SAP SuccessFactors 1H 2023 What’s New in Performance Management

SAP has announced the latest updates and changes for SuccessFactors for the first half of 2023.

Preview release is available on April 28 with the production release scheduled for June 2. 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.

Latest Goal Management

General Availability – Universal

Latest Goal Management Now Generally Available

The latest Goal Management is now generally available. It does require an upgrade which cannot be undone. It is best to familiarize yourself with the latest features available and limitations before doing the upgrade.

Once enabled, the latest version is automatically applied to the modules that are integrated with Goal Management. This includes as Performance Management, 360 Reviews,Continuous Performance Management, Career Development and the latest home page.

In prior releases, there were several limitations to the features available in the latest Goal Management. The 1H 2023 release addresses several these restrictions. We will review the most important updates.

Copy goals or create goals from a goal library.
Use milestones in goal plans
Use Advanced People Search to Assign or Cascade Goals using the latest Goal Management
View audit history for goals
Use legal scan
Dynamic Teams Integration with latest Goal Management
Latest Goal Management Updates for iOS and Android Mobile Apps

Create Goals from a Goal Library using the latest Goal Management

One of the best new features of the latest version of Goal Management is the ability to use goal libraries when creating goals. Previously, goals could only be created from scratch or copied from another goal plan.

With proper permissions, when clicking the Create Goal button, the user can now select the “Create from Library” option.

A users can select up to 10 personal goals from a predefined goal library at once.

Manage Milestones for Goals

It is now possible to use milestones (sub-goals) on goal plans. Milestones can be used for personal and team goals.

Use Advanced People Search to Assign or Cascade Goals using the latest Goal Management

When assigning a team goal or cascading a personal goal, the people search was limited to Name. Now an advanced people search is now available. The search now includes department, location, and division.

View Audit History for Goals

When read permission for goal fields is granted, users can now keep track of goal changes. Anytime a goal is created, copied, cascaded, assigned, modified, deleted, or replaced, an audit record is created.

Users will be able to see a list of any changes were made. This includes identify who made the changes, and when. A before/after comparison for modified or replaced goals will display previous values and the new values for changed fields.

Comments, activities, and learning activities changes are not captured in the Audit History.

Use Legal Scan in the Latest Goal Management

The Legal Scan feature is now available and allows users to check whether their inputs for text and textarea goal fields are in compliance with legal requirements. Comment field are not included.

Dynamic Teams Integration with latest Goal Management

A new major feature integrates Dynamic Teams with Goal Management. This allows team members to link the their dynamic team’s objectives to their performance goals. Dynamic Teams has to be configured and the Enable Linking to Performance Goals setting turned on.

Team members identified as contributors to one key result (ORK) can link a dynamic team’s objective to personal goals.

Contributors may

Use the “display more actions” menu to open the Link to Goals side panel, where you can see linked goals or add a new one.
Use the ‘ Link to goals’ icon to open the Link Goals dialog to select a goal plan and the goals you to link to the objective.

A Linked OKRs section in the goal details has an option to View Details about the linked OKRs in a dialog.

Additional requirements to use this feature include:

Being a member of a dynamic team that has defined its objectives and key results.
Being as a contributor to at least one of the key results for the objective you want to link.
Have permission to view the goal plan that includes the goal you want to link the objective to.

Latest Goal Management Updates for iOS and Android Mobile Apps

Many of the capabilities in the latest Goal Management had not been available for mobile users. The latest release address many of these limitations:

Create Goals from a Goal Library in iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Copy Goals from Goal Plans in iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Leave Comments on Goals in iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Manage Milestones for Goals in iOS and Android Mobile Apps

Performance Management

Updates to performance forms are minimal. We will look at a few of these.

User Experience Enhancements to Performance Management Forms

There have been enhancements to the user experience for PM forms which we will discuss.

Goal Section Updates

In the goal section some enhancements have been made:

Goal Details tab now appears first among all available tabs for a goal. Previously, the first tab was Achievements.
The Goal Name is now in bold font.

Page Anchoring

Previously, when the PM form page refreshed, users were anchored to the top of the page. Now when users perform an action on the form page, they’re now anchored to the location where the action was performed.

Toast Messages

Toast Messages provide feedback to users about an action they have taken.

For example, adding or deleting a goal, competency, or learning activity on the form page, a toast message will display confirming the action was performed.

Automatically Fix Document Transfer and Change Engine Issues Caused by RBP Refresh Failures

The Document Transfer and Change Engine issues caused by a RBP refresh failures can now be fixed automatically on a daily basis.

To enable the automatic fixing, select Automatically Fix Document Transfer and Change Engine Issues under Admin Center Performance Management Feature Settings.

Continuous Performance Management

General Availability – Universal

Hide Prior Feedback from the New Manager That Was Requested or Given By the Former Manager

A major update for Employee Central (EC-enabled) instances allows the admin to automatically hide feedback from former managers in Continuous Performance Management (CPM).

Previously, when an employee inherits a new manager, or a manager provides feedback to the employee and leaves the company, the employee had the option to manually hide or delete that feedback from their new manager.

The feature automates the process of hiding feedback given or requested by the prior manager when a manager transfer occurs. The admin will now have the option on the CPM configuration page to automatically hide prior feedback requested.

