The SuccessFactors performance form has an audit trail on the Form Information page which shows the chronological log of actions, users, and comments as a form moves through the workflow steps.
The audit trail provides benefits to the organization, the manager and the employee. It provides transparency by showing history of actions taken on the form, acts as legal evidence in disputes and grievance, is useful in error tracking and facilitates internal and external audits by providing traceable documentation.
Let’s look at what the audit trail delivers.
There are 2 ways to see the audit trail.
The Blue Information icon displays in a user’s inbox in the Actions column.
Info icon to access the audit trail for a form
Within the form, go to Actions at the top of the page and select “Info about this form”.
View Audit Trail of Form
The Form Information view displays. The Route Map, Properties and Approval sections display.
Form Information Page
The Properties section shows the information present at the time the form was created and includes the user who generated the form, the form subject, type, form title and template and status.
Form Properties
The Approval Chain section is comprised of the Routing Map and Audit Trail information for the form.
Audit Trail for Performance Form
The Routing Map section displays the Step Type, Stage, Employee, Step, Status for the form.
The Audit Trail shows a chronological log of users within the workflow and the actions taken.
The Audit Trail section entries are created when a form moves from one step to the next and will show you the following information: Currently With, Employee, Action, Comments, Status, Act By.
Iterative and Collaborative steps are not shown.
Entries in the audit trail are only created when a form moves from one step and shows the routing history of the form.
In the Action column, you can find the changes employees made to a form. Click the link in a step to open a form and view what the form at that step. Employees cannot drill into steps which they do not have permission to.
Access to the step link is affected by the following two options from Admin Center > Company System and Logo Settings:
Everyone can access the revision history of the document. Allows users to access the revision history of each document for which they were on the approval chain. When you select this option, your users can go to the Documents Information page and view a read-only snapshot of the document as it was in each stage of the workflow.
Manager can access the revision history of the document. When you select this option, the manager can go to the Documents Information page and view a read-only snapshot of the document as it was in each stage of the workflow.
However, there is no option to determine whether users have opened the form.
The Comment column includes the system comments and the e-mail notification comments entered by the sender when sending the form to the next step.
Email notification and system comments
If you do not want the sender’s comments to be stored and displayed in the Audit Trail section, go to Admin Center > Company System and Logo Settings, and select “Do not store sender’s comment on workflow action”.
Advanced Settings of Performance Template
Reporting
Reporting can be done on the audit trail records of the form completed steps by using the Audit Trail table in the Performance Management schema in Story reports.
Reportable fields include step owner, step action, date time when a step was completed, and system and user comments.
You can also join the Audit Trail table with the Next Route Step and Previous Route Step tables in the Route Entry schema to report on step information.
In Closing
The most successful SuccessFactors implementations aren’t defined by how much functionality is turned on—but by how intentionally it’s designed.
At Worklogix, we help organizations make these decisions with adoption, scalability, and business impact in mind—so talent processes don’t just exist in the system, but actually work in practice. Do you need help implementing or supporting your SAP SuccessFactors system? Contact info@worklogix.com for assistance.
Having forms automatically route to the next step can be a efficient method to keep the performance process moving along but there is a wrinkle that can cause lots of manual intervention and even trap you in time loop.
It all starts with the route map
First let’s look at the route map associated with a performance template.
Route maps can be set up to have forms auto route on a designated step due date. Any or all steps can have the forms move based on when you decide the step is due. This means any forms sitting in this step on the step due date will automatically route to the next step the following day.
The settings for this auto routing are shown below.
Route Map Auto Route Form on Step Due Date
First, identify a due date for the step (1) and then enable the “Automatic send on due date” box (2).
In order for this auto routing to work, a background job needs to be set up in Provisioning. In Provisioning, go to Manage Scheduled Jobs . Here the Auto Route Based on Due Date job needs to be set up and should be configured as a recurring job running nightly.
“Auto Route Based on Due Date “Job
An example of the job details are shown below.
Details of “Auto Route Based on Due Date” Job
In the example, the job is scheduled to run daily, 30 minutes after midnight.
It is best to have the job scheduled to run after midnight so the forms will route immediately at the end of the step due day.
Now the route map is set up with the auto route step due date(s), the background job is set up and the forms are launched.
Once the performance review process is in flight, forms will progress through the workflow. With the scheduled background job running nightly, any form still in a step on the auto route due date will automatically route to the next step at the end of day.
Potential Gotcha
This is where a gotcha may lie. The admin can manually send a form back or a user in the current step can send to the form to the previous step. A hiccup can occur after the step due date when a form is returned to this step.
In this example, a user may ask that a form be routed back a step. The admin would have to route the document back.
“Route Form” action to move a form back a step
Another way to have a form move back a step is to have the template configured to allow the form to go back a step.
Button to send form back one step
In either case, the form had auto routed to the next step, but was then routed back to the prior step. If the employee does not make updates to the form that day, that evening the form will route forward again to the next step.
This bears repeating. If a form is routed back to an auto route step, if no action is taken on that day, the form will auto route forward again at the end of the day.
Even though the step due date has passed, if a form resides in that step, it will auto route again the next time the background job runs. This can cause a lot of manual rerouting of forms if the form is not actioned upon the day that the form is routed back.
Workaround
There are a few ways to handle this time loop.
