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SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release Analysis

Created on April 8, 2020
Last updated on December 14th, 2021 at 8:26 am by Anup Chavda


With the SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management release, it’s that time again where SAP unveils all the latest innovations. The SAP SuccessFactors release schedule has moved from quarterly to twice-yearly. While the updates and optimizations are less frequent, it does mean more tangible changes when releases arrive. 

The preview release for H1 goes live on April 10, with the production release now delayed to June 5 to give customers extra time during the COVID-19 outbreak.

For the first half of 2020there are plenty of updates in the Performance Management release, so let’s look at what’s new. 

H1 2020 Performance Management Release Updates 

360 Reviews Fiori Enhancements  

SuccessFactors has been working hard to achieve parity across the design and functional elements for its entire suite to meet the Fiori standard, and these enhancements are another check in the box for that goal. This release, SuccessFactors has now included Fiori versions of:  

360 Executive Review Page 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management release 360 Executive Review

How to turn it on: Provisioning Optin 

Add External Participants in 360 Reviews 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release

How to turn it onProvisioning Opt-in 

External Participants Update Forms in 360 Reviews 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release 

How to turn it onProvisioning Opt-in 

Send copy in 360 Reviews 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release

How to turn it onThis is a universal update. 

Autosave for Comments in 360 Reviews  

Similarly, to the Fiori feature in Performance reviews, the system will now autosave comments every five seconds. The manual save button is still accessible. 

How to turn it onThis is a universal update.  

Additional 360 Reviews functionality the H1 2020 Performance Management release includes: 

New OData API Function Import for 360 Reviews: Complete 360  

A new API function has been created in OData for import of 360 reviews to submit them in the “evaluation” stage.

How to turn it onThis is a universal update.  

Increased Width of Custom Text Boxes – 360 Reviews 

A common request with 360 custom text boxes that were too short, so in this release, SuccessFactors have increased the width of custom text boxes to match standard text boxes 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release

How to turn it on: This is a universal update.  

Thankfully in the H1 2020 Performance Management release, it’s not only 360 reviews that got all the attention. The other Performance features also got some much-needed love.  

Continuous Performance Management   

Discussion Topics 

This brand-new enhancement of CPM gives the ability within Meeting mode to allow users to create, edit, and delete short topics, to be discussed during 1:1s. This further enforces the drive for owning and participating in regular 1:1s between Managers and Employees. To streamline the form, the “other topics” section has been repurposed for this enhancement. 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release

How to turn it onAdmin Opt-in 

Latest Continuous Performance Management 

SuccessFactors have redesigned and enabled “restricted-availability” (meaning that this can be permissioned in RBP for testing/pilot programs) of the Continuous Performance Management functionality. This version is designed to be extremely lightweight and easy to use, and so forgoes some of the advanced functionality. The following is NOT included in the redesigned version: 

  • Activity Feedback 
  • Coaching 
  • Achievement Goal Linking 
  • Achievement Development Linking 
  • Continuous Feedback 
  • Achievement Feedback 

How to turn it on: Admin Opt-in 

Meeting Notes 

Another commonly requested enhancement was somewhere that an individual could store notes, that remained private to them. In the H1 2020 Performance Management release, Meeting Notes has been created that remain attached to the meeting history and remain private to the individual. Managers cannot see the notes of their reports and vice versa. Furthermore, administrators can generate reports from the meeting notes data.

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release 

How to turn it on: This is a universal update.  

Disable Deleting Feedback 

A new administrator facing option has been created where they can now prevent users from deleting feedback received. By default, this is off (meaning feedback CAN be removed), but an administrator can tick the box to disable the ability to delete feedback 

How to turn it onAdmin Opt-in  

Updated Achievements View 

With this enhancement, customers are now able to see all their activities that are tagged as achievements in one view. This also includes multiple achievements that are associated to one activity. Within this view, users can filter achievements by date range, view the associated activity details, and view the achievements chronologically. 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release

How to turn it on: This is a universal update.  

Performance Forms Updates 

Business Rule-Driven Weighted Rating Based on User Roles  

An enhancement to bring rater user role into account when calculating final ratings, this enhancement is particularly helpful when multiple people are rating an individual’s performance form.  

Using Business Rules to apply a weighting to the given rating, the system can then calculate, depending on the raters role, a weight to their rating. This enhancement is designed to bring more flexibility to multiple raters on a performance form. Some further configuration is required, including the creation of two business rule scenarios. 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release

How to turn it onAdmin Opt-in 

Qualtrics Feedback from Employees After a Performance Review 

The QualtricsSuccessFactors integrations are slowly being rolled out, and one of the first for Talent Management modules is the ability to gather feedback from Employees post Performance Review.  

Getting feedback from employees on the Performance Management process is vitally important, and with this integration becomes a natural extension of the process in place. Enabling this functionality requires Qualtrics Experience Management licensing. 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release Qualtrics

How to turn it on: Provisioning Opt-in 

Add and Remove Ad Hoc Signers in En Route Folder 

Having the flexibility to be able to remove incorrectly added signers to a performance review has been requested for a while. Previously once the form is routed forward, only an administrator was able to adjust the signers in the process. This enhancement allows the users (with the correct permissions) to remove the wrongly added signers from the process. Once the signer has been removed, the form will continue to be routed to the next step of the process, and the removed signer will get a notification that their participation is no longer necessary. 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release

How to turn it onAdmin Opt-in  

Too New to Rate is Supported as a Last Competency Rating 

The “Too New to Rate” rating has always been a rating that never gets considered as part of the overall rating scheme/historical rating for forms. With this update, the “too new to rate” is now supported and no longer gets filtered out as the last competency rating. This is especially important when an employee is either new to the organization or to the role where they can’t be rated as normal. 

SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Performance Management Release 

How to turn it on: Admin Opt-in 

More to Come for the SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Releases

The H1 2020 Performance Management release is just a small part of the latest SAP SuccessFactors 2020 update. Continue to follow Rizing HCM on LinkedIn for release analysis of more modules in the coming weeks. Customers should also follow the SAP SuccessFactors Community Page for the latest updates and roadmaps.   

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