{"id":7719,"date":"2023-10-26T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=7719"},"modified":"2023-11-07T11:30:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:30:34","slug":"microsoft-workers-council-partnerships-boost-the-companys-product-and-service-rollouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/microsoft-workers-council-partnerships-boost-the-companys-product-and-service-rollouts\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft workers\u2019 council partnerships boost the company\u2019s product and service rollouts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7436 size-medium\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/ms-digital-stories-300x122.png\" alt=\"Microsoft Digital stories\" width=\"300\" height=\"122\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/ms-digital-stories-300x122.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/ms-digital-stories.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Ensuring compliance doesn\u2019t have to be a roadblock\u2014just ask the Microsoft workers\u2019 council in Germany. This group of employee representatives has partnered with their employer, Microsoft, to speed up how the company develops and deploys new products and services to its employees, a story that resonates with customers who have similar challenges at their companies.<\/p>\n<p>Across Europe, workers\u2019 councils are responsible for representing employees and protecting their rights. Elected from a company\u2019s workforce, representatives protect against misuse of employee data and ensure compliance with local employee related law. Germany\u2019s workers\u2019 councils are among the most well-established in Europe, so they\u2019ve become leaders in the conversation around employee data usage.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, when Microsoft Digital, the company\u2019s IT organization, wanted to deploy a new tool or service in Europe, the Microsoft workers\u2019 councils in countries\/regions there would undertake a lengthy, product-wide review process to ensure it didn\u2019t violate employee rights. Any features that made personal, behavioral, or performance data usable to the organization triggered extensive reviews that could take up to a year and a half to complete.<\/p>\n<p>The Microsoft Digital team, charged with deploying new features and services, needed a way to avoid delays and rollbacks while meeting regulatory obligations across all of Europe.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"quote-body\"><p>We have new functionalities every couple of weeks. We\u2019re moving away from separate applications and toward platform thinking where everything is in one environment, for example in Teams or Dynamics 365. And then we\u2019re adding modules, which means we have to think differently about how we review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"source\">\u2014Anna Kopp, regional director, Microsoft Digital<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The solution?<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft Digital, in partnership with Microsoft Human Resources and the company\u2019s legal team, developed a collaboration with the Microsoft workers\u2019 council in Germany that would triage and streamline approvals and then take that framework and use it to inspire similar collaborative efforts across all the countries that have workers\u2019 councils.<\/p>\n<p><em>[<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/insidetrack\/building-microsofts-employee-centric-experience\"><em>Learn how Microsoft is building an employee-centric experience.<\/em><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/insidetrack\/redefining-the-digitally-assisted-workday-at-microsoft\"><em>Experience the digitally assisted workday at Microsoft.<\/em><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/insidetrack\/reinventing-the-employee-experience-at-microsoft\"><em>Find out how Microsoft reinvented the employee experience.<\/em><\/a><em>]<\/em><br \/>\n<iframe title=\"How Microsoft gets a boost from partnering with its workers\u2019 councils\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/grMzZ798W30\" aria-labelledby=\"How Microsoft gets a boost from partnering with its workers\u2019 councils\"><\/iframe><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=grMzZ798W30\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=grMzZ798W30<\/a>, select the &#8220;More actions&#8221; button (three dots icon) below the video, and then select &#8220;Show transcript.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: -5px;\"><em>Microsoft Inside Track leader Keith Boyd talks with Anna Kopp, regional experience lead for Germany, and Irina Chemerys, senior business program manager who works on employee representation with a focus on workers\u2019 councils.<\/em><\/div>\n<h2>Building a process for success<\/h2>\n<p>Microsoft Digital, the organization that powers, protects, and transforms the company, started by grappling with how agile software development has changed the nature of deployment\u2014moving toward modular releases for individual features within larger platforms, which dramatically sped deployments up because it avoided lengthy, product-wide reviews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have new functionalities every couple of weeks,\u201d says Anna Kopp, regional director of Microsoft Digital in Germany. \u201cWe\u2019re moving away from separate applications and toward platform thinking where everything is in one environment, for example in Teams or Dynamics 365. And then we\u2019re adding modules, which means we have to think differently about how we review.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Microsoft Digital team undertook a full inventory of existing tools and categorized them by how they interact with employees\u2019 private information. Features that presented no risk to employee privacy received expedited approval, so the team could move on to modules that share workers\u2019 information in one way or another.<\/p>\n<p>For those features, the team collaborated with the workers\u2019 council to determine what components needed closer scrutiny. Does a tool\u2019s contact card reveal an employee\u2019s org chart? Does it employ gamification or stacked ranking? Are there red, yellow, and green indicators attached to employee names\u2014no matter how benign their intentions?