Discovering Foundation Object Assocations in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to identify how Foundation Object associations can organize company information more efficiently.

Associations

Associations enable you to define relationships between Foundation Objects and their records. Once the association is built, the records are linked together. These relationships allow the system to organize your company’s information better. For example, a customer may have a business unit associated with several divisions.

Top down hierarchy with standard foundation objects.

The relationships between foundation data help the system automatically filter options in an employee's record. For example, if an employee is transferred to Business Unit 2, the system will only allow Division 3 to be selected because it is the only division linked to that business unit. This automatic filtering ensures that selections align with your company’s structure and configuration, simplifying data entry and maintaining accuracy.

Custom Generic Object

If the customer's requirement cannot be met with the standard objects, it is possible to configure custom objects. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central can utilize the Metadata Framework (MDF) to create additional custom objects to support business processes.

The figures below show an example of a custom object used in Employee Profile and where the object is set up in the Admin Center.

This screenshot shows how users would see a custom object used in the system on their profile.
This screenshot shows an example of a custom object set up in Admin Center - Manage Data.

Summary

  • Associations enable you to define relationships between Foundation Objects and their records, to allow the system to better organize your company's information.
  • If your company's requirements cannot be met with standard objects, it is possible to configure custom objects in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central by utilizing the Metadata Framework (MDF).

Decisions Checklist

Based on the content in this section, please review the list of implementation decisions your company may need to make before implementation begins and discuss them with your stakeholders, project team, and SAP SuccessFactors implementation consultants. In this way, you will be better prepared to begin the implementation.

  • How many levels do you have in your organization structure?
  • Employee Central has three levels in the organizational structure as standard (Business Unit, Division, Department). Is it necessary to increase this to more than 4 or 5?
  • In which HR processes are the levels of the structure important?

Supplemental Resources

You can find out more about Foundation Objects and organizational structures in the following resources:

Learning

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