SAP SuccessFactors 2H 2022 What’s New in Performance Management

SAP has announced the latest updates and changes for SuccessFactors for the second half of 2022.

Preview release was on October 28 and production will be released December 9. You can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here. For full details on the release cycle, check out the SAP SuccessFactors official product updates blog.

For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here

Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.

Universal- for modules enabled, universal means no steps are required to have access to the new functionality. These features are automatically made available.

Admin Opt-In – the admin must enable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools

Admin Opt-Out – the admin must disable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools

Provisioning Opt-In and Opt-Out require a Partner or Product Support request
For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 2H 2022 Performance Management below.

Latest Goal Management

The updates are for the latest Goal Management are admin opt-ins. The new features are described below. These features are also now available in iOS and Android mobile apps.

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Copy Goals from Goal Plans using the latest Goal Management

Users can now copy personal goals from their own goal plans as a new option to create goals.

Requirements to use this feature include:

  • The TGM/CDP Goal Transfer Wizard feature is enabled
  • The create permission is granted in XML configurations
  • The write permission for goal fields is granted

Leave Comments on Goals when using the latest Goal Management

Users can now add, edit, or delete comments on their own goals or those of their direct reports. In legacy Goal Management, comments are shown in the goal list or on the goal editing page.

Copy form Goal Plan

In the latest Goal Management, the updated comment feature is supported and comments are shown on the goal details page.

Comments Section on Goal Details

Comments can also be managed in Performance Management forms, 360 Reviews forms, and Career Development.

Team Goals Now Available when using the latest Goal Management

Users can now create, manage, and be assigned team goals in the latest Goal Management.

Users may:

  • Create, edit, or delete team goals
  • Access team goals from their own goal plan
  • Assign/unassign team goals to people from their team or people found via search
  • Share/unshare team goal ownership with others
  • If configured, users can manage team goals assigned to them in Continuous Performance Management.
Team Goal Landing Page

Users can also manage team goals assigned to them in Performance Management forms, 360 Reviews forms, and Continuous Performance Management.

Group Goals are no longer supported.

These new features are available in iOS and Android Mobile Apps as well.

Performance Management

The majority of the performance management updates involve Multi-Rater 360 forms and Calibration. However there are a few goal and performance related updates that we will begin with.

General Availability – Universal Updates

SMART Goal Wizard not available when using the latest Goal Management

It will not be possible to use the SMART Goal Wizard when adding a goal to a performance form. This feature currently is not supported. Even if you enable the SMART Goal Wizard setting in Form Template Settings this option will not appear when adding a goal.

Enhanced OData Entities for Querying Development Goal Sections on Forms

You can now use APIs to query development goal sections and goal items on Performance Management forms. The FormContent, FormPMReviewContentDetail, FormObjective, FormObjectiveDetails, and FormObjectiveSection APIs. Previously these APIs were used to query performance goal sections and goal items only

General Availability – Admin Opt-In

Confirmation prior to Sending Forms

When users send a form, a message popup appears and allows them to confirm the action.

In the advanced settings for the template, there will be a new option to enable the new experience as seen below.

New Setting Available

A pop-up will appear for a user that is sending a form back or forward a step to allows the user to confirm the action. It is also applicable when signing a form, rejecting form or sending a copy of a completed form.

In the route map on the form, clicking Actions in the current step, will display a dropdown list.

Actions on Route Step

Selecting the action will cause a pop-up to display.

Confirmation Pop-up

Continuous Performance Management

General Availability – Universal

Updated Character Count for Continuous Feedback Topic Field

In the previous version, when users chose the “send” button on a form, a confirmation page appeared.

The character count for the Continuous Feedback topic field to 200 characters.

Replacement of Continuous Performance Management Legacy Version with the Continuous Performance Management Latest Version

The legacy version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM) will reach End of Maintenance on May 20, 2022 and will be retired as of May 24, 2024. The replacement is the latest version of CPM, initially released in 2H 2020, that is currently available in the Upgrade Center. If no action is taken, your company will be automatically upgraded to the latest version after the retirement date.

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

New Quick Action to Give Feedback on the Latest Home Page

Employees can now choose to Give Feedback from the Quick Actions section on the latest home page.When the Give Feedback is selected, the user can search and select one person, input a topic, and provide feedback to the other user.

Give Feedback from Quick Actions

Once selected, the user may select the person, feedback topic, and questions.

Selections for Feedback

OData v4 API Continuous Feedback for the Latest Version of Continuous Performance Management

You can now use the Continuous Feedback OData v4 API with the latest version of Continuous Performance Management.

The OData v4 API for Continuous Feedback has been added to support third-party integrations and extensions for the latest version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM).

Calibration

General Availability – Universal

Remove Subjects from Calibration Sessions

There is a new admin tool, Remove Subjects from Calibration Sessions, used to search for the sessions where an employee has been included as a calibration subject.

