SuccessFactors People Analytics is finally generally available for all SuccessFactors customers. This also means that the underlying framework based on SAP Identity Access Services (IAS) and SAP Identity Provisioning Service (IPS) are working smoother together. The technical issues that has caused issues during the first 6 months of 2020 have been resolved, For example IAS now supports Global Assignment, Concurrent Employment and Rehire on New Employment. IAS also supports Onboarding 2.0 which was also known to cause problems.
But last thing first:
First of all, the upgrade is not just one flick of a switch. It requires a little more planning as it introduces a new couple of technical components in your HR IT landscape. But once you are over this hurdle, what do you get if you opt to upgrade to People Analytics ?
This means you are able to build visually compelling stories, providing overview and insights and explain complex (or not so complex) relationships to your business. An example of a Core HR dashboard buils is found below. in the existing tools such as Canvas Reporting, YouCalc Tiles and Table Reporting this would just not be possible in any easy way. With People Analytics, these dashboards are built in a matter of hours, not days.
If you have built processes around custom Metadata Framework (MDF) objects, these are also reportable in People Analytics. A sample Dashboard for Work Related Injuries and Ilness is shown below.
Apart from getting access to a very powerful enterprise grade reporting & analytics tool, SAP has also introduced a number of standard reports that you can utilise. These are currently available to import as new reports from the Customer Community on this link but in the H2-2020 we can expect a report store to be made available from where they can be enabled.
Similar to the standard reports in Canvas Reporting, the available reports for People Analytics are good as starting points. But you should plan on spending some time to amend them to your organizations needs. This includes defining the right filter fields and select additional analysis dimensions.
An example is shown below.
This means that when using the standard report you will need to remove any Page filters that you do not have, and add page filters that you want to add. You should also plan to amend the dimension selection box to include the relevant fields, typically from Job Information in Employee Central. This all requires a little getting-to-know the tool as you have to adjust the query behind the dashboard as well as the dashboard itself. But once you know how to do this, it is quite straightforward to do it.
The intent from SAP is to build out a catalogue of standard reports in People Analytics that matches the catalogue of reports in Canvas Reporting (some 93 standard reports) and once this is done, start to build out additional scorecard dashboards for different modules.
SAP has bene very good at establishing solid documentation around People Analytics, so there is plenty of help to get.
Information on People Analytics and the main information channel from SAP Product Management can be found in the SuccessFactors Customer Community here:
https://community.successfactors.com/t5/Reporting-Analytics-and-Planning/ct-p/WorkforceAnalytics
The abovementioned predefined Report Stories may be found in the SuccessFactors Customer Community here: https://community.successfactors.com/t5/Reporting-Analytics-and/Using-Stories-in-People-Analytics-Te...
Information on People Analytics and how to build reports can be found here on the SAP Help Portal for HR https://help.sap.com/cloud4hr and this direct link https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PEOPLE_ANALYTICS/2005/en-US
As an HR and People Analytics enthusiast I am delighted about these new capabilities due to the value added insights they will provide. The combination of various HR modules together allows us to identify correlations and causalities that we previously could only dream (or guess) about. Having the data in People Analytics will give much more sense than reporting on them individually in the soon legacy tools. Only item on my wish list is ability to mix with external data, which is not supported in People Analytics. I believe this will be a game changer for analytics in SuccessFactors and will help place HR much higher on the boardroom agenda - a place HR so deserves and has to fight for every day.
If you have any comments or questions please do reach out to me.
Erik Ebert, GP Strategies is an experienced SuccessFactors HR Analytics specialist and Solution Architect with 15 years experience in SAP SuccessFactors and 25 years in IT professional services from various industries and geographies.
But last thing first:
People Analytics is an important miletone not to miss. It will help develop SuccessFactors Analytics at least two steps upwards
Why Upgrade to People Analytics
First of all, the upgrade is not just one flick of a switch. It requires a little more planning as it introduces a new couple of technical components in your HR IT landscape. But once you are over this hurdle, what do you get if you opt to upgrade to People Analytics ?
- Better capabilities of creating meaningful stories to help business make data driven decisions
- Ability to create custom measures and calculations
- Better ability to blend data from multiple modules into one report story (eg. create a manager dashboard with data from Employee Central, Recruitment, Performance Management, Goal Management and Development Planning)
This means you are able to build visually compelling stories, providing overview and insights and explain complex (or not so complex) relationships to your business. An example of a Core HR dashboard buils is found below. in the existing tools such as Canvas Reporting, YouCalc Tiles and Table Reporting this would just not be possible in any easy way. With People Analytics, these dashboards are built in a matter of hours, not days.
If you have built processes around custom Metadata Framework (MDF) objects, these are also reportable in People Analytics. A sample Dashboard for Work Related Injuries and Ilness is shown below.
Custom MDF Object with Report Story Visualisation
What do you get
Apart from getting access to a very powerful enterprise grade reporting & analytics tool, SAP has also introduced a number of standard reports that you can utilise. These are currently available to import as new reports from the Customer Community on this link but in the H2-2020 we can expect a report store to be made available from where they can be enabled.
Similar to the standard reports in Canvas Reporting, the available reports for People Analytics are good as starting points. But you should plan on spending some time to amend them to your organizations needs. This includes defining the right filter fields and select additional analysis dimensions.
- They are based on a single dataset, meaning no blending of different modules data.
- They have page filters at the top, used to filter out your data set.
- A few numerica measures are shown in the top left hand corner
- You can choose the field to analyse the measures by in the left hand side of the screen
- Different objects visualise the selected metrics and analysing by the selected dimension
An example is shown below.
Sample SAP Provided Standard Report in People Analytics
This means that when using the standard report you will need to remove any Page filters that you do not have, and add page filters that you want to add. You should also plan to amend the dimension selection box to include the relevant fields, typically from Job Information in Employee Central. This all requires a little getting-to-know the tool as you have to adjust the query behind the dashboard as well as the dashboard itself. But once you know how to do this, it is quite straightforward to do it.
The intent from SAP is to build out a catalogue of standard reports in People Analytics that matches the catalogue of reports in Canvas Reporting (some 93 standard reports) and once this is done, start to build out additional scorecard dashboards for different modules.
Where to find more information
SAP has bene very good at establishing solid documentation around People Analytics, so there is plenty of help to get.
Information on People Analytics and the main information channel from SAP Product Management can be found in the SuccessFactors Customer Community here:
https://community.successfactors.com/t5/Reporting-Analytics-and-Planning/ct-p/WorkforceAnalytics
The abovementioned predefined Report Stories may be found in the SuccessFactors Customer Community here: https://community.successfactors.com/t5/Reporting-Analytics-and/Using-Stories-in-People-Analytics-Te...
Information on People Analytics and how to build reports can be found here on the SAP Help Portal for HR https://help.sap.com/cloud4hr and this direct link https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PEOPLE_ANALYTICS/2005/en-US
Concluding Remarks
As an HR and People Analytics enthusiast I am delighted about these new capabilities due to the value added insights they will provide. The combination of various HR modules together allows us to identify correlations and causalities that we previously could only dream (or guess) about. Having the data in People Analytics will give much more sense than reporting on them individually in the soon legacy tools. Only item on my wish list is ability to mix with external data, which is not supported in People Analytics. I believe this will be a game changer for analytics in SuccessFactors and will help place HR much higher on the boardroom agenda - a place HR so deserves and has to fight for every day.
If you have any comments or questions please do reach out to me.
Erik Ebert, GP Strategies is an experienced SuccessFactors HR Analytics specialist and Solution Architect with 15 years experience in SAP SuccessFactors and 25 years in IT professional services from various industries and geographies.
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