Talent Intelligence Hub & SAP SuccessFactors Learning Integration

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Learning as part of SAP SuccessFactors’s Future-ready workforce strategy

SAP SuccessFactors Learning plays a vital role in our comprehensive product strategy for a Future Ready Workforce and Learning is getting a lot of love from our Product team in the upcoming releases! With a strong focus on addressing each learner’s specific requirements, the New Integrated Learning Experience boasts an intuitive design. The innovative Whole Self Model concept is central to its functionality while also harnessing the potential of the AI/ML-driven Talent Intelligence Hub framework from the SAP SuccessFactors suite.

Later this year as part of 2H 2023, customers can expect an enhanced integrated learning experience, which includes a newly re-designed learning home page but goes way beyond just a new user interface.

The new integrated learning experience leverages the Talent Intelligence Hub framework of the SAP SuccessFactors suite. This blog will primarily focus on the Cross-solution integration between Talent Intelligence Hub and new integrated Learning. We will learn about the Prerequisites, Configuration, Data flow, and overall Architecture of these two key components of our Future Ready Workforce.

If you want to know more about Talent Intelligence Hub, I suggest reading my earlier blog post: Everything you need to know about: SAP SuccessFactors Talent Intelligence Hub

Solution Interaction: Talent Intelligence Hub <>New Integrated Learning Experience

The data and process flow has changed as part of the new Talent Intelligence Hub and new integrated learning experience integration. Please refer to Fig 1 for the new cross-solution data & process flow.

It’s important to note that, none of these processes/data flow require a middleware or an interface, but minimal configuration to move data in real-time to provide a seamless user experience.

The highlighted blue background signifies the solutions integrated as part of SAP’s Future Ready Workforce, driven by intelligent recommendations and AI/ML-based algorithms! These solutions seamlessly interact with the recommendation engine SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace, eliminating the need for any integration, interfaces, or configuration! How impressive is that?

Fig 1 – Talent Intelligence Hub<> Learning data flow

Talent Intelligence Hub framework, which can be considered as the talent intelligence ‘brain’ of the suite, centralizes organizational and individual talent intelligence with data from third parties to build individualized talent development paths

Process #1: signifies the User data and organization data flow from EC or Platform (for non-EC) to Learning via Integration Center or standard SF-User connector.

Process #2: Employee’s Growth Portfolio is pre-populated with Attributes (e.g., Skills, Competencies), that are already tied to the Job Role of the Position employee is tied to!

Process #3: With Attributes Sync, the data in the Attributes library syncs to the Learning Attributes entity. Learning Admins add these attributes to learning content e.g. Item, Program.

Process #4: After successful completion, the proficiency rating linked to the attributes (both Skills and Competency) updates the employee’s Growth Portfolio, if higher than the employee’s existing growth portfolio rating.

At any point, employees can visit Opportunity Marketplace to see personalized Leaning, Career, Mentor, Dynamic Team, and other recommendations based on their Growth Portfolio data.

Let’s look through the steps to set up these cross-solution interactions and see how the end-to-end process plays out from the lenses of an employee Anya Singh, from Best Run Co.

Integrating SAP SuccessFactors Learning with Talent Intelligence Hub

There are two prerequisites or configuration components for Talent Intelligence Hub (which is part of the SAP SuccessFactors Platform) and the new integrated learning experience:

  1. Sealing of the Integration between SuccessFactors Platform and Learning
  2. Talent Intelligence Hub upgrade and configuration

1. Sealing the Integration SAP SuccessFactors Platform and Learning

As our commitment to delivering a unified and personalized experience to our customers within the SuccessFactors HXM Suite intensifies, it becomes increasingly imperative that each solution, including Learning, operates seamlessly within that experience. For this reason, integrated functionality can no longer operate singularly from an application or database perspective.

What is Sealing, and why is it necessary?

