SuccessFactors Recruiting: New Career Site Job Search and Job Layout

[maseitner]

Introduction

With 2H 2023 Release SAP introduced a new, modern and state-of-the-art Career Site Job Search together with Job-Layout-related and Administration-related updates for SuccessFactors Recruiting Career Site Builder (CSB).

The new job search is much more intuitive, much more attractive and much more like you know it from common e-commerce platforms. It allows for more customizing and design. Location based search is very important for candidates, therefore the New Job Search offers significant technical Location-related posting and search improvements.

The technical term in SuccessFactors documentations is Career Site Builder Unified Data Model which indicates that the underlying data models have been linked more closely together.

As customer / administrator, you can configure the New Job Search on your own. But you need to follow the guide / steps in detail and carefully (see below).

In the following I want to show and explain some of the major updates from the perspective of a SuccessFactors Consultant and HR Recruiting User. Please share your questions, thoughts, experiences with me to start off a discussion and learn from each other.

New Career Site Job Search and Job Layout

With the New Career Site Job Search you now have numerous design options together with improved filtering and search content presentation.

Even with custom code (Java Script in CSB) you could hardly achieve this kind of display in the past. Now you can get there easily with standard tools in CSB.

For candidates the search experience is similar to common e-commerce platforms and much more intuitive, informative and attractive.

The search results are now called Result Cards (wording is harmonized Suite-wide). Result cards, search bar and the whole search form can be designed differently depending on the Brand (if you use different brands).

Example of New Career Site Job Search - Desktop View

New Career Site Job Search - Mobile View

 

Previously you were more or less limited to a job search like this (of course, with some Java Script you could get a bit more out of it) in regard to design, structure, filtering and information displayed.

Example of previous Career Site Job Search

 

Further you have more flexibility in designing the Job Layout.

Most exiting is that you are now able to decide whether and where to display the search bar and where and how to display the Apply Button when viewing the Job as both the search bar and the apply button have become "Components" to add and customize in the job layout designer.

Many of our customers in the last years have asked for flexibility and customization in those two aspects and we have tried to accomplish this with custom code in the CSB. Now you can easily do it with standard tools in CSB and individually per Job Layout.

This will help to get candidates more focused on the job details and help them to press APPLY more easily.

New Custom Layout design options in Career Site Builder Admin

 

Example of the New Job Layout with customized Apply Button and hidden Search Bar

 

I have pointed out some of the major updates. There are also interesting updates to Category Pages, Job Lists, Rules and Alerts. Please find the full list in the What's New Viewer.

How can you get started?

As Admin for your SuccessFactors Suite you can configure all steps on your own. However it might be good to involve your Implementation Partner if you feel unsure.

Or feel free to post your questions here. As I have done the configuration already I might be able to support you.

You need to follow in detail the steps described here: Preparing Recruiting Data for the Career Site Builder Unified Data Model

Short summary of necessary steps:

1. Make sure your User has Admin Permissions to manage Recruiting MDF Objects, Admin Center >> Configure Object Definitions, Admin Center >> Manage Data, Admin Center >> Manage Scheduled Jobs and Admin Center >> Manage Templates for Recruiting. (see "Prerequisites" in the document)


2. Go to Scheduled Jobs and create and run the "State Province GO Migration Job" to have ISO Country Data available in the new Location Generic Object (see "Procedure" Step 1)


3. If you have multiple Brands, configure the new Marketing Brand Generic Object on the Job Requisition and create and run the "Migrate Brand to Marketing Brand on Job Requisition Job" to get Brand data from the old Marketing Brand field to the new Marketing Brand Object (see "Procedure" Step 2)


4. Now create the Location related objects for the New Career Site Job Search (see "Procedure" Steps 3-9).
   
   
   
   1. Create and define the format for Job Location Long and Short Format object. This is relevant for showing Location information on the Job Search Result Cards
   
   
   2. Define / update the new Job Location Object
   
   
   3. Update your Job Requisition Template via Manage Templates with the new new Job Location and Job Location short format objects.
   
