For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Export Calibration Sessions to an XLSX File
Before the latest release, a calibration sessions could only be exported to an XLS file with 256 columns. Now a session can be exported to a XLSX file which supports up to 16,384 columns.
Set Numerical Distribution for Calibration Templates
Previously, distribution guidelines for ratings were percentage-based only. Now numerical distribution rating guidelines can also be set up in Calibration templates. A target number of subjects may be specified for each rating.
Numerical and percentage distribution guidelines in the Data tab of the calibration template under Admin Center >Manage Calibration Templates.
Setting Distribution Guidelines
Things to note about numerical guidelines:
Numerical and percentage-based guidelines can be set for the same rating with the numerical guideline taking priority.
Several numerical distribution guidelines can be set for a rating, but for the same total number of subjects, you can have only one guideline.
In each numeric guideline, a range may be set or the “equal” operator may be used
Numerical Distribution OperatorsNumerical Distribution Guidelines
When templates have identical rating types and scales, the configured distribution guidelines can be retained during template switching.
New Setting for Configuring Autosave
There is a new setting in the Manage Calibration Settings admin tool called Enable Autosave.
Enable Autosave
Changes made in a Calibration session are automatically saved after 30 seconds of inactivity. If this feature is disabled, users need to manually save any unsaved changes.
Turn Off Email Notification for Rating Changes during Session Finalization
It is now possible to turn off an the email notification Notify Calibration Rating Changes during Session Finalization.
When disabled, managers will no longer receive emails about changes to their employees’ ratings after sessions are finalized.
This setting is found under Admin Center>Email Notification Templates Settings.
Disable Rating Change Notification
Background Information Displayed for Concurrent Employment in Talent Card
Previously in a calibration session when viewing the talent card for employees with concurrent employments, only background information related to the corresponding user ID was shown. The background information was displayed based on persons for global assignment, but based on users for concurrent employment.
Now the background information is displayed based on persons for both concurrent employment and global assignment. The talent card now displays all records of background information about a person under each employment.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Enhancements to the latest My Forms Page for 360 Reviews
There are some improvements for the user’s experience when using the latest My Forms page. The My Forms page has updates to form creation, form lists and filters which is also applicable to PM forms.
Form Creation
The Create Form button is now only visible for users that have permission to create at least one PM or 360 form.
The template dropdown list of forms is now grouped by two categories: 360 Reviews and Performance Management. Each heading lists the number of forms available for the category.
Create Form Template List
Form Lists
The number of forms is included in the forms list title.
Number of Forms
Filters
There are a few changes to the filters available on the My Forms page.
Limit Filter Visibility by Role
The standard and custom filters that are seen can be limited based on the user’s role. By default all the filters are shown but can be role based permissions can limit their visibility. To do this , enable Use RBP to control visibility of filters on the latest My Forms page in Performance Management Feature Settings.
Setting to Control Filters
Then by role, grant User Permissions>Performance>Form Filters permission to show all or specific filters.
Permission for Filters
All or Reports Only filter
This filter is only available for users with direct reports, matrix reports or HR reports.
The Template filter is now dynamic
Options for the Template filter are based on templates of forms in a folder.
Reset button to clear filters
The user can reset filters at any time.
These new features are shown below.
Filter Options
Custom Learning in 360 Review Forms
In conjunction with the latest Goal Management, custom learning activities can now be added, edited, or deleted on 360 Reviews forms.
Add custom learning activity
You must ensure that a development goal plan is linked to the form and the plan contains a learning activity template with custom learning activities.
Enhanced AI-Assisted Writing in 360 Reviews
There is a AI-assisted writing tool to help generate comments and improve feedback. Both use the context menu of the tool.
To use this the following requirements must be met:
AI-Units license has been purchased
AI Services Administration Assisted Writing with Text Analyzer has been enabled in Admin Center
Consent given for the AI Usage Acknowledgment Statement
Improve My Feedback
When comments are entered, feedback can be provided in a more concise manner and is related to a competency rating or skill. The user can go through multiple iterations of the updated feedback to find the comments with the best fit.
Generate Comments
When there are no comments entered for a competency or skill, six topics are dynamically generated. The user can select one of the topics and have detailed competency or skill related comments created.
Improve My Feedback
AI-Assisted Insights into Detailed 360 Reports
An additional feature when using AI is related to the Detailed 360 reports. A new Overall Insights for 360 Report section has been created. Here you will find a Generate Insights button. The insights relate to the overall form feedback as well as comments for specific competencies or skills.
Overall Insights
The overall insights contain the following:
Employee Summary which provides a high-level overview of the employee’s performance
Key Points to identify strengths and weaknesses of the employee
Suggestions for Improvement
Overall Insights
Analysis of Skills or Competencies
There is a View All Comments link which provides a summarized analysis for a skill or competency.
Sections include:
Key Topics
Growth Area Suggestions
Summary of performance based on ratings and comments
Skill or Competency Insight
This view provides more detail about a specific skill or competency and provides guidance for areas of growth.
SAP has announced the latest updates and changes for SuccessFactors for the first half of 2023.
