Manage administrator roles in Viva Engage

To perform administrative tasks in Viva Engage, a user must be assigned an administrator role. Each role is a collection of permissions. The following table summarizes the permissions for each role in Viva Engage. Some Viva Engage roles are managed in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), and others are managed in Viva Engage.

Select the role in the table for more details and instructions.

Admin role Business purpose Where to assign this role
Microsoft 365 Global administrator Manages all aspects of Microsoft Entra and Microsoft services that use Microsoft Entra identities, including all tasks that Viva Engage Verified Admins and Office 365 report readers can perform. Microsoft Entra ID
Engage admin Manages all aspects of Viva Engage including tenant settings, features, and compliance needs. Microsoft Entra ID
Verified admin Configures the Viva Engage network. Performs tasks with legal implications for stored data in Viva Engage. These tasks include: configuring security settings, monitoring keywords for appropriate use, managing data retention, and exporting data. Yammer admin center
Network admin Configures the Viva Engage network. Yammer admin center
Answers admin Configures Answers in Viva Engage. Performs tasks such as featuring topics and enabling badges. Microsoft Entra ID
Corporate communicator Creates and manages official campaigns, defines leaders, and manages content across the organization. Viva Engage admin center
Community admin Manages day-to-day activity (including usage) within a community to keep it engaged and productive. Viva Engage community page
Office 365 report reader Views reports showing overall Viva Engage usage. This role is helpful for anyone assigned to improve and monitor Viva Engage adoption. Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Global administrator

This role has administrative access to all features for Microsoft Entra identities and services that use those identities. This role controls configuration for Viva Engage in your organization. As such, it has unlimited access to the settings and most of its data, including subscription management. To learn more about this role and security guidelines for assigning it, see About admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Function Details
Permissions Same as an Engage admin, plus:
Assigns or removes the Microsoft 365 Global administrator role and the Office 365 reports reader role.
Views report in the Microsoft 365 Usage Reporting dashboard.
Manages other Microsoft 365 services.
Who can assign this role Microsoft 365 Global administrators
How to assign this role See Assign admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center

Engage admin

Engage admins can set up and configure Engage for your organization. This role manages data, network related settings, and various core and premium features in the application. Yammer administrators in Microsoft Entra ID automatically become Engage admins and have elevated permissions over end users.

A Microsoft 365 Global administrator can assign the Engage admin role in Microsoft Entra ID, PIM, group based role assignments, or Microsoft Entra portal and PowerShell.

Permissions

The following table shows the range of actions available to the Engage admin and Microsoft 365 Global administrator roles based on their license. Admin permissions require that users have the correct licensing to configure features.

Permissions for the Engage admin and Microsoft 365 Global administrator roles Microsoft 365 customer with Viva Engage core Microsoft Viva suite customer
Manage corporate communicators:
Assigns or removes users as a corporate communicator
Manage tenant and user permissions
Manage data and compliance:
Manages network and user data; GDPR delete
Manage leaders and their audiences:
Assigns leaders in your organization; identify audiences for the leaders identified
Configure stories and storylines:
Enables storylines and stories for your organization; configure advanced settings like default notifications; specify who can create storyline posts
Manage sentiment analysis and other feature specific analytics:
Configures level of sentiment to be gathered in the organization; Enable or disable campaign analytics; enable or disable Answers analytics
Add, view, and manage campaigns:
Creates and manages campaigns; removes posts that aren't aligned with campaign; accesses campaign analytics dashboard
Enable and manage badges
Enable Answers Microsoft 365 Global administrator only

Verified admin

Function Details
Permissions See permissions for Network admins.
Assigns verified and network admin roles.
Manage content policies. Monitors keywords, data retention, security settings, and reading data in private communities.
Exports data and perform integrations with other tools.
Who can assign this role A Microsoft 365 Global administrator, Engage admin, or verified admin
How to assign this role In the Yammer admin center, select Admins and do one of the following:
  • To assign a new admin, find and select the user's name and select Make this user an admin.
  • To change a network admin to a verified admin, select the user's name from the Current Admins list and select Grant Verified Admin.
  • To change a verified admin to a network admin, in the Admins section, in the row for the admin select Revoke Verified Admin.
  • To remove all admin roles from a verified admin, in the Current Admins section, in the row for the admin, select Remove.