   
   
   


5. Now you need to update all your open and to be posted Jobs to have the new Job Location Generic Object and the Short Format Object filled with correct location data. If you have a manageable amount of open jobs, I'd recommend to do it manually. Otherwise you can create a business rule for it or use ODATA API (see "Procedure" Step 10)


6. Once all steps are completed, create and run the "ReBuild Job Requisition Search Index Job" and give it 24 hours.


7. Make sure you update the Mapping for Job Requisition fields to Career Site Builder via Admin Center >> Setup Recruiting Marketing Job Field Mapping. City, State, Country/Region and Postal/Zip Code of the Recruiting Marketing Fields (CSB) should all be mapped to the New "Job Location" Object. (see also the 2H 2023 Validation related Update on the Mappings in the blog from sushma.vishwas


8. After that, go to Career Site Builder >> Settings >> Site Configuration >> scroll down to the bottom >> enable "Unified Data Model" switch

Now you are ready to design your New Career Site Job Search. To my mind it is very intuitive same as Career Site Builder in general. If you with to follow a guide, click here: Configure Career Sites Using Career Site Builder

I hope very much that my summary of the New Career Site Job Search and Layouts features aroused your interest to dive into it and do it yourself.

I am very much looking forward to your thoughts, experiences, questions and hope for a discussion.

Thanks and BR

Martin

 

* All images are taken from my own Demo Systems.

[00022111734]

Thanks Martin for insightful Blog Appreciated

[JaisonPJ1]

Thank you for sharing the information

[LisaRaff]

Hi @maseitner ,

Thanks for this very helpful article! We are currently testing the new job search and stumbled onto two issues, with which you might be able to help.

Why would you recommend entering the new job location manually? Wouldn't it be possible to achieve this with an inbound integration in integration centre?

And secondly, do you have any experiences regarding radius search? Does it differ from the former job search?

Best regards,

Lisa

[maseitner]

Dear @LisaRaff 

thanks for your comment.

Your idea is absolutely correct. You can definitely do so with Integration Center. I wrote from the perspective of mid-size company with an easily managable amount of open Job Reqs where is was quicker to do it manually.

Regarding Radius Search: I have to dive into this myself. I am happy to do so asap and let you know here.

Please also update if you find out sth.

Thanks and BR

Martin

[LisaRaff]

Hi @maseitner ,

Thanks for confirming that Integration Center should work. At the moment, we struggle, because we do not have the possibility to define the external code of the new job location object list in our integration like we can for the old location object. Did you encounter the same issue? Sorry for bothering you but there is just so little detailed documentation provided at the moment.

Regarding radius search, we'll keep you posted what we find out!

Kind regards,

Lisa

[maseitner]

Hi @LisaRaff 

that is a very interesting finding, which might soon be relevant for one of my customers. Did you try to map the leval of location_obj >> sfstd_joblocation_objlist and not on code level?

BR

Martin

[csoriano]

Hi @maseitner/ @LisaRaff 

Regarding Inbound integration center, is it only used for entering data for already opened job reqs? We are also struggling not with updating the values for open jobs, but because we want to autopopulate the value of Job Location based on the Location object from the position. We are using the Location FO in our job requisition as a multi select field and it sets the Position location as the primary location upon job req creation. Once the job req is created, we can then add additional locations.

We would like the sfstd_JobLocation_obj to also be autopopulated based on the Location in the position data upon job requisition creation. Is it possible? 

[maseitner]

hi @csoriano 

thanks for your comment.

I tried around a bit. It seems you cannot create a Business Rule on the Job Req. When I select the THEN Condition I cannot set location (old location field) equal to new location (sfstd_joblocation). It is just not selectable.

Did you try editing the Business Rule of the Posting to Rec Integration. There you are using the Requistion Field ID. You could try to type sfstd_joblocation_obj..

