Key Highlights from the 2H 2024 Release of Performance and Goals Management

[SachinPachauri]

Hi Community,

The 2H 2024 release is here!

A new set of enhancements has been released in the 2H 2024 release that has been eagerly awaited. The SAP SuccessFactors 2H 2024 Release includes some key features and enhancements, so let's take a closer look!

1- AI-Assisted Skill Recommendations from Continuous Performance Management Data:

Talent Intelligence Hub can now use AI-assisted capabilities to infer and recommend skills to employees in their Growth Portfolio using Continuous Performance Management data.

When an employee enters details in the achievements, activities, or feedback section in Continuous Performance Management, this feature infers skills based on the employee's inputs.

Enablement: Contact Customer Engagement Executive or Account Manager

Configuration Requirements:

• Purchase the AI units. For more information, please contact your Account Executive.
• Enable the Assisted Skill Recommendations Using Continuous Performance Management Data setting in the AI Services Administration page.
• Upgrade to Talent Intelligence Hub.
• Enable Continuous Performance Management.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

• Administrators have the Administrator Manage AI Capabilities AI Services Administration permission.
• Enable User>AI Access>Assisted Skill Recommendations Using Continuous Performance Management Data permission.

2- Automatic Channel Creation for Matrix Relationships Now Supported in Continuous Performance Management:

You can now enable the automatic creation of channels between matrix managers and matrix reports to reduce manual effort.
This option is by default unchecked. By enabling it, each pair of matrix manager and matrix report will have a 1:1 channel automatically created. If they already have a channel, no additional ones will be created for them. On the Continuous Performance page, these channels will be grouped into two new categories: Matrix Managers and Matrix Reports.

Enablement: Customer Configured

Configuration Requirements:

• Enable Multiple Role Support in Continuous Performance Management Configuration Page.
• Enable matrix managers and matrix reports to be shown as people selections for Channels by default in Continuous Performance Management Configuration Page.

3- Link and Unalign Goals:

In the latest Goal Management, users can now link their performance goals with another user’s goals or unaligned goals as needed.

Users can link goals using either of the following ways:

• In their goal plan, choose the Link Goal option on a goal card and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Go to another user's goal plan, choose the Link with Mine option on a goal card, and complete the linking steps.

Once goals are linked, an alignment relationship is established and displayed in the goal alignment chart. Users can also unalign goals using the Unalign Goal option on the goal card. This option is available for goals that were previously linked or cascaded in their goal plan.

Enablement: Contact Product Support

Configuration Requirements:

• The latest Goal Management is enabled.
• To link goals, users are granted the cascade-align permission in the goal plan template.
• To unalign goals, users are granted the unalign-parent or unalign-child permission in the goal plan template, depending on their roles.

4- Bulk Channel Invitations Now Supported in Continuous Performance Management:

Users can now send bulk invitations for 1:1 meeting channels in the Continuous Performance page.

Enablement: Automatically on

5- Enhancements to AI-Assisted Goal Creation:

Several enhancements to AI-assisted goal creation in the latest Goal Management. 

• Updated AI tag: On the goal creation page, the tag for fields with content generated by AI is now "AI-generated content", replacing the previous "AI-enhanced content".
• Streamlined content comparison: The Compare Generated Content page has been removed, making the process more efficient by eliminating the step where users had to choose between two versions of goal content. Instead, the AI-assisted writing tool is now in place to enhance content directly at the field level.
• Improved prompt template: The prompt template is now optimized to automatically apply goal plan configurations, such as start, due, and maxlength, to AI-generated goals.
• Support for custom fields: Custom fields of text and textarea types are now supported for performance goals. By providing meaningful text for <field-description>, you specify the context, which in turn helps improve the quality of AI-generated content. This ensures that the AI can generate more accurate and relevant suggestions for your goals.

Enablement: Contact Customer Engagement Executive or Account Manager

Configuration Requirements:

• The latest Goal Management is enabled.
• You've purchased the AI units license. For more information about AI units license, contact your Account Executive.
• AI-assisted goal creation is enabled and properly configured.
• For custom fields of text and textarea types, meaningful text for <field-description> is configured in the goal plan template.

6- Delegation Available for Performance Reviews:

The most awaited feature of Performance Review is finally here. With the delegation feature, users, usually managers, can delegate their performance review tasks to other people within a specified time period. It also allows administrators to create delegations on behalf of managers.

Enablement: Customer Configured

Configuration Requirements:

• Enable Delegation Feature in the Company System and Logo Settings admin tool.

7- Enhanced AI-Assisted Writing in 360 Reviews:

AI-assisted writing tool to help generate comments and improve feedback.

• Improve My Feedback: Available when there is text selected, this item assists users in providing clear, concise, and professional comments that are pertinent to a specific skill or competency and its rating. Users can view the improved feedback or evaluate multiple attempts in a separate dialog before applying a result.

• Generate Comments: Available when no text is selected, this item suggests six topics dynamically based on the rating assigned to the current competency or skill. Users can choose one topic and let the tool generate detailed comments relevant to the competency or skill and its rating, without needing users to provide initial text input. Users can further edit the comments manually or with the help of the tool. Previously, users had to enter some content for the tool to expand or otherwise process.

Enablement: Contact Customer Engagement Executive or Account Manager

Configuration Requirements:

• Purchase the AI units license. For more information about the AI units license, please contact your Account Executive.
• Enable the AI Services Administration>Assisted Writing with Text Analyzer option in the Admin Center.
• Consented to the AI Usage Acknowledgment Statement.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

• Administrator Manage AI Capabilities>AI Services Administration permission.
• Employees have the User Permissions>AI Access>Assisted Writing with Text Analyzer permission.

8- Custom Learning Supported on 360 Reviews Forms:

With the latest Goal Management enabled, users can now add, edit, or delete custom learning activities on 360 Reviews forms.

Enablement: Customer Configured

Configuration Requirements:

• The latest Goal Management is enabled.
• In Manage Templates, the form template is configured to show the Development Goal section.
• The form has a development goal plan linked to it, and the plan contains a learning activity template, based on which custom learning activities are created.

9- AI-Assisted Insights into Detailed 360 Report:

Leveraging generative AI capabilities, users can gain synthesized insights from participant feedback, both overall and for individual skills or competencies.

The generative AI in the Detailed 360 Report can be used in two scenarios:

• Overall understanding of a Detailed 360 Report
• Consolidated analysis of a specific skill or competency

Enablement: Contact Customer Engagement Executive or Account Manager

Configuration Requirements:

• Purchase the AI units license. For more information about the AI units license, please contact your Account Executive.
• Enable the AI Services Administration>Assisted 360 Reviews option.
• Enable the 360 Reviews – SAP Fiori Version - requires "360 Multi-Rater" and the Graphical Report (360) - requires "360 Multi-Rater" options in Provisioning.
• You've consented to the AI Usage Acknowledgment Statement.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

• Administrators have the Administrator Manage AI Capabilities>AI Services Administration permission.
• Employees have the User>AI Access>Assisted 360 Reviews permission. They also have permission to view a Detailed 360 Report.

For a detailed release summary, check out the “What’s New Viewer” for a list of enhancements across the application.