How to improve Microsoft 365 People Search

Microsoft 365 people search not working? Employees are looking for people with specific skills, experience, and interests – not just contact details. They want to know:

Who can help me with my project?

Who has expertise in a specific topic?

The Microsoft 365 people search often fails to deliver useful results. Although it includes profile fields like “About me,” “Skills,” and “Ask me about,” this information is difficult to access. The search function is not intuitive, lacks accuracy, and rarely provides the details users are actually looking for.

Where can I find information about my colleagues in Microsoft 365?

Phone numbers or email addresses are easy to find – whether in Outlook, Teams, or (more complicated) via m365.cloud.microsoft.

But what if you want to know more? For example: What skills does someone have? What are they currently working on? What’s written in the “About me” profile field?

Such information does exist – but it’s well hidden.

You have to go through m365.cloud.microsoft to find it. Start by using the search bar to look for someone, a skill, or a project – for example, PowerShell. Unfortunately, you won’t get any meaningful results. The system only searches for files. But what we actually want is a person who can help us.

The search in m365.cloud.microsoft initially focuses on files. Searching for people is not possible at first.

Only after performing an initial search will you see various filters appear below the search bar. One of them is “People.” You have to click this filter to display people who, for example, have PowerShell skills.

The “People” filter in m365.cloud.microsoft is hard to find.

It’s time-consuming – and far from intuitive.

The limitations at a glance:

• Only basic information like name, position, and department is directly visible
• “About me” texts or skills are rarely shown
• The search function is not smart – it hardly understands what you’re really looking for
• Data maintenance is up to employees themselves – and often not up to date

Reality check: How it works in practice

Example: Max Muster is a React developer working on the “Pilot” project. John Smith is looking for exactly this expertise for a new initiative. To find Max, John must know that he needs to switch to “People” in the Microsoft 365 search and specifically search for “React.”

And even then: Max will only be found if his profile is complete and up to date.

Maintaining your own profile information

How can we—or Max—actually maintain our skills or “About me” information? If you are currently searching, you can simply look yourself up and open your profile. Then, click “Update profile” and change your data under “Info.”

If this is not possible, the IT department has restricted it for various reasons.

In summary, there are currently no truly effective alternatives for more refined, detailed people searches in Microsoft 365.

The solution: my-IAM PeopleConnect – A new way to find contacts and connect

Microsoft 365 excels at collaboration. But as you’ve seen, it reaches its limits when it comes to targeted searches for skills, project knowledge, or interests.

This is where my-IAM PeopleConnect comes in.

PeopleConnect is a powerful platform for contact management with smart search capabilities. It brings together data from various sources and presents it clearly in a user-friendly interface. The result is a complete, searchable profile of your employees and external partners. Not just name and role, but also skills, project involvement, experience, and individual strengths are part of the user profile.

Up-to-date information from all sources

Whether from Microsoft 365, SAP SuccessFactors, DATEV, internal databases, or Excel files – PeopleConnect centrally consolidates contact information from many sources.

Data can be imported automatically or manually. Custom fields like “Projects,” “Roles,” “Regions,” “Languages,” or “Certificates” can be created and searched as needed.

In Max’s case, this means he doesn’t necessarily have to manually maintain his information everywhere. His data can be imported via CSV or synchronized directly into PeopleConnect.

Anyone searching for the project “TaskPilot” will immediately find Max, his role, and the entire team.

Smart Search That Truly Understands What You’re Looking For

Unlike the standard Microsoft 365 people search, which mostly relies on basic fields like name or department, PeopleConnect offers a context-aware, intelligent search function:

• Employees can search by skills, tools, projects, topics, or interests
• The search bar also recognizes incomplete terms
• Search results immediately show relevant people – including contact details, roles, and additional info
• External contacts (e.g., partners or service providers) can also be included and searched

Real-life example: A team lead is planning a trade show booth and wants to know which supplier has previously worked on similar projects in the company. To find this out, they search internally for terms like “trade show construction” or “sound technology” to identify experienced suppliers.

Integration in Microsoft Teams – Right where the work happens

Another highlight of PeopleConnect: The solution can be directly integrated into Microsoft Teams. Employees don’t have to switch between tools or open separate applications.
The contact and profile search is available right where communication happens – in chats, meetings, channels, or directly via the Teams sidebar.

This boosts:

• Usage (because the solution is present in everyday workflows)
• Adoption (because no training is needed)
• Efficiency (because information is found immediately)

Conclusion – Search Better, Find More

Microsoft 365 shows contacts. PeopleConnect shows people. 👉 Experience a new way of people search with PeopleConnect!

With cross-system data collection, intelligent search, and Teams integration, finding employees finally becomes easy, fast, and reliable.

What is the my-IAM Platform?

The my-IAM platform unifies all identities from various source systems and makes them usable for all kinds of applications and apps. In addition to the Teams-integrated app my-IAM PeopleConnect, it includes the business services my-IAM RealIdentity and my-IAM RealGroup.