Exploring the AI capabilities available in Performance Management

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to explore AI-assisted capabilities in Performance Management.

AI-Assisted Performance Insights

The AI-Assisted Performance Insights allow managers to generate summaries and insights about their employees’ performance using generative AI capabilities, aiding them in conducting performance reviews.

There are several prerequisites to use this capability:

An SAP AI Units license.
AI feature enabled in AI Services Administration→Talent→Assisted Performance Insights.
Permission granted in RBP to managers: User Permissions→AI Access→Assisted Performance Insights.
The latest form experience enabled: Performance Management Feature Settings→Enable the latest experience for Performance Management forms.
The AI insights enabled in the form template(s): Form Template Settings→Enable Assisted Performance Insights for Manager Review.
The AI insights can only be used during the Modify stage. The route map associated to the form template with AI-Assisted Insights should have a single step where the manager is the step owner (like Manager Evaluation).
The form must be in the manager's inbox, and the review should not be delegated.

On the following example, a manager is on the Manager Evaluation step, and can view a main section called Boost your review with AI-powered insights. A Generate button can be selected to start.

Step to generate AI-Assisted Insights as a manager

The results show a detailed summary, with these areas:

Summary. Provides a high-level overview of the employee's performance.
Strengths. Reveals areas in which the employee is good at.
Notable Achievements and Contributions. Highlights accomplishments that are worthy of recognition.
Areas for Improvement and Actions. Identifies growth areas and provides achievable suggestions for upskilling and career development. With proper permissions, managers can use AI suggestions to generate development goals for the employee.
Talking Points. Offers performance-related topics to help managers on their 1:1 meeting discussions with the employee.

Note

The insights cannot be saved on the form, but managers can use the print option at the bottom right of the new area.

To produce the insights, generative AI uses various data about the employee's performance from different sources. The data contains:

Feedback, achievements, and meeting notes from Continuous Performance Management
Comments from Performance Management forms
Feedback provided through Ask for Feedback in Performance Management

As for the time frame for the Data Used in AI-Assisted Performance Insights, it works as follow:

f the review period of the Performance Management form is one year or less, generative AI uses all available data created in this period.
If the review period of the Performance Management form exceeds one year, generative AI uses all comments and feedback provided for the form during the period, along with data from other sources within the most recent year up to the form due date. Accordingly, the logic for the data referenced will be displayed in the summary of the AI-Assisted Insights.

The summary shows the Data Referenced as a source to generate the AI insights

Generate Comments and Improve Feedback with AI-Assisted Writing

The AI-Assisted Writing feature, includes some specific capabilities only available for Performance Management and 360 Reviews, to generate a comment for a goal, competency or skill and enhance the content from an existing comment: Generate Comments and Improve My Feedback.

Caution

The ability to Generate Comments and Improve My Feedback on Goals is only available for Performance Management. The latest experience should be enabled to use this option. As for the 360 Reviews, these capabilities can be used for Skills and Competencies only.

Generate Comments: Available when no text is selected, this item suggests six topics dynamically based on the rating assigned to the current goal, competency or skill. Users can choose one topic and let the tool generate detailed comments relevant to the goal, competency or skill and its rating, without needing users to provide initial text input. Users can further edit the comments manually or with the help of the tool.
Improve My Feedback: Available when there is text selected, this item assists users in providing clear, concise, and professional comments that are pertinent to a specific goal, skill or competency and its rating. Users can view the improved feedback or evaluate multiple attempts in a separate dialog before applying a result.

Examples of AI-Assisted Writing capabilities in Performance Management

The following are some examples on how end users can enhance their comments in 360 Reviews forms using AI technology:

Enhance Content with AI-Assisted Writing

In this example, Amanda, one of the managers in the organization, is rating the role-specific competencies for the HR Coordinator, on the Manager Evaluation step. One of the competencies in the section, Developing Talent, has been rated with 3.0 - Met Target. Based on this rating Amanda would like to generate comments using AI-Assisted Writing.

Amanda selects the empty comment box, and a menu dialog appears with three icons, but only one is available: Use AI Capabilities.
From the possible options, only Generate Comments is visible, since the comment box is empty and there's no existing text. Amanda selects the option, and 6 possible topics show up. The suggested topic that will be selected is Providing constructive feedback regularly.
The suggested topic generates an extensive comment, but Amanda would like to make some additional review using the AI-Assisted Writing.
With an existing text, now Amanda can use all the AI-Assisted Writing options, including Improve My Feedback to generate a new output with a better feedback.
A new suggested text is displayed. Amanda selects Apply, and the text is transferred into the comment box for the competency being evaluated.