To facilitate the adoption of innovations such as Talent Intelligence Hub and the new Integrated Learning Homepage, which rely on Machine Learning-based recommendations and the smooth transfer of data between solutions, it is essential that all instances fall under the definition of ‘Good Integration’. In line with this objective, starting with the 1H 2023 Release, SAP SuccessFactors has initiated the process to seal the integrations for tenants.

Definition of an instance with a Good Integration:

  • Instance Type is the same (Ex. Preview/Preview, Test/Test, Production/Production)
  • Data Centers are the same (Ex. Learning on DC33 / HXM Platform on DC33). NOTE: Only exception is DC68 HXM Platform / DC70 Learning
  • Integration is enabled on both LMS and SuccessFactors HXM suite
  • Integration configurations point to each other (Existing Platform and Learning Integration)

You can create a Support Ticket with component LOD-SF-LMS-INT and provide instance details to seal integrations, if its not done yet.  For specific questions on your customer landscape, please send a note to [email protected].

More info in the SAP Help site – SuccessFactors Platform Integration Sealing Confirmation | SAP Help Portal

 

The integration status is displayed on Learning under System Administration > Configuration > System Configuration > BIZX. The standard integration statuses are:

  • Sealed: Integration is sealed and cannot be updated by an Admin or Partner.
  • Confirmed by System: Integration has been validated by SAP and is ready to be sealed. This indicates that SAP has validated the integration and it is scheduled to be automatically sealed by the end of September 2023. An Admin User can seal the integration sooner by confirming the integration.
  • Confirmed by Administrator: Confirmed by Learning System Administrator.
  • Failed: There was an error when attempting to confirm or seal the integration. If you see this status you can send an email to [email protected] to request assistance.

Note: Please refer to the SuccessFactors community blog post for more information and a timeline about sealing – Learning and Platform Integration – Process and Ne… – SAP Community Groups

2. Configuration/Prerequisites for SAP SuccessFactors Learning & Talent Intelligence Hub Integration

The SAP SuccessFactors Learning integration with the Talent Intelligence Hub framework supports adding attributes of type competency, skill, and other custom attributes to learning items, programs, curricula, etc. When learners successfully complete these learning activities, ratings and new attributes are updated in their Growth Portfolio.

Prerequisites & Configuration steps

  • Job Profile Builder is enabled
  • Upgrade to Talent Intelligence Hub
  • Integration between SAP SuccessFactors Learning and Platform is sealed
  • Configured a minimum of one active locale (preferably all locales) in SAP SuccessFactors Learning that matches the locale in Talent Intelligence Hub.
  • Verify that the ‘in progress’ Capabilities Synchronization and Competency Connector – SF jobs are completed.
    • If the APMs are “in progress,” they need to finish (be completed) before TIH can be enabled.
  • Once TIH is enabled, existing Capabilities Synchronization and Competency Connector – SF will be disabled so that customers can’t schedule jobs.
  • Once the above settings are done, make sure to enable the ‘Auto Record Competency Rating on Item Completion‘ flag for ratings to flow automatically to Growth Portfolio, as shown in Fig 2Fig 2 – ‘Auto Record Competency Rating on Item Completion‘ flag

What’s the new Process Experience for Employees?

With the new Integrated Learning Experience, a brand new search capability with intelligent recommendations and the ability to search based on specific skills and other attributes is available. Customers who opt-in to SuccessFactors’ Data Platform will have access to intelligent recommendations and the ability to search using specific skills and attributes.

Let’s delve into how the Learning and Talent Intelligence Hub can empower employees in their upskilling journey

Meet Anya Singh, an enthusiastic employee working in a dynamic technology company. As she aims to progress in her career and stay ahead in a rapidly changing industry, Anya decides to harness the potential of Learning and Talent Intelligence Hub provided by her company.

1. Manage Growth Portfolio

In this use case scenario, Best Run’s employee – Anya Singh, was recommended a few new attributes based on her existing Growth Portfolio attributes, and she can also access the Attributes library to add specific skills/competencies & shape the digital picture of her whole self.

