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.
Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.
Universal- for modules enabled, universal means no steps are required to have access to the new functionality. These features are automatically made available.
Admin Opt-In – the admin must enable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools
Admin Opt-Out – the admin must disable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools
Provisioning Opt-In and Opt-Out require a Partner or Product Support request
For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 2H 2021 Performance Management below.
Performance Management
There is not much in the way of new functionality, just one universal update.
General Availability – Universal Updates
Configuration Center Support For Performance Management Form Templates
You can now view, download, and transport Performance Management form templates across tenants using Configuration Center. Prior to this release, only Feature Configuration was available under General Configuration for Performance Management. Now System Configuration and Manage Templates are available.
New PM Configuration In Configuration Center
General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins
The admin opt-ins require the latest version of the home page.
PM Related Updates “For You Today” Section of the Latest Home Page
When the latest home page is used, a “For You Today’ card will appear for PM tasks.
You can enable to-do tasks on the latest home page in the Upgrade Center.
The tasks are:
“Review Employee Performance” task available for managers
“Review Employee Performance” task available for employees
To give managers a view of the form that need their review, cards are grouped into Direct Reports, Matrix Reports, and Other on the stack view. An example is shown below.
For You Today Performance Tasks
Users can go directly to the performance review forms from this card to complete the tasks.
Goal Management
There is one universal update for Goal Management. The majority of the new functionality is for the latest version of Goal Management. With each release more and more features become available.
General Availability – Universal Updates
View, download, and transport Goal Management configurations using Configuration Center.
It is now possible to use ConfigurationCenter for Goal Management to view configurations, download configurations, and transport configurations across tenants. Configuration Center permission is required.
The view feature enables the admin to view configuration as well as see the username who made changes with a date and timestamp.
The download feature is useful to take a backup of your application’s configurations as well as for troubleshooting by an Implementation Partner or Customer Support.
The export feature can be used to export configuration in order to copy from the preview system to production.
With this release, after selecting the Talent configuration area, Goal Management is visible. The admin can then select the features to download.
Goal Management in Configuration Center
After selection, the admin goes to the “Transport Mode” tab to initiate the download process.
Upon completion, the configuration bundles is downloaded in ZIP format. Configuration types are available as separate files.
Latest Goal Management
With each release, the latest version of Goal Management has functionality added that is already available in the current version,
Now supported in the latest version of Goal Management:
Beta Goal Import
Changing goal plan states in Goals
User search
Matrix relationships
Now available in the latest version of Goal Management:
Spell Check
Legal Scan
Advanced user search by criteria
We will look at the new supported functions that are available for those using the latest Goal Management. We will start with the universal updates.
Early Adopters – Universal Updates
Mass Import Personal Goals in Latest Goal Management
It is now possible to use the “Import Performance Goals” for the latest version of Goal Management.
Change Goal Plan States in Latest Goal Management
It is now possible to update the goal plan state in the latest version of Goal Management. The ability to lock and unlock goal plans will be available and provides visibility of the goal plan state using the latest version of GM.
Goal plan states are used to control the action and field permissions before and after a goal plan is approved. Users with the “change-state” permission in the goal plan XML can now change the goal plan state in a more straightforward manner.
An example using goal plan states in the latest version of a goal plan is shown below. The current state has a dropdown list.
Latest Goal Management Goal Plan Current State
In addition, employees will be able to receive email notifications when their goal plan state changes. The notifications will include who changed the goal plan state and what the current goal plan state is.
Enhanced People Selector in Latest Goal Management
When using the latest version of goals management, the people selector will include matrix manager and matrix reports. If these matrix roles have permission, they will have access to view goal plans.
An example of the people selector in a goal plan is shown below.
People Selector with Matrix Manager and Reports
If these matrix roles have permission, they will have access to view goal plans.
360 Reviews
General Availability – Universal Updates
View, download, and transport 360 Reviews configurations using Configuration Center
Similar to the Goal Management being available in Configuration Center, it is now possible to use ConfigurationCenter for 360 Reviews to view configurations, download configurations, and transport configurations across tenants. Configuration Center permission is required cross tenants.
Before this release, 360 was not available in Configuration Center Now when selecting the Talent configuration area, 360 is visible. The admin can then select the features to download fro the Transport Mode tab.
360 in Configuration Center
Add External Participants When Users Have No Search Permissions
Users without permission to search for external users may now add them as form participants by email address. Users can enter the email address of an external user in the “Add a New External Participant” dialog box.