Explore the AI-Assisted capabilities in Performance Management

As part of the testing activities for launched forms, you will be exploring the latest AI-Assisted capabilities available in Performance Management.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites should be in place.

Performance Management Feature Settings→Enable the latest experience of Performance Management forms.
AI Services Administration→Assisted Writing
AI Services Administration→Assisted Performance Insights
Form Template Settings→Enable Assisted Performance Insights for Manager Review.
Managers should have the following permissions granted in RBP:
- AI Access→Assisted Writing with Text Analyzer
- AI Access→Assisted Performance Insights

Steps

Review all the prerequisites are in place to use the AI-Assisted capabilities in Performance Management.
1. Navigate to AI Services Administration using Action Search.
2. Under Global section, confirm the AI Assisted Writing, and the sub-options Translation and Text Analyzer are enabled.
3. Scroll down to the Talent section, and confirm the Assisted Performance Insights option is enabled. If not, turn on the option.
4. Navigate to Manage Permission Roles using Action Search, and verify the following permissions are granted for the Managers role.
- AI Access→Assisted Writing with Text Analyzer
- AI Access→Assisted Performance Insights
Explore AI-Assisted capabilities in a Performance Management for as a Manager
1. Select Proxy Now to proxy as Alex Anderson.
2. Access Brooke Brown performance form, available in your Inbox. The form should be on the Manager Evaluation step, since you rated this subject using Stack Ranker on the previous exercise.
3. Open the form, and locate the section Boost your review with AI-powered insights!.
4. Select Generate.
5. Review the insights that will help on further actions and talking points with the employee.
6. Scroll down through the Performance form and navigate to the Performance Goals section.
7. Select one of the goals to open the goal details panel and add a new comment. Make sure the goal is already rated.
8. On the comment box, select the area to display the AI-Assisted Writing menu. There should be one option available, as show on the screenshot.
9. The option Generate Comments will display, and show 6 possible options to comment on the goal, based on the goal details and the rating given.
10. Select one of the options. Review the text, and choose Apply.
11. Try using the option Improve My Feedback on the comment given, and compare the original text with the suggested text.
12. Select Apply or Discard, depending on which option you prefer.
13. Save changes on the form using the Save button.

Joule in SAP SuccessFactors

Leveraging its generative AI capabilities, Joule aims to understand your requests, retrieve information, and complete your tasks in a conversational way. For example, instead of manually navigating to a feature or page buried deep, you can describe the current task to Joule, who can help automate tasks or take you to places where you can find desired data. By using Joule, you can easily interact with the system and increase your productivity.

Note

There are several prerequisites before enabling Joule, such as an SAP BTP enterprise global account, or IAS authentication set up. Customers should contact their Account Executive for additional information about the licensing requirements. The following link includes all the available resources for Joule, such as the Initial Setup, Capabilities, Security or Integration points: Joule - SAP Help Portal.

Joule in SAP SuccessFactors supports three conversational patterns: transactional, navigational and informational.

Transactional. A transactional capability can help customers create, view, update or delete business data without having to navigate to the respective apps. In the transactional use cases, Joule can not only provide you with general HR information about yourself and your colleagues, but also help you directly complete tasks on the chat interface. For example, when you say "I want to request feedback from my manager", Joule collects your questions and then sends the request directly to your manager.
Navigational. A navigational capability helps users find and navigate to the functionality or apps they're looking for without having to go through multiple links to reach a destination. In the navigational use cases, Joule can direct you to SAP SuccessFactors pages where you can find the information you need or get the job done. For example, when you want to view the time off instructions of your organization, Joule provides a link to the Time Off page and informs you of the place where you can get the information.
Informational. In the informational use case, Joule searches available documentation and its own knowledge base to find the answer to your query and provides a summarization as the answer to your question, along with the top three search results. For example, when you want to check your organization's HR policies, you can simply interact with Joule to retrieve the relevant documents. This saves time for both employees and HR personnel, improving employee self-service experience and increasing HR work efficiency.
Note
The informational use case in Joule requires additional steps and prerequisites. More information available here: Set Up Document Grounding.

Use Cases Available in Joule for SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals

Some of the transactions that can be initiated with Joule to perform an action or navigate to a specific location are the following:

Navigational
- View 360 review forms
- View continuous feedback
- Create / Delete performance goals
- Cascade goals
- Create / Assign team goals
- Assess team performance
- View performance review forms.
Transactional
- Create activity
- Give / Request Feedback
- View / Edit performance goals
- Add comments to performance goals

Hint

To find all the information about the Use Cases available in Joule for SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals, check the following link: Performance & Goals Use Cases.

