During our Performance and Goals implementation projects, one of the most frequent questions we get from clients is:
"Can a Promotion Nomination form be launched automatically while Managers are evaluating employee performance?”
The specific requirements that clients describe are:
- Managers remain within the Performance form.
- Indicate a recommendation by updating a field – “Nominate for Promotion”.
- A separate Promotion form would be automatically launched for the Manager to update Promotion details about the employee.
While there are options to use Intelligent Services Centre, not every client wants to add additional fields in their Job Information (jobInfo) HRIS element.
This blog focuses on an automation idea which was designed with automated scheduled reviews without configuring additional fields in jobInfo HRIS Element and without using the Intelligent Services Centre.
Below were some of the main pain points that our client faced:
- Running reports 2-3 times a day to check whom did the Manager nominate for Promotion.
- Manually launch form for nominated employees each time a report was generated.
- Tracking delta changes between reports to launch only for new employees and not for the ones where the form was already launched.
In a nutshell, this was the Current As-Is process:
This is the envisioned Future State design which we designed for our clients:
Solution Overview:
Pre-requisites:
- Create a new promotion form which will be launched when an employee’s promotion nomination field is set to ‘Nominated’.
- Grant permissions to managers to update the promotion nomination field.
- Create a Schedule Form Creation Job in Provisioning.
Data Model Configurations:
- We repurposed a standard field in the Data Model – ‘reasonForLeaving’ and renamed it to ‘Promotion Nomination’.
- Added the field as a custom filter for a criteria used during form launches.
People Profile Configurations:
- A new section was created in People Profile – ‘Talent Nomination’. The field ‘Promotion Nomination’ was added to this block.
- Granted permissions to managers to be able to edit the ‘Promotion Nomination’ field.
Manage Scheduled Review Configurations:
**There are several options while creating this scheduled review which we discuss with clients on a case-to-case basis.**
- Navigate to ‘Manage Scheduled Review’ and schedule a new form launch using the new promotion form created.
- Under One-time option, the form can be scheduled as ‘Now’ or ‘Later’ on a desired date. If the form is scheduled on a later date, it will follow the launch time that has been created in the provisioning job – ‘Schedule Form Creation’.
- You can select the ‘Review Period’ based on the form dates.
- Use the ‘Dynamic Group’ option to create a group of employees whose ‘Promotion Nomination’ field is set to ‘Nominated’.
- Check the option ‘Only create for users who don’t have an existing form with an End Date:’ and set an end date.
- Once the criteria is set, preview the employees by selecting ‘Click to View’ option.
- If there are no nominated employees at the time of job creation, no forms are launched.
*Tip:* Create a job at the end of the day or after key checkpoints in your performance cycle when nominations are likely updated. We recommend informing managers about the possible time slots that the forms will be launched.
Performance Module Configurations:
- A custom section was created in the current year’s performance form with the nomination portlet to appear on the performance form.
- Managers would review the performance form; they would update and save the promotion nomination field to ‘Nominated’.
- Once this field is saved to ‘Nominated’ and the scheduled job runs, the promotion form would be launched automatically.
Calibration Module Configurations:
- The ‘Promotion Nomination’ field was leveraged in the calibration sessions.
- During the calibration session, it was possible to update the ‘Promotion Nomination’ field to ‘Promotion Approved’ or ‘Not Approved’. The integration between Calibration and People Profile modules ran smoothly and the record was updated.
- During this time, permissions were limited to HRBPs, since any changes to the people profile record would also change in calibration session.
Software Robots for Smart Scheduling:
Our tech-savvy client took it further by deploying bots to auto-create Scheduled Review jobs multiple times per day. This reduced administrative effort to nearly zero and ensured no one was missed due to timing gaps.
Preparing Your Business for Automation: Key Recommendations
- Know your Current State vs. Future State:
- Identify your current state by mapping out all the tasks.
- Document every detail in the process and identify administrative task, bottlenecks and pain points.
- Clearly define your future goals – Do you want to improve the process with automation? Will the improvement be scalable? Is the future state ensuring compliance in all aspects?
- Consider the change management effort and stakeholder buy-in.
- Map Automation Process Flow
- Explore different features and tools in SAP SuccessFactors and beyond.
- Identify and map the tool options that can be leveraged at each step; be it integrations, third party providers, APIs etc.
- Think Big, Start Small, Scale Up:
- Automation is great when it can solve bigger and many administrative tasks. Start with one high impact use case!
- Aim for scalability as you win smaller tasks.
- ‘Fail Faster, Succeed Sooner’; keep iterating until it is refined
And remember…
Always TEST to break; TEST different scenarios and put on your different thinking caps – TEST as an employee, performance administrator, manager and HRBP.
At Veritas Prime, we have helped clients to streamline processes and move from chaos to smarter ways of working. We would love to help you out on your automation journey. Reach out to us to start your future vision. We are always delighted to travel the automation journey with you.
