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Microsoft 365 Group Usage Guidelines

Document last reviewed 26th August 2025 by Chris Greenacre.

Table of Contents

Service Description

Microsoft 365 is Tophhie Cloud's preferred suite for collaborative tools. Microsoft 365 Groups serve to unify collaboration technologies across Microsoft 365 as a cross-application service that enables groups of people to collaborate effectively across a collection of Microsoft 365 applications and resources. These Microsoft 365 Group Usage Guidelines (referred to as the “Guidelines” from herein) outline the roles and responsibilities, processes, governance, and operation of Microsoft 365 groups.

Scope

The guidelines apply to all Microsoft 365 Groups whether created through Outlook, Planner, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Viva Engage or any other Microsoft 365 application and covers the content that is created/generated while using the resources and features within Microsoft 365 Groups, including but not limited to:

  • Shared inbox
  • Shared calendar
  • Shared OneNote notebook
  • SharePoint site, and document library
  • Planner
  • Microsoft Teams chat
  • Viva Engage feed

Audience

The Guidelines apply to all internal Tophhie Cloud users (users provided with a valid license) and all Guest users invited to the Tophhie Cloud tenant to collaborate on internal resources.

Appropriate Use and Eligibility

  • Microsoft 365 Groups (herein referred to as “Groups”) enable groups of people to come together and both collaborate and communicate in a shared workspace, providing access to a collection of resources team members share, and as such Groups should only be created where there is a need to collaborate and communicate between several users.
  • Groups should never be created for individual use. Individuals should use their OneDrive for Business space when working on documents on a personal level, or personal documents that are to be shared with a small number of users (e.g., 1:1 or 1:few). Groups with only one member may be subject to deletion.
  • All current internal Tophhie Cloud members are eligible to create Groups through self-service in Outlook, Planner, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Viva Engage (this includes other supported methods of creating Groups within the Microsoft 365 service).

Group Owners

  • The user who created the group is automatically assigned the role of Group owner.
  • Group owners have administrative privileges in the Group. An owner can add or remove other owners, members, and guests, approve requests from members to add a guest, and have unique permissions in certain Microsoft 365 services. Group owners can change the display name of the Group, update the description or picture, change Group settings, and more.
  • Owners can connect an existing Group (only application to private Groups without hidden membership) to a Microsoft Team (refer to: Create a team from an existing group).

Group owners are responsible for:

  • Reading, understanding, and adhering to the Guidelines.
  • Ensuring Groups have been named appropriately, and a description has been provided.
  • Ensuring the Group has at least two active owners (one may be accepted under certain conditions).
  • Ensuring that new owners are appointed prior to their departure from the Group.
  • Ensuring that access to the Group and its content are managed appropriately.
  • Ensuring storage space is managed optimally, and content is removed when it is no longer required to be kept (we keep backups).

Group Members

  • Group members are individuals who use the Group to collaborate. They have shared access to everything in the Group but cannot change Group settings or manage Group membership. Group members can invite guests (subject to owner approval) to join the Group.

Group Members are responsible for:

  • Reading, understanding, and adhering to the Guidelines.

Group Identification and Naming

  • Group names should be specific to the purpose of the Group. As such they should not contain unfamiliar acronyms, personal names, or general terms.
  • Group names can contain some special characters; however, these may not appear within the Group’s email address.
  • Groups with inappropriate or objectionable names may be restricted until they are corrected. If not corrected, they will be deleted.

Privacy Settings

  • Private Group: Only approved members and guests can access the Group.
  • Public Group: Access is open to all Microsoft 365 users, including invited tenant guests.
  • None: The default privacy setting is Private. Group owners can change the privacy setting.

Hidden Membership

  • Hidden membership Groups can only be created by a Microsoft 365 Administrator. If you would like to create a group in which the membership of the Group is hidden, please contact Tophhie Cloud IT at https://support.tophhie.co.uk.

Sensitivity Labelling

When creating a Group, you will be asked to provide the ‘Sensitivity’ of the Group. You can select one of the below options.

  • General: Group is allowed to be Public or Private. Guests can be invited.
  • Private: Group can only be Private. Guests can be invited.
  • Confidential: Group can only be Private. Guests can be invited.

Sensitivity labels provide a means of understanding the nature of the content held within the Group and therefore must be labelled appropriately.

Inactive Groups

Group owners need to be aware that Groups that have been inactive for a period of 12 months or more may be deleted by Tophhie Cloud IT. IT will notify Group owners prior to deletion, but if no response is received, the Group will be deleted. If a Group is deleted, all the content associated with the Group’s shared workspace will be deleted as well.

Groups without Owners

All users need to be aware that ownerless or orphaned Groups may be deleted by IT. IT will notify any group members prior to deletion and will offer to upgrade a member to an owner, but if no response is received, the Group will be deleted. If a Group is deleted, all the content associated with the Group’s shared workspace will be deleted as well.

Recovery

  • Groups owners can delete a Group, but do not have the ability to recover a Group. Note: if you delete an Outlook group, Planner plan, SharePoint site, Microsoft Team, or Viva Engage group, you are deleting the underlying Group and all its content.
  • The content of a deleted Group may be recoverable by a Microsoft 365 Administrator provided that a request is made within 30 days of the Group’s deletion. Beyond the 30 days the Group cannot be recovered. The Group owner can make a recovery request by contacting Tophhie Cloud IT.
  • If the 30-day recovery window has lapsed, a new Group will need to be created. Content from the deleted Group may be recoverable to the new Group from the backup system. The Group owner can make a request from recovery from the backup system by contacting Tophhie Cloud IT.

Sharing with External and Anonymous Users

  • Sharing with external users is enabled for Groups. External users must be invited as Guests to the tenant and added as a Group member.
  • External users are users who do not have a license to the Tophhie Cloud Microsoft 365 subscription and are limited to basic collaboration tasks using sharing links and direct links to the Group’s resources. You may invite a Guest to a Group via any supported means across the Microsoft 365 service, including but not limited to:
    • Adding a Guest user via Microsoft Teams
    • Inviting a Guest user to a site via SharePoint Online
    • Adding a Guest User via Outlook on the web.
    • Adding a Guest User to a community via Viva Engage.
  • External users may be granted Group owner rights, under exceptional circumstances.
  • Groups owners and members are responsible for ensuring that external user access is removed when no longer needed or warranted.
  • If information within the Group should never be shared with external users, Group owners can request a more restrictive sharing option by contacting Tophhie Cloud IT.
  • Anonymous sharing is limited to uploading documents only. Internal users may create an anonymous sharing link only to a folder they require documents uploading to.

Guest Access

  • Guest access is enabled for Microsoft 365 Groups, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams.
  • Guests are users who do not have a license to the Tophhie Cloud Microsoft 365 subscription, and only require a valid email address to be added to a Group as a guest member.
  • Guests can participate in Group conversations, receive, and respond to calendar invitations, and access the Group files. For more information, including guest capabilities, refer to Guest access in Office 365 groups and Guest Capabilities in Teams.