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SAP User Experience Q1/2025 Update – Part 3: SAP SuccessFactors (AI, Joule and More)

ThomasReiss
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
‎2025 Feb 18 12:59 PM
1,552

This third post in my series gives an overview of user experience innovations in SAP SuccessFactors. It covers Joule and many AI-based UX innovations along with enhanced user experiences. By following the career of Emma, who starts by applying for a job and then grows within the company, you can see how Generative AI embedded in business applications helps business users work more effectively, giving them unprecedented insights and convenience.

Before reading this, do read the first blog post introducing the series and providing general information about Joule and central entry points and services, the AI patterns presented here, along with links to all the published parts of this blog post series:

SAP SuccessFactors

The 2H2024 release comes with a large number of UX innovations across the whole portfolio, including more than 30 new AI capabilities and over 15 new Joule capabilities.

In the following sections, I’ll summarize the main highlights by following the career of Emma, and showing how the new AI-powered UX innovations help:

  • Emma to find the right job which match her skills when applying to join the company.
  • Her manager and HR colleagues to set up onboarding for her, i.e. writing welcome message, supported by the AI writing assistant, and defining required activities.
  • Emma and her manager to manage day-to-day requests and approvals directly in Microsoft Teams, such as requesting or approving time off, approving time sheets. Both benefit from natural language search in Microsoft Teams.
  • Emma to learn new skills with the new learning experience.
  • Managers to formulate new assignments to extend their teams.
  • Emma to advance further in her career by recommending potential new roles which build on her current skills, as well as giving her career insights about which skill she needs to grow to get to her chosen new role.
  • Her manager to give her well-formulated, unbiased and actionable feedback, supported by the AI writing assistant. This helps Emma grow in her job.
  • Her manager to get an overview of Emma’s compensation, with an AI-generated summary, including information about where she stands compared to others.

 To get the complete picture of all the new SuccessFactors innovations, have a look at these two overviews, plus this must-see video summarizing the AI innovations:

 In case you haven’t already seen the overview of UX innovations introduced with the 1H2024 release, have a look at my blog post from last July:

AI Helping Candidates Find the Right Job Based on their Skills

Emma is looking for a new job in a different company and would like to quickly identify those jobs which best match her skills. In the past this was a painstaking task, scanning all the promising-sounding jobs and trying to work out which fitted best. But Emma is applying to a company using SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, and wow: all she has to do is upload her resume, and AI extracts the skills and shows the open roles which best match her skills. Even better, the AI-assisted job skills feature provides a view of the specific skills required for each role, giving candidates insight into additional opportunities. These skills, generated directly from job descriptions, are displayed on the job details page for easy reference, as you can see in Figure 1. This an example of the Guiding and Recommending AI pattern.

Figure 1: AI-assisted skills-matching for candidates applying for jobs using SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting. ALT Text: The image shows two screenshots. On the left a Skills Matching screen with a popover for uploading a resume. Below the field with the filename of the uploaded resume, a green success message reads “Resume checked”. Below that 40 skills are listed in six rows, one button per skill. The popover has two action buttons: “View Jobs” and “Cancel”. The screen on the right shows the list of recommended jobs, with filters “My Skills”, “USA” and “California” selected: five jobs are listed, all with an indicator “Skills Matched”.Figure 1: AI-assisted skills-matching for candidates applying for jobs using SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting. ALT Text: The image shows two screenshots. On the left a Skills Matching screen with a popover for uploading a resume. Below the field with the filename of the uploaded resume, a green success message reads “Resume checked”. Below that 40 skills are listed in six rows, one button per skill. The popover has two action buttons: “View Jobs” and “Cancel”. The screen on the right shows the list of recommended jobs, with filters “My Skills”, “USA” and “California” selected: five jobs are listed, all with an indicator “Skills Matched”.

AI-Assisted Onboarding of New Hires

Let us now assume that Emma has been hired for the new job. (A reminder here: her manager would have been able to use AI-assistance in generating the interview questions, as I highlighted in my blog post from July 2024.)