If the external user already exists in the system, the First Name and Last Name fields are automatically filled and users can select “Add” to add the external user as a participant.
An example is shown below.
Add External Participant
General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins
360 Reviews Tasks on the Latest Home Page
When the latest home page is used, a “For You Today’ card will appear for 360 Review tasks:
“Complete 360 Evaluation task” available for managers
“Complete Your 360 Evaluation task” available for employees
Found on the latest Home Page, for any 360 forms for an employee, manager or raters, there is a card to prompt the user to review and complete the 360 Reviews form in the Performance inbox.
For You Today Card for 360
Users can go directly to the 360 review form from this card.
Calibration
General Availability – Universal Updates
There is a universal update for a calibration session.
Set max rating change span
In “Manage Calibration Templates”, if your data source is “Performance”, it is now possible to set a maximum rating change span. This setting can be found on the “Advanced” tab.
Once the span is set, if you make rating changes in the session, the following rules apply:
If the rating change made doesn’t exceed the maximum rating change span, the rating will be changed
If the rating change exceeds the maximum rating change span, an error message displays and the rating reverts to the original rating.
Shown below is the Calibration Template “Advanced Settings” tab.
Set Maximum Rating Change Span
Continuous Performance Management (CPM)
There are only admin opt-ins for this release of Continuous Performance Management.
General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins
New Qualtrics Survey for Continuous Performance Management
It is possible to integrate Qualtrics surveys with Continuous Performance Management. This integration allows you to collect feedback from employees after 1:1 sessions with their managers.
To use this feature:
CPM must be enabled
Qualtrics license for website and app feedback projects required
“Manage Qualtrics Integrations” feature is enabled in Upgrade Center
The Qualtrics account is used to create the survey and view survey feedback.
An employee will be prompted to complete the survey. An example is shown below.
Start Survey within CPM
The user will see questions to answer.
Survey Questions
Once completed, the admin may view the survey feedback.
Early Adopter – Admin Add -Ins
Enhanced Achievement Experience for Continuous Performance Management
This feature is only available if the latest version of CPM is used.
Achievements can be the default view on the CPM landing page, which enables quick access to achievements. The admin would have to select “Achievements view” as the default on the “Continuous Performance Management Configuration” page. An example is shown below.
Set Default View
When a user accesses CPM, the default view will now be the Achievements tab.
Achievements tab default view
Feedback Integration with Microsoft Outlook
Continuous feedback may be enabled from a Microsoft Outlook add-in to make giving feedback easier.
In order to use this feature:
Latest version of CPM must be enabled
SAP SuccessFactors user attributes are mapped to Microsoft Active Directory
Continuous Feedback outlook integration is enabled and the manifest file downloaded
SAP SuccessFactors user attributes mapped to Microsoft Active Directory.
The employee will see an option to give feedback.
CPM Feedback within Outlook
Start Giving Feedback
The feedback questions display and enable the employee to provide feedback.
Feedback Questions
Upon submission, a confirmation message displays. An example is shown below.
Completion of Providing Feedback
Depreciation
Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version
November 18, 2022 is the end of maintenance for 360 Reviews v11 and will be deleted on May 20, 2023.
We have now covered the highlights of the PM related updates for 2H 2021. See our blogfor 2H 2021 Career Development release features.
There are not a lot of new features for Career Development in this release. There are some updates for Mentoring and for early adopters, the latest version of Goal Management and Career Explorer have new functionality.
For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 2H 2021 Career Development below.
Mentoring
General Availability – Universal Updates
The universal updates for Mentoring relate to mentoring email notifications.
Improved Email Notifications
With the new release, there are changes to some of the mentoring email notifications. Some links have been added or removed and some of the messages have been made more concise.
The mentor invitation email notification has been updated. Now there is a link that goes directly to the mentoring program to accept the invitation to participate. An example is shown below.
Mentor Invitation to Participate
The program link has been removed from the email notification that goes out to pending mentees when their requested mentor becomes unavailable. Here is an example of the new email notification.
Mentor Unavailable Notification
Stop Email Notifications to Matched Mentees About Mentor Availability
Currently any mentee that is linked to a mentor will received an email notification when the mentor becomes unavailable as a recommended mentor for new mentees.
Similarly, when the mentor becomes available again, the mentees already in a relationship with a mentor would be notified. An example is shown below.
