The SuccessFactors performance form has an audit trail on the Form Information page which shows the chronological log of actions, users, and comments as a form moves through the workflow steps.
The audit trail provides benefits to the organization, the manager and the employee. It provides transparency by showing history of actions taken on the form, acts as legal evidence in disputes and grievance, is useful in error tracking and facilitates internal and external audits by providing traceable documentation.
Let’s look at what the audit trail delivers.
There are 2 ways to see the audit trail.
The Blue Information icon displays in a user’s inbox in the Actions column.
Info icon to access the audit trail for a form
Within the form, go to Actions at the top of the page and select “Info about this form”.
View Audit Trail of Form
The Form Information view displays. The Route Map, Properties and Approval sections display.
Form Information Page
The Properties section shows the information present at the time the form was created and includes the user who generated the form, the form subject, type, form title and template and status.
Form Properties
The Approval Chain section is comprised of the Routing Map and Audit Trail information for the form.
Audit Trail for Performance Form
The Routing Map section displays the Step Type, Stage, Employee, Step, Status for the form.
The Audit Trail shows a chronological log of users within the workflow and the actions taken.
The Audit Trail section entries are created when a form moves from one step to the next and will show you the following information: Currently With, Employee, Action, Comments, Status, Act By.
Iterative and Collaborative steps are not shown.
Entries in the audit trail are only created when a form moves from one step and shows the routing history of the form.
In the Action column, you can find the changes employees made to a form. Click the link in a step to open a form and view what the form at that step. Employees cannot drill into steps which they do not have permission to.
Access to the step link is affected by the following two options from Admin Center > Company System and Logo Settings:
Everyone can access the revision history of the document. Allows users to access the revision history of each document for which they were on the approval chain. When you select this option, your users can go to the Documents Information page and view a read-only snapshot of the document as it was in each stage of the workflow.
Manager can access the revision history of the document. When you select this option, the manager can go to the Documents Information page and view a read-only snapshot of the document as it was in each stage of the workflow.
However, there is no option to determine whether users have opened the form.
The Comment column includes the system comments and the e-mail notification comments entered by the sender when sending the form to the next step.
Email notification and system comments
If you do not want the sender’s comments to be stored and displayed in the Audit Trail section, go to Admin Center > Company System and Logo Settings, and select “Do not store sender’s comment on workflow action”.
Advanced Settings of Performance Template
Reporting
Reporting can be done on the audit trail records of the form completed steps by using the Audit Trail table in the Performance Management schema in Story reports.
Reportable fields include step owner, step action, date time when a step was completed, and system and user comments.
You can also join the Audit Trail table with the Next Route Step and Previous Route Step tables in the Route Entry schema to report on step information.
In Closing
The most successful SuccessFactors implementations aren’t defined by how much functionality is turned on—but by how intentionally it’s designed.
At Worklogix, we help organizations make these decisions with adoption, scalability, and business impact in mind—so talent processes don’t just exist in the system, but actually work in practice. Do you need help implementing or supporting your SAP SuccessFactors system? Contact info@worklogix.com for assistance.
Having forms automatically route to the next step can be a efficient method to keep the performance process moving along but there is a wrinkle that can cause lots of manual intervention and even trap you in time loop.
It all starts with the route map
First let’s look at the route map associated with a performance template.
Route maps can be set up to have forms auto route on a designated step due date. Any or all steps can have the forms move based on when you decide the step is due. This means any forms sitting in this step on the step due date will automatically route to the next step the following day.
The settings for this auto routing are shown below.
Route Map Auto Route Form on Step Due Date
First, identify a due date for the step (1) and then enable the “Automatic send on due date” box (2).
In order for this auto routing to work, a background job needs to be set up in Provisioning. In Provisioning, go to Manage Scheduled Jobs . Here the Auto Route Based on Due Date job needs to be set up and should be configured as a recurring job running nightly.
“Auto Route Based on Due Date “Job
An example of the job details are shown below.
Details of “Auto Route Based on Due Date” Job
In the example, the job is scheduled to run daily, 30 minutes after midnight.
It is best to have the job scheduled to run after midnight so the forms will route immediately at the end of the step due day.
Now the route map is set up with the auto route step due date(s), the background job is set up and the forms are launched.
Once the performance review process is in flight, forms will progress through the workflow. With the scheduled background job running nightly, any form still in a step on the auto route due date will automatically route to the next step at the end of day.
Potential Gotcha
This is where a gotcha may lie. The admin can manually send a form back or a user in the current step can send to the form to the previous step. A hiccup can occur after the step due date when a form is returned to this step.
In this example, a user may ask that a form be routed back a step. The admin would have to route the document back.
“Route Form” action to move a form back a step
Another way to have a form move back a step is to have the template configured to allow the form to go back a step.
Button to send form back one step
In either case, the form had auto routed to the next step, but was then routed back to the prior step. If the employee does not make updates to the form that day, that evening the form will route forward again to the next step.
This bears repeating. If a form is routed back to an auto route step, if no action is taken on that day, the form will auto route forward again at the end of the day.
Even though the step due date has passed, if a form resides in that step, it will auto route again the next time the background job runs. This can cause a lot of manual rerouting of forms if the form is not actioned upon the day that the form is routed back.
Workaround
There are a few ways to handle this time loop.