Her manager can now use the AI copilot Joule to accelerate task completion and effectively manage tasks. Joule allows hiring managers and HR colleagues to view and initiate pending tasks, such as data review, forms, and e-signatures. It also offers a conversational way for new hires to complete activities and receive recommendations and guidance during onboarding. Figure 2 shows an example.

Hiring managers and HR teams can leverage AI-assisted writing for welcome and farewell messages, ensuring good communication tone and clarity, and avoiding unconscious bias (I’ll tell you more about the writing assistant in the section on performance feedback below), as you can see in Figure X. (An example of the Creating Proposals AI pattern).

A New Hire Onboarding guided tour, enabled by SAP Companion, is now available from the Open Help icon in the Onboarding Checklist. The guided tour assists first time or unfamiliar users with navigating through their onboarding tasks, helping improve completion rates and reduce time to hire. You can see an example in Figure 2, or watch it in action here:

Figure 2: AI-assisted onboarding in SAP SuccessFactors. ALT Text: Three screenshots are shown: First from Joule, where the user asked “Show my pending tasks for onboarding”, and received three tasks (New Hire Data Review, Complete Section 2 of Form 1-9, Final Review), each with a “Select” button. The user selected “New Hire Data Review” and received a list of three new hires, with a “View More” link. Second a “Write Welcome Message” screen where an initial text is visible along with a drop-down list with entries “Enhance Writing”, “Change Tone” (with sub-entries “Make More Professional; Personable; Constructive”, “Make Shorter”, “Make Longer”, “Make Bulleted List” and “Translate”. Third, “Your Onboarding Checklist” showing a list of tasks, with “Onboarding Data Collection” selected and showing a form on the right for entering personal data.Figure 2: AI-assisted onboarding in SAP SuccessFactors. ALT Text: Three screenshots are shown: First from Joule, where the user asked “Show my pending tasks for onboarding”, and received three tasks (New Hire Data Review, Complete Section 2 of Form 1-9, Final Review), each with a “Select” button. The user selected “New Hire Data Review” and received a list of three new hires, with a “View More” link. Second a “Write Welcome Message” screen where an initial text is visible along with a drop-down list with entries “Enhance Writing”, “Change Tone” (with sub-entries “Make More Professional; Personable; Constructive”, “Make Shorter”, “Make Longer”, “Make Bulleted List” and “Translate”. Third, “Your Onboarding Checklist” showing a list of tasks, with “Onboarding Data Collection” selected and showing a form on the right for entering personal data.

Find out more here:

SAP SuccessFactors Requests and Approvals in Microsoft Teams

Emma uses Microsoft Teams for collaborating with colleagues at work, so spends quite a lot of time in that environment. With the SAP SuccessFactors 2H2024 release, she can now, directly in Microsoft Teams:

  • Submit time-off requests;
  • View upcoming absences;
  • Sync holidays maintained in SAP SuccessFactors to her calendar in Microsoft Teams.

Similarly, her manager can

  • approve time-off requests directly in Microsoft Teams;
  • delegate performance appraisals to colleagues to help manage responsibilities on each other’s behalf.

All employees can use the improved natural language natural-language search function now available in Microsoft Teams, which makes it easy to find tasks and information and initiate action with simple language commands.

Figure 3: Approve SAP SuccessFactors time sheet and change of position in Microsoft Teams. ALT Text: A screenshot of Microsoft Teams with a card listing 12 actions in four rows: Manage My Data, Manage My Team, Request Feedback, Give Feedback, Clock My Time, View My Pay Statement, Create Activity, Delegate My Workflow, Request Time Off, Sync Absences to Calendar, Sync Holidays to Calendar, Recognize. Below that a card showing an approved time sheet for a week. At the bottom a card “Change Position” with the status in red “Approval Pending”. The card contains information about the position, dates effective on and submitted on as well as submitted by, and provides “Approve” and “Approve with Comments” buttons.Figure 3: Approve SAP SuccessFactors time sheet and change of position in Microsoft Teams. ALT Text: A screenshot of Microsoft Teams with a card listing 12 actions in four rows: Manage My Data, Manage My Team, Request Feedback, Give Feedback, Clock My Time, View My Pay Statement, Create Activity, Delegate My Workflow, Request Time Off, Sync Absences to Calendar, Sync Holidays to Calendar, Recognize. Below that a card showing an approved time sheet for a week. At the bottom a card “Change Position” with the status in red “Approval Pending”. The card contains information about the position, dates effective on and submitted on as well as submitted by, and provides “Approve” and “Approve with Comments” buttons.

