In every quarterly SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central release, there are what I like to call “quality of life” updates. These are things that may not make headlines, or highlight documents from SAP, but they are things that customers have requested to make their day-to-day tasks a little bit easier.
Here are four updates that we know customers were looking for, and SuccessFactors has now delivered, in the Q3 2018 Employee Central update:
Better People Search for Employees with Multiple Assignments
In the past, when an employee had concurrent employment across multiple assignments, they would show up multiple times in the People Search. This was confusing. Users would often navigate to the wrong employment record and that could lead to mistakes.
With the latest update, People Search now shows if someone is running a global assignment or concurrent assignments, without going any deeper. That’s a small change, but it makes the system a whole lot more usable.
Rule Function to Calculate FTE Across Employment
Sometimes employees fill more than one role in order to reach a full-time equivalent position—maybe 20 hours in one position per week and 20 hours in another. That might make it difficult to ensure they don’t eclipse the 40-hour-a-week total unless both those roles are tracked concurrently.
With the latest release, SuccessFactors users can indicate a rule that an employee with multiple positions cannot go over a certain number of hours a week. This was enabled by releasing a rule function which allows a check across employment records.
This was a specific pain point for a customer of ours that deployed Employee Central in 2015. That customer made sure to voice their opinion in the SuccessFactors community by making the suggestion to add the functionality.
What that shows, to me, is that customers should be sure to let SuccessFactors know when they want something added to the system. Eventually, that community participation pays off. It might not be something as sexy as a new module, but it makes life better nonetheless.
Changing Hire Dates Retroactively for Rehires
In Q2 2018, SuccessFactors gave customers the ability to change hire dates retroactively with one click of the button, rather than going back and updating all records individually. This quarter, they’ve taken that a step further by accommodating rehires.
Again, this is a small thing that can have a big impact. It reduces the opportunity for mistakes. That saves time and energy on the part of the HR staff.
Supporting Rules-Based Generation of User IDs for Rehires
The way a company generates User IDs and employee numbers is fundamental to any HR system. SuccessFactors generates these in a sequence of standard numbers, and customers create custom rules to produce IDs based on their own criteria—such as country.
However, this solution was limited when it came to rehires. Creating a new employee number during a rehire is common when facing multinational installations that run EC Payroll. The problem was that you couldn’t create a new number if the employee already had one.
The latest release creates a frame holder to put in your company’s specific rules for generating employee IDs. This is technical, but it is fundamental. Giving companies this flexibility automates a process that was sure to create headaches in the past.