Updating Just a Few Forms
When dealing with just a handful of forms that were impacted, run an ad hoc query to find any forms that are in that prior step based on a recent modify date.
Forms recently moved back a step
The admin would use this information to go to Modify Form Route Map to update the route map for each of the impacted forms.
Modify Form Route Map Action
Enter the Doc ID from the ad hoc report and click “Search”. The form route map steps display.
Click on the route map step that you wish to update. This will expand the step configuration section and show the step details.
Modify Form Route Map Step 1 Expanded View
In order to stop this form’s auto routing to the next step, uncheck the “Automatic send on the due date” checkbox and then click on “Next” as shown below.
Remove “Automatic send on due date” for the step
The form has been updated and the the automatic routing for this step has been removed, for this form only.
Form route map step has been updated
Repeat this process for each individual form that needs to have the automatic routing for this step removed. Click on “Back to Search Forms” to update the next form.
To Remedy Auto Route for All Generated Forms
To completely remove the auto route so that it will not continue to occur each time a form is routed back to an auto route step, the admin may modify the route map via Modify Form Route Map.
Modify Form Route Map
Once the forms are selected, remove the automatic send of due date for the step.
Remove “Automatic send on due date”
This means all of the forms generated will now auto route if any forms are returned to this step later in the process.
If this manual intervention seems too cumbersome, you may decide to limit the use of the auto-route feature going forward with other templates.
Other Gotchas
Auto Route Only if Validation Passes
If you find that a form did not auto route on the step due date, check the route map to see if Only Send Forms that Pass Validation is enabled for the step. If a form had required fields that needed to be populated during the current step and they were left blank, the form would not route to the next step.
“Only route forms that pass validation” setting in the Route Map
In this case, the admin would have to auto route the form to get it to the next step.
Cannot Auto Route Due to Missing User in Step Role
Another issue that can arise is when a form is set to auto route to a manager step and the manager role is not populated for an employee’s form. The manager step will be skipped. The form cannot route to a step with any empty role.
To resolve this, the admin route would have to route the form back to the first step and once the manager role is populated, the form will route correctly. This causes the system to re-evaluate employee data, new managers, route steps, and roles.
One more thing
The most successful SuccessFactors implementations aren’t defined by how much functionality is turned on—but by how intentionally it’s designed.
At Worklogix, we help organizations make these decisions with adoption, scalability, and business impact in mind—so talent processes don’t just exist in the system, but actually work in practice. Do you need help implementing or supporting your SAP SuccessFactors system? Contact info@worklogix.com for assistance.
Find out ways for an admin to prepare for the launch of yearly performance forms to make it a more meaningful experience for everyone.
The biggest piece of advice; advanced planning is key! Make sure you include the right people in the decision making process early on to improve your performance review process.
You will need to understand the specific performance management needs of your organization. It is imperative to align with the business processes in order to have a successful performance evaluation cycle.
Preparation for the New Plan Year
Set the timeline for the Performance Cycle
Decide on the date range that performance is being evaluated on. Is it based on calendar year, fiscal year, hire date anniversary, or role-based schedule?
Who gets a form? All employees, new hires before a certain date, specific groups of employees?
Include prep time to review last year’s form and make adjustments based on employee and manager feedback
Determine the form launch date
Is there an annual launch for all forms or is launch based on the individual?
Based on the launch date, determined how much time is allotted for each step in the form
Configure the performance template, making sure the form aligns with your organization’s performance cycle, timelines, and evaluation criteria
Start by identifying rules for the form
Can forms be routed back to the prior step?
Do the route map steps have due dates? if so, are forms auto routed to the next step based on step due date?
Can forms be sent to others for feedback?
Can completed forms be sent to others?
Are the instructions clear on the form? Do certain sections need introductory text to guide the employee so they understand what they need to do?
Are there any changes to what is being rated, the rating scale?
Are there new sections to be added to the form?
Any changes to the workflow, any changes to the permissions on which roles can do what and in which step?
Data Tracking and Reporting: Make sure the performance forms are set up to collect data for future reporting and analytics. Use the data for insights into employee performance trends, team dynamics, and organizational development.
Update/Prep the System
Make sure your data is current
Update any reporting relationships so that the forms will flow to the correct employees’ managers. If any managers are on leave, make sure their direct reports have a new reporting relationship.
Make sure any job changes and pending actions are completed so the forms will reflect current titles and reporting relationships.
Test your form in a controlled environment to ensure it works as expected.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Provide communication on the process to managers and employees. Use multiple means of communication. Make sure they are aware of the time frame and what is expected of them each step of the way.
Training
Create training guides for employees and managers alike. Tip sheets, quick reference guides or more detailed references are helpful, especially if you are rolling out a new review process
Conduct manager training sessions. Include how to navigate the system and level set expectations for how to rate employees. Also stress the need to track notes throughout the year in order to be prepared to provide detailed feedback during the process.
Ready for Launch
Review the performance review template one final time and make sure everything is ready to go.
If the template is copied from the prior year, ensure that the correct goal plan is linked to the template and any references to the prior plan year are updated to the new plan year
Make sure the correct route map and rating scale are linked
Make sure the route map has any prior year dates and verbiage updated
Verify step due dates on route map are correct, if using
Make sure the advanced settings reflect the current year
Verify launch date and group of employees that the forms are being launched for
Verify email notifications are enabled and the text contained in the emails is correct and instructional
If forms will auto route to the next step based on the step due date, ensure that the nightly auto route job is set up to run
During the Review Process
Track timely completion of reviews. You can create an ad hoc report to check what steps forms are in. If a step due date is approaching and forms are not moving, it can be a signal to send out communication to remind users to work on their forms.
