Creating a Goal Plan Template

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to explore goal plan templates.

The Goal Plan Template

The goal plan template is the key concept used to define the fields and sections that users complete during goal planning. The terms Goal and Objective are identical in meaning for SAP SuccessFactors Goal Management. During implementation, the term used for your instance is defined. For the purpose of this course, we will use Goals. The configuration in your SAP SuccessFactors instance highly depends on your company’s policies, procedures, and business rules.

It is very likely that your SAP SuccessFactors implementation consultant created goal plan templates during implementation. However, you may also edit existing templates and add new ones from Manage Templates.

Add a New Template from the SuccessStore

To add a new goal plan template from the SuccessStore, navigate to Manage Templates using Action Search. Choose Add SuccessStore Template, and select from the options available.

This screenshot shows Manage Templates and the Goal Plan tab, pointing to the 'Add SuccessFactors Template' button to add a new goal plan template from the SuccessStore.

Currently, there are two templates offered in the SuccessStore:

  • Basic Goal Plan: Includes a single category and the SAP SuccessFactors goal library.
  • Extended Goal Plan: Includes the SAP SuccessFactors goal library, Balanced Scorecard categories, and Milestones.
This screenshot shows the goal plan options available in the SuccessStore.

The primary difference between the two goal plan templates is the number of categories: the Basic Goal Plan has one category, and the Extended Goal Plan has multiple categories. When adding a new plan template from the SuccessStore, you may use the preview to better understand what is included. You may also see a preview in additional languages depending on your configuration.

Upload New Template

Administrators can upload new XML templates, update existing ones, download templates for offline editing, and view template revisions from Manage Templates, with the required permission. To upload a new template, select the Goal Plan tab, and then select the Upload New Template button.

Administrators need the following Role-Based permission (found in Manage Permission Roles): Administrator Permissions→Manage Templates→Upload and Update XML Templates in Admin Center.

Caution

As a best practice, we recommend having your SAP SuccessFactors consultant complete all template updates. Changes to templates can have critical impacts to your system performance, and should be thoroughly tested. More details about this functionality for consultants can be found in SAP SuccessFactors Performance and Goals Academy (THR82).
This screenshot shows the Goal Plan tab in Manage Templates and highlights the Upload New Template button as well as the Update, Download, and Revisions columns.

Existing Template Usage

If you already have a goal plan in the instance from a previous goal planning cycle, you may open that template and save as with a new name. You can then modify the template for the new cycle as needed.

During implementation, if an SAP SuccessFactors certified consultant creates a goal plan template for your organization for a particular calendar year, you do not need them to create a new one for subsequent years. Rather than adding a new template, you can modify an existing template and save it with a new name. This is useful when significant changes to the template are not required. In this context, significant changes are changes that cannot be made from Manage Templates. For example, adding (or removing) the permission to cascade goals to a goal plan template is not possible in Manage Templates and requires assistance from an SAP SuccessFactors implementation consultant.

When creating a new template for a new performance year, it is important to change the default goal start and due dates.

This screenshot shows Manage Templates and highlights the Save As button to use to modify an existing template and save with a new name.

Default Goal Plans

Once the goal plan template has been created, you can make it the default template for users when they log in for the first time.

You may also make templates active (available for use) or inactive. The default setting is active. For viewing purposes, you may sort the templates by clicking the up and down arrows in the Sort Order column.

Note

Goal Plan templates can never be deleted but can be set to Inactive if they are no longer used. This is to ensure that any historical data is preserved.

This screenshot shows the setting in Manage Goal Plan Templates to set a goal plan as the default for users to see when they login for the first time.

You can change the default plan to another one of your existing templates. The confirmation message will display to confirm this change.

This screenshot shows the confirmation message you will see when changing the default goal plan.

Duplicate an Existing Goal Plan Template

Business Example

In this exercise, you create a new goal plan template from your existing templates.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Log in to SAP SuccessFactors using your assigned administrator account.

  2. Use Action Search and enter Manage Templates.

  3. On the Manage Templates page, select the Goal Plan tab.

  4. Choose the TMO Goal Plan template. The TMO Goal Plan template opens.

  5. To create a new goal plan template, choose Save As….

  6. For the title, enter [Current Year] Goal Plan [Your Initials].

  7. Select Save to save changes and finish the creation of the new goal plan.

  8. Select General Settings.

  9. In the Change Language dropdown, select English US (English US) and rename your template to [Current Year] Goal Plan [Your Initials]

  10. In the Instructions to your users, change TMO to [Current Year] in the Welcome title.

  11. Change Language back to default and repeat step 9.

  12. Click away, and choose Save to save your changes.

  13. Navigate back to Manage Templates and, for the newly created goal plan template, select the Default radio button.

  14. To confirm the changes, choose OK.

    Note

    It can take a significant amount of time (a few hours) for this goal plan to show up for the end user in your instance. This is usually due to the fact that Role-Based Permissions have not been updated and do not currently include the newly created template in the list of permissible templates. You can follow these steps to refresh RBP configuration:

    1. Navigate to Scheduled Job Manager→Job Scheduler→Create Job Request.
    2. Create a new job request with these details:
      • Job Name: RBP Refresh
      • Job Type: RBP Refresh Model
      • Job Owner: admin
      • Job Occurrence: One-Time
      • Start: Select Today's Date, and time to be 5 minutes after current time.
    3. Choose Submit.
    4. Verify the job runs on the Job Monitor tab.

    Then check your permission role in Manage Permission Roles to make sure your role has access to all goal plan templates.

Summary

  • The goal plan template is the key concept used to define the fields and sections that users complete during goal planning.
  • Once the goal plan template has been created, you can make it the default template for users when they log in for the first time.

Learning

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