Updating Just a Few Forms
When dealing with just a handful of forms that were impacted, run an ad hoc query to find any forms that are in that prior step based on a recent modify date.
Forms recently moved back a step
The admin would use this information to go to Modify Form Route Map to update the route map for each of the impacted forms.
Modify Form Route Map Action
Enter the Doc ID from the ad hoc report and click “Search”. The form route map steps display.
Click on the route map step that you wish to update. This will expand the step configuration section and show the step details.
Modify Form Route Map Step 1 Expanded View
In order to stop this form’s auto routing to the next step, uncheck the “Automatic send on the due date” checkbox and then click on “Next” as shown below.
Remove “Automatic send on due date” for the step
The form has been updated and the the automatic routing for this step has been removed, for this form only.
Form route map step has been updated
Repeat this process for each individual form that needs to have the automatic routing for this step removed. Click on “Back to Search Forms” to update the next form.
To Remedy Auto Route for All Generated Forms
To completely remove the auto route so that it will not continue to occur each time a form is routed back to an auto route step, the admin may modify the route map via Modify Form Route Map.
Modify Form Route Map
Once the forms are selected, remove the automatic send of due date for the step.
Remove “Automatic send on due date”
This means all of the forms generated will now auto route if any forms are returned to this step later in the process.
If this manual intervention seems too cumbersome, you may decide to limit the use of the auto-route feature going forward with other templates.
Other Gotchas
Auto Route Only if Validation Passes
If you find that a form did not auto route on the step due date, check the route map to see if Only Send Forms that Pass Validation is enabled for the step. If a form had required fields that needed to be populated during the current step and they were left blank, the form would not route to the next step.
“Only route forms that pass validation” setting in the Route Map
In this case, the admin would have to auto route the form to get it to the next step.
Cannot Auto Route Due to Missing User in Step Role
Another issue that can arise is when a form is set to auto route to a manager step and the manager role is not populated for an employee’s form. The manager step will be skipped. The form cannot route to a step with any empty role.
To resolve this, the admin route would have to route the form back to the first step and once the manager role is populated, the form will route correctly. This causes the system to re-evaluate employee data, new managers, route steps, and roles.
One more thing
The most successful SuccessFactors implementations aren’t defined by how much functionality is turned on—but by how intentionally it’s designed.
At Worklogix, we help organizations make these decisions with adoption, scalability, and business impact in mind—so talent processes don’t just exist in the system, but actually work in practice. Do you need help implementing or supporting your SAP SuccessFactors system? Contact info@worklogix.com for assistance.
Performance, Talent, and Skills: Designing a Smarter SAP SuccessFactors Experience
When organizations implement SAP SuccessFactors, the technology is rarely the hard part. The real challenge is making thoughtful design decisions that balance structure, adoption, and long-term value.
Below are some of the most important considerations we guide clients through when designing Performance & Goal Management, Dynamic Teams, Talent Development, and Talent Intelligence Hub (Skills/Competencies)—based on real-world implementations and leading practices.
Performance & Goal Management: Structure with Purpose
One of the earliest decisions organizations face is whether performance reviews will include ratings.
Leading practice is yes—most organizations use a 5-point scale. While SuccessFactors allows flexibility (3-point, 5-point, or even custom scales), odd-numbered scales tend to drive clearer differentiation. Rating labels can be fully text-based for managers and employees, while numeric values still operate behind the scenes to support analytics and downstream processes.
If an organization chooses to go ratingless, it’s important to pause and ask: How will performance inform compensation, succession, and talent decisions? Ratingless models require stronger narrative rigor and often more mature processes to remain effective.
Continuous Performance Management
SuccessFactors offers two complementary capabilities:
Continuous Feedback – A leading-practice recommendation to enable from day one. It encourages real-time recognition and coaching without adding administrative burden.
Continuous Performance (Activities & Achievements) – Best positioned as a longer-term goal (in our opinion). While powerful, many organizations find it overwhelming at launch when layered on top of formal goal-setting and year-end reviews.
The key is adoption: more functionality doesn’t always mean better outcomes.
AI in Performance & Goals
AI-assisted capabilities can enhance goal writing, feedback quality, and review consistency. While additional licensing may be required, these tools are increasingly part of forward-looking performance strategies and worth evaluating early.
Dynamic Teams & OKRs: Flexibility for Modern Work
Dynamic Teams enable organizations to form teams outside traditional hierarchies and manage work using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
This functionality can be incredibly valuable for project-based or matrixed organizations—but it’s also newer within SuccessFactors. For some clients, it makes sense to adopt immediately; for others, it’s a strong candidate for a future phase, as SAP continues to expand its capabilities.
The guiding question we recommend asking is simple: Will this add clarity and alignment—or complexity?
Typically, this is not a Day 1 feature turned on at our customers.
Career & Talent Development: Turning Data into Decisions
The 9-Box Grid
The standard 9-box within Succession Management remains a cornerstone of talent reviews. Leading practice uses:
3 sustained performance ratings
3 potential ratings
If performance ratings are based on a 5-point scale, organizations must define how those ratings translate into the 3-point performance dimension of the 9-box (hence, our key addition of “sustained” performance).
Ownership matters too. Mature organizations typically empower managers to place employees into the grid, while others may rely on executives or HR Business Partners until readiness increases.