When the employee is included in many sessions, you narrow down the search results by selecting a calibration template name. Then, only the sessions created with the specified template are listed.

Remove Subjects from Calibration Sessions

General Availability – Admin Opt-In

More Gender Values in Calibration Views

Male and Female were supported for visualization in Calibration Views. Now there are the other three standard values: Unknown, Undeclared, and Others.

The gender icon is displayed next to the employee’s name. When the gender of an employee hasn’t been specified in the system yet, it will be indicated as No Selection.

Gender Icons

The gender bars in the matrix grid view are now rendered in different colors:

  • Male: Violet
  • Female: Green
  • Undeclared: Blue
  • Unknown: Dark Blue
  • Others: Red
  • No Selection: Grey
Matrix Grid View

Enhancement to Guidelines Enforcement During Mass Finalization

There are more guidelines enforcement scenarios that are supported when you finalize multiple sessions at one time.

  • More than one rating is included in a guideline defined with a rating group
  • An operator other than “=” is configured in a guideline defined with a rating range
  • Not all ratings have a guideline

No longer are guidelines enforced only when finalizing an individual calibration session. With the latest release, multiple sessions can be finalized as long the distribution of subjects doesn’t meet one of the above-mentioned definitions. Distributions would need to be adjusted in order to finalize all of the sessions.

Previously, these guidelines were enforced only when you finalized individual sessions.

360 Reviews

There are several updates for 360 Reviews. Highlights are described below.

General Availability – Universal

Hide Route Map on 360 Reviews Forms

Similar to PM forms, a route map may be collapsed on the form.

This is done through the advanced settings of the 360 Review template by selecting “Hide Route Map on the Form”. Once enabled, when viewing the form, clicking on Hide Route Map will hide the route map from view on the form.

Visible Route Map

Clicking on Hide Route Map will collapse the route map from view on the form.

Click Show Route Map

Hidden Route Map

Required Fields Marked on 360 Reviews Forms

Fields defined as required are now identified with red asterisks on forms in the Evaluation stage. This now matches how required fields display in PM forms.

Updated Messages for Users Approving or Routing Forms Using Unsupported Tools

In the Approve Form or Route Signature Stage Form tool, once users enter document IDs and chose the buttons to approve or route forms, they weren’t informed that these tools don’t work for 360 Reviews forms.

Now if a user tries to approve or route 360 Reviews forms using unsupported tools in Admin Center, a message will display reminding them that these tools aren’t supported and are shown the correct tool to use.

Messaging when Routing using Unsupported Tools

“competency-filter” Attribute Supported in 360 Reviews Forms

The competency-filter attribute can be used to control what competencies users from different participant categories can view and rate on 360 Reviews.

Within the meta-cat element in the meta section of the form XML, define different participant categories in order to:

After the form is launched, in the Show Assignments dialog, participants belonging to the categories allowed to rate a competency are automatically selected for that competency. However, users can still select any competencies for a participant that weren’t initially included in the competency-filter defined for the participant’s category.

If a participant’s category is changed in the Modify stage, the participant’s competency assignment will be automatically updated to comply with the new category’s competency-filter.

If a participant is added in the Evaluation stage, the participant’s competency assignment will follow the competency-filter defined for the participant’s category.

If a competency is added to the form, filters including or not including this competency will apply to related competency assignments.

Disable Page Setup When Printing 360 Reviews Forms

It is now possible to prevent a user from specifying to print the Summary View or 360 Executive Review form. Instead the form will be printed in its entirety.

In Form Template Settings there is a new option – Disable Page Setup. When enabled, users aren’t allowed to specify the sections to print and the entire form will print.

Print Setup without Section Option

Show Behaviors in Summary Section by Enabling Rate-by-Behavior

When behaviors are associated with competencies, it is now possible to show behavior names and ratings in the Summary section.

To enable rate-by-behavior, set use-behavior to true and behavior-mode-opt to 0. In the Summary section, add the show-behaviors-in-summary element.

Purge Data of External Users in 360 Reviews

There is a new purge request, DRTM 360 Reviews – External User Purge used to delete data of external users no longer needed in 360 Reviews forms.

The External User Purge for 360 Reviews can be defined by the following purge rules.

  • A specified number of days have passed since the user declined a form
  • A specified number of days have passed since the user submitted a form
  • A specified number of days have passed and the user hasn’t responded to a form
  • A specified number of days have passed since the user who has never been involved in any form was added to the system

To successfully purge a user’s data who has multiple 360 Reviews forms, each form must satisfy one of the first three criteria.

360 Reviews External User Purge Request

Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version

The 360 Reviews v11 version will reach the end of maintenance on May 19, 2023 and will be deleted on November 17, 2023.