Emails to Current Mentees regarding Mentor Availability
Sending a notification to existing mentees when their mentor becomes unavailable caused confusion. It was not clear to existing mentees that their mentor was still available to them.
Mentees already accepted by a mentor will no longer be notified when the mentor becomes available or unavailable as a recommended mentor to others joining the program. The existing mentees will still have the mentor relationship but any employees searching for a mentor will not see the unavailable mentor to select from.
General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins
If you are using the latest Home Page, managers will be able to approve or decline employee requests to be a mentor. A new approval card will show on the home page which identifies when the request was submitted and identifies the mentoring program. The manager can approve or reject the request directly from this card.
An example is shown below.
Mentor Approval Card
Latest Version Development Goal Plan
Early Adopter – Universal Updates
For early adopters using the latest version of Goal Management there a few new features that we will discuss briefly.
Mass Import Personal Goals
For early adopters using the Latest Goal Management, it is now possible to mass import personal goals into development plan through Admin Center. This functionality was not available previously for the latest version of goal management.
Improved People Selector
Users with the appropriate role based permissions will be able to search for people by name and access their goal plans.
People Selector will now include additional hierarchical relationships: a user’s matrix manager and matrix reports.
Improved People Selector
Career Explorer
Early Adopter – Universal Updates
Career Explorer is only available for customers in an Early Adopter Care (EAC) program.
Exclude Job Roles from Data Sync
With the new release, there is a universal feature that allows job roles to be excluded from data sync between your system and the People Connection. This means those job roles will not be recommended to employees in Career Explorer.
Accessed from Admin Center, go to “Manage People Connection Integration”. Select “Manage Job Roles for Data Sync”.
The new “Manage Job Roles for Data Sync” screen is seen below.
Select Job Roles to Exclude
Display Long Job Role Names in Recommended Role Card
Currently, long job role names will truncate in the recommended role card as seen below.
Truncate Job Role Names
With the new release, longer names of job roles can be displayed in full using two lines as seen below.
Complete Job Role Names
We have now covered the highlights of the Career Development related updates for 2H 2021. See our blog for 2H 2021 PM release features.
Interested in what’s new for Employee Central for H1 2021? There’s quite a few enhancements! In this quick blog we run through the major release updates that caught our attention the most.
Increasing the integration between Qualtrics and SuccessFactors has been a priority for SAP – we’ve seen multiple integrations across modules and now there’s a few more for EC. SAP has added 4 email survey integrations based on intelligent services to trigger in the below events:
Employee Rehire
First Time Manager
Transition from Individual Contributor to Manager
Transition from Manager to Individual Contributor
These surveys can be very insightful to find out if employees are comfortable in their new roles and identify where they might need help!
BizX Talent Integration / Succession Data Model
Integration with the BizX Talent side of SuccessFactors has also been improved. In particular, SAP has made it possible to run a full HRIS sync (that pushes data from EC to BizX) based on individual user ids.
In addition, they’ve made it easier to view what the HRIS mapping looks like in the Manage Business Configuration Screen with an overview screen of all of the mappings in one location. Previously you had to dig through all of the fields individually to find this information! Check out the screenshot below:
Overview of HRIS Sync Mappings
Admins can also now export the Succession Data Model and Country/Region_specific Succession Data models from Admin Center (previously only partners could do this in provisioning). Simply give the new permission “Export Succession Data Model or Export Country-Specific Succession Data Model” permission and you’ll get access to the screen shown below:
New Export Succession Data Model Screen
These enhancements help make the integration between employee central and the talent modules more clear cut.
Business Rule Scenarios
Multiple new business rule scenarios are now available that allow you to:
Configure cross-entity rules triggered from a source entity with changes executed on the target entity
Calculate Full Time Equivalent for a user
Create business validations / raise alert messages for HRIS elements
These enhancements contribute to the ongoing effort to increase the flexibility and robustness of business rules.
SAP Integration
If you sync your HRIS data with SAP, you’ll be happy to know there are 10 enhancements to this integration including:
A comparison tool that compares configuration between EC instances
An enhancement considering the purging status of ERP communication data while replicating employee communication data from EC
The ability to select specific foundation objects by object ID ad choose log or list view when viewing the Foundation Object Transfer Report
In Define Employee Data Settings for EC instance, the field names have been changes to “Standard Mapping (PERNR)” and “Standard Mapping (CP)” for clarity
The Enhanced Work Schedule Rule Transfer Report was updated with a new BAdi to maintain the external code of work schedule rules
Better data replication that considers purged data
Replication of inactive employees that were terminated in EC before the full transmission start date
Sample contract elements (IT0016) content
Replication of OM data infotypes even when relationship data (IT1001) can’t be replicated
Organizational assignment data that was marked as status “Failed” will change to “Outdated” once the next replication job runs
These enhancements help to make the interface more robust and reliable for customers wishing to replicate employee data to on-premise SAP.