Preview release is available on April 28 with the production release scheduled for June 2. You can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here. For full details on the release cycle, check out the SAP SuccessFactors official product updates blog.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
Latest Goal Management
General Availability – Universal
Latest Goal Management Now Generally Available
The latest Goal Management is now generally available. It does require an upgrade which cannot be undone. It is best to familiarize yourself with the latest features available and limitations before doing the upgrade.
Latest Goal Management
Once enabled, the latest version is automatically applied to the modules that are integrated with Goal Management. This includes as Performance Management, 360 Reviews,Continuous Performance Management, Career Development and the latest home page.
In prior releases, there were several limitations to the features available in the latest Goal Management. The 1H 2023 release addresses several these restrictions. We will review the most important updates.
Copy goals or create goals from a goal library.
Use milestones in goal plans
Use Advanced People Search to Assign or Cascade Goals using the latest Goal Management
View audit history for goals
Use legal scan
Dynamic Teams Integration with latest Goal Management
Latest Goal Management Updates for iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Create Goals from a Goal Library using the latest Goal Management
One of the best new features of the latest version of Goal Management is the ability to use goal libraries when creating goals. Previously, goals could only be created from scratch or copied from another goal plan.
With proper permissions, when clicking the Create Goal button, the user can now select the “Create from Library” option.
Create Goals from Goal Library
A users can select up to 10 personal goals from a predefined goal library at once.
Manage Milestones for Goals
It is now possible to use milestones (sub-goals) on goal plans. Milestones can be used for personal and team goals.
Milestones on Goal Plans
Use Advanced People Search to Assign or Cascade Goals using the latest Goal Management
When assigning a team goal or cascading a personal goal, the people search was limited to Name. Now an advanced people search is now available. The search now includes department, location, and division.
Advanced Search to Cascade Goals
View Audit History for Goals
When read permission for goal fields is granted, users can now keep track of goal changes. Anytime a goal is created, copied, cascaded, assigned, modified, deleted, or replaced, an audit record is created.
Audit Goal History
Users will be able to see a list of any changes were made. This includes identify who made the changes, and when. A before/after comparison for modified or replaced goals will display previous values and the new values for changed fields.
Details on Audit History
Comments, activities, and learning activities changes are not captured in the Audit History.
Use Legal Scan in the Latest Goal Management
The Legal Scan feature is now available and allows users to check whether their inputs for text and textarea goal fields are in compliance with legal requirements. Comment field are not included.
Dynamic Teams Integration with latest Goal Management
A new major feature integrates Dynamic Teams with Goal Management. This allows team members to link the their dynamic team’s objectives to their performance goals. Dynamic Teams has to be configured and the Enable Linking to Performance Goals setting turned on.
Team members identified as contributors to one key result (ORK) can link a dynamic team’s objective to personal goals.
Contributors may
Use the “display more actions” menu to open the Link to Goals side panel, where you can see linked goals or add a new one.
Use the ‘ Link to goals’ icon to open the Link Goals dialog to select a goal plan and the goals you to link to the objective.
A Linked OKRs section in the goal details has an option to View Details about the linked OKRs in a dialog.
Linked OKRs in Goal Plan
Additional requirements to use this feature include:
Being a member of a dynamic team that has defined its objectives and key results.
Being as a contributor to at least one of the key results for the objective you want to link.
Have permission to view the goal plan that includes the goal you want to link the objective to.
Latest Goal Management Updates for iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Many of the capabilities in the latest Goal Management had not been available for mobile users. The latest release address many of these limitations:
Create Goals from a Goal Library in iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Copy Goals from Goal Plans in iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Leave Comments on Goals in iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Manage Milestones for Goals in iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Performance Management
Updates to performance forms are minimal. We will look at a few of these.
User Experience Enhancements to Performance Management Forms
There have been enhancements to the user experience for PM forms which we will discuss.
Goal Section Updates
In the goal section some enhancements have been made:
Goal Details tab now appears first among all available tabs for a goal. Previously, the first tab was Achievements.
The Goal Name is now in bold font.
Goals on performance form
Page Anchoring
Previously, when the PM form page refreshed, users were anchored to the top of the page. Now when users perform an action on the form page, they’re now anchored to the location where the action was performed.
Toast Messages
Toast Messages provide feedback to users about an action they have taken.
For example, adding or deleting a goal, competency, or learning activity on the form page, a toast message will display confirming the action was performed.
Toast Message
Automatically Fix Document Transfer and Change Engine Issues Caused by RBP Refresh Failures
The Document Transfer and Change Engine issues caused by a RBP refresh failures can now be fixed automatically on a daily basis.
To enable the automatic fixing, select Automatically Fix Document Transfer and Change Engine Issues under Admin Center Performance Management Feature Settings.
Continuous Performance Management
General Availability – Universal
Hide Prior Feedback from the New Manager That Was Requested or Given By the Former Manager
A major update for Employee Central (EC-enabled) instances allows the admin to automatically hide feedback from former managers in Continuous Performance Management (CPM).