360 Reviews v11 Version is being depreciated because 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version is generally available and includes the majority of features and functions that were available in 360 Reviews v11. In addition the SAP Fiori version has an enhanced user experience and updated visualizations.

If you’re using 360 Reviews v11 Version, please migrate to 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version.

Career Development

There are a few universal updates for Career Development that are reviewed below.

Career Worksheet – General Availability – Universal

Enhanced Competency Gap Graph in Career Worksheet

Previously, the gap graph was shown only when a competency had both a last rating and expected rating. With the latest release, if a competency has either a last rating or expected rating, a horizontal bar graph for ratings is shown below the competency.

In the example below, the competency has an expected rating shown in blue with no last rating.

Gap Graph

In the previous version, no horizontal bar graph was available if both ratings were not available.

Career Worksheet – General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Career Explorer Now Generally Available

Previously, Career Explorer was only available for customers in an Early Adopter Care (EAC) program. It is now generally available.

Career Explorer recommends career opportunities to employees based on the career paths of people who are similar to them in the organization. It provides a means for employees to find relevant opportunities in their organization outside their hierarchy, career moves of people who are similar and paths that they may not have considered.

For a recommended role, an employee can expand the card to see a career path in a lineage chart and view job profiles and recommendation reasons. The role may be added to Career Worksheet to do gap analysis for personal skills, or dislike the role to further personalize subsequent recommendations.

Recommended roles are refreshed every two weeks or when there are enough delta changes to the data. This allows employees to visit the Career Explorer page regularly to explore new recommendations.

Career Explorer Page

Mentoring – General Availability – Universal

Country/Region Picklist Available for Mentoring Matching Questions

A “Country/Region” picklist is now available in the question category to use for automatic matching. Matching rules can be created to allow mentees to define their preferred country/region when signing up for a program, and mentors’ country/region information is pulled from their profile data.

Country/Region Picklist for Mentoring

Mentoring Program Available in Cross Domain Table Reports

Mentoring Program is now available as a domain in Cross Domain reports in Table reports. This can be used with Performance Management, Goal Management and Employee Profile domains to gather mentoring program related data.

In Conclusion

We have now covered the highlights of the PM related updates for 2H 2022.

Do you need help managing your SuccessFactors Release cycles?  Download our support services brochure or email info@worklogix.com to see how we can help.

SAP SuccessFactors 1H 2022 What’s New in Performance Management

SAP has announced the 1H 2022 SuccessFactors release information.

Preview release is on April 15 and production will be released May 20.  You can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here. For full details on the release cycle, check out the SAP SuccessFactors official product updates blog.

For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here

Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.

Universal- for modules enabled, universal means no steps are required to have access to the new functionality. These features are automatically made available.

Admin Opt-In – the admin must enable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools

Admin Opt-Out – the admin must disable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools

Provisioning Opt-In and Opt-Out require a Partner or Product Support request
For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 1H 2022 Performance Management below.

Performance Management

The majority of the performance management updates involve Multi-Rater 360 forms and Calibration. However there are a few performance related updates that we will begin with.

General Availability – Universal Updates

Restrict Data Access of Inactive Users’ Forms

This enhanced was designed to comply with data privacy and protection standards.

Currently there is no way to limit a user’s access to inactive employee forms. With this release, there is a role permission that may be enabled which restricts the data in an inactive user’s PM form.

To set this up, open a permission role that should have the restriction.

Under User Permissions>Performance>Restrict Data Access of Inactive Users’ Forms

With this permission set, users with this permission role will not be able to access the data of inactive users’ forms in the following areas:

  • Home Page (only can review performance related To-Dos but not form pages)
  • Stack Ranker
  • Team Overview
  • Form OData APIs that include form subject information

Use Capability Picker in Performance & Goals

The previous “New Competency Picker”, now the Capability Picker, has a new UI which includes employees’ competencies, behaviors, and skills within an organization.

The Capability Picker can be used to add competencies in competency sections on PM forms.

To this use, Job Profile Builder must be enabled. In Performance Management Feature Settings in Admin Center, Enable Capability Picker must be selected.

New Columns for Performance Management in Story Reports

In Story reports for Performance Management, users can now include feedback comments in the Ask For Feedback table as seen below.

Ask For Feedback Comments Columns

These are the Ask for Feedback comments provided by internal and external users through emails.

In addition, manual overall performance rating, manual overall performance rating description, and locale specific manual overall performance rating description are available in the Performance table.

Rating Columns

Enhanced Signed Date Column in Story Reports

Signing a form using Route Form and Sign Form, the Signed Date column in Story reports now shows the date and time when the form was signed using the time of tenant preferred time zones. Only the latest record is shown in the reports if users have signed the form multiple times.

Form Signed Date and Time

Enhanced OData Entity FormAuditTrail

The FormAuditTrail API has been updated with a permission check. This API can be used to access all audit trail records of forms in the system. Otherwise, users can only access audit trail records of forms in their folders.