Visibility of Edit and Delete Actions for Continuous Performance Goal Cards Based on User Permissions

Continuous Performance Management goal actions are aligned with Goal Plan action permissions for Goal Management. Employees now have more control over their Performance Goals by creating, editing, or deleting directly in Continuous Performance Management (CPM). When integrated with Goal Management, changes to Performance Goals by the CPM user are reflected in the user’s Goal Plan.

The permissions for available actions on a goal in Continuous Performance Management experience respect Goal Plan configuration. In the previous version of CPM, users were shown both Edit and Delete options for goals. Now employees see actions for edit, delete or edit and delete for Goal cards based on their granted permissions.

There are three different access views of the Goal card: Edit, Delete, Edit and Delete. With this release, the user is only shown the options that they have permissions to use. Previously, Goal cards shown in My Activities view of Continuous Performance allowed all users access to edit or delete actions for the goal.

Now on the My Activities view with the employee’s permission to only edit goals, the Edit icon is what they will see on the Goal cards.

When an employee’s permission only allows to delete a goal, the delete icon is the only action available on the Goal cards on the My Activities view.

To modify an Activity linked to a Goal, select that Activity. This opens a new view with Activity Details. Separate Edit and Delete options are available for the selected Activity.

Use Continuous Feedback in the SAP SuccessFactors App in Microsoft Teams

When SAP SuccessFactors and Microsoft 365 are integrated, a new feature enables allows Continuous Feedback of the latest Continuous Performance Management within Microsoft Teams.

Within Teams, users can enter the SAP SuccessFactors app from the app bar or the compose message area of any chat and perform these tasks:

Request feedback: users can send a feedback request to others to ask for feedback on their performance at work
Give feedback: users who receive a feedback request can provide their feedback and send it back to the requester

Continuous Feedback from Microsoft Teams

Then find and select the person to collect feedback from. Fill in the questions to ask.

Receiver is then notified and can reply in the SF app.

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

The legacy version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM) reached end of maintenance on May 20, 2022 and will be deleted as of May 24, 2024.

The replacement is the latest version of CPM is currently available in the Upgrade Center. If no action is taken, your company will be automatically upgraded to the latest version after the deletion date.General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Calibration

General Availability – Universal

New Filter Options in Calibration Session

There are now six more filter options to narrow down employees to be displayed in a calibration session.

The new filter options are:

Discussed
Country
New to Position
Future Leader
Key Position,
Matrix Managed

Additional Filters for Calibration Session Employee Search

Discussed is predefined as a default filter. To use the other five filters, enable in Filter Fields from Admin Center >Manage Calibration Settings>Search and Filter Fields.

Calculated Performance Management Ratings Available in List View

You can now view calculated ratings of employees for all performance rating elements in the List view of a calibration session.

By enabling the new admin option Show Calculated Rating from Performance Management in List View at Admin Center >Manage Calibration Templates>Views>List View, calculated ratings of employees can be shown in the List view.

When manual rating for performance elements are enabled, calculated ratings display in the same column as manual ratings. Previously, only manual ratings were shown for the rating element.

When calculated rating for performance elements is enabled, calculated ratings display in the same column as rating labels. Previously, calculated ratings were shown as rating labels defined in rating scales.

Calculated Ratings in Calibration List View

Improved Format of E-mail Notifications Regarding Calibration Rating Changes

Next is a minor update generally available. Columns are left-aligned in e-mail notifications about rating changes in finalized calibration sessions. This update is easier to read. Previously the header and data were not aligned.

Updated Calibration Rating Changes Email

Calibration Configuration Available in Configuration Center

You can now view, download, and transport parts of Calibration configurations using Configuration Center.

360 Reviews

There are very minor 360 Review updates. Highlights are described below.

Participants are now loaded on demand in the Evaluation Summary section of 360 Reviews forms.

Previously when a 360 form was opened, all participants were all loaded at once. In rare cases where a form had a great number of participants, there was potential to cause performance issues.

With the latest release, if a form has fewer than 100 participants, all the participants are loaded when the form is opened. If the form has more than 100 participants, the first 100 are loaded but users can scroll down to the bottom of the list to trigger further loading.

Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version

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

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

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

SAP SuccessFactors 1H 2023 Minor Visual Enhancements in Performance Management & Career Development

SAP has announced the latest updates and changes for SuccessFactors for the first half of 2023.

Preview release is on April 28 with production release on June 2. 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.

For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of 1H 2023 minor visual enhancements for Performance Management and Career Development.

Visual Enhancements

There were several minor visual enhancements in this release. The visual enhancements for this release provide a more user friendly and consistent experience.

There are four types of changes:

Text changes (labels, error messages, or roll-over texts)
Iconography (new or changed icons)
Interaction pattern (new position of interaction, new order of list, new or changed buttons)
Styling (layout, spacing, or other design changes)

We will review some of the more notable visual enhancements for Performance Management, 360 Reviews, Continuous Performance Management, Calibration and Mentoring.

Performance Management

Search for users to send completed form to

Each set of filters is now below its category name
The Search Users button is below all the filters

Create New Form from Performance Inbox

When launching a performance form from a user’s inbox, the date fields are now indented and right aligned.

Form Inbox Tooltips

In the Performance inbox, the tooltip for the icon in the Employee column is “View more information about <employee name>”,

The tooltip for the icon in the Action column is “Add <form title> to Outlook”.

Cancel button placement updated

The button to cancel an action has been moved to the right.