Previously, when an employee inherits a new manager, or a manager provides feedback to the employee and leaves the company, the employee had the option to manually hide or delete that feedback from their new manager.
The feature automates the process of hiding feedback given or requested by the prior manager when a manager transfer occurs. The admin will now have the option on the CPM configuration page to automatically hide prior feedback requested.
CPM Configuration
Visibility of Edit and Delete Actions for Continuous Performance Goal Cards Based on User Permissions
Continuous Performance Management goal actions are aligned with Goal Plan action permissions for Goal Management. Employees now have more control over their Performance Goals by creating, editing, or deleting directly in Continuous Performance Management (CPM). When integrated with Goal Management, changes to Performance Goals by the CPM user are reflected in the user’s Goal Plan.
The permissions for available actions on a goal in Continuous Performance Management experience respect Goal Plan configuration. In the previous version of CPM, users were shown both Edit and Delete options for goals. Now employees see actions for edit, delete or edit and delete for Goal cards based on their granted permissions.
There are three different access views of the Goal card: Edit, Delete, Edit and Delete. With this release, the user is only shown the options that they have permissions to use. Previously, Goal cards shown in My Activities view of Continuous Performance allowed all users access to edit or delete actions for the goal.
Now on the My Activities view with the employee’s permission to only edit goals, the Edit icon is what they will see on the Goal cards.
Edit Goals
When an employee’s permission only allows to delete a goal, the delete icon is the only action available on the Goal cards on the My Activities view.
Delete Goals
To modify an Activity linked to a Goal, select that Activity. This opens a new view with Activity Details. Separate Edit and Delete options are available for the selected Activity.
Activity Link to Goal
Use Continuous Feedback in the SAP SuccessFactors App in Microsoft Teams
When SAP SuccessFactors and Microsoft 365 are integrated, a new feature enables allows Continuous Feedback of the latest Continuous Performance Management within Microsoft Teams.
Within Teams, users can enter the SAP SuccessFactors app from the app bar or the compose message area of any chat and perform these tasks:
Request feedback: users can send a feedback request to others to ask for feedback on their performance at work
Give feedback: users who receive a feedback request can provide their feedback and send it back to the requester
Continuous Feedback from Microsoft Teams
Then find and select the person to collect feedback from. Fill in the questions to ask.
Questions for Feedback Provider
Receiver is then notified and can reply in the SF app.
Replacement of Continuous Performance Management Legacy Version with the Continuous Performance Management Latest Version
The legacy version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM) reached end of maintenance on May 20, 2022 and will be deleted as of May 24, 2024.
The replacement is the latest version of CPM is currently available in the Upgrade Center. If no action is taken, your company will be automatically upgraded to the latest version after the deletion date.General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins
Calibration
General Availability – Universal
New Filter Options in Calibration Session
There are now six more filter options to narrow down employees to be displayed in a calibration session.
The new filter options are:
Discussed
Country
New to Position
Future Leader
Key Position,
Matrix Managed
Additional Filters for Calibration Session Employee Search
Discussed is predefined as a default filter. To use the other five filters, enable in Filter Fields from Admin Center >Manage Calibration Settings>Search and Filter Fields.
Calculated Performance Management Ratings Available in List View
You can now view calculated ratings of employees for all performance rating elements in the List view of a calibration session.
By enabling the new admin option Show Calculated Rating from Performance Management in List View at Admin Center >Manage Calibration Templates>Views>List View, calculated ratings of employees can be shown in the List view.
When manual rating for performance elements are enabled, calculated ratings display in the same column as manual ratings. Previously, only manual ratings were shown for the rating element.
When calculated rating for performance elements is enabled, calculated ratings display in the same column as rating labels. Previously, calculated ratings were shown as rating labels defined in rating scales.
Calculated Ratings in Calibration List View
Improved Format of E-mail Notifications Regarding Calibration Rating Changes
Next is a minor update generally available. Columns are left-aligned in e-mail notifications about rating changes in finalized calibration sessions. This update is easier to read. Previously the header and data were not aligned.
Updated Calibration Rating Changes Email
Calibration Configuration Available in Configuration Center
You can now view, download, and transport parts of Calibration configurations using Configuration Center.
Configuration Center
360 Reviews
There are very minor 360 Review updates. Highlights are described below.
Participants are now loaded on demand in the Evaluation Summary section of 360 Reviews forms.
Previously when a 360 form was opened, all participants were all loaded at once. In rare cases where a form had a great number of participants, there was potential to cause performance issues.
With the latest release, if a form has fewer than 100 participants, all the participants are loaded when the form is opened. If the form has more than 100 participants, the first 100 are loaded but users can scroll down to the bottom of the list to trigger further loading.
Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version
The 360 Reviews v11 version will reach the end of maintenance on May 19, 2023 and will be deleted on November 17, 2023.
If you’re using 360 Reviews v11 Version, you should migrate to 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of 1H 2023 minor visual enhancements for Performance Management and Career Development.
Visual Enhancements
There were several minor visual enhancements in this release. The visual enhancements for this release provide a more user friendly and consistent experience.