Provide guidance. Questions will arise and in order to make the process run more smoothly, be prepared to answer questions, route forms and troubleshoot as needed.
Post-Review Follow-up
Once the review cycle is completed, it is time to reflect and prepare for the next cycle.
Gather Analytics on the Review Process
You can track completion rates, ratings distribution, and other key metrics. Use these insights to monitor the success of the performance management process.
Set up custom reports to analyze performance trends across the organization. SuccessFactors provides pre-built reports for evaluating employee performance, ratings, and competencies. This enables you to summarize key findings to leadership.
Customize dashboards and analytics to review performance ratings, goal progress, and development plans at a department or company level.
Collect Feedback on the Review Process
Ask around, what worked and what didn’t? Discover what employees and managers felt bout the form’s usability and effectiveness. Use this feedback to refine your configuration for future cycles.
Prepare for Next Review Cycle
Note updates to make for next year’s template using feedback and changes in the business, employee development needs, or industry best practices.
Regularly assess whether the PM form and process are meeting organizational needs. Be prepared to make adjustments or add new sections based on feedback from users.
Plan for new business needs: As your company evolves, the form may need to adapt, such as adding new competencies, revising goals, or adding new development sections.
By following this checklist, admins can ensure that the year-end performance review process is thorough, efficient, and effective, benefiting both employees and the organization.
Learn the pitfalls to avoid in order to create a performance form that is impactful and provides clarity, evidence, balance, and has a future focus.
Here are some of the ways forms measure the wrong things and here are some tips to improve the performance review process.
What Not to Do #1
Measure behavior not results. Typically attendance, compliance, and soft competencies are scored. Responses are vague and do not provide guidance on what to continue to do and what to work on to improve.
What to Do Instead #1
Connect measures to business outcomes. Do not rate just easily observable behaviors. Include rating for strategic impact, customer value deliverance, growth in role.
What Not to Do #2
Use vague ratings.
Ratings of Does Not Meet Expectations,Meets Expectations and Exceeds Expectations are vague and subjective at best. Two managers could rate an employee completely different using this rating scale.
What to Do Instead #2
Create a scoring system that is well defined with examples for each score. Also provide calibration rules. Tie ratings to business impact and not on personal opinion.
What Not to Do #3
One Size Fits All Form
An organization with sales, marketing, research, and manufacturing cannot rate the varied roles using the same form. Each drives values in a different way. Customize role-specific scorecards based on the work that produces value.
What to Do Instead #3
Use a shared framework that stresses company-wide values, and standards. Have one form style but use different measures per job family.
What Not to Do #4
Make form too long and have too many steps
Some forms ask too many questions and have crazy workflows. This causes employees and managers to feel pressure to complete the forms under tight deadlines which leads to rushed and low quality responses.
What to Do Instead #4
Ask fewer and better questions. Use evidence-based assessment using metrics and outcomes, anything to remove ambiguity. If a question adds no decision making value, it doesn’t belong on the form.
What Not to Do #5
Use of Generic Competency Frameworks
While competencies such as “embraces change”, or “drives innovation” are aspirational, they are hard to rate objectively.
What to Do Instead #5
Competencies should be observable, job-relevant, linked to business outcomes and have defined behaviors for each level.
What Not to Do #6
Have Forms Built for HR
Forms that allow box checking, reporting, and legal defense are great for HR but are not tailored to the manager and employee.
What to Do Instead #6
Optimize form with clear feedback, meaningful coaching conversation and have to have better performance in the next go round with no surprises.
What Not to Do #7
Have Unusable Output
Weak performance forms don’t tie into development plans, pay decisions, drive staffing decisions or shape promotion paths. Don’t heavily lean towards rating subjective skills.
What to Do Instead #7
A well-designed form is operational, in that leaders use the output to allocate talent, managers use it to coach and employees use it to grow.
Overall Tips for a Better From
Make the form operational:
Provide clear, concise feedback
Have a balanced discussion: talk about strengths, but don’t neglect areas that are opportunities for growth
Create a path forward which identifies clear expectations, of view of what success looks like and how it is measured
Be fair and consistent in the assessment; avoid bias, assumptions, and judgments
Have a two way dialog with opportunity to ask questions, discuss challenges, invite reflection
You should now be on your way to crafting a well created performance form. Just remember that it should be comprehensive in that it assess an employee’s performance, encourages their growth, and support the organization’s mission.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Of major note, Profile Preview and Spotlight are now universally available as part of the latest People Profile experience. They are now standard without any opt-ins needed providing the latest People Profile is enabled.
Keep reading to discover more of what is now available.
Enhancements to Profile Preview and Spotlight of the Latest People Profile
Updates to the Home Page Experience
The Home Page has been enhanced with better use of space, less scrolling, with a consolidated list of tasks. There are new options, such as banner cards,analytic cards and personalization settings. There is improved design of custom content.