This change applies to almost all user interfaces in Performance Management, including: Add Objectives from Objective Plans dialog, Send to Next Step page, Ask for Feedback dialog, Stack Ranker page, Comment dialog, Legal Scan dialog, and Print Setup dialog.

Here are some examples.

Adding objectives tot a PM form.

Ask for Feedback dialog

Ask for Feedback *Cancel* button placement

Stack Ranker

Goal in the goal section or Competency in the competency section

The first column header is Goal in the goal section or Competency in the competency section of a performance form. Previously Expand All and Collapse All were inthe first column table header
The Expand All and Collapse All options now appear in the top-left corner above the table

360 Reviews

Cancel button placement updated for 360 Reviews

The Cancel button has been moved to the right for 360 Reviews.

Changes include opened 360 Reviews form, Goal Weights dialog, Add Participants dialog, Send Back dialog, Find Employee dialog, and Add Competencies dialog.

Here are some examples.

Canceling an opened 360 Reviews form

Canceling a participant search

Cancel confirmation to next step

Continuous Performance Management

The icon for the Request Feedback on the latest home page has two intersecting talk balloons.

Previously the icon had talk balloons that included a question mark and an exclamation mark.

Achievements on Mobile Device

On the Android app, the Visible to my manager switch and the Mark as Achievement switch have wider tracks, and new color mappings.

Career Development – Mentoring

Successful Enrollment Message

When users sign up for an open enrollment or unsupervised program as a mentee there is a “success” message. The message has been enhanced to now include a reminder for the user that they can contact preferred mentors directly if they don’t hear from the mentors for an extended period of time.

Mentor Participation Approval Request

The Mentor Participation Approval Requests have been updated.

The Approve and Decline buttons are now closer to the message text. The buttons used to be at the bottom of the page.

Confirmation for Joining Mentoring Program

When signing up for a mentoring program and a user decides to Save for Later, there is now a confirmation message pop up for them to confirm if they want to save the draft for joining the program for later.

SAP SuccessFactors 1H 2023 What’s New in Career Development

SAP has announced the latest updates and changes for SuccessFactors for the first half of 2023.

Preview release is on April 28 with the production release is scheduled for June 2. 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.

For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 1H 2023 Career Development below.

Career Development

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

Career Worksheet – General Availability

Career Development Configurations Available in Configuration Center

You can now view, download, and transport Career Development configurations using Configuration Center.

New Action Available in Action Search

On a career worksheet, View my current role in Career Worksheet action is now available for use in the global search box. Users can enter the exact text of the action or select from suggested actions to navigate to the Career Worksheet page.

The new action takes users directly to a selected page and eliminates multiple steps to get there.

Career Worksheet Data in Story Reports Now Limited to Target Population

The Career Worksheet data that users can view in Story reports, including current and target roles, is now limited to their target population.

Changed Permission for Users to Show Target Roles in People Profile

Now a user only needs View permission (User Permissions>Employee Data>Preferred Next Move) in order to select the Make public in Live Profile checkbox in Career Worksheet to show target roles in People Profile.

Previously, View and Edit permissions were required. Now a user can select the option to show a role in Career Worksheet. The role then appears in the Career Goals block in People Profile.

Mentoring – General Availability – Universal

Approvals for Mentoring Requests on the Latest Home Page

In an open enrollment or unsupervised mentoring program, Mentors can now accept or decline the mentoring requests sent by mentees in the Approvals section on the latest home page.

View More Recommended Mentors

When a user signs up for a mentoring program as a mentee, they can now view up to 100 recommended mentors. Previously, only 10 mentors were recommended.

While signing up and choosing Show Recommended Mentors, now there will be two rows of recommended mentor cards with the View More link below the cards.

Customize Mentoring Email Notifications

For any customized program type created with text replacement for a Mentoring programs, email notifications for a specific program type may be customized in Email Notification Templates Settings as well.

Approvals for Mentoring Requests on the Latest Home Page in iOS and Android Mobile Apps

SAP SuccessFactors Mobile users can now search for mentors from a recommended mentoring program they haven’t joined in Opportunity Marketplace. Previously, they had to join the program first.

When a user wants to invite someone they found to be their mentor, choose Submit Request on the Mentor or Bookmarks page. They will be prompted with a message guiding them to join the program first.

After joining the program, users can submit a mentoring request to their preferred mentor directly on the page.

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

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

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

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

Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.

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

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

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

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

Latest Goal Management

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

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Copy Goals from Goal Plans using the latest Goal Management

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

Requirements to use this feature include:

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

Leave Comments on Goals when using the latest Goal Management

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

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

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

Team Goals Now Available when using the latest Goal Management

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

Users may:

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

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

Group Goals are no longer supported.

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

Performance Management

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

General Availability – Universal Updates

SMART Goal Wizard not available when using the latest Goal Management

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

Enhanced OData Entities for Querying Development Goal Sections on Forms

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

General Availability – Admin Opt-In

Confirmation prior to Sending Forms

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

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

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

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

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

Continuous Performance Management

General Availability – Universal

Updated Character Count for Continuous Feedback Topic Field

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

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

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

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

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

New Quick Action to Give Feedback on the Latest Home Page

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

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

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

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

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

Calibration

General Availability – Universal

Remove Subjects from Calibration Sessions

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

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

General Availability – Admin Opt-In

More Gender Values in Calibration Views

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

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

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

Male: Violet
Female: Green
Undeclared: Blue
Unknown: Dark Blue
Others: Red
No Selection: Grey