Talent Reviews & Presentations
The most effective talent reviews integrate the 9-box directly into structured discussions, often using SuccessFactors Presentations to support consistency and executive visibility.
Successor Readiness
Leading practice readiness definitions include:
Ready now
Ready in 1–2 years
Ready in 3–5 years
SuccessFactors also supports Emergency Replacement, identifying immediate successors in the event of an unexpected vacancy—an increasingly important capability for critical roles.
Learning & Development Integration
Day-one value comes from allowing employees to link learning activities directly to development goals. More advanced organizations later expand this by associating competencies with learning, enabling targeted searches and more personalized development paths.
Calibration: Aligning Decisions Across the Organization
Calibration ensures fairness and consistency. Leading practice is to use both:
Performance Calibration – Focused on performance ratings
Succession Calibration – Focused on 9-box placement
When used, calibration steps should be intentionally embedded in the route map, not treated as an afterthought.
Opportunity Marketplace: Making Talent More Visible
Opportunity Marketplace connects employees to:
Learning activities
Mentoring
Projects
Internal job opportunities
When integrated with Learning, Talent Development, and Recruiting, it becomes a powerful tool for mobility and engagement. AI-driven opportunity recommendations can further enhance adoption, though licensing considerations may apply.
Talent Intelligence Hub: Building the Skills Foundation
Skills & Competencies
A successful Talent Intelligence Hub implementation starts with clarity:
What skills matter?
What competencies define success?
Are there existing catalogs—or do they need to be rationalized?
Leading practice is to focus initially on skills and competencies only, deferring additional attributes (traits, behaviors) until integration maturity improves across the suite.
Job Profile Builder
If possible, jobs in Employee Central should map 1:1 to job roles in Talent. Skills and competencies are mapped at the job level (within Job Profile Builder)—not the job level hierarchy itself—an important distinction for accurate modeling.
Growth Portfolio
Growth Portfolio defines how skills live at the employee level. For initial releases, leading practice is:
View-only access for employees and managers
No self-selection of skills without approval workflows
More advanced edit and approval models can be introduced later, once governance and definitions are well established.
Final Thought
The most successful SuccessFactors implementations aren’t defined by how much functionality is turned on—but by how intentionally it’s designed.
At Worklogix, we help organizations make these decisions with adoption, scalability, and business impact in mind—so talent processes don’t just exist in the system, but actually work in practice. Do you need help implementing or supporting your SAP SuccessFactors system? Contact info@worklogix.com for assistance
Find out ways for an admin to prepare for the launch of yearly performance forms to make it a more meaningful experience for everyone.
The biggest piece of advice; advanced planning is key! Make sure you include the right people in the decision making process early on to improve your performance review process.
You will need to understand the specific performance management needs of your organization. It is imperative to align with the business processes in order to have a successful performance evaluation cycle.
Preparation for the New Plan Year
Set the timeline for the Performance Cycle
Decide on the date range that performance is being evaluated on. Is it based on calendar year, fiscal year, hire date anniversary, or role-based schedule?
Who gets a form? All employees, new hires before a certain date, specific groups of employees?
Include prep time to review last year’s form and make adjustments based on employee and manager feedback
Determine the form launch date
Is there an annual launch for all forms or is launch based on the individual?
Based on the launch date, determined how much time is allotted for each step in the form
Configure the performance template, making sure the form aligns with your organization’s performance cycle, timelines, and evaluation criteria
Start by identifying rules for the form
Can forms be routed back to the prior step?
Do the route map steps have due dates? if so, are forms auto routed to the next step based on step due date?
Can forms be sent to others for feedback?
Can completed forms be sent to others?
Are the instructions clear on the form? Do certain sections need introductory text to guide the employee so they understand what they need to do?
Are there any changes to what is being rated, the rating scale?
Are there new sections to be added to the form?
Any changes to the workflow, any changes to the permissions on which roles can do what and in which step?
Data Tracking and Reporting: Make sure the performance forms are set up to collect data for future reporting and analytics. Use the data for insights into employee performance trends, team dynamics, and organizational development.
Update/Prep the System
Make sure your data is current
Update any reporting relationships so that the forms will flow to the correct employees’ managers. If any managers are on leave, make sure their direct reports have a new reporting relationship.
Make sure any job changes and pending actions are completed so the forms will reflect current titles and reporting relationships.
Test your form in a controlled environment to ensure it works as expected.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Provide communication on the process to managers and employees. Use multiple means of communication. Make sure they are aware of the time frame and what is expected of them each step of the way.
Training
Create training guides for employees and managers alike. Tip sheets, quick reference guides or more detailed references are helpful, especially if you are rolling out a new review process
Conduct manager training sessions. Include how to navigate the system and level set expectations for how to rate employees. Also stress the need to track notes throughout the year in order to be prepared to provide detailed feedback during the process.
Ready for Launch
Review the performance review template one final time and make sure everything is ready to go.
If the template is copied from the prior year, ensure that the correct goal plan is linked to the template and any references to the prior plan year are updated to the new plan year
Make sure the correct route map and rating scale are linked
Make sure the route map has any prior year dates and verbiage updated
Verify step due dates on route map are correct, if using
Make sure the advanced settings reflect the current year
Verify launch date and group of employees that the forms are being launched for
Verify email notifications are enabled and the text contained in the emails is correct and instructional
If forms will auto route to the next step based on the step due date, ensure that the nightly auto route job is set up to run
During the Review Process
Track timely completion of reviews. You can create an ad hoc report to check what steps forms are in. If a step due date is approaching and forms are not moving, it can be a signal to send out communication to remind users to work on their forms.
