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  • Configuring SAP SuccessFactors Calibration Part II – Instance Set Up

    Basic Configuration of Calibration

    As we learned in the blog, “Configuring SAP SuccessFactors Calibration Part I – Provisioning“, there are several steps to perform before we are ready to run a calibration session:

    • Enable Calibration in Provisioning
    • Configure Succession Data Model
    • Set role-based permission for Calibration access
    • Configure a data source template and route map
    • Enable calibration related e-mail notifications
    • Configure a calibration template
    • Configure calibration settings
    • Assign users to Executive Review role
    • Configure Calibration History Portlet in People Profile

    In the previous blog, we talked about the settings to enable Calibration in Provisioning along with updates to make to the Succession Data Model. We will continue here with the role-based permissions to set up, the features to enable and the calibration configuration to be done in the instance.

    Role-based Permissions for Calibration

    Role-based permissions will need to be set for Calibration The types of permission needed include:

    1. Administrative – to configure and administer Calibration
    2. End user – to access calibration sessions and the Calibration History Portlet
    3. Reporting – to report on calibration related data

    Role-based permissions (RBP) control who a user can see (target population), what features they have access to and what actions they may perform. We will need to set role-based permissions for the admin to configure and manage Calibration, set up e-mail notifications, configure the Calibration History Portlet on People Profile, create Calibration Alerts and create and run calibration activity reports.

    You will need to decide which roles will perform calibration related administrative functions. The permissions could be divided between roles such as a system admin and an HR or Calibration admin. A system admin could set up the role-based permissions and configure the calibration settings. An HR/Calibration role could create and manage calibration sessions.

    To set up the role-based permissions, choose the admin role that will be used to administer calibration. Within the Administrator Permissions section of the role permissions, find Manage Calibration. The table shown below contains the description of each of the calibration administrative features. Review these features if you think you would like to split the calibration administrative tasks across multiple permission roles.

    FeatureDescription
    Manage Calibration SessionsUsed to create and manage calibration sessions.
    Manage Calibration SettingsTo configure what the roles within a calibration session may do and to identify fields that will appear within an employee search when creating a calibration session.  Also may choose which calibration template a manager may launch from Team Overview in Performance, and to set global settings for all calibration sessions.
    Manage Calibration TemplatesTo create templates used for calibration sessions, to identify data source for ratings and define the views of the data and ratings during the sessions.  
    Mass Create Calibration SessionsTo create multiple calibration sessions via spreadsheet import.
    Manage Permissions for Executive ReviewTo identify the users that may access the Executive Review page for a calibration template.
    OData API Calibration ExportTo access the Odata API calibration export.
    Settings within Manage Calibration

    Ad Hoc Reporting Permissions

    The admin and HR manager roles could be granted permission to create and run calibration reports. Instead you may decide to create reports as the admin and then share the reports with HR managers to run for the groups that they support. In that case, grant Create Report access to the admin and Run Reports access to the HR manager. The Reports permissions are found within the User Permissions section of the role permissions.  The three calibration domains should be selected: Calibration, Calibration Activity and Calibration Org Chart Coverage.

    End User Permission for Calibration Tab

    You may grant the admin, HR manager and manager roles access to Calibration. After selecting the role to update, within the permission role details in the User Permissions section you will see Calibration.  To allow a role access to a calibration session, the Detailed Calibration Permissions and View Calibration Tab permissions should be set. The Detailed Calibration Permissions require a target population and identifies which users may be viewed in session. The View Calibration Tab grants access to the Calibration tab found in the Home menu. The permissions are found below.

    User Permissions for Calibration Sessions

    There is a caveat to the calibration permissions that we will review when discussing calibration settings. If a user is not assigned to a role with access to the Calibration tab, but is identified as a facilitator, owner or participant of a calibration session, they will have access to the session.  This gives the selected users access to the session through the Calibration tab in the Home menu listing without role-based permission.  Users identified as facilitators of a session will be able to run the session but not create additional sessions.  For any users that need to create sessions, the users should be assigned to a permission group that is tied to a permission role that has permission for “Manage Calibration Sessions”.

    Make sure you have a role for all employees that contains General User Permission > Company Info Access and User Search.  Without this permission, a user would not be able to open a calibration session and search for users.

    Role-based Permissions for Configuring the Calibration History Portlet on People Profile

    If you are using the Calibration History Portlet in People Profile, make sure the admin role can manage employee files in order to configure the portlet. The role-based permission can be found within the role permissions under Administrator Permissions>Manage System Properties.

    Role-based Permissions for Viewing Calibration History Portlet on People Profile

    The admin, manager and HR manager roles may be granted access to the Calibration History Portlet on People Profile. To do this, open these roles to grant access to the Calibration History Portlet background element found under User Permissions>Employee Data as seen below.

    Permission to Access Calibration History Portlet on People Profile

    Access to view this portlet is not given to the employee role.

    Before we dig in, it may be helpful to understand some calibration concepts.  Calibration can be thought of in terms of templates, views, roles and sessions. Let’s introduce and define them and then we will go into greater detail.

    • Calibration Template – defines the data source for the ratings, the settings, the views, and defines the executive review graphs. A calibration template is referenced by a calibration session which inherits all of the template settings.  
    • Calibration Views – identified in the calibration template and defines the various ways the subjects and their ratings data will display in a calibration session.
    • Calibration Sessions – defines who is being calibrated (subjects) and by whom (participants).  Defines the session owners and facilitators, session date and the calibration template used.
    • Calibration Roles – set in “Manage Calibration Settings” to define what each role can do during a session.

    There are a few other features to enabled before we can begin the calibration set up.  We will start with the data source for the ratings being calibrated.  The data that may be used in calibration session is based on the data source defined in the calibration template. In the calibration template, the data sources may come from four sources: Performance Management, Employee Profile, Succession and Compensation. We will focus on the calibration of performance form ratings.

    Configuring the Performance Review Template and Route Map

    We have to make sure that the performance form template used for calibration has the necessary components. First, a manual rating must be configured in the form template for any of the ratings that you wish to calibrate (overall performance, overall potential, overall objective, or overall competency). Manual ratings are updated in the calibration session and also allow the drag and drop functionality which is an easy method for the facilitator to update ratings. If your performance form template has both calculated and manual ratings, manual ratings take precedent over calculated ratings.

    The route map associated with the performance form template will need to have a dedicated step where calibration will occur. However, this step cannot be an iterative or signature step. Ideally the step will immediately follow the step where the manager enters the rating in the summary section. If you are using an existing performance form template with a step that goes to HR for review after the manager does the rating, this can be used for the calibration step and no route map changes will be needed. An example of the route map with a calibration step is shown below.

    Route Map with Calibration Step

    If your performance form template contains a Customized Weighted Rating summary section, make sure the calibration step occurs after the step where the calculation of the weighted rating is triggered.  

    If you have to add a new step to the route map, the performance form template will also need to be updated to create permissions for the new step. Unless you want the role designated for the calibration step (HR manager) to be able to update the form while the forms are in the session, you can make all of the fields and sections “read only” for the HR role in the calibration step. The HR manager would not be able to edit the form from their Performance inbox in this step. Rating updates would be done solely in the calibration session and when finalized would update the performance form.

    If you would like the performance form accessed and editable while in a calibration session, the HR role for the step would need “write” permissions for the rating fields. Without this permission, the performance form may still accessed during the calibration session but it will be read only.

    If your existing performance form template contains an HR step after the manager assessment step, this can be used as the calibration step, provided it is not an iterative or signature step. Make sure the performance form template has the HR role with the read or write permissions that you wish to allow when accessing the form within Performance.

    E-mail Notifications

    There are calibration specific e-mails within the “E-Mail Notification Templates Settings” tool that may enabled.  Notifications may be sent at various points in the calibration process so you will need to decide which to turn on.  Four of the Calibration e-mail notifications that may be enabled via Email Notification Templates as shown in the table below.

    EmailDescription
    Notify Calibration Participants to Submit RatingsNotify manager of upcoming calibration session and remind them to submit ratings so that forms can move to the calibration step.
    Notify Calibration Participants of Session FinalizationNotify owners and participants the calibration session has been finalized.  This is a signal that the forms have final ratings and are available.
    Notify Calibration Participants of Auto-Routed FormsNotify manager that a form was auto routed by admin or facilitator to get the forms to the calibration step.
    Notify Calibration Participants of Session ActivationNotification to participants of upcoming calibration session.
    Calibration E-mail Notifications

    The additional notification, Notify Calibration Rating Changes during Session Finalization, is enabled within the Advanced tab of “Manage Calibration Templates”. 

    After Calibration has been enabled in Provisioning and the role-based permissions are granted, the admin will now see the calibration tools in Admin Center as shown below.

    Calibration Tools

    We will explain more about these tools starting with Manage Calibration Templates.

    Manage Calibration Templates 

    The Calibration Template defines the review period, data sources, and data views for any calibration sessions that are linked to it. The template is used to identify the data to calibrate and how data is presented.

    One calibration template may be used for multiple calibration sessions, providing the data source is the same. Later when creating a calibration session, it has to be associated with a calibration template and will inherit all of settings from the template.

    If you are going to be creating additional calibration sessions but need to calibrate ratings from a different performance form template from another data source, a new calibration template would need to be created.

    A sample of the Manage Calibration Templates Overview page is shown below:

    Manage Calibration Templates

    Calibration templates are created, edited and deleted here. We will create a calibration template and review the settings that can be made.

    Some columns of note:

    • Data Source for Calibration History Portlet – for each template, the checkmark will display in this column if the Calibration History Portlet is enabled on the Advanced tab.
    • Used in Sessions -a count of the number of calibration sessions using the calibration template.  Clicking the number will display the names of the calibration session associated the template.
    • Used in Talent Profile – displays a green checkmark if the template is a data source for the Talent Profile. Clicking on the green checkmark to disable.

    Click on the “Create New” button to set up a new calibration template. We will walk through the tabs that are used to build the template.

    Basic Info Tab

    The first tab, Basic Info, is used to name the template and define its review period. Both entries are required. A sample of the tab is shown below.

    Basic Info Tab

    You will be unable to move to the next if these entries are not made.

    Data Tab  

    The Data tab is used to identify the data sources to calibrate.  Ratings to be calibrated may come from many sources: Performance, Compensation, and Employee Profile. Additionally talent flags may be calibrated. Although we are focusing on performance review ratings as our source, let’s look briefly at all the options. An example of the tab is shown below.

    Data Tab

    Once a data source selected, its section will expand in order to make additional selections.

    Performance

    Here the performance form template that will be the source of the ratings to calibrate should be selected. The associated route map will populate and the route map step where calibration should take place needs to be identified. Based on the performance form template selected, the rating types to calibrate will differ. Select which rating(s) should be calibrated.