Enhancement to Guidelines Enforcement During Mass Finalization

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

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

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

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

360 Reviews

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

General Availability – Universal

Hide Route Map on 360 Reviews Forms

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

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

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

Click Show Route Map

Required Fields Marked on 360 Reviews Forms

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

Updated Messages for Users Approving or Routing Forms Using Unsupported Tools

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

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

Messaging when Routing using Unsupported Tools

“competency-filter” Attribute Supported in 360 Reviews Forms

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

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

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

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

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

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

Disable Page Setup When Printing 360 Reviews Forms

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

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

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

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

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

Purge Data of External Users in 360 Reviews

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

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

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

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

Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version

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

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

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

Career Development

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

Career Worksheet – General Availability – Universal

Enhanced Competency Gap Graph in Career Worksheet

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

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

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

Career Worksheet – General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

Career Explorer Now Generally Available

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

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

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

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

Mentoring – General Availability – Universal

Country/Region Picklist Available for Mentoring Matching Questions

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

Mentoring Program Available in Cross Domain Table Reports

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

In Conclusion

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

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

SAP SuccessFactors Platform H1 2022 Release Updates

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

Preview release was 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.

For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new in the 1H 2022 Platform release below.

Overview

SAP continues to invest in numerous updates into the platform, topping most of the other modules for the past few releases. Due to the large number of updates (89 in this release!), we’ve highlighted only some of the most significant changes below. We’ve categorized the updates based on who the affected audience for each change: User Experience Updates, Admin Updates, and System Updates.

User Experience

SAP continues to remind customers that the Universal release of the Latest Homepage will be in June 3rd for preview and June 24th for production environments. If you haven’t reviewed the changes and opted-in, you should do so now and plan your communication strategy so your users aren’t caught wondering why their homepage changed!

SAP also continues to add more quick actions to the latest homepage, thus increase its usefulness as a quick way to access needed areas of the system without having to click through navigation. The actions added include “Candidate Talent Pools”, “Learning Administration”, “Mobile Activation”, “View Company Documents”, and “View Tile Reports”. The homepage also now allows for grouping of custom cards within the Organizational Updates section as seen in the screenshot below:

Screenshot of Card Groupings within the Organizational Updates Section

You can also see an example of the new half sized custom cards in the screenshot above.

There are also various updates to the opportunity marketplace including allowing Assignment offer approvals, allowing assignment owners to see descriptions of capabilities including proficiency levels when creating assignments and applicants to see their own capability details. The capability picker also got updates you can read about in our blog here: https://worklogix.blog/2022/04/17/sap-successfactors-1h-2022-whats-new-in-succession-and-career-development/

The org chart also got a nice update where you can change the order of direct reports below a manager. Check out the configuration steps here: https://help.sap.com/doc/62fddbd651204629b46bbccbabf886ba/cloud/en-US/780a0273693342c79ded9930b9057110.html

You can also now turn on a data privacy consent form for uploading photos that is shown to users as in the example screenshot below:

Screenshot of data privacy consent message for employee photos

Also related to photos- you can now have just one photo for a person on global assignment with multiple employments.

After many years of service, quickcards have finally got an upgrade across the system. This gives a better look and feel consistent across the platform. An example is shown below:

Admin Updates

Do you still love to use the old admin page like me? I’m sorry to say the nostalgic use of the OneAdmin page will end on May 20th this year. Time to start using the NextGen admin page.

SAP also continues to increase the list of jobs available to monitor in the Scheduled Job Manager. You can check out the list of jobs here: https://help.sap.com/doc/62fddbd651204629b46bbccbabf886ba/cloud/en-US/55e3deb65bf14190b102ff7ad1f803fc.html

Are you an admin that loves unstucking stuck workflows or resolving HR data issues? You might be interested in the new custom fields you can add to admin alerts! Check out the list here: https://help.sap.com/doc/62fddbd651204629b46bbccbabf886ba/cloud/en-US/055e9cd78d2543d283fd556cbca2132d.html You can also now see the name of the current approver for stalled workflows within admin alerts.

If you are a security or compliance admin, you’ll be happy to know you can now perform read and change audit reports on multiple users for up to 30 days now. The storage limit has also been increased from 1GB to 10GB.

The still evolving transport system in SuccessFactors also got an enhancement in the form of Bundle Management in Configuration Center. You can now create bundles, edit them, and even share them with others! Checkout the screenshot below:

New Bundle Management Feature Screenshot

There’s also now a handy import history report available for download in the Configuration Center as well!

The Check tool has now been integrated into the instance refresh too. Admins will now get an email that includes a summary of check tool results when a refresh is processed and can also download an error log. The list of items the check tool checks has also been updated. The detailed list can be found here: https://help.sap.com/doc/62fddbd651204629b46bbccbabf886ba/cloud/en-US/354e3d1428d8493d89dfb7487e5dcedf.html

Security admins will also be glad there’s a new potentially neck-saving notification when they change a role that impacts a large number of users. Don’t worry – you can select the threshold of users so you aren’t getting unwanted pop-ups! Checkout the configuration steps here: https://help.sap.com/doc/62fddbd651204629b46bbccbabf886ba/cloud/en-US/c7b923c87ca3494c8416349431fa8a49.html

The RBP admin screen also got a new facelift! You have the option to turn this one on by selecting the option on the old screen. Check it out below!