There are four types of changes:
Text changes (labels, error messages, or roll-over texts)
Iconography (new or changed icons)
Interaction pattern (new position of interaction, new order of list, new or changed buttons)
Styling (layout, spacing, or other design changes)
We will review some of the more notable visual enhancements for Performance Management, 360 Reviews, Continuous Performance Management, Calibration and Mentoring.
Performance Management
Search for users to send completed form to
Each set of filters is now below its category name
The Search Users button is below all the filters
Search Users
Create New Form from Performance Inbox
When launching a performance form from a user’s inbox, the date fields are now indented and right aligned.
Form Launch
Form Inbox Tooltips
In the Performance inbox, the tooltip for the icon in the Employee column is “View more information about <employee name>”,
Employee Info Tooltip
The tooltip for the icon in the Action column is “Add <form title> to Outlook”.
ActionTooltip
Cancel button placement updated
The button to cancel an action has been moved to the right.
This change applies to almost all user interfaces in Performance Management, including: Add Objectives from Objective Plans dialog, Send to Next Step page, Ask for Feedback dialog, Stack Ranker page, Comment dialog, Legal Scan dialog, and Print Setup dialog.
Here are some examples.
Adding objectives tot a PM form.
Return to Form button placement
Ask for Feedback dialog
Ask for Feedback Cancel button placement
Stack Ranker
Stack Ranker Cancel button placement
Goal in the goal section or Competency in the competency section
The first column header is Goal in the goal section orCompetencyin the competency section of a performance form. Previously Expand All and Collapse All were inthe first column table header
The Expand All and Collapse All options now appear in the top-left corner above the table
Goal section layout
360 Reviews
Cancel button placement updated for 360 Reviews
The Cancel button has been moved to the right for 360 Reviews.
Changes include opened 360 Reviews form, Goal Weights dialog, Add Participants dialog, Send Back dialog, Find Employee dialog, and Add Competencies dialog.
Here are some examples.
Canceling an opened 360 Reviews form
Cancel button placement on 360 Review
Canceling a participant search
Cancel confirmation to next step
Cancel button on Confirmation
Continuous Performance Management
The icon for the Request Feedback on the latest home page has two intersecting talk balloons.
Request Feedback Quick Action
Previously the icon had talk balloons that included a question mark and an exclamation mark.
Achievements on Mobile Device
On the Android app, the Visible to my manager switch and the Mark as Achievement switch have wider tracks, and new color mappings.
Achievements on Android
Career Development – Mentoring
Successful Enrollment Message
When users sign up for an open enrollment or unsupervised program as a mentee there is a “success” message. The message has been enhanced to now include a reminder for the user that they can contact preferred mentors directly if they don’t hear from the mentors for an extended period of time.
Mentoring Enrollment Message
Mentor Participation Approval Request
The Mentor Participation Approval Requests have been updated.
The Approve and Decline buttons are now closer to the message text. The buttons used to be at the bottom of the page.
Mentor Participation Request
Confirmation for Joining Mentoring Program
When signing up for a mentoring program and a user decides to Save for Later, there is now a confirmation message pop up for them to confirm if they want to save the draft for joining the program for later.
SAP has announced the latest updates and changes for SuccessFactors for the first half of 2023.
Preview release is on April 28 with the production release is scheduled for June 2. You can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here. For full details on the release cycle, check out the SAP SuccessFactors official product updates blog.
For tips on how to manage a release, check out our blog here.
For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 1H 2023 Career Development below.
Career Development
There are a few universal updates for Career Development that are reviewed below.
Career Worksheet – General Availability
Career Development Configurations Available in Configuration Center
You can now view, download, and transport Career Development configurations using Configuration Center.
Configuration Center
New Action Available in Action Search
On a career worksheet, View my current role in Career Worksheet action is now available for use in the global search box. Users can enter the exact text of the action or select from suggested actions to navigate to the Career Worksheet page.
Current Role Action
The new action takes users directly to a selected page and eliminates multiple steps to get there.
Career Worksheet Data in Story Reports Now Limited to Target Population
The Career Worksheet data that users can view in Story reports, including current and target roles, is now limited to their target population.
Changed Permission for Users to Show Target Roles in People Profile
Now a user only needs View permission (User Permissions>Employee Data>Preferred Next Move) in order to select the Make public in Live Profile checkbox in Career Worksheet to show target roles in People Profile.
Previously, View and Edit permissions were required. Now a user can select the option to show a role in Career Worksheet. The role then appears in the Career Goals block in People Profile.
Link to Career Goal Block
Mentoring – General Availability – Universal
Approvals for Mentoring Requests on the Latest Home Page
In an open enrollment or unsupervised mentoring program, Mentors can now accept or decline the mentoring requests sent by mentees in the Approvals section on the latest home page.
Accept or Decline Mentoring Requests
View More Recommended Mentors
When a user signs up for a mentoring program as a mentee, they can now view up to 100 recommended mentors. Previously, only 10 mentors were recommended.
While signing up and choosing Show Recommended Mentors, now there will be two rows of recommended mentor cards with the View More link below the cards.