New Home Page
Profile Header Updated
The category list has been updated and the profile header automatically collapses as you scrolled down the categories
Header Collapsed and Pinned
Only the employee’s photo, display name, login name, and job title remain visible at the top of the page when the categories are collapsed,
Three Additional Fields May be Added to the Profile Header
It is now possible to add 3 fields in the header of the full profile, such as gender pronouns, or alternate name. These additional fields will be read-only. The fields to select from are the same as those available for the Employee Information card in Full Profile.
Additional Fields Added to Profile Header
Quick Access to Profile Preview
To easily get to the Profile Preview from the Full Profile page or any card’s details page, click the “Show employee details” icon next to the user name.
Access to Profile Preview using Icon
Upload Background Images
Employees may upload their own background images, not just from the image library.
Analytic Cards on the Home Page
There are now 2 analytic cards available that may be displayed on the Home Page: Upcoming Absences and Time Sheet Status. These display charts may be enabled and would appear in the Explore More section on the latest home page.
Analytic Cards on the Home Page
Manager’s Full Profile Contains Direct Report Count and Team Size
Direct reports view include photos, names and titles.
Manager’s Full Profile View with Direct Reports and Team Size
Advanced People Search
Enhanced People Search features now apply to the global header and Directory Search. The experience includes facets, filters and more searchable fields.
The Global Header People Search uses the enhanced Autocomplete Search.
Directory Search incorporates the enhanced Advanced Search, allowing users to search for employees with specific criteria.
Directory Search
On the search criteria page, users can search for employees using keywords like name, assignment ID, job title, and location. Alternatively, they can use the search widget for more advanced search criteria.
User Search
Option to Delete Scheduled Job on My Jobs Page
Scheduled jobs for all report types, except Canvas reports, can be deleted directly from the My Jobs page. Simply choose the ellipses button under the “Action” column and then select “Delete”.
Delete Scheduled Job
Visual Changes Across the Platform
Throughout the system there are text, icon and label changes. Here are just a few of the updates.
More clear label for admin Settings page to identify when using system email notifications
System Email Notifications
Team Members can be displayed for Active or Inactive employees
Team Member Selection
Creating a Refresh RBP Model job request now has helpful information that this job will refresh all RBP permissions
Job Request Information
Using the Instance Refresh Tool, the instance refresh can now only be scheduled 3 months in advance, down from 6 months
System Refresh 3 Months in Advance
When viewing the Org Chart, the gear icon pop up now is labeled “Display Settings“. Previously it was labeled “Display Options“
New Label for Gear Icon
Scheduled Job Manager Supports Time Zones
A time zone may be selected when creating a job request in the Scheduled Job Manager admin tool. A new field, Time Zone, has been added to the Job Occurrence section on the Create Job Request page.
Time Zone Selection when Scheduling Job
New Deeplink Parameters for Full Profile Navigation
There are more parameters in deep links to directly access the Full Profile cards.
cardId=<card Id>: link to go directly to a card’s detail page
mdfObjectType=<custom MDF object type, to access a custom MDF object card
backgroundElementId=<custom Background Element Id>to go to a Background Information card’s details page
Delegation Request Card on Home Page
When using the latest home page experience, delegatees can now manage delegation requests directly from the Home Page with a new to-do card feature.
Delegation Requests on Home Page
The Delegation Request card contains details of the delegation request, including the delegator’s profile picture, the name of the performance form, the valid period of the task, and the employee’s name whose form needs review. A request can be accepted or rejected directly from the card.
To learn more and get more details about the updates, see the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Check out what’s new for Career Development.
Enhancements to the Employee View in the latest Career Worksheet
Employees will see more information on the Role Details page when using the latest Career Worksheet.
Highlights include:
The titles for the Skills and Attributes to Improve and Skills and Attributes You Have sections now include counts
The explanation of how role readiness is calculated displays when selecting the role readiness of a target role
Employee View of Role Readiness
Enhancements to Manager View in Latest Career Worksheet
Managers can also enjoy an enhanced experience when using the latest Career Worksheet.
On the Summary tab of the Team View page in Growth Portfolio, managers have better visibility into employees’ career development, including:
View employees’ unrated skills and attributes
Unrated Skills and Attributes
View employees’ development activities linked to specific skills and attributes
Development Activities linked to Skills and Attributes
View their team’s target roles when granted the private-access permission in the Career Worksheet template.
Option to Disable Legacy Career Worksheet
Once the latest Career Worksheet is enabled, the legacy version may be disabled. Please note, when the legacy version is disabled, the Career Worksheet tab isn’t available in the Development module. If you aren’t using Career Path, Career Explorer or Mentoring, the Development module will not be available in the main navigation menu.
View Development Goals in Latest Career Worksheet
Development goals now appear on a role’s details page in the latest Career Worksheet. However, only development goals from the default development goal plan that have skills or attributes associated with the selected role will be displayed.
The Goal name, associated skills or attributes, and status for each development goal display.
Development Goals on Role Details page
View In-Progress Opportunities in Latest Career Worksheet
Actions and progress that users have made in developing their current or target roles will be viewable.
These in-progress opportunities with skills or attributes associated with the selected role appear in the Opportunities in Progress section. Once an opportunity card is selected, the user is directed to its details page.
In-progress opportunities on role detail page
View Recommended Assignments and Learning Opportunities for Development Goals
The assignments and learning opportunities that match skills and attributes selected for a user’s development goals are now viewable. Users can also link assignments of interest to their development goals.