    Calculated and manual override ratings may be calibrated. If manual ratings are used in the performance form template, these ratings populate the calibration session. If the form template contains calculated ratings, the ratings need to be mapped to values from the rating scale.

    In the example shown, performance was selected as the data source. The performance form template has an overall form rating and an overall potential rating. You may select either or both.

    Performance Rating Source

    Guidelines may be used to enforce alignment to the recommended ratings distribution. Based on the performance template rating scale, a percentage is set for each score. Guidelines can be optional or enforced.

    Compensation

    Compensation may be calibrated for an employee’s compensation ratios. Any of the standard planning fields can be selected as can either the final range penetration or final compa-ratio benchmark.

    Select the compensation template and the route map step where data can be used.  Like the performance form template, the Compensation template must have a single user or collaborative modify step. The template’s planning components and range groups display.  An example is shown below.

    Compensation Data Source

    The available planning components and range groups available for selection will vary based on the template but can include salary, bonus and stock elements. Once the elements are selected, the number of range groups (two to five) are set along with the percentages or amounts used for employee placement. Variable pay cannot be calibrated.

    Employee Profile

    Ratings in Employee Profile are based on elements that are configured in your data model. Possible ratings include overall objective rating, overall competency rating, overall potential rating, overall form rating, and two custom ratings. The calibration session will use ratings stored in Employee Profile that are effective during the review period defined on the Basic Info tab. An example is shown below.

    Employee Profile as Data Source

    Once the rating type is selected, rating guidelines may be set. Although decimal ratings are supported, they must be mapped to whole numbers. Rating changes made during the calibration session won’t display in Employee Profile until the calibration session is finalized unless the template is configured to display in-progress ratings.

    Succession

    If the standard talent flags, Risk of Loss, Impact of Loss and Reason for Leaving are defined in the data model, they may be included in a calibration session. Often these flags are used to plot on a 9-box. An example is shown below.

    Talent Flags as Data Source

    Selection of a flag allows distribution guidelines to be set.

    Others

    The final option on the Data tab is “Others”.  Additional informational sources can be selected as reference within a calibration session. Options include to a subject’s development plan, learning activities, quick card, succession matrix report icons and CPM achievements. An example is shown below. These cannot be calibrated.

    Data Available to View

    Views Tab  

    Based on the data sources and rating elements selected on the Data tab, multiple views of the calibration data may be created which allows different ways of looking at the employees during the calibration session. Multiple views of the data may be configured and each offers some different features. The view types are Dashboard, List View, Bin View, Matrix Grid, and Executive Review

    Dashboard

    The Dashboard view provides summarized data in a chart format.  An example is shown below.

    Enable Dashboard View

    When enabled, the Dashboard view is the first view that is seen when opening a calibration session. Any view, except for the list view, may be summarized into a chart.

    List View

    The calibration data displays in a table-like format. There is a row for each subject being calibrated.  You may update ratings, see ratings from other views, add comments, have access to employee data, compare subjects and mark subjects as discussed.

    List View Options

    There are checkboxes to enable in the List View:

    • Enable List View.  When enabled, the calibration session will display the List View.  It is recommended to enable this option.
    • Show Rating of Data Element in List View.   When enabled, the rating elements selected to  calibrate on the Data tab will display as columns in the List View.   For example, on the Data tab, if the selected performance form template has an overall rating, an overall competency rating and an overall goal rating to be calibrated, you will see a column for each rating type in the list view. It is recommended to enable this option.
    • Show Grid Cell Label in List View.   When enabled, all of the matrix view ratings will display as columns on the list view tab.  For example, if you create a matrix view for “Overall Goal Rating vs Overall Competency Rating”, you will see a column on the list view that shows where in the matrix the subject’s rating lies.

    Select any additional fields to displays as columns in the List view. These are the standard user fields configured in the data model including the 15 custom fields .An example is shown below.

    Display Fields

    Bin View

    The Bin view groups employees in buckets based on one rating element that is being calibrated. Select the rating element to be used as the “X” axis.  The rating elements to choose from are based on the data source(s) selected on the Data tab. Click on the “Add View” tab to create another calibration view. Additional Bin views may be created for any other single rating element.  An example is shown below.

    Bin View Set Up

    After providing a name for the view and identifying the calibration rating element to be used, there are some additional settings that may be enabled:

    • Show calculated rating in addition to manual rating (only applicable to Bin view).  When enabled, the view shows the calculated rating in addition to the manual rating. 
    • Enable Drag and Drop.  This option is available for manual performance form template ratings and Employee Profile ratings. You cannot drag and drop a calculated form rating. If there are only calculated ratings selected, the drag and drop option is disabled. Drag and drop is not available for compensation elements either.
    • Enforce comments on rating change.  Whenever a rating is changed in this view, a popup will display and a comment will need to be written to justify the change.
    • Show an extra column for bin view.   An additional rating column may be selected to display for a bin view.

    If you choose an element for the “Y” axis as well, this is no longer a Bin view, it becomes a grid (matrix) view instead.

    Matrix View

    A matrix view plots two different rating sources against one another for a matrix placement of subjects. This is sometimes referred to as a “9-box”.  Like the bin view, drag and drop may be enabled as well as enforcing comments when a rating is changed. You may create multiple views varying the rating sources.

    As soon as you select ratings for the “X” and “Y” axes, the screen expands and there are additional selections to make. An example is shown below.

    Matrix View Set Up

    Define the matrix grid cell labels and choose the pre-set colors. You may choose the pre-set colors based on the default colors set in your Succession settings. There is an option to add notes for each cell. These “inline” notes can be used to provide information for the calibration participants to get a better understanding of what each cell represents.  The intent is to help avoid unintentional bias.  An example of a matrix grid with colors, labels and inline notes is shown below.

    Configured Matrix View

    If you are going to use the same color codes as the matrix grid report in Succession, currently the background color of the placements in Matrix Grid view on Calibration sessions will show paler tones.

    Advanced Tab 

    The Advanced tab is used to enable some features that will apply to all calibration sessions associated with the calibration template. There are four sections in this tab where you will make selections to enable for your template.  An example is shown below.

    Advanced Options

    General Options  

    General Options define some of the functionality within a calibration session. See the table below for the options that may be enabled.

    General Options

    There are two additional general options. Rules and thresholds. The Rules option will not appear unless business rules have been created to trigger calibration alerts. Here any calibration related business rules may be applied to the template. Business rules define scenarios that may cause bias. 

    A threshold may be set to identify the number of subjects’ forms that will cause a background process when force routing and auto routing during finalization occurs. It is recommended to specify a number no larger than 50.  A threshold may also be set for the number of subjects that appear per page of a session. Filters must be used to view subjects above the maximum set.

    Restrict Calibration Role Access by Target Population

    Calibration sessions allow facilitators, owners, participants, and executive reviewers access to view information for all subjects being calibrated. Access for any selected calibration role may be limited to only subjects in their target population.

    Comment on Change of Ratings

    This option is used to identify the field required to enter when changing a rating.  During a calibration session, a popup with display and the user will be required to enter any of these options:

    • Authorized By – the name of the user who approved the rating change.
    • Reason Code – a dropdown list of reasons for the rating change.  A reason code picklist must be identified to use this option.
    • Comment – when a rating is changed within a calibration session, a comment must be entered. The character limit for the comment field is 4000 characters.

    When “authorized by” or “reason code” is selected, either would be required entries with a comment optional.

    Calibration History Portlet

    If you have added the Calibration History Portlet background element to the data mode and granted permission to view this portlet, here you will select the rating types to display along with any matrix views. The options that you see listed are based on the performance form template that is the data source for the ratings. 

    Options for Calibration History Portlet

    Now that we have seen the Advanced Settings tab, let’s look at the Executive Review tab.

    Executive Review Tab

    This tab will only be visible if Executive Review was enabled. It can be enabled in Provisioning to make it available when creating the calibration template.  It may also be enabled in “Manage Calibration Settings”.

    Executive Review provides aggregated graphs and session details for the template. This view provides a roll-up of calibration activity across all calibration sessions associated with the template. Executive Review provides aggregated graphs and session details across all calibration sessions associated with the template.   An example of the tab is shown below.

    Executive Review Options

    The Executive Review tab identifies the graphs and data that will appear on the Executive Review page for a calibration session.  All of the graphs or charts created from views of the calibration template can be aggregated. There is also the option to add “sensitive” data points to plot against ratings that have views created:

    • Gender
    • Risk of Loss
    • Impact of Loss
    • Reason for Leaving

    If you make any calibration template changes once calibration sessions are created, the changes will take effect the sessions using the template. Now that the calibration template options have been reviewed. Let’s move on to some additional set up that is needed.

    Manage Calibration Settings

    The settings that will apply to all calibration sessions are identified within Manage Calibration Settings regardless of the calibration template used.  The settings are used by the admin to perform several functions:

    • Select action permissions for calibration session reviewers.
    • Select the calibration template for managers to launch from Team Overview.
    • Select the fields to display after a search while creating a session.
    • Select the tools available for Calibration.

    The tool is comprised of four tabs:

    1. Permissions
    2. Manager Template (optional)
    3. Search Results Fields
    4. Global Settings

    Permissions Tab

    The Permissions tab identifies the actions (Read, Write, Finalize, Export, and Delete) that the various calibration roles may perform for both active and approved sessions. The calibration roles need to be assigned actions for In Progress and Approved calibration sessions. The users selected when a calibration session is created will have access to the session through the Home menu and will see the Calibration tab even if they do not have role-based permission to calibration.

    Active sessions are those currently in progress while approved sessions have been finalized. The permissions granted for these roles are only applicable to Calibration.   An example of this tab is shown below:

    Calibration Settings – Permissions

    The calibration roles that are used within a session are:

    • The Facilitator is usually someone from HR that can be impartial.  The facilitator conducts the calibration session and leads the discussion.  The facilitator typically does the updating of the ratings and finalizes the session.   The facilitator may also create sessions if the RBP role for an HR manager has Manage Calibration Sessions permissions.
    • A Co-facilitator acts a backup to the facilitator.  This role will have the same permissions that the facilitator role has been assigned. Any permissions added or removed for the facilitator role will automatically be updated for the co-facilitator role.  The role is optional, you do not need to identify a co-facilitator.
    • A Calibration Subject is an employee that is being calibrated in the session.
    • A Session Participant is involved in the calibration session to make the rating decisions.  The role is usually assigned to managers of those being calibrated.
    • A Session Owner is a high-level manager who direct reports are participants in the calibration session.  The participants’ direct reports are being calibrated. 
    • An Executive Reviewer is a business or HR executive who needs summarized data across sessions. Users who are assigned this role get direct access to the sessions as well as the Executive Review summary page.  

    The individuals who will be in these roles will be identified when creating the sessions. These roles are not related to role-based permissions. These roles are specific to Calibration. The Executive Reviewers are chosen in a separate function.

