attributes, you'll see the attributes detected in the imported data source.

   

   For each reserved Organizational data attribute that you want to populate, select the corresponding imported attribute. After completing the reserved attribute mappings, select Next.

   Organizations can also review the custom Organizational data attributes detected in the imported data source.

   

   Note

   When shared with Viva Glint, custom Organizational data attributes are imported only if a corresponding Viva Glint attribute already exists and the attribute names match exactly, including letter casing.

9. Choose attribute access

   Choose which attributes should be sent to each application or service.

   Attribute access is configured separately for reserved attributes and custom attributes. For each attribute, select the applications and services that should receive the attribute data.

   

   

   Reserved Organizational data attributes can be shared with supported Microsoft applications and services based on the access configuration selected during connection setup. Custom Organizational data attributes don't automatically become available to every application or service. Attribute access must be explicitly configured for each destination.

   Note

   Viva Glint imports only the Organizational data attributes that are shared with Viva Glint through the attribute access configuration for this connection.

10. Review & confirm

    Review the connection configuration, including the selected applications and services, reserved attribute mappings, custom attributes, and attribute access settings.

    Select Begin validation to validate the connection configuration and imported data.

    

    If validation completes successfully, the import is processed and employee data becomes available to the selected applications and services based on the configured attribute access settings.

11. Select Done to return to Data connections, where you can monitor validation and import status for the connection.

    

12. Monitor connection and import status

    From Data connections, select the connection to view validation and import activity.

    

    The Data connections page displays the files processed through the selected connection and the status of each validation and import operation.

    

    Review the status information to monitor validation results, import progress, and any issues that require attention. Each data import is assigned a unique ingestion ID, and the validation page provides an ingestion summary and advisory details.

Ingestion guidelines

• Employee data imports from Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service into Viva Glint are available only when Organizational data imports is enabled in Viva Glint at General Settings > Technical configuration.

• Employee data imported from Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service must satisfy the Viva Glint schema requirements, including the five required attributes: Email Address, First Name, Last Name, Status, and Employee ID.

• Additional attributes may become required based on your Viva Glint schema configuration. For example, if an attribute is used to derive another value in Viva Glint, that attribute must continue to be included in future imports.

• Viva Glint imports only Organizational data attributes that are shared with Viva Glint through the connection's attribute access configuration.

• When an imported employee data attribute uses the Microsoft_<attributename> naming convention, Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service automatically recognizes the attribute as the corresponding reserved Organizational data attribute.

• Reserved Organizational data attributes are imported into Viva Glint only when a corresponding mapping exists between the reserved Organizational data attribute and a Viva Glint attribute.

• Viva Glint imports custom Organizational data attributes only when a corresponding Viva Glint attribute already exists and the attribute names match exactly, including letter casing.

• Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service filters invalid records during processing. Records that aren't included in the processed import aren't available to Viva Glint.

• Viva Glint can calculate its manager hierarchy from any attribute in the imported data. If the Viva Glint manager hierarchy is derived from a Viva Glint attribute that's mapped to Microsoft_ManagerEmail, the Viva Glint manager hierarchy mirrors the Profile hierarchy.

• If your tenant has multiple Viva Glint instances, each connector can send data to only one Viva Glint instance.

• You can set up multiple connectors to import data into Viva Glint.

Import types

Microsoft 365 Organizational Data Service supports two import types:

Incremental imports

Use incremental imports to add new employees or update employee data that has changed since a previous import.

Full imports

Use full imports to replace the imported employee population with the contents of the current import. Employees that previously existed in Viva Glint but aren't included in a full import may become inactive, depending on your configuration and import behavior.

Connector support by import type

How each connector determines the import type

• Workday: Every refresh is a full import and sends a full-import signal to Viva Glint. Mapping updates or an explicit customer action also trigger a full import.
• SAP SuccessFactors: The first data pull is a full import. Mapping updates or an explicit customer action also trigger a full import.
• Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS): ADLS doesn't currently support sending a full-import signal to Viva Glint.
• API (push): The API header determines whether an import is full or incremental. If no option is specified, the import is incremental.
• CSV: The administrator manually selects a full or incremental import.

Special cases

• Schema updates: Any schema change for the Workday or SAP SuccessFactors connector automatically triggers a full import. For all other connector types, after a schema update, administrators must manually send data for all employees through a new incremental or full import.
• Multiple connectors: If your organization has multiple instances of the same connector, or multiple different connectors, automatic full imports to Viva Glint through the Workday and SAP SuccessFactors connectors are turned off.

File size limits

Connectors support imports up to 2 GB. Processing time varies based on file size and connector type. Overall ingestion can take from a few minutes to up to three hours.