Provide guidance. Questions will arise and in order to make the process run more smoothly, be prepared to answer questions, route forms and troubleshoot as needed.
Post-Review Follow-up
Once the review cycle is completed, it is time to reflect and prepare for the next cycle.
Gather Analytics on the Review Process
You can track completion rates, ratings distribution, and other key metrics. Use these insights to monitor the success of the performance management process.
Set up custom reports to analyze performance trends across the organization. SuccessFactors provides pre-built reports for evaluating employee performance, ratings, and competencies. This enables you to summarize key findings to leadership.
Customize dashboards and analytics to review performance ratings, goal progress, and development plans at a department or company level.
Collect Feedback on the Review Process
Ask around, what worked and what didn’t? Discover what employees and managers felt bout the form’s usability and effectiveness. Use this feedback to refine your configuration for future cycles.
Prepare for Next Review Cycle
Note updates to make for next year’s template using feedback and changes in the business, employee development needs, or industry best practices.
Regularly assess whether the PM form and process are meeting organizational needs. Be prepared to make adjustments or add new sections based on feedback from users.
Plan for new business needs: As your company evolves, the form may need to adapt, such as adding new competencies, revising goals, or adding new development sections.
By following this checklist, admins can ensure that the year-end performance review process is thorough, efficient, and effective, benefiting both employees and the organization.
Learn the pitfalls to avoid in order to create a performance form that is impactful and provides clarity, evidence, balance, and has a future focus.
Here are some of the ways forms measure the wrong things and here are some tips to improve the performance review process.
What Not to Do #1
Measure behavior not results. Typically attendance, compliance, and soft competencies are scored. Responses are vague and do not provide guidance on what to continue to do and what to work on to improve.
What to Do Instead #1
Connect measures to business outcomes. Do not rate just easily observable behaviors. Include rating for strategic impact, customer value deliverance, growth in role.
What Not to Do #2
Use vague ratings.
Ratings of Does Not Meet Expectations,Meets Expectations and Exceeds Expectations are vague and subjective at best. Two managers could rate an employee completely different using this rating scale.
What to Do Instead #2
Create a scoring system that is well defined with examples for each score. Also provide calibration rules. Tie ratings to business impact and not on personal opinion.
What Not to Do #3
One Size Fits All Form
An organization with sales, marketing, research, and manufacturing cannot rate the varied roles using the same form. Each drives values in a different way. Customize role-specific scorecards based on the work that produces value.
What to Do Instead #3
Use a shared framework that stresses company-wide values, and standards. Have one form style but use different measures per job family.
What Not to Do #4
Make form too long and have too many steps
Some forms ask too many questions and have crazy workflows. This causes employees and managers to feel pressure to complete the forms under tight deadlines which leads to rushed and low quality responses.
What to Do Instead #4
Ask fewer and better questions. Use evidence-based assessment using metrics and outcomes, anything to remove ambiguity. If a question adds no decision making value, it doesn’t belong on the form.
What Not to Do #5
Use of Generic Competency Frameworks
While competencies such as “embraces change”, or “drives innovation” are aspirational, they are hard to rate objectively.
What to Do Instead #5
Competencies should be observable, job-relevant, linked to business outcomes and have defined behaviors for each level.
What Not to Do #6
Have Forms Built for HR
Forms that allow box checking, reporting, and legal defense are great for HR but are not tailored to the manager and employee.
What to Do Instead #6
Optimize form with clear feedback, meaningful coaching conversation and have to have better performance in the next go round with no surprises.
What Not to Do #7
Have Unusable Output
Weak performance forms don’t tie into development plans, pay decisions, drive staffing decisions or shape promotion paths. Don’t heavily lean towards rating subjective skills.
What to Do Instead #7
A well-designed form is operational, in that leaders use the output to allocate talent, managers use it to coach and employees use it to grow.
Overall Tips for a Better From
Make the form operational:
Provide clear, concise feedback
Have a balanced discussion: talk about strengths, but don’t neglect areas that are opportunities for growth
Create a path forward which identifies clear expectations, of view of what success looks like and how it is measured
Be fair and consistent in the assessment; avoid bias, assumptions, and judgments
Have a two way dialog with opportunity to ask questions, discuss challenges, invite reflection
You should now be on your way to crafting a well created performance form. Just remember that it should be comprehensive in that it assess an employee’s performance, encourages their growth, and support the organization’s mission.
A new iContent Management page allows admins to identify and bulk delete unused files from iContent servers. You can schedule deletion jobs, view usage, and manage associated courses efficiently. Only one deletion job can be scheduled at a time and must be planned 30 days in advance. This helps optimize storage and maintain cleaner repositories while ensuring admins can revise or reactivate impacted courses as needed.
Change Assignment Due Dates from Team View
Managers can now change due dates for manager-assigned learning items directly from the Team View page—individually or in bulk. The new Change Due Dates dialog provides a quick way to update deadlines with real‑time status updates. This improvement streamlines manager oversight and supports better learner compliance.