Out of the recommended attributes, Anya adds a new Competency – Prioritizing and Organizing Work to her portfolio. You can see in Fig 6 that Anya hasn’t rated this Competency yet and doesn’t have a Proficiency rating yet.

Fig 6 – Anya’s Growth Portfolio

Anya clicks on the Competency to learn more about the proficiency requirements. The timeline at the bottom of the screen shows that it’s a new attribute that hasn’t been rated yet.

Fig 7- Competency details

Anya rates herself as a Beginner, i.e., a Proficiency rating of 1.

Fig 8- Anya’s self-rating as a beginner

2. Personalized Learning Recommendations

Including AI recommendations right on the main page also allows learners to receive personalized recommendations based on both their own learning history, and recommendations based on their growth portfolio, role in the company, and job role. As with all ML algorithms, these recommendations will improve, becoming more intelligent and valuable through increased usage and user inputs. (Note: the AI recommendations will be an opt-in feature)

Anya wants to upskill to be a Best Run Project Manager one day and selects the Course ‘Internal Communication Mastery.’

Fig 9 – Personalized recommendations on the Learning Home page

3. Attributes detail in Learning Content

A click on the learning course displays all learning details and the Attributes assigned to the content. These are the attributes the employee will acquire or improve (if they already exist in their growth portfolio) after successfully completing the course.

Anya completes the course successfully. In this example, the Competency – Prioritizing and Organizing Work has a proficiency rating scale of 3 maintained in Learning.

Fig 10 – Attribute tab in Course Info

4. Proficiency Rating updates Growth Portfolio 

As soon as Anya completes the course, her rating improves and is reflected immediately in the growth portfolio with an increased proficiency rating, as shown in Fig 11.

Note -The rating will be updated to match the value maintained in the rating scale for the specific competency (refer to Fig 3). For instance, if the Competency had a rating of 3, and Anya had a higher rating for the same Competency in her Growth Portfolio, the higher value would be retained.

Fig 11 – Improved rating after course completion.

Anya can see the updated proficiency and the timeline update as shown in Fig 12

Fig 12 – Timeline update in Growth Portfolio

What’s new for SuccessFactors Learning Administrators?

Here’s a list of a few key changes and new functionalities for Learning Admins.

  • A new daily automatic process job, Attributes Synchronization, to synchronize attributes from Talent Intelligence Hub to SAP SuccessFactors Learning. You can change this default schedule period only after the integration is complete.
  • This integration requires you to run the existing Item Connector if you want to add attributes and ratings for multiple Items.
  • Admins can view the synced attributes and their associations from the new entity, Attributes, from the Learning Activities menu.
  • As part of the transition to Talent Intelligence Hub, the Competencies tab name is now updated to the Attributes Tab. This change is only applied to specific pages that support adding multiple attribute types, such as competencies and skills. As shown in Fig 3Fig 3 – New Attributes tab
  • In an integrated tenant, the Learning Activities menu includes a new entity, Attributes.
    Fig 4 – New entity ‘Attributes’
  • In an integrated tenant, a new search field, Attributes, appear on the Items, Tasks, and Programs search pages. E.g., the Program search page in Fig 5 and admins can add these attributes to the 3 objects – Items, Program, and Tasks. Fig 5 – New Search field ‘Attributes’
  • Administrators can maintain attributes and ratings for learning activities through a centralized framework instead of using competencies from multiple sources.

I hope this information was helpful. Stay tuned for more information about Talent Intelligence Hub and New Integrated Learning Experience topics in the customer community and at events such as our upcoming SuccessConnect conference in Las Vegas.

This blog wouldn’t have been possible without the valuable collaboration with my colleague Chris Stiles, our in-house SuccessFactors Learning expert, who assisted with the Talent Intelligence Hub and Learning integration and the screenshots.

Please watch this space for my next blog – Talent Intelligence Hub and Opportunity Marketplace Integration!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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