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People Science is a research-backed, people-centric approach to the study of happiness and success at work. It combines industrial-organizational psychology, organizational development, and occupational psychology with increasingly relevant fields like data science, product management, and design. These combinations allow reimagination of the employee experience to drive better individual and organizational outcomes.
Who are Microsoft People Science experts? Microsoft People Science experts are consultants, researchers, analysts, content authors, product consultants, and customer advocates/ People Science experts have deep expertise in how engagement and employee experience affect productivity. Read more in the What is People Science blog in the Viva tech community.
To date, Microsoft People Science analyzed over 350 million employee survey responses to determine the employee experiences that were most predictive of engagement - happiness at work and willingness to recommend the company. We uncover key driver themes and use these themes to build survey templates. The result of our examination of the focus of engagement is a framework called People Success Elements. The six elements summarize the fundamental needs and expectations that are most critical to a person’s holistic life experience - not only their work experience - and that best shape an environment for high engagement and productivity.
People Success Elements
The experiences that drive engagement look different from one company to another. Microsoft People Science research identified six core elements which capture people's needs and expectations for an exceptional employee experience. These People Success Elements help you assess and foster the experiences that matter most to your people. They help build thriving cultures, develop people-centric leaders, and engaged employees.
| People Success Element | Relationship to employee engagement at work |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Employees feeling a sense of purpose are 120% more likely to recommend their company as a great place to work. |
| Clarity | 54% of employees lacking role clarity reported burnout in 2021, compared with 38% of employees with role clarity. |
| Growth | Employees who see opportunities to grow are three times more likely to say they plan to be working at the company in two years. |
| Empowerment | Employees empowered at work are 2.4 times more likely to be happy at work. |
| Connection | Employees with a strong sense of belonging are six times more likely to be engaged. |
| Wellbeing | Employees who feel cared for at work are over three times as likely to be happy at work and recommend working for their organization, an increase of over 35% since 2020. Flexible work arrangements, inclusive workplaces, and work-life balance are the fastest growing priorities for job candidates since the COVID-19 pandemic began. |
Read The Elements of People Success blog.
Important
In addition to a strong linkage between the People Success Elements and engagement and productivity, Microsoft People Science also finds relationships with other important outcomes that become part of our survey templates.
Terminology
This terminology helps you understand the Microsoft People Science methodology for building your survey:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Core Drivers (also referred to as Recommended Drivers) | Items hand-picked by Viva People Science for customer use are included on templates. These items are the strongest predictors of the key outcome intended for a survey program. We recommend customers to consider these items first when building a survey and to consider them as the best practice “short list.” |
| Other Drivers | Most Viva Glint programs have “other” drivers, too - items that are strong drivers of engagement that we want customers to be aware of but aren't part of the core/recommended driver selection for that program. |
| Survey item | A question or statement posed to a survey participant. Search for an item by a driver keyword, such as "manager," "culture," or "change management." |
| Validated item | An item in the Viva Glint Question Library with added rigor and research behind it. Some Viva Glint templates are composed of all validated items, but there are cases where a nonvalidated survey - a survey with one or more nonvalidated items - is templated. |
More Microsoft People Science thought leadership
Define a measurement strategy in the modern world of work
Effectively design a survey that best drives business result
Propel action taking through conversations