Class Withdrawal from Team View
Managers can withdraw learners from classes seamlessly via Team View. Using the More Actions menu or directly on the Class Details page, managers can execute withdrawals without relying on bulk tools, improving flexibility and speed.
Employments Tab Visibility with System Default Role
The Employments tab is now visible on the User page when using system default roles that include the new View User Employment permission. This supports upcoming person‑centric experience enhancements. (Note: System default roles are for testing only.)
Integer & Decimal Custom Fields for User Entity
Admins can now create integer and decimal custom fields for the User entity, expanding options beyond string fields. These new types support assignment profiles, user search conditions, filters, and reporting—enabling more precise data management and dynamic rule configurations.
Universal Rollout of New Learning Home Page
The modern Learning home page is now mandatory for all customers. The legacy UI and toggle switch are fully retired, ensuring a unified, streamlined experience across all learners. vSaaS customers are excluded in this release and may continue using the toggle when enabled.
Upcoming Classes in Enhanced Search
Learners can now view and expand upcoming classes directly in enhanced search results. The list shows up to five classes sorted by date, updated dynamically when filters like Facility are applied. This replaces the old calendar view and allows quick comparison of class schedules and locations.
To Learn More
The 2H 2025 release for SAP SuccessFactors Learning includes 18 total enhancements, and this blog highlights only the most impactful updates. To explore the full list of changes—including technical notes, configuration details, and feature nuances—please visit the official release documentation using the link below:
SAP SuccessFactors brings updates twice a year, and the 2025 releases include several improvements across different modules, including Compensation. If your organization uses the Compensation module, you’ll notice changes in areas like worksheets, statements, and integrations. In this blog, I’ll explain the key updates from the 1H 2025 release and what we know so far about the 2H updates.
The 1H 2025 release – April 2025 includes the first set of changes.
The 2H 2025 release – October/November builds on that.
Here are the significant enhancements for the Compensation module identified in the 1H 2025 release.
Publish Compensation Data to Employee Central without PCNR
Previously: If you wanted to publish compensation plan data into SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central (EC), you needed the HRIS element payComponentNonRecurring enabled in your configuration.
New: You can now publish compensation data to Employee Central without enabling the payComponentNonRecurring HRIS element. This simplifies configuration and gives more flexibility on your side.
Why it matters: If you enable that HRIS element (for example, due to complexity or control reasons), this change reduces a barrier and broadens options for integration.
New Guideline Fields for Adjustment, Extra, Promotion Columns
Previously: Compensation worksheets had guideline fields for standard columns like Merit or Lump Sum, but not all columns had guideline-support.
New: The update introduces additional standard guideline fields for columns such as Extra, Extra2, and Promo (via new field IDs: extraGuideline, extra2Guideline, promoGuidelie).
Why it matters: It gives planners more visibility and control. For example, you can set guidelines around “Promotion” adjustments the same way you had for merit increases, and surface warnings or rules when planners exceed or ignore those guideline values.
Configurable Automatic Recall of Reward Statements
Previously: If you completed a compensation worksheet and generated corresponding reward statements, and then later moved the worksheet back to “In Progress”, the system would automatically recall those reward statements.
New: You now have a setting that allows preventing automatic recall of reward statements when worksheets are moved back to In Progress status.
Why it matters: In some use-cases you want to preserve the generated statements (for audit/tracking) even if the worksheet is reopened. This change adds flexibility around your workflow.
Template Validation & PDF Preview for Reward Statements
Previously: When importing custom XSL templates for reward statements, the system had limited validation. Also you didn’t always have a full preview of what the generated PDF-statement would look like before production generation.
New: The system now validates the XSL file when importing templates. You can now preview sample PDFs of statement templates before generating them for employees (via a “Download Sample PDF” / “Preview Sample HTML” action).
Why it matters: Improves the quality of end-user statements, reduces surprises or formatting issues, and supports smoother rollout of statement templates.
1H 2025 Changes You Can Disable
Change You Can Disable
Short Description of Change
Automatic Recall of Compensation Statements Now Configurable
Sometimes, your company must move completed compensation worksheets back to in progress status. In the previous version, if you had generated the reward statements already, the system automatically recalls the statements. You can now set up your system to prevent this automatic recall of the statements when the worksheets are moved back to in progress.
Enforce User Account Upgrade for Consistent Login Experience
If you have users with employment-based logins, SAP SuccessFactors upgrades them to account-based logins. Additionally, profiles show login names instead of user names.
Latest Experience of Performance Management Forms
We redesigned the user interface of the Performance Management form, introducing a streamlined, flexible layout along with many other user experience enhancements.
Advanced Filters on Worksheets
Previously: You see the legacy filter functionality in case you don’t enable the advanced filters on the worksheet where you’re only able to filter based on certain pre-selected criteria.
New: On a worksheet, select the Filter button to access the Create Filter button. Once Create Filter is selected, you see the dialog for creating filter open up. On the popup, you’re able to set conditions and criteria for your filters. Also, you can select if you want All (and) or Any (or) operators to be applied to the conditions when applying the filters.
Why it matters: We now support advanced filtering capabilities on worksheets for compensation, variable pay, and total compensation plans. To enable advanced filters on worksheets, go to Compensation Home Actions for all Plans Company Settings Manage Company Settings and enable the Enable advanced filters on worksheets checkbox. You can have up to 30 criteria per filter spread across one or multiple conditions. The advanced filtering capabilities on the executive review are now extended to the worksheets.