    Action Permissions

    Read, Write, Finalize, Export and Delete actions need to be set for each calibration role. The permissions can differ for active sessions and finalized sessions and you must explicitly assign the actions to the roles.  The absence of a permission prevents the role from performing the action.

    Anyone assigned to a calibration role with Read permission will have access to the calibration session.  This means that a user without role-based permission for access to Calibration within the Home menu will be able to access the calibration session.

    • Read permission allows the role to see the calibration session but not make any updates to the ratings.
    • Write permission allows ratings to be updated within the session. Write permission is also needed for a role to create comments on an employee in a calibration session.
    • Export permission allows a role to download the session from any of the session views.  The session will download as an Excel file containing a separate tab for each view.
    • Delete permission allows a role to delete a calibration session. Only the facilitator and co-facilitator roles have the option to delete sessions.

    Manager Template Tab

    The Manager Template tab is used to identify which calibration template should launch for a manager in Team Overview in Performance. An example of the tab is shown below.

    Select Manager Template

    This tab will not be visible if “Launch Calibration From PMv12 Team Overview” was not enabled in Company Settings in Provisioning. You can also enable the setting on the Global Settings tab that we will review shortly. In order for it take effect, save the settings, go back to the Home page.When you go back into Manage Calibration Settings, the Manager Template tab will be visible.

    Remember the calibration template is linked the performance form template that you selected in the Data tab of “Manage Calibration Templates”.  Therefore, when you launch the calibration session, the system will know which performance form template to access. If a calibration template is not selected, the Calibration button will not be enabled on Team Overview.

    Search Results Fields Tab

    The settings selected on the Search Results Fields tab are used on the People tab of Managing Calibration Sessions which will be discussed in a future blog. This tab is used to identify the fields to display after an employee search when creating a calibration session. Additional fields may added to the view after a search as well. An example of the tab is shown below.

    Search Results Fields

    The column on the far right, Make Default, is used to select fields that displays for each user in the search results when creating a session.

    The “Include Field” column on the Search Results Field tab enables you to choose which additional fields you may add to the view after the search.

    Global Settings

    The selections made on the Global Settings tab apply to all calibration templates, sessions, and roles. This tab is used to make selections on how calibration will act for your instance. An example of the tab is shown below.

    Global Settings

    If some of these features are already enabled, that means that were already enabled in Provisioning. These settings will be applied to current and new calibration sessions, and calibration templates.   The description of these settings is shown in the table below.

    Global Settings

    Configuring Calibration Talent Card

    The admin may edit sections of the Calibration Talent Card.  You may add standard sections or create custom sections. An example is shown below.

    Update Calibration Talent Card

    The Calibration Talent Card may be opened for a subject in a calibration session.

    Manage Permissions for Executive Review

    After creating a calibration session, you may determine which users should have access to the Executive Review page.  Permission is applicable to all calibration sessions that use a specific calibration template. An example of the tab is shown below.

    Assign/Unassign Users to Executive Review Access

    Any user selected will have access to data from all sessions tied to a calibration template.  They will get access to all of the sessions in addition to seeing the Executive Review page. They will see aggregated data and detail done to the subject level. Use this screen to remove access for any existing Executive Reviewers as well.

    Calibration History Portlet

    Any user selected will have access to data from all sessions tied to a calibration template.  They will get access to all of the sessions in addition to seeing the Executive Review page. They will see aggregated data and detail done to the subject level.

    Adding Calibration History Portlet to People Profile

    If the Calibration History Portlet background element was added to the data model and permission granted to this data for the admin, manager and HR manager roles, the portlet can be added to People Profile. Add the calibration history background element to People Profile using “Configure People Profile”. Typically this block is inserted in a talent portion section that managers have access to.

    To select the ratings to appear in the portlet, go back to “Manage Calibration Templates” to find the template that you are going to reference in the portlet.  Go to the Advanced tab to find the Calibration History Portlet section. The rating options that are listed are based on the rating types that were selected on the Data tab and any matrix view results from the Views tabs.  Select the rating types that you wish to display in the portlet. You may include up to five rating types and three matrix views.

    Calibration Home Page Tile

    There are two standard Home page tiles for Calibration:  Calibration (Manager) and Calibration (Specialist).   The tiles share the same name (“Calibration”), act identically and provide a direct link to the Calibration sessions page. A user would never have both tiles. When enabled, managers will have access to the Calibration (Manager) tile and non-managers will have access to the Calibration (Specialist) tile.

    A manager will see the calibration tile in the “My Team” section of their Home page.  Non-managers will see the calibration tile in the “My Specialty” section of their Home page.

    To see the tile, permission to the calibration tab and to the Homepage V3 Tile Group Permissions are granted through role-based permissions.  For non-managers without access to the calibration tab, they would only be able to see the calibration tile if they are identified as a participant in a calibration session. 

    To verify that the tiles are enabled, go to “Manage Home Page”. If the “Calibration (Manager)” tile is on the “Repository” or “Not Used” tab, click the dropdown arrow in the “Move To” column, select “Default” and save the settings.   An example is shown below.   This will automatically put the tile in the “My Team” section of the Home page.

    Calibration Tile to Appear on Home Page

    Moving the tile to the default tab will place it in the “My Team” section.  Next, find the  “Calibration (Specialist)” tile.  If the tile is on the “Repository” or “Not Used” tab, click the dropdown arrow in the “Move To” column, select “Default” and save the settings. The tile will appear in the default tab in the “My Specialty” section.  The tiles can also be moved to different sections of the Home page from any of the tabs by using the dropdown listing for “Select Section”. An example is shown below.

    Move tile to Different Section of Home Page

    Calibration Team Summary Tile

    There is a standard summary tile available for managers called “Calibration Team Summary”.  To see this tile, the participant of the session must be the manager of the subjects. The Team Calibration Summary tile will only display if the data source of the session comes from a performance form. This tile may be hidden or displayed.  Also found within “Manage Home Page”, go to “To-Do Settings”. The list of the standard tiles will display as seen below.

    Show Team Calibration Summary on Home Page

    To hide this tile, move the toggle to “No” for the Team Calibration Summary tile and then save the settings.

    Calibration Alerts

    If Employee Central, MetaData Framework and Intelligent Services are enabled, Calibration Alerts may be set up. The alerts can be used to point out situations where bias could impact the evaluation of some subjects.  Calibration business rules may be created that trigger an alert in a calibration session when evaluating subjects. The alert would display when saving the session with a list of subjects that triggered the business rules.  The label of the alert message can identify the problem and the alert message can further explain the problem and offer possible solutions.

    Typical alerts are:

    • Subject had a leave of absence which may have impacted their performance rating since they did not have a full twelve months of work to evaluate.
    • Subject had a noticeable reduction in their current year performance rating compared to the prior year rating.
    • Subject received very favorable ratings for prior years and has not been promoted.

    When creating the business rules, up to three years’ worth of performance ratings may be compared.  This means three performance form templates can be identified when creating the business rules.   The business rules must then be linked to a calibration template.   Within “Manage Calibration Templates”, select the calibration template and on the Advanced tab, select the alert rules to apply.

    The alert messages need to be created via Manage Data>Create New. An example is shown below.

    Create Calibration Alert

    External code, effective status localized header and localized description are required. The message should identify the issue and offer solutions (localized description).

    Next, the business rules for the alerts must be configured and the triggers identified. Type and select “Configure Business Rules” in the search bar and click “Create New Rule”. As example is shown below. Up to three performance form templates can be referenced when creating a business rule.  

    Create Calibration Alert Business Rule

    Create an alert scenario using If/Then logic or True/False. Define how the system would respond if the “THEN” or “ELSE” option is met.  The calibration alert message created in the prior step must be referenced here. An example is shown below.

    Tie Alert Message to Business Rule

    Once the rules are created, they must be linked to a calibration template.  Go to “Manage Calibration Templates”.  Select the calibration template to add the rules to.  On the Advanced tab, select the alert rules from the Rules dropdown list.   An example is shown below.

    Link Alerts to Calibration Template

    All sessions linked the calibration template will use the alerts.

    Wrap Up

    The calibration template identified the data source for the ratings to be calibrated, defined the data views used for the calibration sessions, and enabled some general features. Next we configured the calibration settings.  The settings defined what each calibration participant role could do, determined search results fields and enabled global settings. If managers will be able to launch their own calibration sessions in Team Overview in Performance, we identified the calibration template to be used.  The features and settings are applicable to each calibration template and each calibration session. We also looked at some additional features to configure for Calibration.

    Watch for the next blog in the series. We will create a calibration session.

  • Job Profile Builder: An Introduction

    Job Profile Builder: An Introduction

    Photo by mentatdgt from Pexels

    Lately, in a variety of customer engagements for various SAP SuccessFactors modules, I’ve had to bring up the topic of the Job Profile Builder. As a relatively new feature that touches every module, it’s really no wonder! But there’s still a lot of customers who aren’t quite familiar with it. This blog should give you an understanding of what the Job Profile builder is, why you would want to use it, and an overview of what it takes to go about setting it up.

    What is the Job Profile Builder?

    The Job Profile Builder is an important SuccessFactors Platform feature that enables customers to build and organize a catalog of well-formed jobs. So what exactly is a “job”? If you are familiar with position management in HRIS systems, you’ll know to traditionally think of positions as a seat. One person sites in one seat (I know there’s some exceptions, but let’t not get complicated here). Jobs are an abstraction above positions. So where there might be a Maintenance Tech I position who services a building in San Francisco, there’s also a Maintenance Tech I position in Seattle that does the same thing but is a unique instantiation of a position from the San Francisco position. The job describes the common tasks, required skills, education, & competencies, etc. for these positions. If you’d like an idea of what kinds of information companies associate with a job regardless of the system they use, Mercer has a great article here.

    What Benefit Does it Provide?

    Quite a few benefits are to be had with a well maintained job catalog. From a business process perspective, it will help you categorize and regulate your positions. For example, standardizing pay bands, required competency levels, government classifications, etc. On the Successfactors side, the Job Profile Builder integrates across all modules and can greatly reduce redundant data entry while helping facilitate the business process benefits. The following integrations are available with the job profile builder:

    • Employee Central: Direct association with positions in Position Management
    • Performance Management: Automatic Assignment of Competencies
    • Succession Management: Successor suggestions based on competency assessments
    • Compensation: Derive compa-ratio based on link with job grade
    • Recruiting: Automatic population of job posting description from job profile
    • Career Development: Competencies pulled into Career Worksheet and Career Paths showing job progression
    • Workforce Analytics: Planning based on required job Competencies
    • LMS: Assigning learning content based on job

    In the example screenshot below, we can see how the recruiting integration automatically pulls the job description from the job profile for internal and external requisition postings. This can save your recruiters a great amount of time having to re-type job descriptions for each posting.