Permission is needed to access all audit trail records of forms in the system and the permission role should include Administrator Permissions> Manage Documents>Admin Access to Forms OData API permission.

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

There is a performance management related admin opt-in that is applicable for CPM achievements and feedback on a performance form.

View Achievements and Feedback on Forms on iOS and Android Mobile Apps

Performance reviewers with iOS and Android SAP SuccessFactors mobile apps, achievements and feedback linked to employees’ goals on performance forms can now viewed.

On the goal item page, there will be an Achievements row as seen in the example below.

Goal item on PM form

Achievement details may be viewed by clicking Achievements for the goal. If the employee had any achievements linked to a goal, they would appear as seen below.

Achievements linked to a goal

If there is any feedback for an achievement, it will noted with the number of feedback given.

Feedback Indicator for an Achievement

Clicking the feedback indicator, reviewers can view feedback for the achievement.

Feedback for an achievement

To take advantage of this feature, the latest version of CPM must be enabled.

Reviewers will have to the View permission for User Continuous Performance Management Achievement in their permission role.

Permission to View Achievements

360 Reviews

There are several 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version updates. One is also applicable to 360 Reviews v11.

General Availability – Universal Updates

Participants Able to Recall Completed Forms

A participant may recall a 360 Reviews form after providing feedback and submitting it. However this recall feature available for raters but is not applicable to process owners, managers, employees, HR representatives, or approvers.

A Recall button will appear in the action column of the Evaluation Summary section of the form.

Recall 360 Form by Participant

Using the Recall button moves the form back to the participant’s inbox.

Select Multiple Employees on Advanced Search Dialog

Previously, managers were only able to select/add one employee from the search results at a time. To add more, filters had to redefined for each selection.

Managers can now select multiple employees from a search done on the Advanced Search Dialog and add them all to the Participant List at once.

Multi select employees

Refill the Participant List After Declines Occur

Process owners may now add alternative participants to the participant list if some of the initially added participants have declined to evaluate.  This helps ensure that process owners get enough feedback for evaluations.

In order to use this feature, in the advanced settings of the 360 form template, all check boxes should be deselected for the option Hide the Decline to Participate button on the 360 Form for as seen below.

Deselect Hide Button

In the advanced settings of the 360 form template, select at least one role for the option Enable Add New Participants after 360 Evaluation starts for. This allows the selected role to add participants after the evaluation has begun.

Enable adding a Participant

Form Titles Editable in 360 Reviews

It is now possible for users to edit titles of 360 Reviews forms received in their Performance Inbox folder. Already available in 360 Reviews v11, it is now available in the SAP Fiori Version as well.

In the advanced settings of the 360 form template, select the option Enable form title editability in Form info page (V10) or Enable form title editability in the Form (V10), depending on where you want to change titles.

Process Owners Able to See Participants on Anonymous Forms

Process owners now can see the participants who have given evaluation feedback even on anonymous 360 Reviews forms.  This provides participant information such as employee name, email, division, department, location, manager and category.

The Evaluation Summary will still show “anonymous” for each rater, but the Rater List will show rater names instead of “anonymous”.

Rater List with Names

In order to use this feature of a Multi-rater form, some set up is needed.

  • The 360 template to be used should have Anonymous 360 configured in Provisioning >Form Template Administration.
Anonymous 360 Form Attributes
  • Within Form Template Settings for the form, on Show Participants in Status Summary (Applicable to Anonymous 360’s only) needs to be enabled.
Enable Show Participants in Status Summary

Improved Reminders Buttons

The Reminder icon in the Evaluation Summary section has been transformed into a button. Previously the Actions column contain a reminder icon as seen below.

Recall icon

This has been replaced with a Recall button in the Actions column. Users can now send reminders to those who have not given feedback yet; to a one or multiple participants. There is a new Send Reminder to All button will send a reminder to any rater that has not given feedback yet (a status of Pending). The user will also receive a confirmation of this action before reminders are sent.

Send Reminder Buttons

Add “First Matrix Manager” and “All Matrix Managers” as Default Rater Categories 360 Reviews v11 and 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version

Within the Manage Templates tool or by editing the XML form template, First matrix manager and All matrix managers are now options as default rater categories in both 360 Reviews v11 and 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version.  When selected, the employee’s first matrix manager or all matrix managers will then show on the rater list by default when a 360 Review form is launched.

All Matrix Managers Role

The feature saves users from manually adding a first matrix manager or all matrix managers as raters after the form is launched.

Enforce Start Date in Route Map

A feature currently available for PM forms is now available for 360 forms.

Within the route map associated with the 360 template, select the Enforce start date option and then enter the start date for the step. This may be done for any step in the Modify and Evaluation stages on the route map.

Before the step start date, forms are read-only, but participants can open the forms to check the details.