System Updates

Access to APIs based on HTTP Basic Authentication will no longer be supported on November 17 2023. This gives customers about a year and a half to adapt any existing interfaces that log on to the APIs directly to OAuth 2.0.

The APIs will now also start to be throttled. Probably a smart move on the part of SAP to keep system stability, but but news if you have interfaces that make lots of calls. Don’t worry – the limit is now 40 requests per second so you’d have to be doing A LOT of calls to be affected.

The APIs have also been enhanced with more linking between a variety of entities. Check the main What’s New Viewer page for specifics.

Wrap Up

We have now covered the Platform update highlights for 1H 2022! SAP continues to invest greatly in the platform to expand the overall capabilities of the system, concentrating on consistent and enhanced user experience while giving admins more helpful tools.

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

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

SAP has announced the 1H 2022 SuccessFactors release information.

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

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

Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.

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

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

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

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

Performance Management

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

General Availability – Universal Updates

Restrict Data Access of Inactive Users’ Forms

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use Capability Picker in Performance & Goals

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

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

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

New Columns for Performance Management in Story Reports

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

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.

Enable Show Participants in Status Summary

Improved Reminders Buttons

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

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.

Permission for Manager Calibration Sessions

Total of Expected Number of Subjects Equals Actual Number of Subjects

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

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

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

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

Enhancement to Guidelines Enforcement

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

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

The enhancement only applies to finalizing sessions individually.

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

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

More User Information of Calibration Subject Available in Story Reports

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

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!

What’s New in the 1H 2021 SAP SuccessFactors Performance Management Release

As of April 9, 2021, SAP has released their documentation for the H1 2021 release.

Preview release will be April 16 and production will be released May 21^st. You can view the full set of documentation in the W hat’s New Vie wer here. For full details on the release cycle, check out the SAP SuccessFactors official product updates blog here.

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

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

The updates for Performance Management are primarily targeted for 360 Reviews so we will start with those. The PM form updates will be discussed after these features have been reviewed. Calibration updates can be found in our separate blog here.

What’s New for 360 Forms – Fiori Version

Here are the 10 universal updates made for the Fiori version of 360 forms to provide the same features that are available 360 Reviews v11.

Add Approvers in 360 Reviews

Approvers may now be added in the Modify stage.

Development Goal Section Available in 360 Reviews

A development goal section may be added to a 360 Review form template. These enables employees the opportunity to add and edit development goals.

Display a Data Table for a Chart

Within a 360 Executive Review and Detailed 360 Report, a user may select the table icon on a chart to see a data table. This provides text equivalents for non-text content.

Display External Users in Search Results When Adding Participants

It is now possible to add external users as participants without having to disable the system setting Hide External Users from search results.

EZ Rater Available in 360 Reviews

When enabled, the EZ Rater option provides a more condensed list view for rating goal and competencies.

Form History Available in 360 Reviews

Prior performance and 360 forms are now available within a 360 Review. The History button will display options to view either form type if available.

More Form Actions Available in 360 Reviews

Additional action options are now available for 360 forms. Information about the form may be viewed and the form may be deleted.

Print Preview Available in 360 Reviews

When the user clicks the Print button, a popup displays a preview of the form. This provides the user the opportunity to select the entire form or selected sections to print.

Stack Ranker Available in 360 Reviews

Stack Ranker can be enabled which allows side by side ranking of employee competencies. Ratings may be modified and comments added.

Section Descriptions Fully Displayed by Default

Now section descriptions are fully displayed by default and can be collapsed. Clicking Show Less to hide content. Previously sections were collapsed and the user had to click Show More to see the content.

What’s New for PM Forms

There are 5 universal updates for PM forms.

Customized Weighted Rating Supported in Import Overall Scores

Previously it was only possible to import overall scores into the Objective Competency Summary, and Performance Potential Summary, and Summary sections. The new release enables you to update overall scores for the Customized Weighted Rating section.

On the import file, use <PERFORMANCE> rating in the CSV file. The rating field is also used to update the Summary and Performance Potential section overall rating. If there is more than one PERFORMANCE rating, there is a priority for updating. The section order for uploading from high to low is:

Customized Weighted Rating
Performance Potential Summary
Summary

Deep Link to Performance Management Forms

There is now a deeplink available to access a performance form: /sf/openFormByDocId

New OData V2 API Entity FormCustomizedWeightedRatingSection

There is a new OData V2 API Entity: FormCustomizedWeightedRatingSection. It can be used to get the Customized Weighted Rating section details of a performance form in order to update the manual ratings section of the performance form.

Target Population in Role-Based Permissions for Import Overall Scores

This update pertains to the Customized Weighting Rating import that we just covered. Role based permissions may now be used to restrict users to importing scores for only their target population.

Select a role in Manage Permission Roles. Go to Permission>Administrator Permissions>Manage Document and select “Import Overall Scores Only for Target Population” and “Include All Employees” which allows granted users to update manual overall scores for all employees.

Live Profile Section Deleted

A Live Profile section can no longer be added to PM forms. Information in the existing section is no longer available. A link to People Profile can be used on the form instead.

What’s New in Continuous Performance Management (CPM)

There are some new early adapter features for the latest version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM). They are admin opt-in or opt-out features. We won’t cover these here since the latest version is not widely enabled. When the latest version of CPM is enabled, these email reminder notifications will become obsolete: Conduct 1:1 Meeting, Update Status, along with Activity and Achievement reminder notifications.