This feature is available on a user’s own goal details page.
Users can view learning activities not linked to development goals. These activities and learning opportunities can be be added/linked through the Linked Learning section on the goal details page. Assignments then appear in the Linked Assignments section.
Users can bookmark recommended assignments and learning opportunities.
Linked Assignments
Features Now Available with AI units license
With the purchase of the AI units license, there are some additional features available.
AI-Assisted Career Insights for Current Role
Previously available for target roles only, now employees can gain insights into development actions that help them progress in their current role.
There is a new Unlock your potential with AI-powered insights! section on a current role’s details page which includes:
Role name and description
Skills and attributes associated with the role
Current and expected proficiency levels for these skills and attributes
Skills and attributes added to the employee’s Growth Portfolio
AI Career Insights
The insights are grouped into sections:
Summary which is a high-level overview of the employee’s current role
Suggestions for Improvement which identifies two growth areas for upskilling and career development with achievable suggestions for skills and attributes in the category, learning courses keywords, ideal mentor’s position, suggested development goal
Career Directions which are tailored career paths with a link to view recommended job roles
AI-Assisted Writing Available in Custom Learning Activities
Text and Textarea fields for custom learning activities now have AI-assisted writing available.
AI-Assisted Writing
Create Development Goals with AI Based on Roles and Interests
Using AI, users can create personalized goals aligning with specific career roles or skill interests. With the AI-assisted goal creation feature enabled, AI can be used to create development goals based on a current role, target role, or skills and attributes.
Create goals from roles
Create goals from interests
New personalized goal creation options using AI
Data Referenced Section Available in AI-Assisted Career Insights
Using AI, can view information being considered on the Data Referenced section on a target role’s details page in the latest Career Worksheet.
Data Referenced section of target role’s detail page
To learn more and get more details, see the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Calibration
Auto Activate Calibration Sessions
You may now create job requests to automatically activate Calibration sessions. There is a new setting to enable in Admin Center>>Manage Calibration Templates on the Advanced tab.
A new setting, “Enforce session activation“, has been added under “Auto-activate sessions”. When enabled, if validation errors are found for certain subjects, those subjects will be removed from the corresponding session, allowing the sessions to be activated.
Previously, sessions could not be activated if errors were found for subjects during validation.
Once the Auto-activate sessions option for a template is enabled, set your desired activation date. Next, create the job request at Admin Center>Scheduled Job Manager to auto-activate sessions that use this template. A new job type, Auto-Activate Calibration Sessions on Planned Date, is now available.
Sessions can be auto-activated at the template or session level. If you set an activation date only in the template and do not specify a different date for individual sessions, the sessions will be auto-activated on the date defined in the template.
If you assign a different activation date to individual sessions, that date will take priority. If no activation date is set for either the template or the sessions, the sessions based on the template will not be auto-activated, even if the option is enabled.
When the auto-activation job is completed, you will receive email notifications detailing the results of the activation process. However, if the job runs but finds no sessions to activate, no email notifications will be sent.
Comments from Other Calibration Sessions
In the subject list of a calibration session, the comment icon next to each subject now shows a total count of comments from the current session and other sessions that are based on the same template. When you viewing the comment dialog box,there are separate counts and comments on the From This Session and From Other Sessions tabs.
The counts update automatically when comments are added or deleted from any session.
Comments from this session and other sessions
In order to see this, using Manage Calibration Templates, go the to Advanced tab and select “Enable Roll up comments from the other sessions based on the same template“.
Remove Inactive Subjects from Calibration Sessions
Inactive subjects may now be removed from all calibration sessions using the Remove Subjects from Calibration Sessionsadmin tool. Previously, only active users could be searched for and removed.
Inactive Subjects Removal from Calibration Session
Display Extra Fields in Bin and Matrix Views
The setting “Add an extra field to people card shown in 9-box view” has been updated to “Display extra field for subjects in Bin and Matrix view“. Found under Admin Center>>Manage Calibration Settings >>Global Settings, you can now enable this option and select an extra field to display for subjects in both Bin and Matrix views. Any field that was previously selected for display in the Matrix view will now automatically be visible in the Bin view.
Impact of Using Extra Fields for Views
Track Rating Changes in Calibration Sessions
Rating changes can now be tracked within a calibration session. The update makes it easier to track the rating changes and maintain a record of all adjustments made.
There is a new Rating Change History icon in the upper-right corner of a calibration session. Clicking the icon opens a Rating Change History page.
Here all rating modifications made to subjects within that session are listed. The Old Rating and New Rating columns display the rating label and also includes the corresponding rating value. The user who made the change as well as the modify date/time are noted as well.
View Rating Change History
Bin width adjustments automatically saved
In the Bin view of a calibration session, any adjustments made to the width of each bin are now saved automatically. When accessing the Bin view the next time, the saved widths will be applied. In the past, bin width changes were not saved, and each bin would revert to its default width upon reopening the view.
Changes Auto Saved
Exclude Contingent Workers when Creating Calibration Sessions
Contingent workers can now be automatically removed when you create calibration sessions.
A new setting, Exclude Contingent Workers from Session Creation, is available under Admin Center>Manage Calibration Settings>Global Settings.