Custom Field Visibility on the Compensation Profile
Previously:Earlier you could hide a column entirely. You didn’t have the options to show a field on the profile or the worksheet selectively.
New: Additional options to configure visibility of custom fields for the Compensation Profile and the worksheet in the Design Worksheet tool when configuring columns for a worksheet. These options apply to the Compensation module for the worksheets and the executive review.
Why it matters: You now have additional options to configure visibility of custom fields for the Compensation Profile and the worksheet in the Design Worksheet tool when configuring columns for a worksheet. These options apply to the Compensation module for the worksheets and the executive review.
Update Compensation Forms for Template Now in the Job Scheduler
Previously: In the previous version, you opened a support ticket to configure and schedule the job in Provisioning. You could and can still run the job in Compensation Home <Template Name> Manage Worksheets Update all worksheets right away. However, if you must run the job later or on a schedule, you can now configure the job on your own in Job Scheduler. Parameters for the job are the same as those for Update all worksheets.
New: You can configure and monitor the job in the Job Scheduler and Job Monitor for compensation worksheets. The parameters for the job are the same as those parameters for the Update all worksheets tool.
Why it matters: In the current version, if you must run the job later or on a schedule, you can now configure the Update Compensation Forms for Template job yourself in Job Scheduler.
Integration changes
The 2H 2025 release mentions updated integration-capabilities for the suite, which will impact Compensation where data flows to/from other modules.
Known issues tracker
There is a published “Known Issues” list for 2H 2025 for the Compensation module (among others) — it’s advisable your team monitors this to identify any regression or hot-fixes required.
Planning tip
Because features introduced in 1H may wave into 2H (or require follow-on steps), ensure your roadmap includes review of the 2H enhancements and impacted processes.
Here are some steps and considerations for Compensation teams as you approach or implement the 2025 delta release updates:
Review your current configuration
Take inventory of what modules/configurations you currently use in Compensation (worksheets, statements, integrations to EC, guideline fields, statement templates).
Identify which of the 1H 2025 features apply to you (e.g., are you publishing compensation data to EC? Do you use extra/extra2/promo guideline fields? Do you generate reward statements with custom templates?).
For any upcoming 2H updates, map whether your integration architecture or processes will need review.
Activate and test selectively
Features like “Publish to EC without PCNR” may simplify your configuration, but still test in a non-prod instance before moving to production.
For new guideline fields (extraGuideline etc), update your worksheet template and test planner experience: how does the warning/goal behave? Does the UI display as expected?
For statement template validation and PDF preview: have your template-owners/import team test custom templates, validate XSL import, preview PDFs, and confirm the end-user experience.
For automatic recall setting: review your workflow. Do you want the old behaviour (automatic recall) or the new flexibility? Ensure stakeholders agree and you test the setting.
Change management & communication
For planners and managers: inform them of new guideline fields and any changed worksheet behaviour (e.g., warnings/out-of-guideline alerts).
For reward statements: communicate to recipients that the statement format may change slightly (because of improved templates/preview).
For HR/Comp Ops team: update your release checklist and regression test plans to include the new features. Also monitor the 2H 2025 Known Issues list for Compensation to catch any issues early.
Roadmap your 2H 2025 actions
Even if you don’t immediately activate all features, include in your roadmap: review the integration changes, check whether any features become auto-on (i.e., you cannot opt-out), and plan workload around testing.
Use the “What’s New” viewer or release documentation at SAP or the SAP SuccessFactors Community to capture all release items and filter for Compensation.
Prioritize features by business impact, implementation effort, and configuration complexity.
Summary
In short, the 2025 delta releases for the Compensation module in SAP SuccessFactors provide meaningful enhancements especially around integration for Employee Central publishing, advanced filters, worksheet guideline flexibility, statement template improvements for validation & preview, and automatic recall setting. These changes enhance configurability, user experience and governance around compensation planning cycles.
If you’re planning your next compensation cycle (worksheet rollout, statement generation, integration to EC), now is a good time to evaluate these updates, adjust your configuration or roadmap, and ensure you’re leveraging the new capabilities rather than being surprised by them.
SAP SuccessFactors released its 2H 2025 Delta Update with the introduction of a fresh wave of innovations and improvements across Employee Central. This release has focused majorly on data quality, workflow flexibility, localization expansion, position management clarity, and document generation enhancements—in order to strengthen HR operations and elevate the experience for employees, managers, and HR administrators.
In this blog, we run through the most impactful enhancements from the Employee Central (EC) 2H 2025 Delta Release.
🔍 1. Position Management Enhancements
Position Management remains as one of the most enhanced area in the 2H 2025 release, with several new ability that improve accuracy in workforce planning.
⭐ Key Highlights
✔ Expanded fields in the “To Be Hired” status change use case
The following fields are now supported when changing a position to “To Be Hired”:
multipleIncumbentsAllowed
standardHours
incumbent
company
targetFTE
This gives admins more precise control and ensures alignment between job, position, and hiring processes.
✔ Improved synchronization between Position and Job Info
Data consistency is strengthened through better propagation and validation rules.
✔ Cleaner audit trails
Event tracking for position changes is more transparent, improving governance.