The latest version will handle notifications differently since multiple roles can be used and meeting channels can be created. Requests and meeting notifications can be created for anyone in the user’s meeting channel.

We have now covered the highlights of the PM related updates for H1 2021. See our blog for Calibration release features.

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

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

SAP has announced the 2H 2021 SuccessFactors release information.

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

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

Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.

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

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

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

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

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

Performance Management

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

General Availability – Universal Updates

Configuration Center Support For Performance Management Form Templates

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

New PM Configuration In Configuration Center

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

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

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

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

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

The tasks are:

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

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

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

Goal Management

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

General Availability – Universal Updates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Latest Goal Management

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

Now supported in the latest version of Goal Management:

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

Now available in the latest version of Goal Management:

Spell Check
Legal Scan
Advanced user search by criteria

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

Early Adopters – Universal Updates

Mass Import Personal Goals in Latest Goal Management

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

Change Goal Plan States in Latest Goal Management

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

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

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

Latest Goal Management Goal Plan Current State

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

Enhanced People Selector in Latest Goal Management

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

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

People Selector with Matrix Manager and Reports

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

360 Reviews

General Availability – Universal Updates

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

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

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

Add External Participants When Users Have No Search Permissions

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

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

An example is shown below.

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

360 Reviews Tasks on the Latest Home Page

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

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

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

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

Calibration

General Availability – Universal Updates

There is a universal update for a calibration session.

Set max rating change span

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

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

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

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

Continuous Performance Management (CPM)

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

General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins

New Qualtrics Survey for Continuous Performance Management

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

To use this feature:

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

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

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

The user will see questions to answer.

Once completed, the admin may view the survey feedback.

Early Adopter – Admin Add -Ins

Enhanced Achievement Experience for Continuous Performance Management

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

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

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

Feedback Integration with Microsoft Outlook

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

In order to use this feature:

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

The employee will see an option to give feedback.

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

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

Depreciation

Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version

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

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

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

What’s New in the 1H 2021 SAP SuccessFactors Calibration Release

What’s New in Calibration?

As of April 9, 2021, SAP has released their documentation for the H1 2021 release. You can view the full set of documentation in the W hat’s New Vie wer here. As a reminder, preview release will be April 16 and production will be released May 21^st. For full details on the release cycle, check out the SAP SuccessFactors official product updates blog here. For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.

For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of the 7 new universal features for 2021 Calibration along with the an admin opt-in. Let’s start with the universal features.

Universal

Distribution Range and Group of Ratings in Guidelines

When defining your Calibration template and Performance was selected as the data source on the Data tab, previously an individual percentage could be set for each rating with one rating in a guideline.

It is now possible to create a distribution range for ratings including a group of ratings in a guideline.

In addition to an individual rating, a group of ratings can be used when creating a guideline. As an added bonus, more operators besides “=” can be used:

<
<=
>
>=
is between

This allows you to set a distribution range for ratings and also include a group of ratings in a guideline with different operators.

Group Ratings and Distribution Ranges in Bin View

Here is a feature that works with the new distribution ranges and groups of ratings in guidelines. When a guideline includes an individual rating with a distribution range, in Bin View, you can see the number of subjects in a range that can be added or removed from the bin to meet the guidelines. A warning message will display above the bins if a guideline includes a group of ratings.

You may modify the total number of subjects for groups of ratings to meet the guidelines. You may also adjust the number of subjects displayed as a range within a bin.

Dashboard and Executive Review Bar Charts

Working in tandem with the new distribution range and groups of ratings that can be configured in guidelines, there is a new UI for bar charts for the Dashboard view and the Executive Review view. The bar charts identify actual distribution for each rating from the rating scale. Blue and orange bars are used to identify the distribution that matches or does not match the guideline.

Hover over the chart to see target vs. actual distribution if any of these conditions are met:

A rating appears more than once in multiple guidelines.
Not all ratings are configured in all guidelines.
There is more than one rating in a guideline.
There is more than “equal” configured in a guideline.

When none of these conditions are met, the bar charts will still display the actual distribution and the guideline.

Filters in Manage Calibration Settings

Within Manage Calibration Settings, the “Search Results Fields” tab has been relabeled as “Search and Filter Fields”.

On this tab, the existing columns has been relabeled:

“Include Field” is now “Include Search Results Fields”
“Make Default” is now “Default Search Results Fields”

There is a new column, “Filter Fields”, applies to all views of a calibration session and allows you to identify the default filters.

There are also new filter fields: Name, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Title, Username, Email, Gender, Level, and Status.

Manager Created Calibration Sessions

It is now easier for a manager to create his team calibration session. Previously a manager could identify the template, session name and number of reporting levels when creating the session. Now the manager has more options. Session co-facilitators may be chosen, the default co-facilitators changed and the direct reports may also be participants rather than just subjects. The default co-facilitators option will only appear if the admin opt-in on Manage Calibration Settings is used. It will be explained in the admin opt-in section at the end of this blog.

Deep Links to Performance Management

Within a calibration session view, it is now possible to use a deep link to view a performance form:

/sf/viewPMFormFromCAL

Also to use a deep link to edit a performance form:

/sf/editPMFormFromCAL

Appending the deep link to the application server address will go to a Performance Management form in calibration views as well.

My Jobs Downloads

Previously Calibration reports could be downloaded from the Scheduled Reports page in Classic View. Reports may now be downloaded from My Jobs page within Report Center. This eliminates the need to switch to Classic View prior to downloading.