Support for Learning Activities in Development Goal Section in 360

It is now possible to use Learning activities in the Development Goal section of a 360 Review form. A user may view details of a learning activity, add LMS learning activities, and delete LMS learning activities or Transcript-enabled custom learning activities.

In Provisioning>Company Settings make sure to select the option: Transcript — requires “Version 11 UI framework (ULTRA)”.

Show Behavior Descriptions When Not Rating by Behavior

If competencies have behaviors associated with them, behavior descriptions may be included in the Competency section of a 360 multi-rater form, even if the behaviors are not being rated.

Competency Behaviors

When including behaviors, the behavior name displays but descriptions are hidden by default. Clicking the arrow button will show the behavior’s description.

In order to use behaviors on the form, the XML form template needs to have behavior-mode-opt in the competency-sect set to a non-zero value (1, 2, 4 or 5) and use-behavior should be false.

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Hide the Nonremovable Checkbox in 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version

You can now hide the Nonremovable for Raters checkbox on a 360 Reviews form if it’s not needed.

Nonremovable by Raters Checkbox

In the advanced settings of the 360 form template, enable the Hide the Nonremovable checkbox on a form in the Modify stage.

Previously, the checkbox always appeared on a form, even if a rater was not permitted to use it for editing linked skills.

Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version

November 18, 2022 is the end of maintenance for 360 Reviews v11 and will be deleted on May 20, 2023.

360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version has been Generally Available and now includes the majority of features and functions that were available in 360 Reviews v11.

It is recommended if you’re using 360 Reviews v11 Version to migrate to 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version.

Goal Management

General Availability – Universal Updates

There are no universal updates for Goal Management.

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Create and Edit Goals in Non-Goal Management Modules

When the latest Goal Management is enabled, you can try out the latest Goal Management to create and edit goals through an embedded dialog.

When you create or edit a goal in the following modules, you’ll be prompted with a dialog with brand new UIs offered by the latest Goal Management:

  • Career Development
  • Continuous Performance Management
  • 360- Multi-Rater
  • People Profile
  • Performance Management
  • Succession
Goal Creation

Calibration

General Availability – Universal Updates

There are several universal updates for a calibration session.

Manager Template Permission for Creating Calibration Sessions

It is now possible to identify which calibration templates managers can access when they create calibration sessions.  The new permission, Manager Template Permission for Creating Sessions, is added under User Permissions >Calibration for a permission role.

Permission for Manager Calibration Sessions

Total of Expected Number of Subjects Equals Actual Number of Subjects

Logic has been enhanced for subject distribution in scenarios where the guidelines are defined with rating groups or when not all ratings have a distribution guideline.

When the guidelines are defined with rating groups or only part of the ratings have distribution guideline, but these are not met:

  • Ratings are included once in the guidelines
  • All guidelines are defined with “=” operator
  • Total of distribution guidelines is 100%

The system sums up the decimal parts and distributes the whole numbers to the ratings if there are decimal parts in the calculated results. This is done to ensure the total number of expected subjects for all ratings is equal to the actual number of subjects in the session.

Enhancement to Guidelines Enforcement

Distribution guidelines have been enhanced to support more guideline scenarios. Finalizing sessions individually, enforcement is now supported in three more guideline scenarios.

Distribution Guidelines are set in the Data tab of Manage Calibration Templates.

The enhancement only applies to finalizing sessions individually.

  • Guideline is defined in a rating group when there is one more than one rating
  • Guideline is defined with a rating range with an operator other than “=”
  • Not all ratings have a guideline

When the distribution of subjects doesn’t meet the guidelines for any these scenarios, the session cannot be finalized.

More User Information of Calibration Subject Available in Story Reports

You can now include the name and external user ID of a session subject in a Story report. The first and last names and external user ID are supported in the auto-joins for calibration subjects. This makes it easier to get calibration subject information.

Subject Name Columns

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Qualtrics Feedback Opportunity for Calibration Session Finalization

Manage Qualtrics Integrations in the Admin Center now includes the Calibration Session Finalization option in the Event Name field’s drop-down list for Talent.

Calibration Session Finalization

Intelligent Services events can be used to send employee information to Qualtrics so when an employee finalizes a calibration session, a Qualtrics feedback survey may be sent via email.

Calibration, Intelligent Services and Integration Center must be enabled and a Qualtrics Employee Experience license for Lifecycle projects is required.

Continuous Performance Management (CPM)

The legacy version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM) will reach End of Maintenance on May 20, 2022 and will be retired as of May 19, 2023.

The latest version of CPM, initially released in 2H 2020 is available in the Upgrade Center. If no action is taken, your company will be automatically upgraded to the latest version after the retirement date.

In Conclusion

We have now covered the highlights of the PM related updates for 1H 2022. See our blog for 1H 2022 Career Development release features.

