Second Manager Import in Job relationship - Error: User cannot be their own manager

[viswanathappa]

Hi All

In our current process we maintain Second Manager (Comp Planner) in Job Relationship. In some cases the User himself is their own comp planner.

Until last year we were able to use this solution and import the data successfully in Job Relationship. But after the 1H2024 release SAP has added a validation that User cannot be their own manager. (https://me.sap.com/notes/3460009/E)

We're ready to launch the forms, but we've encountered an error. Has anyone seen this before? If so, what's the best workaround?

Thank you

Viswa

[xavierlegarrec · Accepted solution]

Hi @viswanathappa 

On top of Lesley's feedback please find below an the answer I made on this exact topic a few months ago to one of our support experts who brought this question to me and provided details on the process. If you launch worksheets from top to bottom and use leading practices for approvals (only two steps for worksheets then Executive Review) then there is no problem since Executive Review allows for a planner to see oneself.

--

Reading more about the customer requirements… it looks like they used worksheets instead of Executive Review just because they wanted the approve button for Senior HR Managers to click on (which Executive Review doesn’t have)… in my view this is a fundamentally flawed design because this leads to worksheets with several hundreds of people in them which can seriously impact performance. It is a white elephant just for an approval button.

I would approach this topic the following way:

• Change the template’s method of planning from Second Manager to regular Manager and tie it to a workflow with two or more steps of type user where all worksheets go to Comp Admin as below:
1. Senior HR Managers (step type : user / all worksheets go to Comp Admin inbox)
2. Additional approver 1 (step type : user / all worksheets go to Comp Admin inbox)

• Grant Executive Review either:
1. Through a dynamic role not using Job Relationships at all (I think it can be done based on the sentence “Senior HR Manager is responsible for reviewing the form for the entire operational unit they oversee”). RBP design details:
• Only Employees in this group (identify all Senior HR Managers and put them all in one RBP group)
• only on their own Operation Unit
• Allow access to see their own record.
2. Or add Senior HR Managers to the custom manager 1:1 job relationship instead of Second Manager.  Then use a dynamic role to grant access based on custom manager direct reports.

• Leverage the new “Executive Review Access based on Route Step” 2H 2024 or Effective duration new RBP feature as a workaround for the worksheet Approval button (both documented on this blog: https://community.sap.com/t5/human-capital-management-blogs-by-sap/2h-2024-release-highlights-for-th...)

• Make sure the planner audit report is turned on

[lesleyr]

The only scenario related to this that I've encountered is for the President/CEO - basically the very top of the hierarchy who doesn't report to anyone.

For my customers in this scenario, they manually add that person to their own worksheet after worksheets are launched since they are not assigned a second manager (since this would create a loop). 

I've never had the scenario other than this where a manager did their own comp planning, this would not be best practice.

Thanks,

Lesley