A report with multiple files can be downloaded in a compressed .zip file or downloaded individually.

Admin Opt-In

There is one admin opt-in for Calibration which we touched upon when looking at manager created calibration sessions.

Specify Default Facilitators for Manager-Initiated Calibration Sessions

A manager initiated calibration session can now have default facilitators. To set this up, a user who has access to Manage Calibration Settings would go to the Global tab and use the setting: Choose one or more users as default facilitators for a new manager calibration session to identify active users to default as facilitators.

This can be useful to specify an HR manager to act as a co-facilitator in order to access a manager initiated session.

When creating a session, the New Session dialog window will display the default facilitators but can be edited by the manager.

We have now reviewed what is coming soon for Calibration.

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

H2 2020 SAP SuccessFactors Performance Management Release Updates

What’s New

There are new universal and admin opt-in features in the H2 2020 Performance Management release along with a large number of universal features. We will start with what’s new. There are two admin opt-in updates and two universal 360 related updates.

New Admin Opt-ins

There are two new admin opt-ins available and we will look at them both.

Latest Version of Goal Management

The latest version of Goal Management provides users with an upgraded user interface with a comprehensive view of goals and development goals. This streamlined tool also enables access to the latest version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM) to create and view linked activities.

A notable change is combining performance goals and development goals within the navigation menu. Development goals now appear as a tab within Goal Management. An example is shown below.

For both plans, the view is cleaner and more visually appealing. Goals are more prominently displayed and may be viewed by status as well. You can see what the new goal plan looks like below.

Linked achievements for the latest version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM) may be viewed here rather than having to go out of the goal plan and navigating to CPM. Activities can be added directly to goals and linked activities may also display. An example of activities tied to a goal is shown below.

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

Job Profile Builder Support for Writing Assistant and Coaching Advisor

The other new admin opt-in feature pertains to competencies when Job Profile Builder (JPB) is used. Previously, to use Writing Assistant and Coaching Advisor for competencies in a performance form, the Teasers and Tunings were added to a competency library via an import file in Provisioning.

Now this task may be accomplished in the UI with the tool “Manage Writing Assistant and Coaching Advisor“. This update fills a gap between JPB and Job Description Manager. Within this tool, a competency library overview page will display. After selecting the library and finding the competency to update, teasers and tunings can be added to the performance details. An example is shown below.

This new feature enables users without Provisioning access to create and modify the writing assistant and coaching advice content.

New Universal Updates

There are two new universal updates for H2 2020 both for 360 Reviews.

Advanced Search of Universal People Search Available in 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version

Advanced Search of Universal People Search is now available for 360 reviews. When searching for employees, when the “Find Employee” dialog box appears, there will be advanced search options. This search can be used in the “Add Participants” dialog box, in the “Send a Copy” dialog box and in the “360 Executive Review” page. The updated search screen is displayed below.

Detailed 360 Report in 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version

There is a revised version of the Detailed 360 Report. It has cleaner and easier to read layout. An example is shown below.

The settings are now housed at the top of the report and fonts are bigger and brighter for the gap values. Comments are more visible and appear beside ratings.

There is a radar chart to display competencies and ratings on the Graphical Summary tab. The print set up dialog box now offers an option to print specific views.

Admin Opt-in Updates

There are three admin opt-in updates available: New Competency Picker in Forms, Qualtrics Surveys for Steps in Performance Reviews and Customized Labels for Calculated Rating and Manual Rating in Customized Weighted Rating Section. Since there are sever

New Competency Picker in Forms

This opt-in is available when Job Profile Builder (JPB) is enabled and is used when adding competencies to a performance form. The new competency picker is used on PM forms to find competencies to add. Competencies can be found using a hierarchy structure and a search option. Competences can be selected by competency library or job roles and using keywords search. An example is shown below.

Qualtrics Surveys for Steps in Performance Reviews

If you are using Qualtrics surveys in your performance process, the current version only allows the survey to appear after the employee signature step. In the new version, you may select which steps and for which roles the survey should display. The survey can be used for single role, iterative, and collaboration steps.

Customized Labels for Calculated Rating and Manual Rating in Customized Weighted Rating Section

The labels for the calculated rating and the manual rating in the Customized Weighted Rating section can now be customized using an XML file. In the previous version, the labels for the calculated rating and the manual rating were hardcoded as Calculated Form Rating and Overall Form Rating.

Universal Updates

There are several universal updates for Performance Management. Many revolve around the Customized Weighted Rating Section of a performance form. We will look at these but first we will look at the other universal updates.

Message to Remind Users Before Removing Signers

In a performance form that allows for a signer to be removed, there is now a reminder in the Remove Signer confirmation pop-up. The message is to remind users that by removing a singer, the form automatically routes to the next step. If that is not the user’s intent, they need to add a new signer before removing the current signer. An example of the new reminder is shown below.

New Feedback Data in Goal Plans

Feedback from Continuous Performance Management (CPM) is now available to display in performance and development goals plans. The CPM achievements column for a goal currently shows the count of achievements tied to a goal. With the latest version of CPM, achievement related feedback will also display. In the CPM achievements column, clicking on the count will now display the feedback topic title along the topic title and three sets of questions/answers from the Achievements tab.

New Feedback Data in Performance Management Forms

The CPM achievements column in the performance and development goal sections of a PM form currently shows the count of achievements tied to a goal. With the latest version of CPM, achievement related feedback will also display. In the CPM achievements column for a goal, clicking on the count will now display the feedback topic title along with the three related feedback question/answers.