AI-Assisted Learning

In this release AI tools help learning administrators maintain their organization’s skills-based learning attributes.

For Emma, this means that she gets AI-based recommendations for learnings that suit her individual profile, as well as mandatory trainings. We have enhanced the SAP SuccessFactors mobile app so that Emma can download learning content, as well as receiving these recommendations and information about new and required learnings – as shown in Figure 4. This is also an example of the Guiding and Recommending AI pattern.

Figure 4: Enhanced learning experience with the SAP SuccessFactors mobile app. ALT Text: The image shows three mobile phone examples of Learning – New Learning Experience. On the left “My Downloads” showing a card with “Employee health and wellness …” due on 11/18/24, with a “Launch Content” button. Below that an illustrated image with text “Your device is offline. You can still make progress on any downloaded content…” In the middle a screen showing a new offering, with a “Learn More” button, and a section “Required learning” showing one card and a “View All (7)” link. On the right a section “Latest Bookmarks” with a “Topic of the Month” card, and a section “Suggested for Me” and a “View All (12)” link, showing a card “Standards of Ethical Conduct”.Figure 4: Enhanced learning experience with the SAP SuccessFactors mobile app. ALT Text: The image shows three mobile phone examples of Learning – New Learning Experience. On the left “My Downloads” showing a card with “Employee health and wellness …” due on 11/18/24, with a “Launch Content” button. Below that an illustrated image with text “Your device is offline. You can still make progress on any downloaded content…” In the middle a screen showing a new offering, with a “Learn More” button, and a section “Required learning” showing one card and a “View All (7)” link. On the right a section “Latest Bookmarks” with a “Topic of the Month” card, and a section “Suggested for Me” and a “View All (12)” link, showing a card “Standards of Ethical Conduct”.

Emma’s manager benefits from the initial release of a new refreshed manager view which helps to quickly identify and address action items, such as outstanding learning activities that need to be completed.

This blog post gives an overview of additional new enhancements in usability of SAP SuccessFactors Learning:

AI-Assisted Assignment Creation

Managers looking to attract employees to internal assignments can now use AI-assisted assignment creation to make their lives easier: just write a descriptive sentence or two describing the assignment you want to create, and generate a proposal assignment in SAP SuccessFactors (Figure 5). This is another example of the Creating Proposals AI pattern.

Figure 5: AI-assisted assignment creation in SAP SuccessFactors. ALT Text: a screenshot “Create Assignment” with “Hi, Daniela Olivera” in the middle, above a label “Tell us what you want to create:” above a text entry field containing “We are initiating a six-months long machine learning project and are in search of 2 highly skilled software engineer.”, next to a “Generate” button containing the AI icon. Below that a label “Other ways to create an assignment”, above two wide selection panels “Create from Scratch” and “Copy from Existing Assignments”.Figure 5: AI-assisted assignment creation in SAP SuccessFactors. ALT Text: a screenshot “Create Assignment” with “Hi, Daniela Olivera” in the middle, above a label “Tell us what you want to create:” above a text entry field containing “We are initiating a six-months long machine learning project and are in search of 2 highly skilled software engineer.”, next to a “Generate” button containing the AI icon. Below that a label “Other ways to create an assignment”, above two wide selection panels “Create from Scratch” and “Copy from Existing Assignments”.

Should a manager want to fill a new position, rather than a short-term assignment, they can use the AI-assisted generation of job descriptions which was introduced a year ago (see my February 2024 blog post )

AI-Assisted Role Recommendations and Career Insights

After a few years at the company, Emma is confident that she can grow into a more demanding role. But which ones make sense for her? SAP SuccessFactors now provides AI assistance by making recommendations for roles which she could well grow into based on her current skills. Figure 6 shows what this looks like, with the Top Matches shown in a card carousel.