Recommended Mentors
Customize Mentoring Email Notifications
For any customized program type created with text replacement for a Mentoring programs, email notifications for a specific program type may be customized in Email Notification Templates Settings as well.
Customize Mentoring Emails
Approvals for Mentoring Requests on the Latest Home Page in iOS and Android Mobile Apps
SAP SuccessFactors Mobile users can now search for mentors from a recommended mentoring program they haven’t joined in Opportunity Marketplace. Previously, they had to join the program first.
When a user wants to invite someone they found to be their mentor, choose Submit Request on the Mentor or Bookmarks page. They will be prompted with a message guiding them to join the program first.
Mobile Message when Joining
After joining the program, users can submit a mentoring request to their preferred mentor directly on the page.
Highlights are identified by module and the type of change.
Universal- for modules enabled, universal means no steps are required to have access to the new functionality. These features are automatically made available.
Admin Opt-In – the admin must enable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools
Admin Opt-Out – the admin must disable the new feature, usually in Admin Tools
Provisioning Opt-In and Opt-Out require a Partner or Product Support request For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new for 2H 2022 Performance Management below.
Latest Goal Management
The updates are for the latest Goal Management are admin opt-ins. The new features are described below. These features are also now available in iOS and Android mobile apps.
General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins
Copy Goals from Goal Plans using the latest Goal Management
Users can now copy personal goals from their own goal plans as a new option to create goals.
Requirements to use this feature include:
The TGM/CDP Goal Transfer Wizard feature is enabled
The create permission is granted in XML configurations
The write permission for goal fields is granted
Leave Comments on Goals when using the latest Goal Management
Users can now add, edit, or delete comments on their own goals or those of their direct reports. In legacy Goal Management, comments are shown in the goal list or on the goal editing page.
Copy form Goal Plan
In the latest Goal Management, the updated comment feature is supported and comments are shown on the goal details page.
Comments Section on Goal Details
Comments can also be managed in Performance Management forms, 360 Reviews forms, and Career Development.
Team Goals Now Available when using the latest Goal Management
Users can now create, manage, and be assigned team goals in the latest Goal Management.
Users may:
Create, edit, or delete team goals
Access team goals from their own goal plan
Assign/unassign team goals to people from their team or people found via search
Share/unshare team goal ownership with others
If configured, users can manage team goals assigned to them in Continuous Performance Management.
Team Goal Landing Page
Users can also manage team goals assigned to them in Performance Management forms, 360 Reviews forms, and Continuous Performance Management.
Group Goals are no longer supported.
These new features are available in iOS and Android Mobile Apps as well.
Performance Management
The majority of the performance management updates involve Multi-Rater 360 forms and Calibration. However there are a few goal and performance related updates that we will begin with.
General Availability – Universal Updates
SMART Goal Wizard not available when using the latest Goal Management
It will not be possible to use the SMART Goal Wizard when adding a goal to a performance form. This feature currently is not supported. Even if you enable the SMART Goal Wizard setting in Form Template Settings this option will not appear when adding a goal.
Enhanced OData Entities for Querying Development Goal Sections on Forms
You can now use APIs to query development goal sections and goal items on Performance Management forms. The FormContent, FormPMReviewContentDetail, FormObjective, FormObjectiveDetails, and FormObjectiveSection APIs. Previously these APIs were used to query performance goal sections and goal items only
General Availability – Admin Opt-In
Confirmation prior to Sending Forms
When users send a form, a message popup appears and allows them to confirm the action.
In the advanced settings for the template, there will be a new option to enable the new experience as seen below.
New Setting Available
A pop-up will appear for a user that is sending a form back or forward a step to allows the user to confirm the action. It is also applicable when signing a form, rejecting form or sending a copy of a completed form.
In the route map on the form, clicking Actions in the current step, will display a dropdown list.
Actions on Route Step
Selecting the action will cause a pop-up to display.
Confirmation Pop-up
Continuous Performance Management
General Availability – Universal
Updated Character Count for Continuous Feedback Topic Field
In the previous version, when users chose the “send” button on a form, a confirmation page appeared.
The character count for the Continuous Feedback topic field to 200 characters.
Replacement of Continuous Performance Management Legacy Version with the Continuous Performance Management Latest Version
The legacy version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM) will reach End of Maintenance on May 20, 2022 and will be retired as of May 24, 2024. The replacement is the latest version of CPM, initially released in 2H 2020, that is currently available in the Upgrade Center. If no action is taken, your company will be automatically upgraded to the latest version after the retirement date.
General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins
New Quick Action to Give Feedback on the Latest Home Page
Employees can now choose to Give Feedback from the Quick Actions section on the latest home page.When the Give Feedback is selected, the user can search and select one person, input a topic, and provide feedback to the other user.
Give Feedback from Quick Actions
Once selected, the user may select the person, feedback topic, and questions.
Selections for Feedback
OData v4 API Continuous Feedback for the Latest Version of Continuous Performance Management
You can now use the Continuous Feedback OData v4 API with the latest version of Continuous Performance Management.