If any achievements or feedback is deleted in CPM, the data is also deleted from PM forms, including completed forms.

You can check out my blog on the H2 2020 CPM Release Updates to see what else is new.

The remaining universal updates that we will discuss pertain to a very specific summary section of a performance form: Customized Weighted Rating.

Removal of Enable Customized Rating Calculation from Form Template Settings

“Enable Customized Rating Calculation” no longer appears in Form Template Settings as seen in the example below.

Current Method to Enable Customized Rating Calculation

“Enable Customized Rating Calculation” was a prerequisite to enable the calculation.

In the new version, simply adding the Customized Weighted Rating section to a form template acts as the prerequisite to enable the calculation of the overall customized weighted rating.

The business rules that trigger the calculation must also be configured.

Rating Scale for Customized Weighted Rating Section

In the previous version, the rating scale for the Customized Weighted Rating section used the same rating scale as the other rating section. In the new version, the Customized Weighted Rating section has its own rating scale.

“Unrated” and “Too New to Rate” in Previous Ratings of Customized Weighted Rating Section

In the previous version, “Unrated” and “Too New to Rate” were not in the Previous Ratings table of the Customized Weighted Rating section of a PM form and just displayed as 0. In the new version, “Unrated” and “Too New to Rate” are displayed in the Previous Ratings table of the Customized Weighted Rating section and both are ignored in the calculation of the overall customized weighted rating.

Allow Override of Unrated Manual Rating for Customized Weighted Rating Section

In the Customized Weighted Rating section of a form template, there is now the option to override the unrated manual rating. The option, Allow Override of Unrated Manual Rating has been added so this summary section can work like the others as seen in the example below.

In the previous version, the unrated manual rating displayed as Unrated. In the new version, the unrated manual rating can be overridden by the calculated rating.

Too New to Rate in Customized Weighted Rating Section

Like the other summary sections, there is now the option to provide a label to explain why an employee is not rated. An example using the current summary section is displayed below.

The summary section example above shows the Unable to Rate field will be available as an option in the Customized Weighted Rating section of a form template.

Calculated Rating from Customized Weighted Rating Section in Ad Hoc Reports

If you are using the calculated rating in the Customized Weighted Rating section of a form template, ad hoc reports use the unadjusted calculated rating from the performance template summary section instead. An example of creating an ad hoc and selecting rating columns is shown below.

In the new release, when creating an ad hoc report, when this same field is selected, the Unadjusted Calculated Overall Performance Rating from the Customized Weighted Rating section is used. This means reporting will accurately reflect the ratings in the performance forms. This is especially important when the template has both the Summary section and the Customized Weighted Rating section. The calculated rating from the Customized Weighted Rating section overrides the unadjusted calculated rating from the Summary section.

Customized Weighted Rating Section and Ratings Displayed in En Route Folder

In the prior version, when a form with the Customized Weighted Rating section was in the En Route folder, this section’s ratings were not in sync with the in-progress form. In the new version, the Customized Weighted Rating section section of a form will display in the En Route folder and will be synced with the in-progress form. The Previous Ratings table of the section will contain the ratings from the previous steps for the login role and by other roles.

Calculated Rating from Customized Weighted Rating Section in Bin View

There is a another feature available when a calibration template is based on a performance form template that contains a Customized Weighted Rating section. Currently, when the data source for a calibration template is a performance form template with this summary section, either the manual or the calculated rating can be calibrated. However, the calculated rating cannot be displayed in the Bin view of a calibration session.

With the latest release, the calculated rating from the Customized Weighted Rating section may display in the Bin view if this calculated rating comes form a PM form and the “Show calculated rating in addition to manual rating (only applicable to Bin view)” setting is enabled. An example is displayed below.

Label for Rating Scale Scores in Previous Ratings of Customized Weighted Rating Section

In order to get a clear picture of what the numeric rating means, labels are now visible. In the previous version, the ratings in the Previous Ratings table in the Customized Weighted Rating section were displayed only as numeric values.

An example is shown below.

In the new version, the ratings in the Previous Ratings table of the Customized Weighted Rating section are displayed as numeric values with corresponding text labels. If rating numeric values are mapped to labels in the manual rating scale, the label display next to the rating’s numeric value. If no labels were mapped, the rating will continue to just display its numeric value.

And example is shown below.

Customized Rating Section with Rating Labels

There is a checkbox in the form template for this section: “Hide numeric rating values (only show text labels)” similar to other summary sections.

If a rating’s numeric value is mapped to a certain label for the manual rating’s rating scale scores, the corresponding label can be displayed next to the rating’s numeric value in the Previous Ratings table. Otherwise, the rating is displayed as its numeric value.

There is an added checkbox for this form section in ” Manage Templates“. There is the option to hide numeric rating values and only show text labels.

Customized Weighted Rating Section in Print and Save as PDF

In prior versions, the section calculated rating details were not displayed in the printed or saved performance form. Now the calculated rating details of the Customized Weighted Rating section of a performance form will be included in the printed or PDF version of the form.

To Learn More

All in all, there are over 20 items being changed or enhanced in this release for Performance Management and we didn’t cover every detail here. For more information, check out the What’s New Viewer here.

Do you need help managing your SuccessFactors Release cycles? Email info@worklogix.com to see how we can help!