    Example Job Profile Integration with Recruiting

    How does Job Profile Builder work?

    There are 3 major components and corresponding configuration screens of the Job Profile builder:

    Job Profile Templates: define what types of content go on a profile and where and how they are presented.  E.g. you might have physical requirements for some types of roles but not for others. It is basically the layout of what the profile will look like. An example is shown below.  For more info see the link here: https://help.sap.com/viewer/70097a1a469d47a0ae08809e4a240f98/2005/en-US/0ac7427e15cc467eb9a50178c06b53ed.html

    Editing a Job Profile Template

    Job Profile Content: Define the options (e.g. drop-downs) that show on the profile.  For example what skills or competencies or education types will exist in the system that can be placed on a profile. An example of configuring what degree types will exist for selection in creating a job profile in the system is shown below. There’s also a lot of helpful pre-built content from SAP available for download from the SuccessStore that pops up as you build your content.  For more info, see the link here: https://help.sap.com/viewer/70097a1a469d47a0ae08809e4a240f98/2005/en-US/99856fa2c4944001ab5991e92c9454eb.html

    Managing Job Profile Content

    Job Roles: Roles are what you build the profile around.  They represent a specific set of skills, competencies, description, etc.  Roles can be associated with job codes which in turn associate to positions. Job roles can also be grouped into similar categories called Job Families.  You setup the Job roles within the Job Profile Content screen. See the example below. For more info, see the link here: https://help.sap.com/viewer/70097a1a469d47a0ae08809e4a240f98/2005/en-US/aa2d3d5b1027403bbcffa8b29f70196d.html

    Setting up Job Roles

    This still doesn’t tell us what the Job profile is….well, when you create a Job Profile you are associating it to a specific Job Role and filling in a specific template with the specific content relevant for that role. So to answer the question of what is a Job Profile?–It is the marriage of these 3 components. You can see in the screenshot below where a specific template is being filled in with the content we have setup in the system to define a particular role.

    The Manage Job Profile Screen: Editing the Content on Your Specific Job Profile

    How does the Job Profile Integrate with Employee Central Position Management?

    You will notice when you start creating a Job Profile, there’s a screen asking you to associate the profile with a Job Role:

    Example screenshot showing organization of Job Families to Roles and Positions when creating a Job Profile

    When you edit roles, the system will ask you to map Job Codes. Those Job codes sit between the job Role and the Positions. Thus while there’s a 1:1 relationship between the Profile and the Role, there can be many codes associated to a role. Since there’s many codes across many positions, thus there are many positions that can be associated to one job role and profile.

    This provides us with many benefits! For example, whenever you create a requisition from a position with an associated Job Profile, the requisition will automatically pull in the Job Profile as well and activate this integration seamlessly!

    Furthermore, the Job Profile builder can utilize Employee Central workflows as well! This can be beneficial as you manage you job catalog as a variety of resources all using the profiles across the modules may want to make edits. In the screenshot below we can see when one of these interested parties modifies the Job Profile it will trigger a workflow.

    Screenshot of Job Profile Builder Edits Triggering Workflow

    Conclusion

    Hopefully you now have a good understanding of the Job Profile Builder and are excited to start using it! Setting up a job catalog can be a tremendous undertaking, but hopefully now that you understand how the tool works, it can make the task a little easier. If you have an existing job catalog you’d like to import, there are also import screens available for you. As I mentioned before, there’s also a lot of helpful pre-built content available from the SuccessStore.

    For more information about the Job Profile Builder and other talent management modules in SAP SuccessFactors, check out our book here!

    Do you need help with integrating or setting up the Job Profile Builder? Contact us at: info@worklogix.com

  • Configuring SAP SuccessFactors Calibration Part I -Provisioning

    Configuring SAP SuccessFactors Calibration Part I -Provisioning

    What is Calibration?

    Calibration is a process used to appraise employee performance in a fair and consistent manner. Managers meet in calibration sessions to discuss employee performance and achieve agreement on performance ratings. At the onset of a calibration session, the definition of each performance rating can be agreed upon to enable a common language to use when discussing and evaluating performance. The intent is to help eliminate any potential manager bias when discussing employee performance and finalizing ratings.

    SAP SuccessFactors Calibration provides a framework to objectively evaluate employee performance.  This tool provides HR and senior managers the means to impartially review and adjust performance ratings across teams, departments and the organization. A calibration session provides a visual presentation of employee data from multiple sources in multiple views. Evaluating ratings in several formats with different filters may help to find areas of bias.

    Calibration may be a standalone process or part of a performance review process, a talent review process, or a compensation review process.

    Information used within Calibration may be sourced from Performance Management, People Profile, Compensation, or Succession data. Within Performance Management, overall performance, potential, competency, and goal ratings may be calibrated. The Succession related metrics that may be calibrated are Risk of Loss, Impact of Loss and Reason for Leaving. Compensation ratios may be evaluated using the salary, bonus, stock and variable pay components of a compensation template. Overall potential, performance, competency, objective and two custom ratings may be calibrated from the talent profile section of People Profile. Upon completion of a calibration session, ratings are updated in the original source.

    We will focus on calibration based on ratings from a performance form template.

    Basic Configuration of Calibration

    There are several steps to perform before we are ready to run a calibration session:

    • Enable Calibration in Provisioning
    • Configure Succession Data Model
    • Set role-based permission for Calibration access
    • Configure data source template
    • Enable calibration related e-mail notifications
    • Configure Calibration Template
    • Configure Calibration Settings
    • Assign users to Executive Review role
    • Configure Calibration History Portlet in People Profile

    In this blog we will cover the steps to configure Calibration in Provisioning. The steps to configure Calibration in your instance will be covered in the next blog, “Configuring SAP SuccessFactors Calibration Part II – Instance Set Up”.

    Enable Calibration in Provisioning

    First we must enable Calibration in Provisioning. Within Company Settings, search for “Calibration” to find the section called Enable Calibration.  Once found, click the checkbox as seen below.

    Enable Calibration

    Additional settings under Enable Calibration may be enabled here. If you plan on using Executive Review, which summarizes calibration activity across sessions, enable this feature here. We will need this feature enabled when creating the calibration template.

    If you are going to permit managers to create their own calibration session, click the checkbox for “Enable Manager Calibration Session”. We will need this feature when configuring the calibration settings.

    The other features may be set in the instance directly via Manage Calibration Settings and will then reflect as enabled in Provisioning. We will be discussing these features in the next blog, so we can leave the rest unchecked here.

    There is also a radio button within Enable Calibration used to identify the permission model used.  The default permission model is legacy permissions but you should be using Role-Based Permissions (RBP).  Make sure “Use role based permission model”is selected.

    Use Role-based permission model

    Save the settings in this section of Company Settings before moving on to the next set of features to enable.

    Calibration Reporting Permission

    There are no standard reports or dashboards for calibration. Any calibration reporting will need to be done using ad hoc reports. If you wish to make calibration data available for reporting, go to the Analytics and Dashboard Tabs & Misc Reporting section of Company Settings.

    “Additional Adhoc Sub domain Schemas Configuration” and “Enable INCLUDE STARTING FROM USER in people pill” will need to have the following enabled:

    • Calibration
    • Calibration Org Chart Coverage
    • Calibration Activity

    After saving the settings, back out of Company Settings and we will continue with additional configuration set up.

    Configuring Calibration in the Succession Data Model

    There are elements in the Succession Data Model that can be used for calibration. We will need to update the data model to ensure these elements are configured. Export the data model in order to make updates.

    Open the file using an XML editor.  Here we will be updating the following:

    1. Rating elements
    2. Display options
    3. Filter options
    4. Calibration History Portlet

    We will look at each of these.

    Rating Elements

    The ratings that can be calibrated are based on the available ratings configured in your system. While setting up Calibration in your instance, you identify the data source of the ratings. Earlier we had mentioned that ratings may come from performance form templates. You may calibrate ratings from an existing performance form template or you may decide to create a new performance form template in order to utilize additional rating types such as overall competency, overall goal and overall potential. 

    In either case, the data model must contain the rating elements that you wish to calibrate.   Most likely these already are already in the data model but you will need to verify this. The rating elements are:

    • sysOverallObjective
    • sysOverallCompetency
    • sysOverallPerformance
    • sysOverallPotential
    • sysOverallCustom01
    • sysOverallCustom02

    A code segment seen below displays an example of the overall performance rating background element.    

    sysOverallPerformance Background Element

    Make sure all of the rating types that you wish to calibrate are included in your data model.

    Additional Elements to Calibrate

    There are three standard elements that may display in some of the views in a calibration session. If you are using SAP SuccessFactors Succession, these most likely are in used for Talent Flags and Matrix Grid reports.

    1. riskOfLoss
    2. impactOfLoss
    3. reasonForLeaving

    A code sample of the flags is shown below:

    Talent Flags in Data Model

    Display Options

    Calibration sessions can display data in many views. In Part II of this series, you will learn how to create these views. There is a display option feature that is particularly useful for the List view tab.  Here the data is displayed in a table with a row for each employee being calibrated. If there are several columns for this table, there could be a lot of back and forth scrolling. With the display option feature, some columns may be hidden. There is an icon for display options that enables users to add or remove certain columns from the view. Some are hardcoded and will always show up as display options in a calibration session:

    • First Name
    • Last Name
    • Count
    • Quickcard (if enabled in the calibration template)

    The Quick Card display option may be enabled when configuring the Calibration template which we will discuss in Part II.

    When clicking on the display options icon within the calibration session, any of these fields may be deselected and those columns will no longer display on the view.

    There are some icons that may be added as a display option fields. Any display option fields defined for Succession in the Matrix Grid Classifier tool in Provisioning or the flags be set in Matrix Grid Report Icon Reconfiguration may also be used as display options in a calibration session. In the list view, any of these icons selected would appear in a new column called “Attributes”. Bin and matrix views the icons appear underneath an employee’s name. Having these icons readily visible for each employee may be useful when comparing employees.

    Filter Options

    Filter Options are used in a calibration session to narrow the list of the employees that display.  If there are a large number of subjects, this is a way to view a smaller group that meet the filter criteria.   It may be more manageable to view subsets of employees during the session.

    Within a calibration session, the standard fields that are available as filter options are:

    • Manager
    • Division
    • Department
    • Location
    • Jobcode

    These will always appear as filter fields for a calibration session. If Risk of Loss, Impact of Loss and Reason for Leaving are also in your data model, these fields will also be filter fields. The 15 custom fields that may be defined in the data model may also be added as filter options. To set this up, the custom fields must be part of the default filter in the data model as shown below in the code segment sample.

    Adding the custom fields as default filters

    These custom fields may also be used in as filters in calibration. Module specific filters are defined within <custom-filters>. Identify the calibration module filters by adding this tag:

    <filter-module-id=”calibration”>

    Include the custom elements that you wish to use as calibration filters. This should be placed after the default filter as shown below:

    Calibration Filters

    There is one additional calibration specific element that may be added to the data model. We will look at this next.