Do you need help managing your SuccessFactors Release cycles?  Download our support services brochure or email info@worklogix.com to see how we can help!

SAP SuccessFactors 2H 2021 What’s New in Performance Management

SAP has announced the 2H 2021 SuccessFactors release information.

Preview release is on October 15 and production will be released November 19.  You can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here. For full details on the release cycle, check out the SAP SuccessFactors official product updates blog here

For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here

Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.

Universal- for modules enabled, universal means no steps are required to have access to the new functionality. These features are automatically made available.

Admin Opt-In – the admin must enable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools

Admin Opt-Out – the admin must disable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools

Provisioning Opt-In and Opt-Out require a Partner or Product Support request

For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 2H 2021 Performance Management below.

Performance Management

There is not much in the way of new functionality, just one universal update.

General Availability – Universal Updates

Configuration Center Support For Performance Management Form Templates

You can now view, download, and transport Performance Management form templates across tenants using Configuration Center. Prior to this release, only Feature Configuration was available under General Configuration for Performance Management. Now System Configuration and Manage Templates are available.

New PM Configuration In Configuration Center

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

The admin opt-ins require the latest version of the home page.

PM Related Updates “For You Today” Section of the Latest Home Page

When the latest home page is used, a “For You Today’ card will appear for PM tasks.

You can enable to-do tasks on the latest home page in the Upgrade Center.

The tasks are:

  • “Review Employee Performance” task available for managers
  • “Review Employee Performance” task available for employees

To give managers a view of the form that need their review, cards are grouped into Direct Reports, Matrix Reports, and Other on the stack view. An example is shown below.

For You Today Performance Tasks

Users can go directly to the performance review forms from this card to complete the tasks.

Goal Management

There is one universal update for Goal Management. The majority of the new functionality is for the latest version of Goal Management. With each release more and more features become available.

General Availability – Universal Updates

View, download, and transport Goal Management configurations using Configuration Center.

It is now possible to use Configuration Center for Goal Management to view configurations, download configurations, and transport configurations across tenants. Configuration Center permission is required.

The view feature enables the admin to view configuration as well as see the username who made changes with a date and timestamp.

The download feature is useful to take a backup of your application’s configurations as well as for troubleshooting by an Implementation Partner or Customer Support.

The export feature can be used to export configuration in order to copy from the preview system to production.

With this release, after selecting the Talent configuration area, Goal Management is visible. The admin can then select the features to download.

Goal Management in Configuration Center

After selection, the admin goes to the “Transport Mode” tab to initiate the download process.

Upon completion, the configuration bundles is downloaded in ZIP format. Configuration types are available as separate files.

Latest Goal Management

With each release, the latest version of Goal Management has functionality added that is already available in the current version,

Now supported in the latest version of Goal Management:

  • Beta Goal Import
  • Changing goal plan states in Goals
  • User search
  • Matrix relationships

Now available in the latest version of Goal Management:

  • Spell Check
  • Legal Scan
  • Advanced user search by criteria


We will look at the new supported functions that are available for those using the latest Goal Management. We will start with the universal updates.

Early Adopters – Universal Updates

Mass Import Personal Goals in Latest Goal Management

It is now possible to use the “Import Performance Goals” for the latest version of Goal Management.

Change Goal Plan States in Latest Goal Management

It is now possible to update the goal plan state in the latest version of Goal Management. The ability to lock and unlock goal plans will be available and provides visibility of the goal plan state using the latest version of GM.

Goal plan states are used to control the action and field permissions before and after a goal plan is approved. Users with the “change-state” permission in the goal plan XML can now change the goal plan state in a more straightforward manner.

An example using goal plan states in the latest version of a goal plan is shown below. The current state has a dropdown list.

Latest Goal Management Goal Plan Current State

In addition, employees will be able to receive email notifications when their goal plan state changes. The notifications will include who changed the goal plan state and what the current goal plan state is.

Enhanced People Selector in Latest Goal Management

When using the latest version of goals management, the people selector will include matrix manager and matrix reports. If these matrix roles have permission, they will have access to view goal plans.

An example of the people selector in a goal plan is shown below.

People Selector with Matrix Manager and Reports

If these matrix roles have permission, they will have access to view goal plans.

360 Reviews

General Availability – Universal Updates

View, download, and transport 360 Reviews configurations using Configuration Center

Similar to the Goal Management being available in Configuration Center, it is now possible to use Configuration Center for 360 Reviews to view configurations, download configurations, and transport configurations across tenants. Configuration Center permission is required cross tenants.

Before this release, 360 was not available in Configuration Center Now when selecting the Talent configuration area, 360 is visible. The admin can then select the features to download fro the Transport Mode tab.

360 in Configuration Center

Add External Participants When Users Have No Search Permissions

Users without permission to search for external users may now add them as form participants by email address. Users can enter the email address of an external user in the “Add a New External Participant” dialog box.