<\/p>\n<p>Each of these elements has implications for how employees\u2019 personal information and behaviors appear or how others might interpret their performance. As a result of their review effort, the team developed a review process for new features Microsoft plans to release.<\/p>\n<p>First, the team must confirm the feature interacts with employees\u2019 information in a limited, private capacity that General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are complied with, and that Microsoft commits to not make any performance and behavior control with the data. After that threshold is cleared, Microsoft Digital fills out a single-page intake form asking simple questions like the tool\u2019s name, its audience, its owner, and access rights to the data. Finally, the Microsoft workers\u2019 council expedites a simplified review that takes under four weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Features that share employee information more widely or if Microsoft intends to carry out performance or behavior control with the data enter a second, more extensive process. Microsoft Digital completes a lengthier form that outlines things like how the tool would fit into the organization, how managers might use it, and if the information it presents could inadvertently suggest an employee\u2019s performance to anyone other than really necessary roles or persons (e.g., a direct manager).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"quote-body\"><p>Trustworthy codetermination organized in this way\u2014between the workers\u2019 council and Microsoft\u2014gave us speed and structure, and it gave us confidence. Because we\u2019ve established strong relationships with stakeholders, we\u2019ve been able to start from a place of compliance in product development and engineering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"source\">\u2014Peter Albus, chairman, Microsoft Germany Central Workers Council Committee for Employee Data Privacy<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That form typically gives the workers\u2019 council everything it needs to approve a feature. But if they still need more information, they initiate a dialogue with other teams; including product, engineering, and human resources.<\/p>\n<h2>Trust through collaboration<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7720\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7720\" style=\"width: 521px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/12\/10294_wordpress_hero-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Kopp and Albus smile at the camera in separate corporate photos.\" width=\"521\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/12\/10294_wordpress_hero-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/12\/10294_wordpress_hero-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/12\/10294_wordpress_hero-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/12\/10294_wordpress_hero-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/12\/10294_wordpress_hero-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/12\/10294_wordpress_hero-1000x562.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/12\/10294_wordpress_hero-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 521px) 100vw, 521px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7720\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Partnering together via the Microsoft workers\u2019 council in Germany is allowing Anna Kopp, Peter Albus, and others to streamline the internal deployment of new tools and services at Microsoft. (Photos by Peter Albus and Anna Kopp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhat we try to do is balance the benefit with the risks,\u201d says Peter Albus, dedicated workers\u2019 council member and chairman of the Central Workers Council Committee for Employee Data Privacy for Microsoft Germany. \u201cHow can we mitigate the risks while enabling the benefit? If the added value is sufficient, we mitigate the risks through technical settings or organizational orders (policies).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beyond minimizing the time a feature might take to roll out, increased dialogue between the workers\u2019 council and product teams has helped engineers anticipate regulatory demands and build solutions accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrustworthy codetermination organized in this way\u2014between the workers\u2019 council and Microsoft\u2014gave us speed and structure, and it gave us confidence,\u201d Albus says. \u201cBecause we\u2019ve established strong relationships with stakeholders, we\u2019ve been able to start from a place of compliance in product development and engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ongoing deployment of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-viva\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Microsoft Viva<\/a> illustrates how streamlined this process has become. Viva, Microsoft\u2019s Employee Experience Platform (EXP), includes modules that interact with workers\u2019 information differently.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft Viva Insights supports productivity and well-being by supplying behavioral data and intelligent recommendations directly to employees themselves. Private information doesn\u2019t go beyond their own inboxes, so Microsoft Digital only needed a quick sign-off on the feature.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft Viva Learning is an AI-powered platform that offers relevant training to employees. In its initial form, Viva Learning included capabilities for tracking progress against course recommendations. Those tracking elements meant that the tool needed further review. But with only minor progress-sharing elements involved to secure approval, the team was able to put the tool into action quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft Viva Manager Insights provides team leads with data about employees\u2019 work patterns to help assess their workloads. That extra layer of behavioral data necessitates a more in-depth review.