The OData v4 API for Continuous Feedback has been added to support third-party integrations and extensions for the latest version of Continuous Performance Management (CPM).
Calibration
General Availability – Universal
Remove Subjects from Calibration Sessions
There is a new admin tool, Remove Subjects from Calibration Sessions, used to search for the sessions where an employee has been included as a calibration subject.
When the employee is included in many sessions, you narrow down the search results by selecting a calibration template name. Then, only the sessions created with the specified template are listed.
Remove Subjects from Calibration Sessions
General Availability – Admin Opt-In
More Gender Values in Calibration Views
Male and Female were supported for visualization in Calibration Views. Now there are the other three standard values: Unknown, Undeclared, and Others.
The gender icon is displayed next to the employee’s name. When the gender of an employee hasn’t been specified in the system yet, it will be indicated as No Selection.
Gender Icons
The gender bars in the matrix grid view are now rendered in different colors:
Male: Violet
Female: Green
Undeclared: Blue
Unknown: Dark Blue
Others: Red
No Selection: Grey
Matrix Grid View
Enhancement to Guidelines Enforcement During Mass Finalization
There are more guidelines enforcement scenarios that are supported when you finalize multiple sessions at one time.
More than one rating is included in a guideline defined with a rating group
An operator other than “=” is configured in a guideline defined with a rating range
Not all ratings have a guideline
No longer are guidelines enforced only when finalizing an individual calibration session. With the latest release, multiple sessions can be finalized as long the distribution of subjects doesn’t meet one of the above-mentioned definitions. Distributions would need to be adjusted in order to finalize all of the sessions.
Previously, these guidelines were enforced only when you finalized individual sessions.
360 Reviews
There are several updates for 360 Reviews. Highlights are described below.
General Availability – Universal
Hide Route Map on 360 Reviews Forms
Similar to PM forms, a route map may be collapsed on the form.
This is done through the advanced settings of the 360 Review template by selecting “Hide Route Map on the Form”. Once enabled, when viewing the form, clicking on Hide Route Map will hide the route map from view on the form.
Visible Route Map
Clicking on Hide Route Map will collapse the route map from view on the form.
Click Show Route Map
Hidden Route Map
Required Fields Marked on 360 Reviews Forms
Fields defined as required are now identified with red asterisks on forms in the Evaluation stage. This now matches how required fields display in PM forms.
Updated Messages for Users Approving or Routing Forms Using Unsupported Tools
In the Approve Form or Route Signature Stage Form tool, once users enter document IDs and chose the buttons to approve or route forms, they weren’t informed that these tools don’t work for 360 Reviews forms.
Now if a user tries to approve or route 360 Reviews forms using unsupported tools in Admin Center, a message will display reminding them that these tools aren’t supported and are shown the correct tool to use.
Messaging when Routing using Unsupported Tools
“competency-filter” Attribute Supported in 360 Reviews Forms
The competency-filter attribute can be used to control what competencies users from different participant categories can view and rate on 360 Reviews.
Within the meta-cat element in the meta section of the form XML, define different participant categories in order to:
After the form is launched, in the Show Assignments dialog, participants belonging to the categories allowed to rate a competency are automatically selected for that competency. However, users can still select any competencies for a participant that weren’t initially included in the competency-filter defined for the participant’s category.
If a participant’s category is changed in the Modify stage, the participant’s competency assignment will be automatically updated to comply with the new category’s competency-filter.
If a participant is added in the Evaluation stage, the participant’s competency assignment will follow the competency-filter defined for the participant’s category.
If a competency is added to the form, filters including or not including this competency will apply to related competency assignments.
Disable Page Setup When Printing 360 Reviews Forms
It is now possible to prevent a user from specifying to print the Summary View or 360 Executive Review form. Instead the form will be printed in its entirety.
In Form Template Settings there is a new option – Disable Page Setup. When enabled, users aren’t allowed to specify the sections to print and the entire form will print.
Print Setup without Section Option
Show Behaviors in Summary Section by Enabling Rate-by-Behavior
When behaviors are associated with competencies, it is now possible to show behavior names and ratings in the Summary section.
To enable rate-by-behavior, set use-behavior to true and behavior-mode-opt to 0. In the Summary section, add the show-behaviors-in-summary element.
Purge Data of External Users in 360 Reviews
There is a new purge request, DRTM 360 Reviews – External User Purge used to delete data of external users no longer needed in 360 Reviews forms.
The External User Purge for 360 Reviews can be defined by the following purge rules.
A specified number of days have passed since the user declined a form
A specified number of days have passed since the user submitted a form
A specified number of days have passed and the user hasn’t responded to a form
A specified number of days have passed since the user who has never been involved in any form was added to the system
To successfully purge a user’s data who has multiple 360 Reviews forms, each form must satisfy one of the first three criteria.
360 Reviews External User Purge Request
Deprecation of 360 Reviews v11 Version
The 360 Reviews v11 version will reach the end of maintenance on May 19, 2023 and will be deleted on November 17, 2023.
360 Reviews v11 Version is being depreciated because 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version is generally available and includes the majority of features and functions that were available in 360 Reviews v11. In addition the SAP Fiori version has an enhanced user experience and updated visualizations.