Once enabled, contingent workers are automatically removed from the list of participants and subjects when you create sessions using:
Manage Calibration Sessions tool. After searching for users through the org chart or advanced search and then adding the selected users as participants and subjects, a warning message will appear if any contingent workers are included. Message will include which contingent workers been removed
Manager created sessions on the Calibration landing page
Sessions created via a CSV file
For learn more, you can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Here are some of the highlights of the release for Succession.
Show Person-Based Nominations on Talent Card and People Profile
An employee’s nominations from all their employments, including nominations to positions and talent pool nominations will be available on the Succession talent card. For this view, Global Assignment or Concurrent Employment must be enabled and in Nominations Setup, select “Show person-based nominations for employees with global assignments or concurrent employments”.
Then users with proper permissions can view all nomination records of an employee.This will provide a extensive view of nominations across multiple employments for an employee.
Succession Card Nominations for Multiple Employment
Nominations will also display on the legacy and latest People Profile.
Nominations in People Profile
Access Inactive Employees in Talent Pools Based On Target Population
There is a new setting which enables access to inactive nominees in an user’s target population for talent pool nominations permissions. In Nominations Setup, enable “Include inactive users in target population of talent pool nominations permissions”.
This enables inactive employees to be visible in talent pools while applying target population.
When the setting is enabled, Inactive employees in the target population appear in:
Talent pools
Position card in the Talent Pools section
Talent card in the Talent Pool Nominations section
Latest People Profile in the Talent Pool Nominations card or in the legacy People Profile in the Current Nominations block
Talent search results for talent pools
Admin Tool Matrix Grid Rating Scales Universally Available
The Matrix Grid Rating Scales admin tool is now available in all systems. Before the update, it was available only when the Matrix Grid Reports feature was enabled in Provisioning. Removing the restriction, the tool is now available for matrix grids on the Performance Management form and those in the Trend Information and Overview blocks in the legacy People Profile.
Enhanced Suggested Successors Feature
The Suggested Successors feature now supports using the skills and competency proficiency levels from Growth Portfolio. Users may also view a role readiness explanation for each suggested successor.
Role Readiness Explanation
The attributes required by the position’s role are grouped into two sections: “matched” and “unmatched”. The grouping is ased on whether the suggested successor’s current ratings meet the expected ratings of these attributes.
Filter Position Tile View with Foundation Objects
Foundation Objects can be used to filter position tiles displayed in the the Position Tile view.
This requires the setting to include Foundation Objects in filters and adding Foundation Object fields as searchable fields to the Position object. Then Foundation Objects will show up as available filters in the Position Tile view.
Adding Foundation Type Filters for Position Tiles
In Succession Settings, enable “Include Generic Objects and Foundation Objects in filters in the Position Tile view”.
Separate Permission Control for Viewing Nomination History
Role-based permissions can now be used to control whether users who can nominate successors or view talent pool nominees are allowed to access the history of successor or talent pool nominations. This provides more specific access control over nomination history data.
Succession Planners permissions to view nomination history is now separate from Succession Planning Permission and View Talent Pool Nominations permissions.
Child permissions have been added:
View Nomination History, which allows users who nominate successors ability to view the nomination history on the position card, Succession talent card and in the People Profile
View Talent Pool Nomination History, which allows users who view talent pool nominees to also view the nomination history in the talent pool details page and the People Profile
Permissions Needed
If a user already has Succession Planning Permission or View Talent Pool Nominations parent permission, the corresponding nomination history permission is automatically granted.
Sort Succession Org Chart by Position or Employee Title
Additional sorting options are now available for same-level nodes in the Succession Org Chart. In addition to the incumbent’s username, can be sorting can also be done alphabetically by position title or employee title.
Succession Org Chart Sorted by Position Title
The title-based sorting is helpful when comparing succession plans for similar positions or roles. The order remains the same when incumbents change.
To enable this sorting:
MDF or legacy position-based nomination method
In the Org Chart Configuration>Succession Org Chart, “Sort Succession Org Chart by position title” is selected
For the role-person nomination method
In the Org Chart Configuration>Succession Org Chart, “Sort Succession Org Chart by employee title” is selected
AI-Assisted Successor Recommendation
If you have purchased AI units license, are using Talent Intelligence Hub and enabled Growth Potential, succession planners can use the power of AI generative capabilities to view a list of recommended successors based on their skills, competencies, and work experience.
With the Suggested Successor setting enabled, weights can be configured for skills and competencies and work experience.
Successor Recommendations Settings
When settings for both are set, generative AI uses the following data to recommend successors:
Position-related job families, roles and profile in Job Profile Builder
Skills and competencies in the Growth Portfolio
Job information and external work experience in People Profile
In the Suggested Successors list, hover over an employee and use the Add button to nominate them as a successor. Once the employee is nominated, they are removed from this suggested list. Users can also choose the information icon to view why the employee is suggested in a popover dialog. The dialog contains up to four sections:
Detailed Successor Recommendations
For greater details, you can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Continuous Performance Management
There are no major updates for Continuous Performance Management, they are generally available and require no additional updates. Here are a few notable updates.
All Responses shown on Feedback Given tab
The Feedback Given tab for Continuous Feedback page now shows all feedback given, both unsolicited feedback and responses to feedback requests, not just feedback response for the target population for their permission role.
Search for an activity and link to feedback
The word count for Continuous Performance fields is now based on characters instead of bytes.