Figure 6: AI-Assisted Role Recommendations with SAP SuccessFactors Career and Talent Development. ALT Text: Screenshot of “Explore Career Options” showing a row of selectable cards with illustrations for “Top Matches”, another row for “Next Career Move” and the top half of a third row “Trending Roles”. The user’s mouse pointer is over the “Sustainable Innovation Lead” card.Figure 6: AI-Assisted Role Recommendations with SAP SuccessFactors Career and Talent Development. ALT Text: Screenshot of “Explore Career Options” showing a row of selectable cards with illustrations for “Top Matches”, another row for “Next Career Move” and the top half of a third row “Trending Roles”. The user’s mouse pointer is over the “Sustainable Innovation Lead” card.

She decides to look at the role Sustainable Innovation Lead. When selecting it, she is taken to an overview of the role. There she sees which skills and attributes she already has for the role, along with those which she needs to work on to improve in order to take on the role (Figure 7).

Figure 7: The role overview with SAP SuccessFactors Career and Talent Development. ALT Text: Screenshot of Growth Portfolio displaying the role “Sustainable Innovation Lead”. The top of the screen has a section “About This Role” with one line of text. Below that a section “Skills and Attributes to Improve” showing a row of four cards showing a horizontal line chart for proficiency on a scale of 0 to 5, with an indicator showing the necessary skill level for the role, and the chart showing the user’s current skill level. Below that a section “Skills and Attributes You Have” showing a similar row of four cards. The user’s mouse pointer is over the button “Add as Target Role”.Figure 7: The role overview with SAP SuccessFactors Career and Talent Development. ALT Text: Screenshot of Growth Portfolio displaying the role “Sustainable Innovation Lead”. The top of the screen has a section “About This Role” with one line of text. Below that a section “Skills and Attributes to Improve” showing a row of four cards showing a horizontal line chart for proficiency on a scale of 0 to 5, with an indicator showing the necessary skill level for the role, and the chart showing the user’s current skill level. Below that a section “Skills and Attributes You Have” showing a similar row of four cards. The user’s mouse pointer is over the button “Add as Target Role”.

After adding this a target role, she would like to find out more about how she can best go about improving the skills which have been mentioned as needing improvement. Here SAP SuccessFactors is again at hand with AI-assistance. As you can see in Figure 8, after the previous step of adding the role as a target role she is given the option to generate AI-powered career insights. She chooses to do that, and gets a comprehensive overview of where she currently stands along with suggestions for how to improve the skills which she needs to work on.

Figure 8: AI-Assisted Career Insights with SAP SuccessFactors Career and Talent Development. ALT Text: The image shows a screenshot of the top of the Growth Portfolio app showing “Sustainable Innovation Lead” with the user’s mouse over the “Generate” button, containing the AI icon. An arrow from there points to the screenshot of the whole page below, where two columns of long text are shown under the heading “Boost your career with AI-powered insights!”. The long text has sections called “Summary”, “Suggestions for Improvement”, with sub-sections “Agile Methodology”, “Delivering High Quality Work” and “Creating and Maintaining Networks”.Figure 8: AI-Assisted Career Insights with SAP SuccessFactors Career and Talent Development. ALT Text: The image shows a screenshot of the top of the Growth Portfolio app showing “Sustainable Innovation Lead” with the user’s mouse over the “Generate” button, containing the AI icon. An arrow from there points to the screenshot of the whole page below, where two columns of long text are shown under the heading “Boost your career with AI-powered insights!”. The long text has sections called “Summary”, “Suggestions for Improvement”, with sub-sections “Agile Methodology”, “Delivering High Quality Work” and “Creating and Maintaining Networks”.

The above three examples showcased the Creating Proposals as well as the Summarizing AI patterns.