    Calibration History Portlet

    Calibration data may appear in People Profile when the Calibration History Portlet is configured.  This portlet provides a snapshot of calibration session data along with ratings.  The background element for the portlet must be added to the data model. A code segment sample is shown below.

    <background-element id="calibrationHistoryPortlet" type-id="138">
   <label>Calibration History Portlet</label>
</background-element>

    If you also wish to use the portlet in the Employee Scorecard, the portlet must be added under the view-template “employeeScorecard”.  A code segment sample is shown below.

    Adding Calibration History Portlet to Scorecard

    After making the data model updates, save and import the data model.

    Congratulations! Calibration is now enabled and you are ready to set up Calibration in your instance. Coming soon will be my blog, Configuring SAP SuccessFactors Calibration Part II – Instance Set Up to learn how.

    For more information about Calibration and other talent management modules in SAP SuccessFactors, check out our book here!

    Do you need help setting up your Calibration implementation? Contact us at: info@worklogix.com

  • 1H 2020 SAP SuccessFactors – Employee Central Features

    SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central has come out with several enhancements and features for 1H 2020. All of the latest enhancements can be found here (S-User ID required). Scroll down to the ‘What’s New Viewer’ to review the changes.

    Filter on Solutions for Employee Central to review all the latest changes. Under Description, click on ‘See More’ to see screenshots and detailed information.

    This post will be highlighting some of the top enhancements & features:

    1. Show Full Name in History Pages

    Users previously had difficulty finding out who made the change solely by their user name in the History page. But now SuccessFactors has made it easy for users by showing the full name of the person who made the change along with the user name in the “Last modified” field of the “History section” for the below pages:

      • Job Information
      • Job Relationships
      • Compensation Information
      • Personal Information
      • Dependents
      • Addresses

                image-5

    1. Synchronize Data from Work Order to Job Information

    Manual steps has been reduced – Yes!! Manual steps are no longer required in updating the job information of contingent workers when there is a change in their work order.

    Now Synchronization is automatic between the work order and job information for the common data of contingent workers.  This can be achieved by creating a business rule while adding a new work order or modifying an existing work order.

    Detailed Information can be found here: Click Here

    1. Check Tool for Contingent Workforce Management

    New checks have been created to help users identify and resolve potential configuration and data issues with the contingent workforce management application.

    To save time and effort, a few checks have been added to highlight issues related to application configuration and contingent worker data along with resolution tips to help users resolve them by themselves.

    Detailed Information can be found here: Click Here

    1. Export and Import of Corporate Data Model Information

    The Corporate Data Model can be now be imported and exported from the Admin center. Users can incorporate their changes in the exported XML and import them back in from the Admin Center.

    This includes Country or Region-Specific Corporate Data Model. This removes the need to do the Import/Export of the CDM on the provisioning side.

    Detailed information can be found here: Click Here

    1. Rule Contexts During Import

    Now while importing a data model, the original values of the rule contexts will be preserved. Previously when users imported a data model by default, all rule contexts were reset to Yes.

    Detailed information can be found here: Click Here

    1. Accept or Reject Auto Delegation Requests

    SuccessFactors has now offered the chance to users whether they wish to accept or reject delegation request. Users can now respond to auto delegation requests on a new tab called “Delegation Requests for Me”. Workflows are delegated to them only when they have chosen to accept the request.

    Detailed information can be found here: Click Here

                     image-3

    1. Specify Start Time and End Time of Auto Delegation

    Delegators will now be able to choose a period for the auto-delegate to remain effective. Users have the option to choose the start date and end date when they configure the delegation.

    During the specified period, the workflows will be triggered automatically for the delegates to approve. When the “end date” has been reached, the auto delegation feature will turn off automatically and hence no manual work is required to turn it off.

                                          27-08-2020 4-38-17 PM

    1. Customizable Key Details on the My Workflow Requests Page

    An enhancement has been made to include the custom key details for workflows in the “My Workflow Requests (Advanced To-do)” page.

    Now workflow decisions can be made by seeing the summary without having to open the workflow detail page for position workflows.

    Detailed information can be found here: Click Here

    1. Time Sheet Custom Fields are now supported for the iOS and Android Mobile Apps

    The SAP SuccessFactors Mobile apps now support the following Time Sheet custom fields: Date, Boolean, Number, Decimal, and String.

    This feature creates better alignment between the iOS and Android Mobile apps and the web application.

    1. New Rehire Event Reason for Replication of Employee Master Data

    A new event reason has been created that supports the scenario where an employee is rehired after termination. Job information records will be extracted from the rehire date with PSEUDO_REHIRE event reason.

    Do you need help implementing or supporting your SAP SuccessFactors Modules?  Please Contact info@worklogix.com for assistance, download our support services brochure, or visit https://www.worklogix.com/implementation.html for additional information.

  • H1 2020 SAP SuccessFactors – Compensation and Variable Pay Features

    Starting in 2020, SAP changed the release schedule to every 6 months. All of the latest enhancements can be found here (S-User ID required). Scroll down to the What’s New Viewer to review the changes.

    Click on the What’s New Viewer to review the latest changes

    Filter on Solutions for Compensation, Variable Pay, and Reward and Recognition to review all the latest changes. Under Description, you can click on ‘See More’ to see screenshots and detailed information.

    After reviewing all the changes, we narrowed the list down to the Highlights for H1 2020 Compensation & Variable Pay & Reward and Recognition:

    1. Import and Export non-EC Eligibility Rules

    • Administrators now have the ability to Export and Import Eligibility rules
      • Admins can export the rules as a .csv file and then import the file as needed into other templates
      • This process will save time and improve accuracy during configuration
    Import and Export buttons now appear for Eligibility Rules

    2. Enhanced Display Criteria for Bulk Download Icon

    • Users can now view the icon for bulk download only if a statement was generated for an employee from the recently filtered list of Executive Review
      • Previously, the icon was displayed even if statements weren’t generated from the filtered list which caused confusion
      • Enable the Display Bulk Print Statement Icon on Executive Review Page option
    Bulk download icon only displays if statements are generated for filtered list

    3. View a List of Employees Excluded from Statement Download

    • Using log files, users can now identify employees who are excluded during the bulk download process from Executive Review
      • Log file will show a list containing the username and user ID of all excluded employees
    Log file shows list of employees excluded during the bulk download process

    4. Publish by User for Variable Pay and Total Compensation Plan Templates

    • Administrators can now publish specific employees or groups of employees to Employee Central in Variable Pay and Total Compensation Plan templates
      • Prior to this release, this feature was only available for compensation templates
    Publish by Employee is now available for Variable Pay and Total Compensation Plans

    5. Use Bonus Payout Summary Reports Offline

    • Users can now modify editable fields in the exported file while offline from Executive Review. The modified exported file can then be reimported to update the fields with new changes.
      • Permissions must be set to allow for edit and export access to Executive Review
      • Enable the setting for Offline Edit Access for variable pay worksheets
    Import functionality now exists for Bonus Payout Summary

    6. Expanded Pay Range Matching for Promoted Employees

    • Users can now define a new finalAttribute field that the system uses when calculating the final pay range.
      • This will avoid the issue of miscalculated post-promotion pay ranges in EC-enabled compensation templates caused when the system continues to incorrectly use pre-promotion classification and pay grade information
      • In previous versions, the system incorrectly calculated pay range on the basis of pre-promotion information
    finalAttribute field can be defined for proper calculation of pay ranges

    7. Hierarchy and Date Validations for Check Tool

    • Check Tool now has two new validations:
      • Review the Manager ID of each head of hierarchy in the compensation plan
      • Ensure that all date fields within UDF are formatted correctly
    Additional useful validations added to Check Tool

    8. Default Currency View in Compensation, Variable Pay, and Total Compensation Plans

    • Users can now set the currency that the system uses as default when compensation, variable pay, and total compensation plans are launched.
      • In previous versions, this was handled in the XML
    Users can set Default Currency under Currency Settings

    9. Expanded Flexibility in Total Compensation Plans

    • While creating total compensation plans by copying existing templates, users now have the option to create a plan by selecting an existing Compensation template without also selecting a Variable Pay plan template.
      • This is useful as not all customers are using variable pay
    Total Compensation Plans can be created without having to select variable pay template

    10. Delete Awards

    • Users can now delete awards, irrespective of their status using the award IDs.
      • Awards that are no longer used can be permanently deleted from the system
    Users now have the ability to delete awards

    See this great article for useful information on how to prepare for a SAP SuccessFactors Regular Release.

    Do you need help implementing or supporting your SAP SuccessFactors Compensation or Variable Pay system?  Contact info@worklogix.com for assistance, download our support services brochure, or visit https://www.worklogix.com/implementation.html for additional information.

  • What’s New in SAP SuccessFactors Calibration

    What’s New in SAP SuccessFactors Calibration

    Starting in 2020, SAP SuccessFactors has changed its release schedule from every quarter to biannually. With this change, the releases will be larger with an additional preview week. Here we will focus on what’s new and what has changed in Calibration.

    There is one new feature for Calibration along with four enhancements. Let’s start with what’s new!

    Customized Weighted Ratings now used in Calibration

    There is a new universal feature that allows ratings from the Customized Weighted Rating summary section of performance form template to be used in Calibration. Prior releases of Calibration could only use ratings from the Overall Performance, Overall Potential, Overall Objective and Overall Competency sections of a performance form templates as rating sources.

    This option is helpful if you wish to calibrate the overall form rating based on the ratings given by different roles in different steps instead of using the final overall rating from one role. The customized weighted rating is calculated based on the ratings and weights from the steps and roles that were defined in a business rule. Another rule defines the trigger step used to calculate the overall weighted rating.

    The Customized Weighted Rating section of a performance form template is displayed below.

    Customized Weighted Rating Section of PM Template

    When using ratings from the Customized Weighted Rating section, make sure the calibration step is after the step where the calculation of the weighted rating is triggered in the PM form. Just remember, when the manual rating is enabled in this template section, the calculated rating would not be available in the Bin view of a calibration session.

    The Customized Weighted Rating section of a PM form is shown below.

    Customized Weighted Rating section of a PM Form

    In the example below, you can see the customized weighted rating appearing in a calibration session. It appears in the “Overall Form Rating” column because a manual rating overrides the calculated rating.

    Overall Rating in Calibration Session

    Continuing with this example, the rating is updated from “Meets Expectation” to “Extraordinary” in the calibration session as shown below.

    Updated Rating in Calibration Session

    After the calibration session has been finalized, the updated rating appears in the performance form as seen below.

