SAP SuccessFactors will be available in two releases for 2020, First Half and Second Half, instead of the quarterly schedule of previous years. The preview period, as usual, will be available prior to each release for the customers to test new features and functionalities before the live production release date.
The major highlights in various modules are covered in this blog post.
SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting
As we know, Talent Acquisition is the most important module to play a key role in hiring the required resources at the ideal time. It widely impacts business performance.
In the new release of First Half 2020, SAP SuccessFactors’ recruiting has overcome the challenge of mass hiring. Recruiting is one of the most time-consuming processes of any project. It provides an option to initiate multiple job requisitions and minimizes repetitive tasks. This “Evergreen Requisition” allows the job publication and attracts a pool of candidates; such high-volume hiring increases the efficiency of recruiters and hiring managers.
The “Integration of Job Applicants” survey is another brand new feature in Recruiting, executed on the career site through the Employee Experience Management Solution from SAP Qualtrics. It can help to capture detailed candidate experience during the recruitment process.
SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding
Onboarding 2.0 can now connect to an External HRIS system with Employee Central to be used as a platform for connecting to the external HRIS. There is no new license required for EC. Compliance forms for the United Kingdom and Australia are now available in Onboarding (2.0), which can be enabled from the Admin Centre with Administrator access. E-signatures have been introduced to sign the compliance documents.
SAP SuccessFactors Performance and Goals
There are many new and exciting features available in the 1H 2020 release for Performance and Goals Management Solutions. PM is available in a new version as CPM (Continuous Performance Management) which can be enabled through the Admin Centre > Continuous Performance Management configuration. There is a new Kanban board introduced in CPM to manage the activities and goals via easy drag-and-drop options. Also, Employees can use the new meeting view to participate in the discussion topics with the team and capture meeting notes to keep track.
SAP SuccessFactors Succession and Development
There are two important enhancements in Succession and Development. One is the talent pool view for managers to track the direct reports talent pool from a single view. This includes new nominations, changes removals, and the log of who changed the records. The other new key features include the filter drill down and changes made to the time stamps.
SAP SuccessFactors Learning
One of the major highlights of the First Half 2020 release is the new Learning Administrators’ User Interface. The menus are consistent and screens have been redesigned in such a way that the most commonly- and recently-used records are presented at the top. This improves admin users’ time efficiency. In addition to this, there are some more specific updates available: The terminologies are now more relatable and easier for learners. A new tile has been included in the dashboard to access Learning Administration directly from the homepage. There is also a new Navigation Menu on the left-hand side of the screen organized in a tree structure with the Primary Menu having the most commonly-used tools.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central (Core HR)
The existing “Auto Delegation” feature, used to delegate the workflow to a pre-approved user, now has the new option of specifying the exact start and end time of the delegation. In addition, the delegated user is given the option to either accept or reject the delegation requests. This will help in assigning the workflow to an appropriate resource. There have been improvements made in integration capabilities too. In terms of maintaining work schedules, Employee Central Time and Employee Central Payroll no longer have to be updated seperately. Now shift working times can be loaded directly from external time applications to Employee Central Time Management to evaluate the working time.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll
There is an improved integration of planned work time with SuccessFactors’ Employee Central Time Management. The “No-Show” functionality is used with the “Report No-Show” button to mark the employee as inactive for Payroll.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Time and Attendance Management
The two very useful features introduced in Employee Central are time off and time sheet for employees and managers. “Flextime Bandwidth” allows managers to configure a time bandwidth for the work schedules. This gives employees work time flexibility to start and finish their daily working day. It also alerts managers and time admin to any overtime logs. The “Leave Payout” feature improves the employee experience by granting a level of control over their time accounts and allowing them to request a payout of their leave balances. In the Team Absence Calendar, high-level managers can now view the absences of colleagues who are not part of their direct reporting team for the entire week or month.
Take-away from the SuccessFactors 1H 2020 release
Customers have found it somewhat challenging to use new products such as Employee Central Payroll, wherein they expect regular and quick updates.
This highlights the necessity to pay an additional fee for a Qualtrics License for Employee Experience (EX), allowing customers to use Qualtrics with Recruiting and with other modules. A customer who is looking to implement ONB 2.0 without implementing EC will only be able to support the Onboarding process. Cross boarding and Offboarding is not supported in this release.
As customers do not have control over the new functionalities and features coming in the quarterly release, these updates are mostly universal. Customers are forced to keep on track, adapt to changes, and continue learning and developing their landscape. Now with only 2 yearly releases, customers will be satisfied because a lot of human effort goes into testing changes after every release.