If the external user already exists in the system, the First Name and Last Name fields are automatically filled and users can select “Add” to add the external user as a participant.

An example is shown below.

Add External Participant

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

360 Reviews Tasks on the Latest Home Page

When the latest home page is used, a “For You Today’ card will appear for 360 Review tasks:

  • “Complete 360 Evaluation task” available for managers
  • “Complete Your 360 Evaluation task” available for employees

Found on the latest Home Page, for any 360 forms for an employee, manager or raters, there is a card to prompt the user to review and complete the 360 Reviews form in the Performance inbox.

For You Today Card for 360

Users can go directly to the 360 review form from this card.

Calibration

General Availability – Universal Updates

There is a universal update for a calibration session.

Set max rating change span

In “Manage Calibration Templates”, if your data source is “Performance”, it is now possible to set a maximum rating change span. This setting can be found on the “Advanced” tab.

Once the span is set, if you make rating changes in the session, the following rules apply:

  • If the rating change made doesn’t exceed the maximum rating change span, the rating will be changed
  • If the rating change exceeds the maximum rating change span, an error message displays and the rating reverts to the original rating.

Shown below is the Calibration Template “Advanced Settings” tab.

Set Maximum Rating Change Span

Continuous Performance Management (CPM)

There are only admin opt-ins for this release of Continuous Performance Management.

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

New Qualtrics Survey for Continuous Performance Management

It is possible to integrate Qualtrics surveys with Continuous Performance Management. This integration allows you to collect feedback from employees after 1:1 sessions with their managers.

To use this feature:

  • CPM must be enabled
  • Qualtrics license for website and app feedback projects required
  • “Manage Qualtrics Integrations” feature is enabled in Upgrade Center

The Qualtrics account is used to create the survey and view survey feedback.

An employee will be prompted to complete the survey. An example is shown below.

Start Survey within CPM

The user will see questions to answer.

Survey Questions

Once completed, the admin may view the survey feedback.

Early Adopter – Admin Add -Ins

Enhanced Achievement Experience for Continuous Performance Management

This feature is only available if the latest version of CPM is used.

Achievements can be the default view on the CPM landing page, which enables quick access to achievements. The admin would have to select “Achievements view” as the default on the “Continuous Performance Management Configuration” page. An example is shown below.

Set Default View

When a user accesses CPM, the default view will now be the Achievements tab.

Achievements tab default view

Feedback Integration with Microsoft Outlook

Continuous feedback may be enabled from a Microsoft Outlook add-in to make giving feedback easier.

In order to use this feature:

  • Latest version of CPM must be enabled
  • SAP SuccessFactors user attributes are mapped to Microsoft Active Directory
  • Continuous Feedback outlook integration is enabled and the manifest file downloaded
  • SAP SuccessFactors user attributes mapped to Microsoft Active Directory.

The employee will see an option to give feedback.

CPM Feedback within Outlook
Start Giving Feedback

The feedback questions display and enable the employee to provide feedback.

Feedback Questions

Upon submission, a confirmation message displays. An example is shown below.

Completion of Providing Feedback

Depreciation

Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version

November 18, 2022 is the end of maintenance for 360 Reviews v11 and will be deleted on May 20, 2023.

We have now covered the highlights of the PM related updates for 2H 2021. See our blog for 2H 2021 Career Development release features.

Do you need help managing your SuccessFactors Release cycles?  Download our support services brochure or email info@worklogix.com to see how we can help!

H2 2020 SAP SuccessFactors Release Latest Goal Management Features and Integration

SAP SuccessFactors H2 2020 release updates finds us with several admin-opt “latest” versions including Home page, Goal Management and Continuous Performance Management (CPM). Here we will focus on the latest version of Goal Management and discuss how it fits into the new home page and how it integrates with CPM. See my earlier blog post for more information on performance management updates and my blog post for what’s new in CPM.

There is a new admin opt-in for the latest version of Goal Management. The latest version of Goal Management provides users with a streamlined view of goals to make it easier to access and manage. Performance Goals and Development Goals are now housed within Goal Management and have improved integration with CPM. Access to Goal Management contains both plans with a tab for each as seen in the example below.

New Goal Management View with Both Goal Plans

For managers, the new look is especially helpful. It is easy to navigate to direct report’s plans or any other users in their target population. They can swap between between their reports and within the two plans. An example the manager’s goal plan view is seen below.

Manager View of Goal Plans

Latest Goal Plan Features

The latest version of Goal Management still allows for the following existing functionality:

  • Creation of personal goals.
  • Development goals can have competencies and learning activities added.
  • Receipt of goal notifications.
  • Edit, view, and delete all goals except group goals v1.
  • Access to other’s goal plans with proper role-based permission.
  • Existing integration with other modules.