    PM Form Reflects Updated Rating

    In the Customized Weighted Rating section of the form, the overall rating reflects the updated rating of “Extraordinary” from the calibration session. The overall score pod at the top of the form reflects this updated rating as well.

    Now let’s see what existing functionality has been improved in the latest release.

    There are four universal enhancements for Calibration.

    Subjects List Page Enhancement

    In prior releases, when drilling down into one of the standard charts in Executive Review, printing the Subjects List page was not supported. In addition, any list display modifications were not saved. Now it is possible to print out the list of subjects and retain any adjustments made to the page display after refreshing the page. More details are shown below.

    Now when a data point is drilled into a chart, the print option is now available as seen below.

    Subjects List with Print Capability

    Within this list, the Executive Reviewer may customize the display. Columns may be reordered by dragging and dropping, column widths may be adjusted, the sort mode may be set for columns and display options may be changed. The printed list will reflect the display changes. Notice there is no “save” button, the adjustments are saved automatically. The changes are preserved after the Subjects List page is refreshed as well.

    When the Executive Reviewer drills down into another cell in the chart, the updated display has been retained. This enhancement prevents the user from having the update the display each time the Subjects List page is viewed.

    Enhanced Comment Details

    This next enhancement is applicable when comments are required when a rating is changed in a calibration session. When viewing comments made on a subject, the name of the calibration participant who entered the comment is listed along with the date the comment was made. An example is shown below.

    Comments with Name and Date

    When the rater is required to enter the user name associated with a rating change, your calibration template will have “Authorized By” enabled as shown below.

    Calibration Template with Authorized By Enforced on Rating Change

    Now when viewing a comment with “authorized by” enabled, the comment detail will include the authorizer as well as the comment creator and date as seen in the example below.

    Comments with “Authorized By” Field

    Next we will see an update for matrix views within a calibration session.

    Full Screen Mode Matrix View

    During a calibration session, matrix views will now have the toolbar available in full screen mode. Previously the toolbar was not visible in this mode. From the standard view, the user clicks on the “Open Full Screen” icon as seen below.

    Matrix View with Full Screen Icon

    When switching to the full screen view, the toolbar is available and enables users to take the same actions in the full screen mode as they would in the normal mode.

    Matrix View in Full Screen Mode with Toolbar

    New Reporting Columns

    The final Calibration enhancement involves ad hoc and SAC reporting. There are new fields available to report on when generating a report for a finalized session. The session approval date along with the name of the last user to modify the session are now available. Most likely the last user to modify the session was the approver. The last modified user fields include “Modified By User Name”, “Last Modified by First Name”, and “Last Modified by Last Name”.

    “Session Approved Date” Field
    “Last Modified User” Fields

    The new fields are available when reporting for all three calibration domains. A sample report is shown below.

    Sample Calibration Report with New Fields

    Wrap up

    We have now explored what’s new and what features have been enhanced in Calibration. While the updates are minimal, hopefully these features will make your calibration sessions more user friendly. Check out my other blogs on what’s new in Succession and Career Development.

    Do you need help with your calibration implementation? Contact us at: info@worklogix.com

  • What’s New in the 1H 2020 SAP SuccessFactors Career Development Release

    What’s New in the 1H 2020 SAP SuccessFactors Career Development Release

    Want to know what’s changed from the first Half (1H) 2020 SAP SuccessFactors release for Career Development? Let’s take a look!

    There are two new universal features within Career Development and three universal enhancements in Mentoring. We will wrap up by seeing the new Career Explorer tool that is only available in an Early Adopter Care (EAC) program at this time.

    We will begin with the new universal feature in Career Worksheet.

    Creating a Deep Link to “My Current Roles” in Career Worksheet

    It is now possible for an employee to use a deep link to go directly to the “My Current Roles” tab in Career Worksheet.

    So what exactly is a deep link? For our purposes, it is a hyperlink that links to a specific page in the SAP SuccessFactors application. For example, a custom tile on the home page may contain a deep link. This acts as a shortcut to reduce the number of clicks to move to another page in SuccessFactors.

    In prior releases, it would take several clicks for an employee to get to their current role on Career Worksheet. From the home page the path would be Development>Career Worksheet>My Current Roles tab.

    With the latest release, an employee can open a deep link to go directly the Career Worksheet “My Current Roles” tab by using the new URL “sf/careerworksheet?currentrole=true“.

    In order to take advantage of this new feature, a little set up is needed. For our example, we will add a link to the “Quick Links” tile on the Home page.

    First let’s set up the URL so it will be ready when we need to reference it. To use the deep link, add it to the base URL of your SuccessFactors instance. To find your base URL, look at the URL for your login page. An example is shown below.

    https://performancemanager4.successfactors.com/login#/companyEntry

    Remove “login#/companyEntry” and add “/sf/careerworksheet?currentrole=true”  as seen in the example below.

    https://performancemanager4.successfactors.com/sf/careerworksheet?currentrole=true

    Now we can set up our deep link. Go to “Manage Home Page” and find the “Quick Links” tile as seen below.

    Manage Links

    Click on “Manage Links” in order to add the URL. Click the plus sign seen in the top right corner of the page. You will then be able to add a new entry. Provide a name for the link label, turn the link on by default, enter the newly created URL and save. An example is seen below.

    Create Deep Link

    Now go to your home page. The new deep link will now be available in the “Quick Links” tile as seen in the example below.

    Quick Links Tile

    Clicking on this tile, the user will see all of the quick links available to them. In the example seen below, the user has added this link to their favorites.

    Link to Current Role

    Clinking the link will take the user to the “My Current Role” tab on Career Worksheet as seen below.

    My Current Role Tab of Career Worksheet

    That wraps up what is new for Career Worksheet. Next we will move on to the Development Plan.

    Development Plan

    The final “what’s new” for Career Development Planning is the availability of the Buddhist calendar in Development Plans. This enhancement is specific to customers in Thailand.  The Buddhist calendar will now display in:

    • Development Plan – add and edit learning activity
    • Development Plan – add and edit goals
    • Learning Activity within Development Plan – create and edit new learning activity
    • Learning Activity Group within Development Plan – group definition,  edit assigned learning activities for groups

    We have now seen the new features for Career Worksheet and Development Plan. Now let’s see the enhancements for Mentoring.

    Mentoring

    There are no new features in Mentoring but there are a few universal updates to existing functionality:

    • Enhanced Matching Rules
    • Reduced number of recommended mentors
    • Email notifications for changes in mentor availability

    We will look at each one.

    Enhanced Matching Rules

    When an admin creates a mentoring program, the program signup form is configured.  The admin creates a series of questions that mentors and mentees must answer when joining a mentoring program. Now matching rules are defined for each question.  The system determines the best match for a mentor and mentee based on the responses and the matching rules for each question.

    When creating the signup form in prior releases, there were only four columns to complete as seen below.  

    Prior Version of Signup Form

    The fields to complete were: “Answer Type“, “Selection Values“, “Questions to Mentor” and “Questions to Mentee“.

    The admin would create questions for the mentors and mentees.  Each question would need to have the answer type defined: free text or a picklist.  If the answer would come from a picklist, the picklist would be identified in the “Selection Values” column.

    The latest version of Mentoring has a much more robust method for matching program participants. 

    The new signup form is displayed below.

    New Signup Form

    Like the previous releases, a matching rule is created for each question that appears on the signup sheet.  Now there are additional criteria defined in order to find the best match:

    • Question Category
    • Matching Based On
    • Key Question
    • Matching Type
    • Weight

    The “Answer Type” and “Selection Values” columns from previous releases have been combined into the “Question Category”.  An example of the selections for this field is shown below.

    Question Category

    If the question may be answered by a picklist, the picklist is identified in this field otherwise the question category value would be “Free Text”.

    In order for mentors to be matched to mentees, all of the questions cannot be free text.

    Just a few things to keep in mind about picklists.

    • The picklists that may be used for each question are: competency, department, division, location, gender, job family, job role, job code, job level, job title and skill.  You may also use custom picklists.   The picklists need to be defined in the data model and permissions must be granted.
    • The same picklist (standard and custom) may be used in multiple questions. 
    • Custom picklists may only be used when matching is based on preference, not with mentee or mentor preference or profiles.

    New is the “Matching Based On” column.  For each question, matching may be based on:

    • Preferences.  Mentors and mentees are matched based on their answer to the question.
    • Mentee’s Preference. Using this match type, there is only a question for the mentee.  The mentor will not get the question on their signup form. Matching is based on the mentee’s answers and the mentor’s employee profile.
    • Mentor’s Preference. Using this match type, the question is only for the mentor.  The mentee will not get the question on their signup form. Matching is based on the mentor’s answers and the mentee’s employee profile.
    • Profiles.  This match type does not use a question. Matching is done based on the picklist value for the question on the mentor and mentee employee profiles.

    Also new is “Key Question”.  When a question is identified as “key”, and the mentee and mentor don’t satisfy the matching criteria for the question, they won’t match. Key questions cannot be weighted.

    Matching type.  Options are “Matched” or “Not Matched“.  Matching depends on the answers or the profile to determine if they are a match on each question. If the answer is defined as “Not Matched”, the answer to the question by the mentor and mentee cannot be the same in order to match on the question.

    Weight.  If used, the sum of the weights must equal 100. If this column is left blank, equal weight will be given to each question.  If you wish to omit a question from matching, you may leave its weight blank but have the weight for the remaining questions to add up to 100. Responses to key questions and free text questions cannot be weighted.

    The table shown below identifies which fields are available for each “question category”/”matching based on” combinations.  The fields that the admin will be able to enter for each question on the signup form will differ based on the matching options.

    Question CategoryMatching Based OnQuestion to MentorQuestion to MenteeKey questionMatching TypeWeight
    Free textN/AXXN/AN/AN/A
    PicklistPreferencesXXXXN/A
    Picklist PreferencesXXXX
    PicklistProfilesN/AN/AXXN/A
    PicklistProfilesN/AN/AXX
    PicklistMentee’s PreferenceN/AXXXN/A
    PicklistMentee’s PreferenceN/AX XX
    PicklistMentor’s PreferenceXN/AXXN/A
    PicklistMentor’s PreferenceXN/AXX
    Field Availability Based on Question Category/Matching Based On

    For example, if you are using employee profile as the matching type, there will be no questions for the mentee or mentor because matching is based on the picklist value on the mentor and mentee employee profiles. For all cases where a question is identified as “key”, the weight field will not be active.

    Matching Rules

    The matching between mentors and mentees is based on the rules set up for the signup form questions. Matching rules determine the recommended matches.  The system compares data from the mentee to the mentor.

    The matching program looks at the key questions first. If the matching rule is not satisfied for any of the questions, the mentor/mentee are not considered a match. If there is a match based on the rule of a key question, the system keeps matching based on additional question matching rules. For non-key questions, preferences or employee profiles are compared to calculate the mentor’s match score.