Global Benefits
Enhancements and automations came to the global benefits functionality as well. Let’s take a quick look at these:
When an employee has a job change that affects their benefits eligibility, this can now trigger an intelligent service event to create or update benefit enrollments
When benefit master data changes, a new automatic enrollment job now exists to handle creating and updating enrollments
A new pension / retirement savings plan type has been introduced called “Workplace” that offers additional contribution options
Once again, we see how the system continues to provide helpful automations and features to make this functionality more simple and robust to use.
Reporting
Custom fields are now allowed in story reports. The fields can be seen within the query designer.
Conclusion
The SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central product continues to grow and become increasingly more robust! This does not represent all of the enhancements in the H1 2021 release – only the highlights we found most compelling. Check out the What’s New Viewer here for the complete list of enhancements.
See this great article for useful information on how to prepare for a SAP SuccessFactors Regular Release.
In this release, we saw a wide range of enhancements across the Talent modules – some specific to Succession and others that lay across the modules but help out succession planners. Let’s take a look at what’s new in the Succession module below!
Succession Management Specific Changes
Let’s start with what’s new just for Succession Management before we take a look at some general talent improvements that are relevant to Succession.
Nomination History
The main new feature exclusive to Succession Management is the ability to view nomination history in the talent card and in the people profile. Users will with Succession Planning permission can click a history icon on these screens to see a list of positions for which the employee has been nominated and information about the nomination history for each including the date, nominator, readiness level, status, change type, and notes. The information includes deleted nominations as well.
Nomination History View
Hide Pending Nominations for Talent Pools
Succession configurators have had the ability to hide pending nominations from succession planners for some time now, but the ability was only extended to position nominations. Now, this feature works for talent pool nominations as well. This configuration setting remains in the same in Admin Center -> Nomination Setup.
Form-Based Nomination Deleted
Another update specific to succession with this release is that form-based succession nomination will be completely deleted as of May 21,2021. This was a legacy method of approving nominations – if you never used it, then don’t worry because no action is required. If you are still using forms to approve nominations, you have little time left to switch to the newer permission-based method!
General Talent Management Updates Relevant to Succession
There are also numerous updates across the talent modules in general that affect not only Succession, but also Performance, Goals, Development, and/or Calibration. Let’s take a look at these briefly below.
Editing Talent Info Directly on a Talent Card
It seems like every customer for whom I’ve implemented Succession has asked why they need to switch between the employee profile view and other views to edit talent information. Why can’t customers just change the information right on the talent card that shows up across the different views that contain the talent card? This way data like impact of loss or risk of loss can be updated when the user has the contextual information they need to make the decision. Well now, customers can!
Users can now click the icon shown below to open a popup that allows these fields to be changed.
Editing Information on a Talent Card
My Jobs Downloads
Previously Succession (and other talent 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.
Numerous Calibration Session Improvements
There are a variety of calibration session feature that have been added/updated as well. For example specifying default facilitators or allowing managers to more easily create calibration sessions for their teams. For more information on these improvements, check out our blog on What’s in in H1 2021 SAP SuccessFactors Calibration Release.
That’s a Wrap!
That’s all of the updates for H1 2021! We hope you found this blog informative!
There are five universal updates related to Mentoring and one for Development Goals. Let’s take a look!
Mentoring
The mentoring features are related to the mentor program sign up process and are designed to improve the user experience.
Key Questions Indicated
In the sign up sheet, required entries are noted by a red asterisk. This ensures the mentees complete these fields prior to looking at the recommended mentors. Answering the key questions will improve the recommended mentors match.
Answers to questions will be saved but preferred mentors are not saved.
Save Sign Up Program to Complete Later
There may be times when an employee starts to enroll in a mentoring program but is not ready to commit. Maybe they need to consider their mentoring preferences further or need to check in with their manager first. The employee may start to fill out the sign up form, save it and come back to it later to make any updates prior to signing up.
There will be a “Save for Later” button that will display within the program sign up page.
