Glint User Management Guide

• Model type: role-based
• Description: Glint uses a predefined set of roles (Company Admin, Manager, HRBP, Survey Program Manager, Report Viewer). Each role has a fixed permission set. Admins can scope data access for non-admin roles using employee attribute filters (e.g., department, location) to restrict which population a user can see. There is no fully custom role builder; customization is limited to population scoping within existing role types.
• Custom roles: Yes
• Custom roles plan: Viva Workplace Analytics + Employee Feedback or Viva Suite
• Granularity: Role-level permissions are fixed; data-access granularity is controlled via employee attribute filters applied per user or role assignment.

1. Ensure the user has a Microsoft 365 license that includes Viva Glint (Viva Workplace Analytics + Employee Feedback or Viva Suite) assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
2. Add the employee to Glint's People directory by uploading an employee data file (CSV/XLSX) via Admin Dashboard → People → Upload People, or by connecting an HRIS/SFTP feed.
3. Once the employee record exists in Glint, navigate to Admin Dashboard → User Roles.
4. Select the appropriate role (e.g., Company Admin, HRBP, Survey Program Manager).
5. Add the user to the role by searching for their name or email and confirming the assignment.
6. For HRBP or Report Viewer roles, configure the population scope using employee attribute filters.

Required fields: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Employee ID, Status (Active/Inactive), Manager ID or Manager Email (for hierarchy-based access)

Watch out for:

• Users must have a valid Microsoft 365 / Entra ID account and a Viva Glint-eligible license before they can be assigned any role in Glint.
• Employee records must exist in the Glint People directory before roles can be assigned; role assignment and employee data upload are separate steps.
• The employee data file must use the exact column headers specified by Glint; deviations cause import errors.
• Glint does not support manual one-by-one user creation through a form UI for bulk employees; the primary method is file upload or HRIS integration.
• Changes to employee data (e.g., manager changes) only take effect after the next successful data upload or sync.

• Can delete users: No
• Delete/deactivate behavior: Glint does not permanently delete employee records from the People directory through the admin UI. Users are deactivated by setting their Status field to 'Inactive' in the employee data file and re-uploading, or by updating the record directly in the People section. Inactive users cannot log in or receive surveys but their historical response data is retained for reporting continuity. Permanent deletion of personal data requires a formal data deletion request process (subject to Microsoft's data retention policies).

1. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → People.
2. Search for the employee by name or email.
3. Open the employee record and set Status to 'Inactive', or update the employee data file to set the Status column to 'INACTIVE' for that user and re-upload the file.
4. Confirm the upload/save; the user will no longer receive survey invitations or be able to log in.
5. Alternatively, if using Entra ID provisioning, deprovision the user in Entra ID; Glint will reflect the inactive status on the next sync.

Watch out for:

• Deactivating a user in Glint does not revoke their Microsoft 365 or Viva license; license removal must be done separately in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• If the employee data file is re-uploaded with the user set back to 'Active', the user will be reactivated in Glint.
• Permanent deletion of personal data (e.g., for GDPR compliance) requires a separate data subject request process and is not handled through the standard admin UI.
• Deactivated users still count in historical reporting data; their responses are not removed from past survey results.

• Where to check usage: Microsoft 365 admin center → Billing → Licenses (to see assigned vs. available Viva licenses); Glint Admin Dashboard → People (to see active vs. inactive employee records within Glint)
• How to identify unused seats: In the Microsoft 365 admin center, compare the number of assigned Viva licenses against active users. In Glint, filter the People directory by Status = Active to identify users consuming Glint access. Users with Inactive status in Glint but an active Microsoft 365 Viva license still consume a paid seat.
• Billing notes: Glint is licensed per user per month as part of Microsoft Viva plans. Licenses are managed in the Microsoft 365 admin center, not within Glint itself. Deactivating a user in Glint does not automatically free the Microsoft 365 license seat; that must be done separately. Volume and enterprise pricing may differ from list prices; contact Microsoft or a Microsoft partner for negotiated rates.

Adding a user to Glint is a two-step process that is easy to get out of order. A Microsoft 365 license (Viva Workplace Analytics + Employee Feedback or Viva Suite) must be assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center before any role can be granted inside Glint.

Only after the employee record exists in the Glint People directory - via file upload or HRIS sync - can a Company Admin assign a role.

Removing a user compounds the problem. Deactivating an employee in Glint does not release the Microsoft 365 Viva license seat; that step must be completed separately in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Teams without a documented offboarding checklist that spans both systems will routinely leave paid seats active after employees depart.

For HRBP and Report Viewer roles, a Company Admin must also manually configure population scope using employee attribute filters for every app user in those roles. Misconfigured filters can expose or hide unintended employee data, and there is no automated audit mechanism within Glint to catch this.

Recurring friction reported by Glint admins centers on three areas. First, the employee data file upload is strict: column headers must match Glint's exact template, and even minor deviations fail the entire import with limited error detail.

Second, manager hierarchy access is entirely dependent on the accuracy of the HRIS data file - errors in the file directly cause managers to see wrong or missing team data, with no in-product warning.

Third, permanent deletion of employee records or survey responses for GDPR/data subject requests is not available through the standard admin UI and requires engaging Microsoft support.

Admins also consistently report confusion between Glint admin roles and Microsoft 365/Entra ID admin roles, since they are managed in separate systems and do not automatically sync.

Common complaints:

• Users report that deactivating an employee in Glint does not automatically remove the Microsoft 365 Viva license, requiring a separate manual step in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• Admins report that employee data file uploads require exact column header formatting, and even minor deviations cause the entire import to fail with limited error detail.
• Users note that the reporting hierarchy for manager access is entirely dependent on the accuracy of the HRIS data file; errors in the file directly cause managers to see wrong or missing team data.
• Admins report that there is no in-product way to permanently delete individual employee records or survey responses for GDPR/data subject requests; this requires engaging Microsoft support.
• Users note that Glint's role assignment UI requires the employee record to already exist in the People directory before a role can be assigned, making onboarding a two-step process that is easy to get out of order.
• Community members report confusion between Glint admin roles and Microsoft 365 / Entra ID admin roles, as they are managed in separate systems and do not automatically sync.

Glint is the right choice for organizations already standardized on Microsoft 365 and Entra ID who need employee engagement surveys tightly integrated with their existing identity infrastructure. The provisioning model is a natural fit if Entra ID is already the authoritative identity source.

It is a poor fit for organizations using third-party IdPs such as Okta, Google Workspace, or OneLogin as their primary provisioning source - only Entra ID is supported for automated provisioning. Teams that need granular, real-time user lifecycle control or a REST API for programmatic management will find Glint's file-based and Entra ID-dependent model limiting.

License cost is a meaningful factor: Glint access requires at minimum the Viva Workplace Analytics + Employee Feedback plan. Teams that only need Glint and not the broader Viva suite should evaluate whether the bundled cost aligns with their use case.

Bottom line

Glint works well inside a mature Microsoft 365 environment where Entra ID is already managing identity and lifecycle.

Outside that context, every app onboarding and offboarding task requires coordinating across at least two admin systems - Microsoft 365 and Glint - with no automated bridge between them.

Teams should build explicit, documented checklists for both onboarding and offboarding that cover license assignment, People directory upload, role assignment, population scoping, and license removal, or they will accumulate access and billing errors over time.