👤 2. Employee Data & Employment Information Improvements
The 2H 2025 release intensify HR data reliability with several backend and UI upgrades.
⭐ What’s New
More accurate validation frameworks across Personal & Global Information sections
Enhancements in Employment Information to support changing labour regulations
Refined error-handling messages to minimise admin rework
Smarter country-specific rules for identifiers, addresses, and eligibility fields
Together, these updates improves global HR master data accuracy.
⏱️ 3. Time Management Enhancements
Time Management continues to progress with performance improvements and richer rule-based automation.
⭐ Key Enhancements
Improved absence request validations across multiple countries
Faster loading of daily, weekly, and monthly timesheet views
Strengthened calculation logic for overtime, breaks, and premiums
Better work schedule and public holiday configuration capabilities
These changes improve payroll readiness and simplify the daily experience for time-dependent roles.
🌏 4. Localization & Compliance Updates
Localization continues to be a core pillar of SuccessFactors strategy, and the 2H 2025 release extends this further.
⭐ Updates Include
New statutory fields across multiple countries
Country-specific data formats, regulation updates, and identification rules
Localization improvements in hire, termination, and job event workflows
Improved document templates for certain regions
This makes sure global companies stay compliant without relying on custom development.
📄 5. Document Generation Enhancements
Document Generation receives remarkable upgrades in this release and is one of the most prominent improvements.
⭐ New Capabilities
Support for expanded dynamic placeholders
Enhanced stability and formatting control
Greater compatibility with multilingual templates
Optimized merge performance for large document batches
This is specifically useful for generating contracts, letters, onboarding packs, and compliance forms at scale.
The 2H 2025 release sharpens EC’s integration framework, ensuring ideal connectivity across SAP and non-SAP systems.
⭐ Improvements Include
More resilient OData APIs
Enhanced support for future-dated events
Better coordination with SAP HCM Payroll and SAP ERP
More descriptive integration error messages
The improved event-handling logic makes downstream systems more consistent and reduces integration failures.
🎨 7. User Experience (UX) Enhancements
A modern UI remains central to SuccessFactors’ roadmap. This release introduces indefinite but impactful improvements.
⭐ UX Refinements
Clearer field grouping and section headers
Streamlined workflows with simplified approval screens
Better mobile responsiveness
Faster portlet rendering performance
These improvements provide a cleaner, more available experience for all users.
📌 Summary – Why the 2H 2025 Release Matters
The SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central 2H 2025 Delta Release is designed to help organizations:
✔ Intensify data quality and governance ✔ Enhance hiring alignment with enhanced Position Management ✔ Elevate efficiency through Time Management improvements ✔ Stay globally pilable with localization updates ✔ Deliver documents faster and with greater precision ✔ Achieve seemless system integrations ✔ Improve employee and HR admin experience
This release is not just an incremental update—it’s a strategic step toward a more rationalized and future-ready HR core system.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Of major note, Profile Preview and Spotlight are now universally available as part of the latest People Profile experience. They are now standard without any opt-ins needed providing the latest People Profile is enabled.
Keep reading to discover more of what is now available.
Enhancements to Profile Preview and Spotlight of the Latest People Profile
Updates to the Home Page Experience
The Home Page has been enhanced with better use of space, less scrolling, with a consolidated list of tasks. There are new options, such as banner cards,analytic cards and personalization settings. There is improved design of custom content.
New Home Page
Profile Header Updated
The category list has been updated and the profile header automatically collapses as you scrolled down the categories
Header Collapsed and Pinned
Only the employee’s photo, display name, login name, and job title remain visible at the top of the page when the categories are collapsed,
Three Additional Fields May be Added to the Profile Header
It is now possible to add 3 fields in the header of the full profile, such as gender pronouns, or alternate name. These additional fields will be read-only. The fields to select from are the same as those available for the Employee Information card in Full Profile.
Additional Fields Added to Profile Header
Quick Access to Profile Preview
To easily get to the Profile Preview from the Full Profile page or any card’s details page, click the “Show employee details” icon next to the user name.
Access to Profile Preview using Icon
Upload Background Images
Employees may upload their own background images, not just from the image library.
Analytic Cards on the Home Page
There are now 2 analytic cards available that may be displayed on the Home Page: Upcoming Absences and Time Sheet Status. These display charts may be enabled and would appear in the Explore More section on the latest home page.
Analytic Cards on the Home Page
Manager’s Full Profile Contains Direct Report Count and Team Size
Direct reports view include photos, names and titles.
Manager’s Full Profile View with Direct Reports and Team Size
Advanced People Search
Enhanced People Search features now apply to the global header and Directory Search. The experience includes facets, filters and more searchable fields.
The Global Header People Search uses the enhanced Autocomplete Search.
Directory Search incorporates the enhanced Advanced Search, allowing users to search for employees with specific criteria.
Directory Search
On the search criteria page, users can search for employees using keywords like name, assignment ID, job title, and location. Alternatively, they can use the search widget for more advanced search criteria.
User Search
Option to Delete Scheduled Job on My Jobs Page
Scheduled jobs for all report types, except Canvas reports, can be deleted directly from the My Jobs page. Simply choose the ellipses button under the “Action” column and then select “Delete”.
Delete Scheduled Job
Visual Changes Across the Platform
Throughout the system there are text, icon and label changes. Here are just a few of the updates.