<\/p>\n<p>But because the approval of Microsoft Viva Insights and Microsoft Viva Learning was so rapid and approval of Microsoft Viva Goals is coming, the workers\u2019 council can give Viva Manager Insights their full attention. As a result, they\u2019ve substantially reduced the turnaround time for Microsoft Viva compared to previous releases\u2014from one and a half years to a target of around six months.<\/p>\n<h2>Cloud, agility, compliance<\/h2>\n<p>This more flexible, triage-friendly form of review wouldn\u2019t be possible without cloud-driven agile development, which, for example, enables modular releases for individual features within Microsoft Teams. Agility in product development leads to flexibility in the approval process because entire products aren\u2019t held back by individual feature reviews.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, teams can easily activate or deactivate modules hosted within larger platforms without disrupting the overall experience. Kopp sums up the value of that modularity: \u201cYou can bring out the non-critical modules much faster and spend your time reviewing the ones that really need it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, increased collaboration between the Microsoft workers\u2019 council in Germany and product teams helps the cross-company collaborative group anticipate and resolve many compliance issues before features reach the approval process. As a result of this multifaceted collaboration, Microsoft Germany is winning back hundreds of hours per year, and they\u2019re sharing those lessons with other country and regional offices in Europe.<\/p>\n<h2>A leader in trust<\/h2>\n<p>Internal rollouts are only the beginning of the story. The rigorous process developed by the Microsoft workers\u2019 council in Germany is a story worth sharing with partners and customers in hopes that it will help them streamline how they roll out new product features and services at their companies.<\/p>\n<p>Roxana Schupp, account executive for Microsoft Dynamics 365, says it\u2019s become a sales differentiator and a way to build relationships with customers who are trying to solve some of the same challenges at their companies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe customers are looking at us as a benchmark,\u201d Schupp says. \u201cThe way we deal with data and how we address management or usage of systems in order to comply with regulations in different countries, those are very important for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a result of this close collaboration between Microsoft Digital and the German workers\u2019 council, an unofficial rule has emerged across Europe. \u201cIf it works in Germany, it should work everywhere,\u201d Kopp says.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"74\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-7448\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/key-takeaways-300x74.png\" alt=\"Key Takeaways\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/key-takeaways-300x74.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/key-takeaways.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here are some tips on how you can better partner with your workers\u2019 councils to streamline how you roll out new features and products at your companies:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"c-list\">\n<li>Build a robust triage system: Establish parameters for triggering reviews and criteria for different levels of engagement.<\/li>\n<li>Understand that you\u2019re allies: Teams focused on compliance aren\u2019t there to be blockers. They want to make sure enablement is compliant.<\/li>\n<li>Establish trust through dialog: Build internal awareness across teams to bring everyone to the table.<\/li>\n<li>Engage early: Seeking feedback early in the product development process avoids churn and rework.<\/li>\n<li>Embrace modularity: Deploying on a feature-by-feature basis empowers effective compliance triage without delaying overall product rollouts. Make the features configurable at the geo\/country level to comply with local regulations.<\/li>\n<li>Ask good questions: What do you need to see? Why is this a concern? What are your fears?<\/li>\n<li>Compliance and privacy are non-negotiable, so ensure that your technical settings and policies mitigate risk while providing benefits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"81\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-7482\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/related_links-300x81.png\" alt=\"Related links\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/related_links-300x81.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/10\/related_links.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul class=\"c-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/insidetrack\/building-microsofts-employee-centric-experience\">Learn how Microsoft is building an employee-centric experience.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/insidetrack\/redefining-the-digitally-assisted-workday-at-microsoft\">Experience the digitally assisted workday at Microsoft.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/insidetrack\/reinventing-the-employee-experience-at-microsoft\">Find out how Microsoft reinvented the employee experience.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ensuring compliance doesn\u2019t have to be a roadblock\u2014just ask the Microsoft workers\u2019 council in Germany. This group of employee representatives has partnered with their employer, Microsoft, to speed up how the company develops and deploys new products and services to its employees, a story that resonates with customers who have similar challenges at their companies. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":12454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_hide_featured_on_single":false,"_show_featured_caption_on_single":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[312,620,621],"coauthors":[622],"class_list":["post-7719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-compliance","tag-data-privacy","tag-microsoft-viva","program-ms-digital-stories","m-blog-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - 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