    Skill and competency questions calculate a match score based (0 to 100) on the number of picklist values matched for a question. The number of mentor’s competencies/skills that match with the mentee is divided by the total number of competencies/skills that the mentee selected in their signup form. This number is then multiplied by 100 to arrive at the match score for this question. So the more competencies/skills that match, the higher the matching score. The match score for any other standard or custom picklist will be 0 or 100. If a question does not have at least one picklist value in common between mentor and mentor, the match score is zero.

    After the system calculates the mentor’s match score for each question, the scores are summed. Weights used on a question are also used in the calculation of the final match score. Based on the results, the top ten matches become the recommended mentors for a mentee.

    Matching Program for Supervised Mentoring Programs

    Supervised mentoring programs use a backend matching program to calculate match scores. This program uses a star system with four matching levels.

    1. Preferred (four stars) match based on preferred mentor selected during sign up
    2. Excellent match (three stars) based on 75% or higher match score
    3. Good match (two stars) based on 50 – 74.99% match score
    4. Average match (one star) based on 49.99% or lower match score

    Recommended Mentors Cap

    Another enhancement involves reducing the number of recommended mentors. In prior releases, when a mentee completed the questions on their signup form and then saw the recommended mentors, up to 100 recommended matches would display.   Now the mentee will only see ten recommended mentors. This limits the mentee’s time scrolling though all matched mentors to make a selection and instead can focus on the ten with the best fit.

    Recommended Successors

    We will now look at the final enhancement for Mentoring.

    Email Notifications for Unavailable Mentors

    The final enhancement involves email notifications for mentor availability status changes.

    When the availability status of a mentor changes, their mentees and their pending mentees will receive an email notification.   This is very helpful information for mentees to be made aware of so they may select another mentor. In prior releases, only the mentor received notification when their availability status changed.

    Going forward, the mentor will only receive a notification if the admin changed their availability. In other words, if the mentor changed his own availability status, he would not be notified. In either case, the mentee will receive the availiabilty change notification.

    Let’s look at what happens when the admin goes into a mentoring program and makes a mentor unavailable as seen in the example below.

    Admin Makes Mentor Unavailable

    The mentor will not be available until July 24, 2020 so both the mentor and the mentee will receive an email notification.

    The mentor notification is seen below. The email contains the date the mentor will be available again. It also explains that the mentor cannot be selected by a mentee when in this unavailable status.

    Unavailable Notification to Mentor

    When the mentor is no longer available, the mentee receives an email notification as well. Any mentee that has a pending mentor request with this person will also get the email. A sample email is shown below.

    Unavailable Mentor Notification to Mentee

    In the email, the mentor’s availability date is supplied. The mentee also is prompted to select a new mentor.

    Now we will see what happens when mentor makes himself unavailable as seen below. The mentor changed his availability and entered the date when their availability date.

    Mentor Makes Himself Unavailable

    In this case, only the mentee will receive the availability notification.

    Next, if the admin goes into the program and makes the mentor available again, both the mentee and mentor will be notified.

    Here is a sample email notification received by the mentor.

    Mentor Notification of Availability

    The mentor is made aware that they are available again so the mentor may expect to see some mentoring requests coming his way again. The email also explains that they may go into the program to change the availability or status.

    The mentee is notified of the mentor’s availability as well. Shown below is a sample notification.

    Mentee Receives Mentor Available Notification

    If mentor makes himself available again, only the mentee receives notification.

    We have now seen what’s new and enhanced for Career Development. Now we will take a brief look at the limited release for a new feature.

    Career Explorer

    A new component of Career Development is Career Explorer. It uses a machine learning algorithm to make recommendations for future job roles based on users “like me”. Career Explorer recommends career opportunities based on the career paths of people who are similar to the user in the organization. An employee can see the career path taken by others that used to have the same job role or who have similar skills, previous roles or education. This give the employee some additional future job roles to consider that may not be within their regular career path. This tool provides personalized guidance over the predefined career paths to determine the possible next role.

    Career Explorer helps an employee find possible future roles outside of traditional career paths or even discover an unexpected fit for a role. These roles may be set as targets for career development. ​Based on the recommended roles, the user can also see a future career path in a lineage chart.

    A sample view of Career Explorer is shown below.

    Career Explorer

    Competencies, skills and other job profile details may be viewed for each role. The employee may see how well they meet the job role requirements. If the role is added to their Career Worksheet, the employee may identify competency deficiencies and then create development goals and learning activities to help fill those gaps.

    Prerequisites

    Career Explorer is currently available only to those in the Early Adapters Care program (EAC).  In order to apply, you must be have a minimum of 1000 employees all associated with job roles. Additional requirement include using:

    • Employee Central
    • Job Profile Builder using job code, job classifications and competencies
    • Succession Management
    • Career Development Planning, preferably with Career Worksheet enabled

    Registration ends November 1, 2020.

    Wrap Up

    We have now seen what’s new and improved within the Career Development module. And we have seen what is coming with the new Career Explorer. Check out my blog on what’s new for SAP SuccessFactors Succession for 1H 2020 as well.

    Do you need help implementing or supporting your SuccessFactors Development Implementation? Contact us at: info@worklogix.com or download our support services brochure.

  • Highlights of the 1H 2020 SAP SuccessFactors Release for Succession

    Highlights of the 1H 2020 SAP SuccessFactors Release for Succession

    What’s New in Succession?

    With the SAP SuccessFactors First Half 2020 release there are six updates in Succession. There are four new features and two enhancements. Let’s start with Talent Pools.

    Talent Pools

    There are two new features and some minor enhancements for Talent Pools.

    The two new features are:

    1. View Nomination History for Talent Pools
    2. View Talent Pool Nominations in People Profile and Talent Cards without Talent Pool Object Level Permission

    The Talent Pool enhancements involve filter fields and the Nomination Table.

    Now let’s look closer at each starting with what’s new for Talent Pools.

    View Nomination History for Talent Pools

    This new universal feature permits those with Talent Pool permission to see nomination changes for nominees within a Talent Pool.

    In prior releases, there was no nomination history available to view within a talent pool.  Now users with Talent Pool role-based permissions with assigned target populations may see the nomination history for employees in a talent pool.

    Within a talent pool, there is new icon used to view nomination history for each nominee. The example shown below identifies the icon which displays on the top right side of the talent pool table.

    View Nomination History Icon

    Talent pool nominees that have nomination change history for this pool will display in the “Nominees” section that displays on the left side of the page.   Click on any nominee name from this column and their nomination change history for this talent pool will display.

    An example is displayed below.

    Talent Pool Nominees with Nomination Changes

    The name of the user that made the change will display along with the change date. The readiness, status, nomination source and notes for each change are displayed as well.

    Approved and Removed nominees will display their nomination history.  You must click the checkbox for “Show Removed” in the nominees section to see any employees removed from the talent pool. Both Approved and Removed nominees will display as seen below. The default view is approved nominees.

    Approved and Removed Nominees with Nomination Change History

    To see the nominee’s talent pool history for another date range, click the “Date Range” calendar icon that is available on this screen. An example is shown below.

    Modify Date Range for Nomination History

    The default date range is one year from the current date. The date range may be modified and then the nomination history will display for the new date range

    We will now look at the other new feature for Talent Pools.

    View Talent Pool Nominations in People Profile and Talent Cards without Talent Pool Object Level Permission

    It is now possible to enable users without Talent Pool object level permission to view Talent Pool nominations of employees in People Profile and Talent Card.

    This new feature may be used to enable managers to see this information for their direct reports in  People Profile and Talent Card.

    This is a provisioning opt-in.  The setting to enable is “View Talent Pool nominations in People Profile and Talent Card without having the Talent Pool object level permission“.

    Provisioning Opt-In

    When enabled, users without Talent Pool object level permission may view Talent Pool nominations for employees within:

    • Nomination Block in People Profile
    • Nominations section of Talent Card

    In addition to these two new features, there is also an enhancement for Talent Pools that we will look at next.

    Talent Pool Enhancements

    There are a few enhancements to talent pools. Let’s open a talent pool to see what’s changed.

    Talent Pool Nomination Table View

    First, there are more lines available in a talent pool nomination table view as seen below. This update also includes making the line width consistent with tables in other modules.

    Updated Nomination Table for a Talent Pool

    Notes Column Placement

    There is an additional display field option as well. Users may modify the position of the Notes column. Let’s see how it’s done.

    Within the talent pool, click on the “Define Column Properties” icon as noted below.

    Define Column Properties Icon

    A pop up displays the available fields that may be included in the talent pool view. When the cursor is place on “Notes“, the upward and downward arrows may be used to change placement of this field. 

    Define Talent Pool Column Properties

    Clicking “OK” and the nominations in the Talent Pool will now reflect the changed column order as seen in the figure below.

    Nomination Table with Updated Notes Column Placement

    The final enhancement to Talent Pools involves selected filters.

    Talent Pool Filters

    First, the selected filters can now be automatically cleared after all nominees are deleted from a Talent Pool. Looking at the example below, the filters were defined by clicking “Adapt Filters“.

    Select Fields to Appear on Filter Bar

    Here is where the filters are defined. The fields to use as filters are selected and will appear on the filter bar within a talent pool.

    In the example shown below, there is a filter to display nominees with a readiness of 1 to 2 years.

    Talent Pool Before Nominee Deletion

    After the final nominee is deleted from the talent pool, the readiness filter is cleared as seen below.

    We have now seen all of the updates for Talent Pools. Let’s see what else is new in Succession.

    Exclude Nominees from Seeing Themselves within a Succession Plan

    This is an admin opt-in setting that when enabled, prevents users nominated as successors to see themselves in a succession plan. This will also prevent them from nominating themselves. This means that users with permission to do Succession Planning for certain positions won’t see themselves within the succession plans of those positions.

    Let’s see how to enable this feature. Go to “Nominations Set Up”. Scroll to the very bottom of the screen and enable “Exclude nominees from seeing themselves within a succession plan”. The “Nomination Set Up” page is shown below.

    Nomination Set Up Feature to Enable

    This exclusion prevents nominees from nominating themselves. Additionally, the nominees would not see themselves in Succession Org Chart, Position Tiles, Lineage Chart, Talent card, People Profile, Presentation and Nomination History from position card.  A Talent Search would not display them or a list that they are a part of.

    There is one additional feature that we will now explore.

    New OData API Function Imports for Succession

    There are two new OData API Function Imports for Succession:

    • approveSuccessors
    • rejectSuccessors

    These function imports may be used to approve or reject nominees that are in a pending status.

    In prior releases, third-party applications could only read the Succession nominations in Pending Approval status.

    The two new function imports allows third-party applications to write the approval steps of the nomination workflow.

    The role-based permissions needed for both function imports is: Succession Planners>Succession Approval Permission.