In addition, several field lengths have been extended:
Users can request and review feedback on their activities in any channels where they are the participant
When a user is the participant in a channel, they can request and view feedback on all their activities. Previously, the feedback functionality was only available for activities recorded in channels between managers and direct reports.
Share Activities Across Channels on Continuous Performance Page
Users are now able to share their activities across channels where they participate, giving relevant users the ability to view and edit these activities for seamless collaboration. These activity sharing records are reportable with Story reports.
Only the channel participant, who is responsible for completing the activities within a channel, can share them with other channels in two ways. They can also control whether the target channel owners can view and add comments on each activity. This setting is pre-selected as the default.
On My Activities with <channel owner’s name> page, select Share Activities button and choose activities that they want to share with another channel in the pop-up dialog.
Share Activity with Another Channel
On the Activity Details page, users may choose channels that they want to share an activity with.
Share Activity within Activity Details
Channel owners can track the source and destination channels of a shared activity through the Channels link in the Shared With: field on the Activity Details page. However, the field and link are only available for activities shared across channels. On the activities overview page, channel owners and participants can see the “shared across channels” icon on the card of activities that have been shared, to distinguish them from those haven’t.
Share Icon Visible for Shared Activities
AI-assisted writing is now available in more text areas on Continuous Performance and Continuous Feedback pages
When the AI units license has been purchased, AI-assisted writing now includes feedback topics and feedback questions for Continuous Performance. All free text areas now support AI assistance. Text areas also include activity names, activity updates, achievement names, meeting notes, discussion topics, and channel invitation notes.
AI Assistance for Writing Tasks
To learn more and get more details, see the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
The SAP SuccessFactors 2H 2025 release focuses on enhancing the user experience and leveraging AI. For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for the second half of 2025 release for Performance Management below.
Performance Management
Replacement of Legacy Performance Management Form Experience with Latest Experience
The latest experience of Performance Management forms is replacing the legacy one, which will reach end of development on November 14, 2025 and will be deleted on November 20, 2026.
The latest experience was automatically enabled in the Preview environment for customers using the latest Goal Management in the 1H 2025 release. This is not the case in the Production environment, the latest experience wasn’t enabled by default.
The latest experience has the key features in the legacy version with an enhanced user experience, a more flexible layout, more business rule scenarios, and generative AI features if the AI user license is purchased.
Enhancements to Latest Experience of Performance Management Forms
Some of the new features now available:
EZ rater
Goal comments and learning activities available when printing form
Forms can be printed in custom layout
“Print” button available for form snapshot
Additional fields are available on side panel: unofficial rating, expected rating, rating gap
Goal status colors display in form (if configured)
Help text added for rating field for competency with behaviors
Warning message to appear if proxy user does not have access to missing form content
Read only forms will not show action buttons
Mass Route Ungrouped Forms to a Specific Step
Using the “Route Form” action, forms may be mass routed to a specific step when they are using the same template and route map. In the past, only a group of forms from the same launch could be mass routed, not forms across launches for the same template.
Within the “Route Form” action, search for the forms by specifying the template or uploading form IDs. In the search results, select the forms you wish to move
“Route Forms” action
Once the forms are selected, they can be mass routed using the Move the form to a specific step option in the “Select An Action” step of the routing process.
Move ungrouped forms to a specific step
Enhanced AI-Assisted Writing in Performance Management
With the purchase of the AI units license, the AI-assisted writing actions, Generate Comments and Improve My Feedback are now available for goals, as well as skills, competencies, and behaviors.
When a goal is assigned a rating, users can access the two actions in the comment box for that goal, from the context menu of the AI-assisted writing tool.
New Business Rules
There are some new business rules that may be configured when using the latest experience for Performance Management:
Conditional Field Visibility, Editability, Required/Optional
Create business rules to set specific form fields to visible or hidden, editable or read-only, and required or optional, when certain conditions are met
Creating conditional rules provide flexibility to show form fields differently based on user input. For example, a manager giving a certain rating would require a comment
Add Review Steps upon Form Routing
Business rules may be configured to add steps to the Modify stage of the form based on meeting certain conditions. For example, a certain rating by a manager can trigger an additional step to add another reviewer to the process.
These steps are pre-configured in route maps and marked as Hidden Until Rule Execution. When the conditions defined in the rule are met, and the form with a hidden step is being routed forward, the rule is executed, making the step visible on the form.
All step types are supported
New Business Rules
Add link to People Profile Card View from Performance form
Links can be configured to the latest People Profile cards in the form template when the full profile of the latest People Profile is enabled.
In the Manage Templates admin tool, you can use the new configuration “[[CARDLINK|<cardId>|<displayName>]]” in the description section of a field to a add card link to a form template.
Add card link to a section within the performance template
This allows the ability to link to a card in the latest People Profile when working within an employee’s form where they can view and edit the profile.
Access to Manage Templates to update, download and edit XML templates
A great new feature allows templates to be downloaded, viewed, edited and added via “Manage Templates”. This removes the need to use Provisioning to update the form template XML.
This permission is applicable to performance form templates, 360 form templates, goal plan templates, and development goal plan templates. You can download templates and view template revisions without any configurations.
This does require an update to a role’s role-based permission to a upload new templates and update existing ones. Care should be given to users that will receive this access.