AI-Assisted Performance Feedback

Emma and her colleagues appreciate getting timely and actionable feedback on their work, hearing what went well but also what could be improved. Since not every manager is a naturally talented writer, we introduced the AI writing assistant with the 1H2024 release (see my July blog post) (An example of the Creating Proposals AI pattern). This has now been improved further with the introduction of the Text Analyzer, which checks texts for any unconscious biases and other safety attributes (Figure 9). This helps all managers, because employees are far more likely to follow actionable feedback that they can relate to.

Figure 9: The new Text Analyzer in the AI writing assistant in SAP SuccessFactors. ALT Text: The screenshot on the left shows the drop-down of the writing assistant with the entry “Text Analyzer” in focus. A large arrow points from there to the screenshot on the right showing a popover “Use AI capabilities” with two sections: “Sentence with issue”, containing “the background noise was very annoying and distracted from what was otherwise a quality presentation”, with “very annoying” in red, and “Suggested text”, containing “the background noise was disruptive and distracted from what was otherwise a quality presentation”. The paragraph below that reads “The term “very annoying” is considered impolite and unprofessional. It can be perceived as disrespectful and may not be appropriate in a professional context”.Figure 9: The new Text Analyzer in the AI writing assistant in SAP SuccessFactors. ALT Text: The screenshot on the left shows the drop-down of the writing assistant with the entry “Text Analyzer” in focus. A large arrow points from there to the screenshot on the right showing a popover “Use AI capabilities” with two sections: “Sentence with issue”, containing “the background noise was very annoying and distracted from what was otherwise a quality presentation”, with “very annoying” in red, and “Suggested text”, containing “the background noise was disruptive and distracted from what was otherwise a quality presentation”. The paragraph below that reads “The term “very annoying” is considered impolite and unprofessional. It can be perceived as disrespectful and may not be appropriate in a professional context”.

Another new feature are the contextual actions which are proposed in areas like spot awards and 360 review forms with some pre-defined frequently used comments across all industries – for example the option to generate a text for “Produces accurate and timely written reports”.

Emma recently received a 360-degree review, which contained a lot of lengthy and complex feedback. Fortunately, she was able to use the new AI-assisted 360-degree review capability introduced with the 2H2024 release. This gave her actionable insights and a feedback summary that highlighted her strengths and areas for improvement. Also, she received insightful comments and suggested improvements based on reviewer inputs and ratings on skills, goals, and competencies. This uses both the Summarizing and Creating Proposals AI patterns.

AI-Assisted Employee Compensation Insights

When it’s time for the salary round, the system gives managers comprehensive data on their employees’ overall compensation, that they have had to interpret themselves. But no longer! With AI assistance, SAP SuccessFactors provides compensation insights, summarizing the overall situation for a given employee and providing pertinent insights regarding compensation history, one-off payments, job progression, pay band position and more (Figure 10). As you probably guessed, this is an example of the Summarizing AI pattern.

Figure 10: AI-assisted compensation insights in SAP SuccessFactors. ALT Text: A screenshot of Compensation Information with a popover “Compensation Insights” containing a Summary section, with seven lines of text, followed by an “Insights” section with four numbered sub-sections containing further details: (1) Compensation History (2) One-Off Payments (3) Job Progression (4) Pay Band Position.Figure 10: AI-assisted compensation insights in SAP SuccessFactors. ALT Text: A screenshot of Compensation Information with a popover “Compensation Insights” containing a Summary section, with seven lines of text, followed by an “Insights” section with four numbered sub-sections containing further details: (1) Compensation History (2) One-Off Payments (3) Job Progression (4) Pay Band Position.

Continue Reading

I hope you enjoyed this third part, covering SAP SuccessFactors – and showing concrete examples of how Generative AI embedded in business applications helps business users work more effectively, giving them unprecedented insights and convenience.

Part 4 is now available, covering latest UX innovations in SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass, i.e. applications for managing your spend (procurement) and external workforce:

Part 1 of the series lists all the parts, and links to those parts that have already been published:

Do keep posting your experiences and recommendations yourself in the SAP Community, with the SAP Fiori and/or the User Experience tag! In case you are wondering how to get a list of the most recent blog posts on SAP Fiori and User Experience in our new SAP Community, use these links:

For general information on design at SAP and SAP Fiori, check out:

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