[csoriano]

Hi @maseitner 

I tried that but it doesn't work for us. Does it work for you?
I also tried typing sfstd_joblocation_obj but we are still having errors unfortunately. 

[maseitner]

Hi @csoriano 

Thanks for your feedback. I am afraid, I haven't tried myself so far, it was just an idea.

Maybe can you create ticket with SAP and ask that? I don't have a customer case currently with this topic so I cannot create a ticket by myself.

But it would be great if you could keep me updated.

[I_Wesser_reh]

Hi @maseitner,

thank you for the great overview and insights.

Best Regrads

[HangTRAN]

Hi @maseitner ,

Thanks a lot for your article. Do you know any SF clients have successfully implemented it? (that you see it live and work fine?

[maseitner]

Hi @HangTRAN 

thanks for your comment. We have implemented it "successfully" for our own Test and Demo System which is equal to our PROD system and we will implement with a customer in the coming months. I will update you and share link once live.

Which experiences do you have? Did you experience issues?

[LisaRaff]

Hi all,

just a quick follow-up on radius search. SAP confirmed to us, that the standard feature "radius search" is currently not available when using Unified Data Model. Their proposed workaround is to check a possibility to have a custom code.

In the next release, they will introduce a new Google job map, so maybe this might include a new radius search functionality for unified data model.

[HangTRAN]

@maseitner we are analysing to start the implementation and what we are still in doubt is how to update the open JR ( around nearly 300) with the new standard fields.

@LisaRaff I saw your comments about regarding this. Have you succeeded in doing a mass update via integration center?

[LisaRaff]

Hi @HangTRAN ,

no, unfortunately we did not succeed so far with an upload via integration centre. SAP support could not help us with this issue, either. If you find a solution for this we would be eager to hear about it!

Kind regards,

Lisa

[HangTRAN]

@LisaRaff ok I will let you know if I can find something. So what is your current solution to this? A manual update?

[LisaRaff]

@HangTRAN we did not go live with the funtionality yet, but at the moment our recruiters would have to set the new job location manually.

[maseitner]

Thanks a lot @LisaRaff for the update regarding radial search.

@HangTRAN- I am afraid we did the same MANUAL update of the Jobs for our test system and will do so for our upcoming customer project. I know that is not ideal but for now the most pragmatic approach. Let us keep each other updated

[michelejurume]

Hi I would like to know feedbacks about the new functionality, how many customers have implemented it? 

[helenekunz]

Hi @HangTRAN,

@maseitner,

It looks like Porsche is live with the new job search https://jobs.porsche.com/index.php?ac=search_result  .
Unfortunately, have no knowledge who implemented it and it looks like custom software.
What do you think?
Best regards
Helene

[maseitner]

Hi @helenekunz 

thanks for your comment - hm, it has some similarity but I am not sure - If I do a html analysis for the website I cannot find "successfactors" or "rmk" so I believe more it is a custom / own development.

We are currently implementing it with two customers. Hope to be live by june or july. I will keep you posted

@michelejurume 

[helenekunz]

Hi @maseitner,
I guess, you are right.
You said, you would recommend to implement the unified data model now, if a lot is done on the layout.
Can you elaborate, why?
Thank you and have a great weekend!
Helene

[maseitner]

Hi @helenekunz 

the unified data model bring new functionality to JOB LAYOUT. Therefore I'd recommend to first migrate to unified data model before spending effort on Job Layout.

Regarding the overall career site layout there is not much to consider as this is still the same after migration to unified data model.

[HangTRAN]

Hi @helenekunz , after checking the site, I do not think that it is SF or am i wrong?

The new search layout will not be as similar as the porche one you share. The data stays in a "result card" instead of different columns as it is shown there.

[DaninaRuseva]

Hello @maseitner,

I have a question regarding the State Province GO Migration Job. My understanding is that this job will migrate the values from Set up Job Board Options - Country/Region and State/Province Values Set up to the new State/Province GO.

Could you please, advise.