If you’re using 360 Reviews v11 Version, please migrate to 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version.
Career Development
There are a few universal updates for Career Development that are reviewed below.
Career Worksheet – General Availability – Universal
Enhanced Competency Gap Graph in Career Worksheet
Previously, the gap graph was shown only when a competency had both a last rating and expected rating. With the latest release, if a competency has either a last rating or expected rating, a horizontal bar graph for ratings is shown below the competency.
In the example below, the competency has an expected rating shown in blue with no last rating.
Gap Graph
In the previous version, no horizontal bar graph was available if both ratings were not available.
Career Worksheet – General Availability – Admin Opt-Ins
Career Explorer Now Generally Available
Previously, Career Explorer was only available for customers in an Early Adopter Care (EAC) program. It is now generally available.
Career Explorer recommends career opportunities to employees based on the career paths of people who are similar to them in the organization. It provides a means for employees to find relevant opportunities in their organization outside their hierarchy, career moves of people who are similar and paths that they may not have considered.
For a recommended role, an employee can expand the card to see a career path in a lineage chart and view job profiles and recommendation reasons. The role may be added to Career Worksheet to do gap analysis for personal skills, or dislike the role to further personalize subsequent recommendations.
Recommended roles are refreshed every two weeks or when there are enough delta changes to the data. This allows employees to visit the Career Explorer page regularly to explore new recommendations.
Career Explorer Page
Mentoring – General Availability – Universal
Country/Region Picklist Available for Mentoring Matching Questions
A “Country/Region” picklist is now available in the question category to use for automatic matching. Matching rules can be created to allow mentees to define their preferred country/region when signing up for a program, and mentors’ country/region information is pulled from their profile data.
Country/Region Picklist for Mentoring
Mentoring Program Available in Cross Domain Table Reports
Mentoring Program is now available as a domain in Cross Domain reports in Table reports. This can be used with Performance Management, Goal Management and Employee Profile domains to gather mentoring program related data.
In Conclusion
We have now covered the highlights of the PM related updates for 2H 2022.
SAP has announced the latest updates and changes for SuccessFactors for the first half of 2022.
Preview release was on April 15 and production will be released May 20. You can view the full set of documentation in the What’s New Viewer here. For full details on the release cycle, check out the SAP SuccessFactors official product updates blog.
For your convenience, we’ve summarized the highlights of what’s new in the 1H 2022 Platform release below.
Overview
SAP continues to invest in numerous updates into the platform, topping most of the other modules for the past few releases. Due to the large number of updates (89 in this release!), we’ve highlighted only some of the most significant changes below. We’ve categorized the updates based on who the affected audience for each change: User Experience Updates, Admin Updates, and System Updates.
User Experience
SAP continues to remind customers that the Universal release of the Latest Homepage will be in June 3rd for preview and June 24th for production environments. If you haven’t reviewed the changes and opted-in, you should do so now and plan your communication strategy so your users aren’t caught wondering why their homepage changed!
SAP also continues to add more quick actions to the latest homepage, thus increase its usefulness as a quick way to access needed areas of the system without having to click through navigation. The actions added include “Candidate Talent Pools”, “Learning Administration”, “Mobile Activation”, “View Company Documents”, and “View Tile Reports”. The homepage also now allows for grouping of custom cards within the Organizational Updates section as seen in the screenshot below:
Screenshot of Card Groupings within the Organizational Updates Section
You can also see an example of the new half sized custom cards in the screenshot above.
There are also various updates to the opportunity marketplace including allowing Assignment offer approvals, allowing assignment owners to see descriptions of capabilities including proficiency levels when creating assignments and applicants to see their own capability details. The capability picker also got updates you can read about in our blog here: https://worklogix.blog/2022/04/17/sap-successfactors-1h-2022-whats-new-in-succession-and-career-development/
You can also now turn on a data privacy consent form for uploading photos that is shown to users as in the example screenshot below:
Screenshot of data privacy consent message for employee photos
Also related to photos- you can now have just one photo for a person on global assignment with multiple employments.
After many years of service, quickcards have finally got an upgrade across the system. This gives a better look and feel consistent across the platform. An example is shown below:
Updated Quickcard
Admin Updates
Do you still love to use the old admin page like me? I’m sorry to say the nostalgic use of the OneAdmin page will end on May 20th this year. Time to start using the NextGen admin page.
If you are a security or compliance admin, you’ll be happy to know you can now perform read and change audit reports on multiple users for up to 30 days now. The storage limit has also been increased from 1GB to 10GB.
The still evolving transport system in SuccessFactors also got an enhancement in the form of Bundle Management in Configuration Center. You can now create bundles, edit them, and even share them with others! Checkout the screenshot below:
New Bundle Management Feature Screenshot
There’s also now a handy import history report available for download in the Configuration Center as well!
The RBP admin screen also got a new facelift! You have the option to turn this one on by selecting the option on the old screen. Check it out below!
