With the SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Development 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 2020, there are plenty of updates in the Development release, so let’s look at what’s new. We’ll also have one update from SAP SuccessFactors Goal Management.
H1 2020 Development Release
SAP SuccessFactors has brought some enhancements in the H1 2020 Development release by leveraging other products within the SAP ecosystem to bring this functionality to the forefront of technology in the HRIS space.
Career Explorer
By leveraging machine learning from the SAP Leonardo product, this (currently limited availability) enhancement really brings Development up to date with the technologies available. The machine learning will power Career Explorer to recommend, via the Career Worksheet page, career opportunities available to the employees based on the career paths of people in similar roles within the organization.
The benefits of this are exposing employees to roles that they may not have considered before. These roles might be out of their hierarchy and showing them what some other career moves that employees in similar situations have taken.
How to turn it on: Provisioning Opt-in
Deep Link to Current Role in Career Worksheet
More and more clients are using the native deep linking functionality within SAP SuccessFactors to direct employees to specific areas on the system from their Intranets or from email blasts reminding them to go into SAP SuccessFactors and undertake specific activities. In this release, SAP SuccessFactors have now made the “Current Role” tab in Career Worksheet deep linkable by using the /sf/careerworksheet?currentrole=true switch in the URL.
How to turn it on: This is a universal update.
Buddhist Calendar Support in Career Development Planning
To ensure a truly global product, SAP SuccessFactors works on developing enhancements for different parts of the world. This enhancement enables Buddhist Calendar support for the Career Development Module (Fun Fact: Did you know, according to the Buddhist calendar, the year is 2563?)
How to turn it on: This is a universal update.
SuccessFactors are bringing great enhancements for the Mentoring functionality in the H1 2020 Development release. The next few are the updates in this particular area.
Email Notifications to Mentees about Availability Changes of Mentors
If a mentee has nominated Mentors (either active or pending) and their availability changes, the system will notify the mentees of their availability (either available or unavailable). Mentors with receive an email notification if an administrator changes their availability for them.
How to turn it on: This is a universal update.
Enhanced Matching Rules in Mentoring Programs
A great enhancement to provide more flexibility and more accurate matching of Mentors to Mentees, additional options have been provided including:
- Using picklists or freetext (picklists can be used multiple times, i.e., yes/no)
- Matching can take place based on preferences, employee profile or mixed
- Whether the question is a crucial question or not
- Giving matching questions a score
- Different weighting for questions.
How to turn it on: This is a universal update.
Reduced Number of Recommended Mentors
Previously SAP SuccessFactors Mentoring would recommend up to 100 matched mentors that had signed up to a mentoring program. While this created a great variety of choices, this impacted performance while not being particularly efficient from a mentee perspective when it came to select a mentor. SAP SuccessFactors have now changed this to recommend up to the top 10 mentors.
How to turn it on: This is a universal update.
Goal Management
Goal Alignment Chart
Since elements of Goal Execution is based on flash and is being retired by the end of 2020, SAP SuccessFactors moved more towards filling the gap in functionality to use Continuous Performance Management. One of the great features was the Execution Map. SuccessFactors has now replaced the Execution Map (flash-based) with the Goal Alignment Chart (non-flash-based).
How to turn it on: Administrator Opt-In
More to Come for the SAP SuccessFactors H1 2020 Releases
The H1 2020 Development 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.