More clear label for admin Settings page to identify when using system email notifications
System Email Notifications
Team Members can be displayed for Active or Inactive employees
Team Member Selection
Creating a Refresh RBP Model job request now has helpful information that this job will refresh all RBP permissions
Job Request Information
Using the Instance Refresh Tool, the instance refresh can now only be scheduled 3 months in advance, down from 6 months
System Refresh 3 Months in Advance
When viewing the Org Chart, the gear icon pop up now is labeled “Display Settings“. Previously it was labeled “Display Options“
New Label for Gear Icon
Scheduled Job Manager Supports Time Zones
A time zone may be selected when creating a job request in the Scheduled Job Manager admin tool. A new field, Time Zone, has been added to the Job Occurrence section on the Create Job Request page.
Time Zone Selection when Scheduling Job
New Deeplink Parameters for Full Profile Navigation
There are more parameters in deep links to directly access the Full Profile cards.
cardId=<card Id>: link to go directly to a card’s detail page
mdfObjectType=<custom MDF object type, to access a custom MDF object card
backgroundElementId=<custom Background Element Id>to go to a Background Information card’s details page
Delegation Request Card on Home Page
When using the latest home page experience, delegatees can now manage delegation requests directly from the Home Page with a new to-do card feature.
Delegation Requests on Home Page
The Delegation Request card contains details of the delegation request, including the delegator’s profile picture, the name of the performance form, the valid period of the task, and the employee’s name whose form needs review. A request can be accepted or rejected directly from the card.
To learn more and get more details about the updates, see the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Check out what’s new for Career Development.
Enhancements to the Employee View in the latest Career Worksheet
Employees will see more information on the Role Details page when using the latest Career Worksheet.
Highlights include:
The titles for the Skills and Attributes to Improve and Skills and Attributes You Have sections now include counts
The explanation of how role readiness is calculated displays when selecting the role readiness of a target role
Employee View of Role Readiness
Enhancements to Manager View in Latest Career Worksheet
Managers can also enjoy an enhanced experience when using the latest Career Worksheet.
On the Summary tab of the Team View page in Growth Portfolio, managers have better visibility into employees’ career development, including:
View employees’ unrated skills and attributes
Unrated Skills and Attributes
View employees’ development activities linked to specific skills and attributes
Development Activities linked to Skills and Attributes
View their team’s target roles when granted the private-access permission in the Career Worksheet template.
Option to Disable Legacy Career Worksheet
Once the latest Career Worksheet is enabled, the legacy version may be disabled. Please note, when the legacy version is disabled, the Career Worksheet tab isn’t available in the Development module. If you aren’t using Career Path, Career Explorer or Mentoring, the Development module will not be available in the main navigation menu.
View Development Goals in Latest Career Worksheet
Development goals now appear on a role’s details page in the latest Career Worksheet. However, only development goals from the default development goal plan that have skills or attributes associated with the selected role will be displayed.
The Goal name, associated skills or attributes, and status for each development goal display.
Development Goals on Role Details page
View In-Progress Opportunities in Latest Career Worksheet
Actions and progress that users have made in developing their current or target roles will be viewable.
These in-progress opportunities with skills or attributes associated with the selected role appear in the Opportunities in Progress section. Once an opportunity card is selected, the user is directed to its details page.
In-progress opportunities on role detail page
View Recommended Assignments and Learning Opportunities for Development Goals
The assignments and learning opportunities that match skills and attributes selected for a user’s development goals are now viewable. Users can also link assignments of interest to their development goals.
This feature is available on a user’s own goal details page.
Users can view learning activities not linked to development goals. These activities and learning opportunities can be be added/linked through the Linked Learning section on the goal details page. Assignments then appear in the Linked Assignments section.
Users can bookmark recommended assignments and learning opportunities.
Linked Assignments
Features Now Available with AI units license
With the purchase of the AI units license, there are some additional features available.
AI-Assisted Career Insights for Current Role
Previously available for target roles only, now employees can gain insights into development actions that help them progress in their current role.
There is a new Unlock your potential with AI-powered insights! section on a current role’s details page which includes:
Role name and description
Skills and attributes associated with the role
Current and expected proficiency levels for these skills and attributes
Skills and attributes added to the employee’s Growth Portfolio
AI Career Insights
The insights are grouped into sections:
Summary which is a high-level overview of the employee’s current role
Suggestions for Improvement which identifies two growth areas for upskilling and career development with achievable suggestions for skills and attributes in the category, learning courses keywords, ideal mentor’s position, suggested development goal
Career Directions which are tailored career paths with a link to view recommended job roles
AI-Assisted Writing Available in Custom Learning Activities
Text and Textarea fields for custom learning activities now have AI-assisted writing available.
AI-Assisted Writing
Create Development Goals with AI Based on Roles and Interests
Using AI, users can create personalized goals aligning with specific career roles or skill interests. With the AI-assisted goal creation feature enabled, AI can be used to create development goals based on a current role, target role, or skills and attributes.
Create goals from roles
Create goals from interests
New personalized goal creation options using AI
Data Referenced Section Available in AI-Assisted Career Insights
Using AI, can view information being considered on the Data Referenced section on a target role’s details page in the latest Career Worksheet.
Data Referenced section of target role’s detail page
To learn more and get more details, see the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here.
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