New RBP Admin Screen
System Updates
Access to APIs based on HTTP Basic Authentication will no longer be supported on November 17 2023. This gives customers about a year and a half to adapt any existing interfaces that log on to the APIs directly to OAuth 2.0.
The APIs will now also start to be throttled. Probably a smart move on the part of SAP to keep system stability, but but news if you have interfaces that make lots of calls. Don’t worry – the limit is now 40 requests per second so you’d have to be doing A LOT of calls to be affected.
The APIs have also been enhanced with more linking between a variety of entities. Check the main What’s New Viewer page for specifics.
Wrap Up
We have now covered the Platform update highlights for 1H 2022! SAP continues to invest greatly in the platform to expand the overall capabilities of the system, concentrating on consistent and enhanced user experience while giving admins more helpful tools.
I’ve implemented and supported many SAP SuccessFactors systems across my 15+ year career. One repeated issue I’ve come across throughout these years is how to catalog skills, competencies, and the like in a systematic way that allows employers to record, categorize, evaluate and search through employees who have specific skills at specific skill levels. Imagine starting a new project or opening a new plant and being able to see who out in your existing talent pool has the skills you need to success instead of hiring new full time talent or contractors. Up until recently, the only way SAP SuccessFactors customers have had to do this out of the box has been the employee profile which lacks the rigid structure needed to really properly catalog skills.
As the SAP SuccessFactors product as continued to expand, SAP has set out to solve this problem. SAP’s answer to the problem of how to record, categorize, evaluate and search through employee skills, competencies, and the like in a systematic way is the Center of Capabilities.
The Center of Capabilities provides a framework where the skills, competencies, and other similar employee attributes that matter to your organization can be cataloged and assigned to employees. The framework consists of two main components: the Capabilities Library and the Capabilities Portfolio. As you might expect, the library contains the listing of all capabilities (skills, competencies, etc.) that are important to your organization. The portfolio shows which particular skills, competencies, etc. are assigned to individuals or job roles (for more information on job roles, check out our blog Introduction to the Job Profile Builder or our book that covers this and more talent management topics). Let’s take a closer look at these two components of the Center of Capabilities.
The Capabilities Library
A Capabilities Library stores a collection of related skills / competencies / attributes. For smaller organizations you may have only one library divided into a few major categories. For larger organizations you may have multiple libraries each containing a single relevant functional area further divided into smaller categories and even groups beneath those. In addition, behaviors can also be added to competencies. Two examples are below, the first a snippet of a simple single company-wide library, and the second a snippet of a larger company collection of libraries with competencies that also contain behaviors (note that as of writing this blog, only competencies are supported in the library, but the long term plan appears to be to include more types of capabilities):
Library: ACME Company Library
Category: Finance
Competency: Analytical Approach
Competency: Financial Responsibility
Library: Information Technology
Category: IT Project Management
Group: Project Planning
Competency: Achieving Deadlines
Behavior: Clearly lists key/critical dates
Behavior: Provides consistent status reports
Competency: Being Adaptable to Changes in Plan
Behavior: Takes in New Requirements following change control procedures
Behavior: Adjusts project plan using proven estimation techniques
Group: Meeting Facilitation
Competency: Listening to Others
Behavior: Implements active listening techniques
Behavior: Records key group member discussion points into meeting notes
Competency: Guiding Others to Desired Outcomes
Behavior: Understands and interjects when meeting is becoming derailed
Behavior: Facilitates agreement between meeting participants
Category: Systems Administration
Group: Configuring Systems
Competency: Following Change Control Procedures
Behavior: Reviews change control procedure documentation
Behavior: Listens to and implements architectural review board feedback
The screenshot below shows a sample of what a competency with behaviors assigned looks like within the Library. You can access the library via the “Manage Center of Capabilities” screen (make sure you assign this permission first as well as end user permissions – you can find more details in the admin guide at help.sap.com).
The Capabilities Portfolio
The capabilities portfolio is what ties an individual to a set of capabilities from the library via their job role. Capabilities can be assessed via a performance form. Each capability has a proficiency rating scale assigned to them that determines what their scores can be. Before you can use the portfolio, you’ll have to use the setup wizard pictured below in the “Manage Center of Capabilities” screen to setup the rating scale / proficiency levels. You will also need to associate which performance forms will show the proficiency history.
Once your setup is complete, you can select “Capabilities Portfolio” from the main navigation to look at your capabilities. As capabilities are rated via performce forms, they are updated here. You can look at the capabilities of another by searching for their name and selecting “Go to -> Capabilities Portfolio” from the action menu.
Conclusions
As of right now, the “Center of Capabilities” is mostly a rebrand of the existing competency library. However, taking a look at the SAP release roadmap, we can see that subsequent releases should prove to have more functionality that will expand the functionality beyond the initial limits of the legacy competency library. Speaking with contacts at SAP, the vision is to have the Center of Capabilities serve as the location where HR resources can find out all kinds of information about what individuals within the organization can do for it and conversely empower individuals to seek other opportunities in the organization that need their unique capabilities.
Do you need help setting up the Center of Capabilities? Contact us at info@worklogix.com!
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.
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!
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