New functionality includes:

  • Personal goals not yet at the completed stage and approaching or past due date can appear on the latest home page.
  • Linked achievements for the latest version of CPM may be created and viewed here rather than having to go out of the goal plan and navigating to CPM.
  • Activities can be added directly to goals and linked activities may also display. An example of activities tied to a goal is shown below.
Add Activity to Goal

However, only the latest version of Goal Management may be used with the latest version of CPM.

Latest Goal Management Limitations

Since this is a new version for Goal Management, there is some goal plan functionality not yet available including:

  • Mass import of goals.
  • Ability to cascade and assign goals.
  • Use of Group and Team Goals.
  • Changing goal plan states within goal plan.
  • Use of metric lookup tables.
  • Use of Coaching Advisor for development goals.
  • Assigning custom learning activities to development goals.
  • OData APIs.
  • Some mobile features which will be identified shortly.

Attributes that may be Configured

Listed below are the the goal plan XML attributes that may be configured in the latest Goal Management:

  • max-goals
  • max-weight
  • max-weight-per-obj
  • min-goals
  • min-weight
  • min-weight-per-obj
  • new-obj-share-status-public
  • show-total-goalscore

Unsupported Goal Plan Field Types

Additionally, there are some goal plan field types that are not supported:

  • Bool
  • Checkbox
  • Comment
  • Link
  • Table
  • Text when used for achievement text, actual achievement text, object plan field 1, go to url

Changes to Goal Plan Fields with Latest Version of Goal Management

  • Name field is required with a maximum length of 500 characters.
  • Description and metric fields have a maximum 1000 character limit.
  • State. For use on the latest version of the home page, set the final enum value of the state field to “complete” in order to trigger the change of the goal state which enables incomplete goals to appear on the latest home page.
  • When using weight, if min-weight-per-obj and max-weight-per-obj attribute values are not met, goal creation is not possible.
  • For development goals, competencies can only be used in conjunction with Job Profile Builder.
  • Cannot select a single competency to link to a development goal in the UI.

You may convert existing goal plan templates but the goal plan field types that are not supported will not appear in converted goal plans.

After the upgrade, goal plan templates will need to be converted. Convert a template only once and and one at a time. Only convert the goal plans in use. Goal plans not converted will be read-only. Once converted, the goal plan templates may be used in the latest version of Goal Management.

Mobile Apps Limitations

There are some limitations using the latest version of Goal Management in mobile apps. For Performance and Development goals:

  • Cannot delete a goal from the goal card.
  • Cannot enter a negative number in the number field type.
  • Cannot revert back to the legacy view to see unsupported fields.

For Development goals:

  • Unable to search for a specific competency.
  • Unable to display the number of competencies on the goal card.
  • Unable to add competencies by library or category.
  • No integration with Learning.

Latest Goal Plan on latest Home Page

The latest Goal Management may be used in the latest version of the home page. There is a new admin opt-in for the redesigned home page. It is available for early adopters in both Preview and Production. Any existing legacy home page custom tiles or permissions are not impacted by the new page. An example of the new Home page is shown below.

Latest Home Page

The view is less cluttered with customized user and organization content. Tiles are replaced with cards and are system generated and more interactive. The page is divided into three sections:

  1. Quick Actions. For frequent or quick actions.
  2. For You Today. Dynamically generated user content. Displays any recently added goals and CPM activities.
  3. Organization Updates. Contains custom organization content.

The new Home page shows content from Goal Management, Continuous Performance Management, and Continuous Feedback. On the latest home page, you can view personal goals when the state of these goals is not yet complete and these goals are approaching their due dates or already overdue.

The latest version of the home page handles only personal goals in the following manner:

  • Updates of goals on the home page appear on for those manually created, modified or deleted.
  • Goals from an import are not reflected on the home page.
  • Performance goals appear based on status, if not yet complete and 15 days before due date.
  • Development goals appear based on status, if not yet complete and 30 days before due date.
  • Overdue Performance and Development goals will display.
Goals in “For You Today” section

Performance and development goals disappear from the new home page when:

  • Goals are completed.
  • Goals are deleted.
  • Goal due dates are past the due dates configured on the goal plan template.

To-do items list can be opened and acted upon in a side panel on any page. You can take action on each to-do directly from the side panel.Overdue to-do items are indicated in red.

Is the upgrade right for you?

After upgrading to the latest version of Goal Management, you cannot reverse the update, so be sure to fully understand what features you will be gaining and losing. It is wise to fully test in a preview instance before committing to an upgrade to production.

Because there are some substantial limitations to the latest version, it may be premature to upgrade but it is at least worthwhile to anticipate how Goal Management is changing and to gain an better understanding of how modules continue to be more tightly integrated with each release.

Do you need help with your H2 2020 release? Download our support services brochure or email us at info@worklogix.com to see how we can help!