Once saved, the program will appear on either the Invitations or Open Enrollment tab, whichever is applicable.
The program visible on the tab and can be easily be identified with an icon and “Saved for later” text.
Identify Mentor Requests
While filling out the sign up form, mentors that are selected from the recommended list will display a green check mark on the mentor cards.
Confirm Sign up
A mentee will see a confirmation popup when they are completing a program sign up. This gives the mentee the opportunity to confirm signing up for a mentor program. By clicking the “Complete Signup” button, the mentee is enrolled and mentor requests are submitted.
Your Mentor Requests
The Mentoring Page will contain a new section that tracks any mentor requests that a mentee has made. The “Your Mentor Requests” section allows a mentee to see the status of their mentor requests. Pending requests will appear as well as any declined requests and reasons. This feature is only applicable to open enrollment and unsupervised programs. Supervised programs rely on a matching program instead.
Mentees may also cancel any pending mentor requests.
Admin Opt-Ins for Mentoring
There is one admin opt-in available to for Mentoring.
Qualtrics Surveys for End of Mentoring Relationships
Qualtrics Surveys may now be used with Mentoring. The survey can be used when a mentor program participant opts to end the mentoring relationship. Based on how the program was configured, either the mentor or the mentee may cancel the mentoring relationship. A survey will pop up after a participant ends the mentoring relationship.
An email survey is sent to the other participant in the mentor relationship.
The feedback provided in the survey results are seen by the program owner and may be helpful when designing new mentoring programs.
In order to take advantage of this feature, Manage Qualtrics Integrations from the SAP SuccessFactors Admin Center needs to be set up.
Development Goals
Learning OData V4 Service
There is a new Learning OData V4 service. When using transcript or legacy learning activities, learning activities may be created and updated in mass to be associated with development goals and competencies.
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, andStatus.
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.
SAP SuccessFactors H2 2020 release updates finds us with several admin-opt “latest” versions including Home page, Goal Management and Continuous Performance Management (CPM). Here we will focus on the latest version of Goal Management and discuss how it fits into the new home page and how it integrates with CPM. See my earlier blog post for more information on performance management updates and my blog post for what’s new in CPM.
There is a new admin opt-in for the latest version of Goal Management. The latest version of Goal Management provides users with a streamlined view of goals to make it easier to access and manage. Performance Goals and Development Goals are now housed within Goal Management and have improved integration with CPM. Access to Goal Management contains both plans with a tab for each as seen in the example below.
New Goal Management View with Both Goal Plans
For managers, the new look is especially helpful. It is easy to navigate to direct report’s plans or any other users in their target population. They can swap between between their reports and within the two plans. An example the manager’s goal plan view is seen below.
Manager View of Goal Plans
Latest Goal Plan Features
The latest version of Goal Management still allows for the following existing functionality:
Creation of personal goals.
Development goals can have competencies and learning activities added.
Receipt of goal notifications.
Edit, view, and delete all goals except group goals v1.
Access to other’s goal plans with proper role-based permission.
Existing integration with other modules.
New functionality includes:
Personal goals not yet at the completed stage and approaching or past due date can appear on the latest home page.
Linked achievements for the latest version of CPM may be created and viewed here rather than having to go out of the goal plan and navigating to CPM.
Activities can be added directly to goals and linked activities may also display. An example of activities tied to a goal is shown below.
Add Activity to Goal
However, only the latest version of Goal Management may be used with the latest version of CPM.
Latest Goal Management Limitations
Since this is a new version for Goal Management, there is some goal plan functionality not yet available including:
Mass import of goals.
Ability to cascade and assign goals.
Use of Group and Team Goals.
Changing goal plan states within goal plan.
Use of metric lookup tables.
Use of Coaching Advisor for development goals.
Assigning custom learning activities to development goals.
OData APIs.
Some mobile features which will be identified shortly.
Attributes that may be Configured
Listed below are the the goal plan XML attributes that may be configured in the latest Goal Management:
max-goals
max-weight
max-weight-per-obj
min-goals
min-weight
min-weight-per-obj
new-obj-share-status-public
show-total-goalscore
Unsupported Goal Plan Field Types
Additionally, there are some goal plan field types that are not supported:
Bool
Checkbox
Comment
Link
Table
Text when used for achievement text, actual achievement text, object plan field 1, go to url
Changes to Goal Plan Fields with Latest Version of Goal Management
Name field is required with a maximum length of 500 characters.