Manage Templates Role Based Permission for Upload and Update XML Templates
Once the role has permission to upload and update XML templates, the user can upload new templates, update existing templates, view historical XML and download the templates via Manage Templates.
Upload and Update Templates in Manage Templates
Goal Management
Here are some of the highlights of updates for Goal Management.
Purge Goals by Goal ID
The admin tool, Data Retention Management, has been used for data purge requests. For goal management, it has been used to purge performance and development goals by selecting the goal plan template in the purge request. This meant the process purged goal data for a specific user’s goal plan, and not just purging a single goal on the plan.
Create Purge Request
Now there is greater flexibility in purging user performance and development goals. In the latest version, the “Purge method” lists two options for purging goals: Purge by goal plan template and the new Purge by goal ID.
Purge by Goal ID or Goal Template
To purge specific goals, use the “Purge by goal ID” purge method. You can download the sample CSV file to get the proper file columns.
Purge by goal ID
You will need to populate a CSV file with the goal ids. Goal IDs can be found by creating a goal management ad hoc report that lists the goal plan template goal name, goal owner and the goal ID.
Sample Purge file by Goal ID
Once the goals to be purged are identified, add the goal IDs to the CSV file and upload to the purge request.
The existing method, to purge by goal plan template will purge all data associated with the template.
Import Goals for Target Population
Within a role based permission role, in the Administrator Permissions section>Manage Goals, there is now an option to specify a target population to import goals for.
Import Goal by Target Population
Previously, a role having permission to import goals would be able to import goals for any active users.
Now if attempting to import goals for users outside their target population, there would be an error message in the goal import email notification.
Minor Goal Management Enhancements
There are some minor goal management enhancements in this release which streamline the goal management experience for users.
For the confirmation message and button label in the confirmation dialog for Edit Performance Goal, Create Performance Goal, Edit Team Goal, Create Team Goal, Edit Development Goal, and Create Development Goal pages. the confirmation dialog was “Are you sure you want to discard the changes?”, and the corresponding button label was “Keep Going”.
This has now changed to “If you’ve made any changes, they won’t be saved. Are you sure you want to discard them?” and the “Keep Going” label is changed to “Cancel”.
Updated Cancellation Confirmation Message
On the Goals landing page, the warning messages for goal number and weight limits are now displayed as message strips. This highlights to users the defined limits of goal number and total goal weight.
Goal Warning Messages
On the Goalslanding page, the goal filter component no longer uses status colors
Goal Status Without Colors
Assigning Team Goals – users can select all loaded goals during the goal selection step in the Assign Team Goal and Cascade Goal dialogs. The number of goals is now increased to 100 from 20, and the checkbox is renamed “Select All Loaded Goals”
Update to Sharing, Unsharing Team Goals – users with the Share Team Goals permission can now share and unshare team goals with anyone in the organization
A more user friendly error message displays when saving goal plan template, it shows the cause of the error and provides a solution
Goal Plan Save Error
Consistency in use of “More”: on the Goals landing page and Manage Team Goals page, the button label “More” is changed to “Show More “
“Show More” replaces “More”
360 Reviews
Here are some notable updates for 360 Reviews.
Add Link to Detailed 360 Report in Email Notifications
A link can be added to the Detailed 360 Report in the “360 Document Complete Notification” email template by using a new tag [[PM360_DETAILED_REPORT_URL]].
When this tag is added to the 360 Document Complete Notification email template, users have immediate access to Detailed 360 Reports from their email.
New Token for 360 Document Complete Notification
How the tag is rendered depends on whether the option Enable HTML email notifications is selected in Company System and Logo Settings:
If selected, the tag appears as a clickable phrase: Detailed 360 Report for {subject user’s full name}.
If not selected, it’s resolved as a clickable URL, preceded by an introductory text: For an overview of raters’ feedback, view {URL}.
New switch to hide Radar Charts on 360 Detailed Reports
In the Advanced Settings for a 360 template in Manage Templates, there is a new option to hide radar charts on the Detailed 360 Report. The switch “Hide Radar Charts on Detailed 360 Report” is turned off by default.
Advanced Settings – Option to Hide Radar Charts on Detailed 360 Report
Minor 360 Review Enhancements
There are new visual and functional enhancements in this release.
The spacing of Competency and Objective sections have been improved
When adding back deleted participants during the Evaluation stage, participant’s original category information is retained and pre-filled in the Add Participants dialog
The Suggestions for Improvement section in Assisted 360 Reviews Insights now includes links to generate development goals
Error messages now explain the issue and provide troubleshooting.when users open, send, save, or perform other actions on a form
Information about behaviors (names, descriptions, ratings) is now used as input for generating comments
Multiple Review Reminders for Upcoming 360 Review Steps
You can now schedule several reminder notifications to prompt participants before a 360 review step is due.
In Manage Templates, in the Advanced Settings for a 360 template, there is a new option, “Series Due Notification Dates (days before due date)“. Using this option enables you to schedule multiple reminders when using step due notifications for the template.
You may set a series of reminders before a step due date. Simply enter the number of days prior to the step due date to define how many days in advance reminders are sent. Separate each number of days with a comma.
New Series Due Notification Dates
Using this option overrides any settings for the existing option Default Due Notification Date (in days), which supports only a single reminder.
To learn more, see the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here.
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