Network admin

Function Details
Permissions Configures network settings (including logo and colors), usage policy, and what's included in user profiles.
Manages internal users, outside guests, and unlisted groups.
Grants and revokes the network admin role.
Can view reports in the Microsoft 365 Usage Reporting dashboard.
Manages other Microsoft 365 services.
Who can assign this role A Microsoft 365 Global administrator, Engage admin, verified admin, or network admin
How to assign this role In the Yammer admin center, select Admins. In the Admins section, enter the user's name. Select Make this user an admin and select Submit.

Answers admin

The Answers admin can set up and configure Answers in Viva Engage.

Only a Microsoft 365 Global administrator can assign (or modify) the Answers admin role. The Answers admin role is assigned by adding a knowledge manager in Microsoft Entra ID. Answers admins have elevated permissions over end users. The link between the Answers admin and the Knowledge Manager Microsoft Entra ID role fits because the Answers experience is optimal when integrated with Topics.

Permissions

The following table shows the actions available to an unlicensed user compared with various admin roles in Viva Engage.

Answers permissions for an Answers admin, Engage admin, and Microsoft 365 Global Administrator roles M365/O365 customer with Viva Engage core Viva Suite and Topics customer
Ask, answer, upvote, and react Interact with questions that they're mentioned in
Suggest topics
Mark best answer
Delete and close posts
See global insights
Feature topics Answers admin and Microsoft 365 Global administrator only
Approve suggested topics Answers admin and Microsoft 365 Global administrator only
Enable and manage badges Answers admin and Microsoft 365 Global administrator only
Enable Answers Microsoft 365 Global administrator only

Corporate communicator

The Corporate communicator role provides more capabilities than the community admin role, but fewer than the Engage admin role. Corporate communicators can create and manage campaigns, define leaders, assign campaign co-organizers, and manage content across the organization.

Roles that can assign, modify, or delete Corporate communicators privileges for users include: the Microsoft 365 Global administrator role, the Engage admin role, and fellow corporate communicators.

Permissions

The actions available to the corporate communicator, Engage (Yammer) admin, and Microsoft 365 Global Administrator role based on their license appear in the following table.

Permissions for the corporate communicator role, Engage admin role, and Microsoft 365 Global administrator role Microsoft 365 customer with Viva Engage core Microsoft Viva Suite customer
Identify leaders:
Defines leaders, manages their audiences and delegates
Create campaigns
Manage campaigns:
Publishes active campaigns; ends active campaigns; republishes ended campaigns; deletes campaigns; removes posts as needed
View campaign analytics

Community admin

Function Details
Permissions Manages the settings for the community, including name, description, image, and header colors.
Manages the conversations and files in the community.
Manages members and community admins.
Posts announcements.
Who can assign this role Any Engage user who creates a community is automatically assigned the community admin role. Community admins can add (up to 100) and remove other community admins.
Engage admins

Note: Network admins and verified admins can prevent Engage users from creating communities. In this case, they must assign the initial community admin, who can do all community admin tasks.
How to assign this role On the community page, select Settings icon > Manage Members and Admins. Choose a user and select either Make Admin or Revoke Admin.

Office 365 report reader

Function Details
Permissions Views the activity, community, and device usage reports for Viva Engage in the Microsoft 365 Reports dashboard.
Who can assign this role Microsoft 365 Global administrator
How to assign this role In Microsoft 365, go to Admin > Users > Active Users and select a user.

See also

Assign admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center

Access the Viva Engage admin center

Answers admin scenarios in Viva