Description and metric fields have a maximum 1000 character limit.
State. For use on the latest version of the home page, set the final enum value of the state field to “complete” in order to trigger the change of the goal state which enables incomplete goals to appear on the latest home page.
When using weight, if min-weight-per-obj and max-weight-per-obj attribute values are not met, goal creation is not possible.
For development goals, competencies can only be used in conjunction with Job Profile Builder.
Cannot select a single competency to link to a development goal in the UI.
You may convert existing goal plan templates but the goal plan field types that are not supported will not appear in converted goal plans.
After the upgrade, goal plan templates will need to be converted. Convert a template only once and and one at a time. Only convert the goal plans in use. Goal plans not converted will be read-only. Once converted, the goal plan templates may be used in the latest version of Goal Management.
Mobile Apps Limitations
There are some limitations using the latest version of Goal Management in mobile apps. For Performance and Development goals:
Cannot delete a goal from the goal card.
Cannot enter a negative number in the number field type.
Cannot revert back to the legacy view to see unsupported fields.
For Development goals:
Unable to search for a specific competency.
Unable to display the number of competencies on the goal card.
Unable to add competencies by library or category.
No integration with Learning.
Latest Goal Plan on latest Home Page
The latest Goal Management may be used in the latest version of the home page. There is a new admin opt-in for the redesigned home page. It is available for early adopters in both Preview and Production. Any existing legacy home page custom tiles or permissions are not impacted by the new page. An example of the new Home page is shown below.
Latest Home Page
The view is less cluttered with customized user and organization content. Tiles are replaced with cards and are system generated and more interactive. The page is divided into three sections:
Quick Actions. For frequent or quick actions.
For You Today. Dynamically generated user content. Displays any recently added goals and CPM activities.
The new Home page shows content from Goal Management, Continuous Performance Management, and Continuous Feedback. On the latest home page, you can view personal goals when the state of these goals is not yet complete and these goals are approaching their due dates or already overdue.
The latest version of the home page handles only personal goals in the following manner:
Updates of goals on the home page appear on for those manually created, modified or deleted.
Goals from an import are not reflected on the home page.
Performance goals appear based on status, if not yet complete and 15 days before due date.
Development goals appear based on status, if not yet complete and 30 days before due date.
Overdue Performance and Development goals will display.
Goals in “For You Today” section
Performance and development goals disappear from the new home page when:
Goals are completed.
Goals are deleted.
Goal due dates are past the due dates configured on the goal plan template.
To-do items list can be opened and acted upon in a side panel on any page. You can take action on each to-do directly from the side panel.Overdue to-do items are indicated in red.
Is the upgrade right for you?
After upgrading to the latest version of Goal Management, you cannot reverse the update, so be sure to fully understand what features you will be gaining and losing. It is wise to fully test in a preview instance before committing to an upgrade to production.
Because there are some substantial limitations to the latest version, it may be premature to upgrade but it is at least worthwhile to anticipate how Goal Management is changing and to gain an better understanding of how modules continue to be more tightly integrated with each release.
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.
Development Plan Tab
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.
Linked Goal Activities
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.
Manager View of Goal Plans
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.
Adding Teasers when JPB is Enabled
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.
Advanced Search of Universal People Search
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.
Detailed 360 Report
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 radarchart 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.
Add Competencies
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.
Message Added to Remove Signer
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.
Enable 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.
Allow Override Unrated
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.
Unable to Rate Label
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.
Unadjusted Calculated Overall Performance Rating
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.
Calculated Rating Option for Bin View
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.
Numeric Rating in Prior Version
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!
As of October 9, 2020, SAP has released their documentation for the H2 2020 release. You can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here. As a reminder, preview release will be October 16 and production will be released November 20th. 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 or blog here. For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 2020 within Calibration below!
With the H2 2020 release, there are additional features introduced for the latest version of Calibration. There are new universal and admin opt-in features along with five universal updates. We will review the updates starting with what’s new.
New Admin Opt-in Features
There are three admin opt-in features that provide additional access to employee information to make better decisions when calibrating ratings along with some enhanced admin functionality.
Access to Comments from Other Calibration Sessions
Currently within a calibration session, reviewers have access to subject’s comments on the session detail page. Based on the calibration role permissions, the reviewers may add, edit, delete or view comments. An example of the current functionality is shown below.
Current Subject Comment
With the new release, it is possible to reference comments from prior sessions. Seeing comments from prior sessions gives the session reviewers a more complete picture of subjects in order to make more objectively.
