Manage administrator roles in Viva Engage

To perform administrative tasks and facilitate many of the premium features in Viva Engage, users need to be assigned specific roles. The following table describes each of the admin roles and their business functions in Viva Engage.

Note

A Viva Engage license isn't required for an admin to configure Viva Engage (core or premium). Unlike Viva Engage users, Microsoft 365 Global administrators and Engage administrators are exempt from needing a Viva Engage Core or premium license to access the Engage website, the Engage Admin center, or legacy network admin center. Other Viva Engage admin roles can also administer premium features without being assigned a premium license.

Select a role in the table to learn more about it.

Admin role Business function
Microsoft 365 Global Administrator Manages all aspects of Microsoft 365 Entra and services that use Microsoft 365 Entra identities. This role controls admin role assignment and configuration in Viva Engage. As such, global admins have unlimited access to settings and to most data, including subscription management.
Engage Administrator Configures and manages all aspects of Viva Engage including tenant settings, core and premium features, and compliance. This role is also referred to as Yammer administrator in Microsoft Entra ID.
Verified Administrator Configures the Viva Engage network. Performs tasks that have legal implications:
  • Manage security settings
  • Monitor keywords for appropriate usage
  • Manage data retention and data export tasks.
Network Administrator Configures the Viva Engage network.
Answers Administrator Configures Answers in Viva Engage, manages topics, and enables badges.
Corporate Communicator Creates and manages official campaigns, defines leaders, and manages content across the organization.
Community Administrator Manages day-to-day activity and usage in a community to keep it engaged and productive.

Who assigns roles and where?

Some admins have more permissions than others and can assign Viva Engage roles to users. The following table lists admin roles in order of permission levels, with holders of broadest permissions at the top.

Admin role Can assign these roles Assigned in
Microsoft 365 Global Administrator Other global admins, Engage admins, Answers admins (Knowledge manager) Microsoft Entra ID
Engage Administrator Verified admins, Network admins, Corporate communicators Microsoft Entra ID
Verified Administrator Verified admins, Network admins, Corporate communicators Yammer admin center / Viva Engage admin center
Network Administrator Other network admins, Corporate Communicators Yammer admin center / Viva Engage admin center
Community Administrator Other community admins Viva Engage community

Role hierarchy

Diagram that shows the hierarchy of administrator roles in Viva Engage, with roles having the most power at the top.

Microsoft 365 Global Administrator

Function Details
Permissions
Who can assign A Microsoft 365 Global administrator
How to assign See Assign admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center

Engage Administrator

Function Details
Permissions
Who can assign A Microsoft 365 Global administrator
How to assign Assign the Engage admin role in Microsoft Entra ID or Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

Verified Administrator

Function Details
Permissions
  • Manage content policies, monitors keywords, data retention, security settings, and reading data in private communities
  • Assign verified and network admin roles
  • Identify leaders and their audiences
  • Export data and perform integrations with other tools
Who can assign Engage admin or verified admin
How to assign In the Yammer admin center, select Admins. Find and select the user's name and select Make this user an admin. If the user is already an admin, find their name from the Current Admins list and select Grant Verified Admin.

Network Administrator

Function Details
Permissions
  • Configure network settings, usage policy, and user profiles
  • Assign corporate communicators
  • Manage internal users, outside guests, and unlisted groups
  • View activity log in leadership management page in Engage admin center
  • Enable or disable leadership corner in Viva Engage
  • Manage storylines for the tenant (storyline creation access management, setting default notifications, etc.)
  • Manage analytics for campaigns, answers, and the overall network
  • Import Q&A content through Answers intelligent importer
  • Close and reopen conversations in communities and storylines on behalf of any user
  • Identify leaders and their audiences
  • Delete conversations from the network
  • Mark community as official
  • Restrict community
  • Mute community for network from feeds and digests
  • View reports in the Microsoft 365 Usage Reporting dashboard
Who can assign Engage admin or network admin and verified admin
How to assign In the Yammer admin center, select Admins. Find and select the user's name and select Make this user an admin. If the user is already an admin, find their name from the Current Admins list and select Grant Network Admin.

Answers Administrator

Function Details
Permissions
Who can assign A Microsoft 365 Global administrator
How to assign Assign a Knowledge Manager role in Microsoft Entra ID

Corporate Communicator

Function Details
Permissions
  • Mark community as official
  • Mute community in feeds and digests for the network
  • Mute conversations
  • Send announcements
  • Identify leaders and their audiences
  • Feature conversations
  • View activity log on leadership management page in Engage admin center
  • Close conversations
  • Create and manage official campaigns:
    • Publish draft campaigns to Active and viewable to the network
    • Set Active campaigns to Ended
    • Republish recurring campaigns from Ended to Active
    • Delete campaigns created by mistake
    • Update campaign assets (such as goal tracker, cover photo, hashtag theme colors, pinned posts, pinned resources and links
    • View campaign analytics
Who can assign Engage admin, network admin, verified admin and other corporate communicators
How to assign In the Viva Engage admin center, on the Setup and configuration tab, select Manage corporate communicators. Select Add user to search for a user by name or email ID. Assignees appear in the list of active corporate communicators in your organization.

Community Administrator

Function Details
Permissions Community admins only have permissions in their communities:
Who can assign Engage admins can assign community admins. Additionally, any Engage user who creates a community is automatically assigned the community admin role. Community admins can assign up to 100 other community 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 performs all community admin tasks.
How to assign On the community page, select Settings icon > Manage Members and Admins. Choose a user and select either Make Admin or Revoke Admin.