    Approve Nominees in Pending Status

    Pending status for approvals are:

    • Change Pending
    • Pending
    • Approval Pending

    Parameters for approval and rejection are nomineeIds (mandatory) and comment (optional).

    NomineeIds use semicolon between multiple ids.

    example: https://<API-Server>odata/v2/approveSuccessors?nomineeIds=’101;102;103’&comment=’testapproval&#8217;

    Rejecting Nominees in Pending Status

    Pending status for rejecting successors are: 

    • Change Pending
    • Pending
    • Deletion Pending

    example: https:///odata/v2/rejectSuccessors?nomineeIds=’100;101;102’&comment=’test&#8217;

    Now we have seen what’s new in Succession, let’s see the final enhancement.

    Picklist Label Enhancements for Matrix Grid Report and Talent Pools Overview Page

    In previous releases, picklists used for filter fields in the Matrix Grid Reports and Talent Pool Nominations overview page showed option IDs rather than labels.

    Matrix grid reports support custom filters and these filters may be associated with a picklist. If this is the case, the picklist labels will be displayed in the customizable fields. Picklists that are used for filter fields of the Matrix Grid Reports and Talent Pools nominations overview page will now show labels instead of option IDs. A custom picklist with values for a talent pool filter is shown below.

    Talent Pool Filter with Values

    These fields also remember the picklist labels that were chosen the last time.

    Wrap Up

    We have now seen the new features and functionality for the Succession module. Check out my blogs on Highlight of 1H 2020 Release Updates for Calibration and Career Development too.

    Do you need help supporting or implementing your SAP SuccessFactors Succession module? Contact us at: info@worklogix.com or download our support services brochure.

  • Optimizing SuccessFactors Standard Compensation Statements

    Optimizing SuccessFactors Standard Compensation Statements

    Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels

    Compensation Statements may be the most critical aspect to a successful Compensation implementation. Statements are typically the only visibility employees have to the Compensation module and are important in not only communicating final payments to employees but also in letting them know of any other company directives and overall business results.

    Working in Compensation for over 15 years, I have configured a lot of compensation statements. Sure, custom statements in XSL can be created to meet all of the customer’s wildest dreams, but this may not always be needed or possible as customers might be restrained by budget, time, or expertise in maintaining year over year. Standard delivered statements can be used for compensation, templates, variable pay templates, or a combination.

    Admin Center –> Compensation –> Actions for All Plans –> Manage Statement Templates –> Add Template –> from SuccessStore –> choose template type

    My Top 10 List on how to optimize standard compensation statements:

    1. Gather statement requirements early

    Statements are often thought of as an end of the process final product. While they are just that, you will find that if you include statements as part of the early requirements discussion along with the design of the compensation plans, you will end up with a better final product.

    In order to pull fields of information into the statements, they must be a field in the plan template(s) you are referencing. You can include extra indicative data or calculated fields (such as Merit Percent) or fields that show final values rounded (such as New Annual Salary) in case your customer wants to show nice rounded numbers to the employees. These fields do not need to be made visible during planning, but can be hidden so they are available for display in the statement.

    Example of a custom field marked hidden during planning but that can be pulled into the statement

    2. Take advantage of statement suppression

    In 2019, SuccessFactors enhanced the compensation module to allow for statement suppression. Gone are the days of having to generate and recall statements for employees that you wouldn’t need to communicate awards to.

    To start, create a custom column in your template to control the suppression based on the customer’s desired logic. For example, to suppress a statement because of a low rating the custom column could include the formula if(pmRating<2, “FALSE”, “TRUE”). Employees with the value “TRUE” will have statements generated, those with a value of “FALSE” will be suppressed.

    Enable the setting from Plan Setup –> Settings. Select the box for Enable Statement Suppression and use the drop down to select the custom column you have created with your statement suppression logic. When statements are generated, the job status report will list the names whose statements have been suppressed.

    Admin Center –> Compensation –> select template –> Plan Setup –> Settings –> Statement Generation Settings

    3. Make use of sections and conditional formatting for the right side data fields

    Group fields of data under Sections to consolidate Performance, Merit, Bonus, and Equity fields depending on the templates used in the statement. Conditional formatting can be added to suppress these groups for instance if the customer wishes to suppress the merit section if the employee had zero for their merit award. Conditional formatting can also be done on the field level in cases where customers wish to show the merit section for example to show salary information but not show the merit award field if amount = 0. This also allows for fields such as promotion or lump sum to only show if applicable to the employee.

    Example of using sections to group similar compensation fields and adding conditional formatting to a section to suppress if the customer does not wish to show in various scenarios

    4. Get the most out of the left side text and logo

    Most of the time, the company logo being used throughout the SuccessFactors tool can be used as the logo in the statement as well. If the customer wants a custom logo, plan for this early as it can take time to the custom logo URL setup and to make sure the look and feel is right. Encourage the customer to use their standard logo if possible for a standard compensation statement.

    Make use of font sizes and typographical emphasis to draw attention to key elements. Typically I use the small size font throughout for text sections. These text sections can be dragged and dropped depending on the order they should appear.

    Conditional formatting can be added here as well to suppress the text section for instance if the customer wishes to only show the section if the amount is greater than 0. The conditional formatting on the left and right side should be configured together so that the logic aligns.

    Typically customers can use the left side text to add in text that is applicable to all employees such as overall company results and any disclaimers that are needed around payment dates and rounding rules.

    Example of using conditional formatting to only show text sections if conditions apply

    5. Keep the statement to 1 page if possible

    Keep in mind the more text and fields you add, the longer the statement becomes. Most customers like to see a concise one page statement.

    The Signature section is not really needed as you can add this to a text box above if the signature is pretty straightforward. The section itself even with no text configured in it can cause the statement to push to the next page as it shows below the text and data sections, even if it just shows a blank second page. This section cannot be removed, but you can trick the system into shortening it significantly if you simply add a few spaces.

    Example of suppressing the signature section by simply adding a few blank spaces

    6. Multi-language requirements aren’t necessarily a show stopper

    Standard statements do not typically support multi-language requirements. You can however do a workaround and create translated standard statements using the English version as a baseline for the fields and input the required language into the text boxes and field names. If you have a requirement to translate the plan templates, you have a good start to the translations already for the fields. This process can be tedious, so make sure to have a pretty finalized English version before you start creating additional versions in other languages.

    Example of a translated standard statement into French

    You can then configure statement groups to tie the translated statements to the groups of employees that need the statement in non-English languages.

    Actions for all plans –> Group Assignments –> Manage Dynamic Group –> Manage Statement Assignment Groups –> Create New Group using required criteria
    Admin Center –> Compensation –> select template –> Complete Compensation Cycle –> Rewards Statements –> Manage Statement Templates –> Add translated statement templates and associated groups

    7. Figure out the roles that will be involved in communicating statements

    Planners are typically responsible for communicating the awards to their employees. They can download statements in several ways from their Completed worksheets or within the People Profile if permissions have been set. Additionally, check with your customer if they wish for the employees themselves to have access to their own statements. If this is the case, typically this is a task scheduled out a few weeks from the initial conversations with managers to open access to employees.

    SuccessFactors recently added the ability to download statements directly from Executive Review. This allows higher level managers as well as HR managers (assuming role based permissions have been granted to allow access to Executive Review) to be able to download their span of control using the Bulk Print Statements button. The icon for bulk download now only appears if the employees have a generated statements based on the filters in Executive Review. In the previous version, the icon was displayed even if statements weren’t generated from recently filtered list.

    To activate statement printing from Executive Review, these settings should be established in Company Settings: Disable Hide Personal Compensation Statements in PDF Format & Enable Display Bulk Print Statement Icon on Executive Review

    8. Test early and often

    In addition to gathering statement requirements early, plan to test the statements early as well. Ideally the statement would be part of the early iteration reviews to gather feedback before the frenzy of planning occurs. Create examples of statements to show all the different variations that are possible with the customer such as merit only, merit and lump sum, lump sum only, etc. If you wait until the planning is occurring in Production, you are no longer able to add or edit fields that customers may request in the statement.

    Also test the role based permissions and the process for how and when the various roles would download the statements. This will prevent any headaches down the road when the timing is tight to review and open statement access to HR, managers, and/or employees in Production.

    9. Make use of standard Email Notifications

    If the employees will be able to access their own statements, there is a standard email notification that can be sent. The email text can be setup in E-Mail Notification Template Settings. This will allow for Compensation Administrators to send specific text to employees or groups of employees letting them know that their statements are available and how to navigate in the system to find them.

    Admin Center –> Compensation –> select template –> Complete Compensation Cycle –> Rewards Statements –> Send Email Notification

    10. Finalize with a smooth move to Production

    Validate any final changes with the customer. Company numbers and final performance may come in just prior to statement generation so an additional validation of the text sections especially is suggested.

    You can recreate the statements in each environment, but I suggest to make all changes in the lowest environment and then download and upload them instead. This takes away some flexibility in making last minute changes in Production but keeps the environments consistent and encourages testing to be done in the lower environments before moving to Production.

  • It is time to review your OFCCP Voluntary Self Identification Forms

    It is time to review your OFCCP Voluntary Self Identification Forms

    Photo by Cytonn Photography from Pexels

    With discrimination coming to the forefront of world news lately, many organizations are asking themselves:  What can we do to actively prevent discrimination in our organization?  I’ve seen a variety of options out there ranging from internal audits by 3rd party anti-discrimination consulting firms to pro-active succession planning that tracks minority status.  While organizations I’ve worked with differ in these types of approaches, one solution at minimum in the United States has been clear for my entire lifetime: federal contractors must comply with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) guidelines.

    Per an announcement on the Department of Labor website, a new Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability Form CC-305 was approved in May.  As of today, Federal contractors must post the comply by updating the form by August 4, 2020.  An example new form can be found here.  I warn against simply using a search engine to look for updated forms as these may lead you to the expired form (check the expiration date at the top of the form first).

    Also, while you are on the Department of Labor website and making updates to your  system in response, you might want to check out the updates to the Federal Contract Compliance Manual.  Specifically, the guidance around the Invitation to Self-Identify as a Protected Veteran.    Additionally, the “How to Comply” postings and notices guide is of great help.  I’ve found customers making updates to all of their voluntary identification forms based on these updates.

    For SAP SuccessFactors customers, this typically means:

    1. Updating your job application template to include the new form(s)
    2. Updating your Onboarding forms to include the new forms(s)

    I recommend referencing the Department of Labor website to understand the updated requirements and then working with your IT department, SAP Partner, and/or SAP to make updates to the recruiting application template and/or Onboarding forms to ensure compliance.

    Hopefully this brief update has been helpful!  While many people are out there working hard to come up with a variety of solutions for today’s social issues, one thing is for certain: EEO is the law.

    Do you need help implementing these forms in your Sap SuccessFactors system?  Contact mwellens@worklogix.com.