SAP has announced the 1H 2022 SuccessFactors release information.

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

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

Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.

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

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

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

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

Performance Management

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

General Availability – Universal Updates

Restrict Data Access of Inactive Users’ Forms

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use Capability Picker in Performance & Goals

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

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

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

New Columns for Performance Management in Story Reports

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

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

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

Enhanced Signed Date Column in Story Reports

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

Enhanced OData Entity FormAuditTrail

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

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

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

360 Reviews

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

General Availability – Universal Updates

Participants Able to Recall Completed Forms

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

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

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

Select Multiple Employees on Advanced Search Dialog

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

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

Refill the Participant List After Declines Occur

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

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

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

Form Titles Editable in 360 Reviews

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

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

Process Owners Able to See Participants on Anonymous Forms

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

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

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

• The 360 template to be used should have Anonymous 360 configured in Provisioning >Form Template Administration.

• Within Form Template Settings for the form, on Show Participants in Status Summary (Applicable to Anonymous 360’s only) needs to be enabled.

Improved Reminders Buttons

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

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

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

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

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

Enforce Start Date in Route Map

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

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

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

Support for Learning Activities in Development Goal Section in 360

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

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

Show Behavior Descriptions When Not Rating by Behavior

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

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

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

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Hide the Nonremovable Checkbox in 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version

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

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

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

Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version

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

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

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

Goal Management

General Availability – Universal Updates

There are no universal updates for Goal Management.

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Create and Edit Goals in Non-Goal Management Modules

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

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

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

Calibration

General Availability – Universal Updates

There are several universal updates for a calibration session.

Manager Template Permission for Creating Calibration Sessions

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

Total of Expected Number of Subjects Equals Actual Number of Subjects

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

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

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

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

Enhancement to Guidelines Enforcement

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

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

The enhancement only applies to finalizing sessions individually.

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

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

More User Information of Calibration Subject Available in Story Reports

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

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Qualtrics Feedback Opportunity for Calibration Session Finalization

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

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

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

Continuous Performance Management (CPM)

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

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

In Conclusion

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

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