This option is set in the Advanced tab of “Manage Calibration Templates” as seen in the example below. Enabling “Roll up comments from the other sessions based on the same template” will give calibration reviewers access to comments from prior sessions.
Roll up Comments Setting
As seen in the example below, when adding or viewing subject comments during a session, the comment dialog box will now contain two tabs: “From This Session” and “From Other Sessions“. Comments for the current session may be added, edited, deleted or viewed. Other session comments are view only.
.
Prior Sessions Comments
However, comments from prior sessions will only display in the new tab if the other sessions use the same calibration template.
Replace Facilitator that becomes Inactive
There is a new setting that will be available in “Manage Calibration Settings”. Enabling “Choose a user to replace a calibration session’s only facilitator who has been inactive” will allow a new facilitator to replace the sole facilitator of a session who becomes inactive. Once a replacement facilitator is identified and the inactive user is purged, the facilitator is automatically replaced for the session.
Omit “Too New to Rate” from Rating Options using Employee Profile
On the Global Settings tab within “Manage Calibration Settings“, there is a new option that may be enabled. “Remove ‘Too New to Rate’ from rating options for the rating types from People Profile data” will omit “Too New to Rate” as an rating option when selecting Employee Profile as the data source for ratings. This will be apparent on the Data tab within “Manage Calibration Templates” when Employee Profile is selected as the data source for ratings to be calibrated. With this setting, “Too New to Rate” will not be displayed as a rating option.
New Admin Opt-in Feature
Odata API for Session Comments
A new OData API entity called “CalibrationSubjectComment” is now available so comments are exposed for interfacing. A query can be used to get a single comment made for a calibration subject using comment ID or to get all comments made in a calibration session. An example of the URI for getting all session comments is shown below.
We will now review the four universal features found in the latest release.
Access to Subject Comments
Currently, there is a comments column in the List View of a calibration session as seen below. If a comments icon appears for a subject, the reviewer would click on the icon and would be able to see existing comments. If the session reviewer also has “Write” permission, they could also add a comment. The vertical dots menu for each subject would be used to get to the link to add a comment as shown below.
Current Comment Column in List View
The comments column appears in the Subjects List for Executive Review as seen below.
Current Comment Column in Subjects List View
In both views, the column would contain a comment icon if there was a comment for the subject.
In the latest release, it will be easier to view and add comments. The comments column which houses a comment bubble will no longer be used in the List view of a calibration session or in the Subjects List within Executive Review. An example of the new comment feature is shown below.
New Comments
In the new release, the comment icon will appear with the subject name along with the comment count regardless of a user having any comments. If comments exist for a subject there will be a number count next to the icon. To add or view a comment, click the comment icon.
The Calibration History block on People Profile will display the comment icon with the comment count for each subject as well.
Autocomplete Search of Universal People Search
The Calibration module has adopted autocomplete search. This allows the admin in the “Manage Calibration Sessions” page and calibration users in the session list page and session details page to use the autocomplete search of the Universal People Search.
The current calibration sessions list page search options are seen below.
Current Calibration Session List Search Options
With the new release, there will be an “Add People” icon which enables the autocomplete search of Universal People Search. An example is shown below.
Search Options
Start typing to search for a name in the module search box. The system predicts names you are searching for. All matches will display as separate entries to choose from.
Enhanced Experience using Matrix Grid Views
The current matrix grid view within a calibration session is shown below. To see the talent card of a subject in a zoomed out cell, the “more” icon for a subject would need to be clicked and then “Open Talent Card” selected.
Current Zoomed Out Matrix Grid View
Available in full-screen and normal modes in the new release, the cards will be visible in zoomed out cells. There will be a scroll bar when a cell is too small to see all of the people cards. This feature makes it easier to compare subjects in zoomed in and out cells. An example of the new functionality is shown below.
New Zoomed Out Matrix View
Select Permission Model Obsolete
Within provisioning, in the “Enable Calibration” section of Company Settings, the option to select the permission model will no longer exist.
Current Permission Model Options
Now that all customers are using role-based permissions, the default permission model option is no longer viable so this selection will no longer appear.
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.
Show Calculated Rating in Bin View
Wrap Up
The latest release improves managing calibration sessions for the admin and improves the calibration reviewer experience.
Do you need help managing your SuccessFactors Release cycles? Email info@worklogix.com to see how we can help!
