About the Work Trend Index The 2021 Work Trend Index provides data - driven insights to help people and organizations thrive in a rapidly changing world. We analyze trillions of productivity and labor signals from across Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn to derive powerful insights about how people work and collaborate. Taken together, these aggregate emails, meetings, searches, and posts create a window into human interactions at work — a unique view that we can use to better understand how collaboration and productivity are changing over time. We combine this data with surveys and interviews with information workers, frontline workers, and business leaders from across the globe, as well as findings from Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab, which looks at how virtual work impacts our brains. We provide expert analysis and advice from researchers across Microsoft who have studied social capital, wellbeing, culture, and human interaction for decades. The annual Work Trend Index is published each spring. Throughout the year, we publish pulse reports on timely industry topics.