Ask Joule

Let's take a look at one example where Carla, a manager in the organization, is using Joule to complete some transactions.

Steps

From the Home Page, the user selects the Joule icon, and the conversation can start. Some options of use cases are displayed dynamically. Carla can select one of them or just type what she is looking for.
Carla has selected the use case View Goals. Joule asks whose goals, and Carla replies "My own goals". Joule comes back with the results. There is one goal available in Carla's basic Goal Plan.
Carla decides to edit the goal. With this transactional use case Edit Performance Goals, Carla is able to update the Status and the % Completion of the goal.
Carla types "Change status to On Track and % Complete to 75%" to start editing the goal.
Joule proceeds to update the goal details. Carla decides to Submit this change.
The goal is now updated. Carla can select View Goal to navigate to the Goal Plan if needed.

Performance and Goals Agent

AI Agents

In today's evolving technology, AI Agents play an important role to perceive an environment to interpret the data and take actions accordingly. Examples of AI Agents include Chat Bots or virtual assistants.

Some of the key aspects of an AI Agent are:

Perception: AI Agents use sensors or inputs to perceive their environment. This could range from a simple text input to complex data streams from cameras, microphones, or other sensors.
Reasoning: Based on the perceptions, AI Agents process and interpret the data using various AI techniques such as machine learning, natural language processing, or rule-based systems. This allows them to understand the situation and make decisions.
Action: After reasoning, the AI Agent takes actions based on its goals and the current state of the environment. These actions could be anything from providing a response to a user's query, controlling a physical system, or making a recommendation.
Learning: Many AI Agents, particularly those using machine learning, can learn from their experiences. They use feedback or rewards from their environment to improve their performance over time.
Autonomy: AI Agents operate with a degree of autonomy, making decisions without human intervention. However, the extent of this autonomy can vary greatly depending on the system's design and purpose.

Joule Agents

At SAP, a variety of built in Joule Agents are embedded into every business function to automate complex workflows and deliver AI value with the SAP's own business process expertise. Some of the key benefits and capabilities of Joule Agents in SAP are:

Reasoning and acting with reliability across end-to-end processes to help companies solve bigger problems.
Accessing the most relevant business data to interpret and draw accurate conclusions.
Deciding actions to take to complete higher-impact business goals.
Working together with other ready-to-use agents to blend their business expertise across multiple functions.
Centrally managed through a central dashboard to discover, deploy and govern AI agents effectively.

The following example shows the different business functions where AI Agents are available.

Note

More information about available Joule Agents, and the use cases for each business function, can be found in the following resources:

https://www.sap.com/products/artificial-intelligence/ai-agents.html

https://www.sap.com/products/artificial-intelligence/ai-agents/agent-use-cases.html

With full understanding of your business and the most comprehensive data, Joule Agents connect and work seamlessly together to accomplish any task more effectively than other AI agents—and supercharge your people.

Performance and Goals Agent

One of the applications for Human Resources is the Performance and Goals Agent, which is part of a Promotions Feature Settings section, in AI Services Administration, which includes features available for trial under promotions and do not specifically require additional AI Units licensing, although it would be required to have Joule in SAP SuccessFactors enabled.

The purpose of the Performance and Goals Agent is to assist managers in effectively preparing for performance conversations with their direct reports, summarizing and analyzing key performance and goals data, including:

Performance and Development Goals
Performance forms
Activities and Achievements
Continuous Feedback
1:1 Meetings

The AI Agent will analyze the existing data and generate personalized talking points, a structured agenda and actionable recommendations for next steps. The agent enables managers to interact more effectively with Joule and ask questions to address their specific needs.

Main Features of the Performance and Goals Agent

The following section lists the main features of the agent, along with sample utterances that managers might use to interact with Joule.

Performance and Goals Agent Features

Feature	Description	Sample Utterances
Generate talking points and meeting agenda	Provides personalized talking points and structured agendas for performance discussion based on direct reports' performance-related data including goals, achievements, feedback, performance forms, and activities.	I'm going to have a 2025 goal-setting meeting with my direct report, Mike. Can you help me with talking points? What should I include in the meeting agenda for my performance review with Alex? I will meet with Marcus to discuss his performance so far this year. Can you summarize for me his achievements, feedback, and anything else relevant to his performance and development?
Schedule 1:1 meeting	Helps draft meeting requests, including subject and body content, for conversations with direct reports, and provides a link to easily schedule the meetings in Outlook.	Help me set up a meeting with Alex Hall to discuss his goals and feedback. Schedule a 1:1 meeting with Mike Smith about his performance. Can you create a meeting request for a performance review with Marcus next Friday?
Summarize feedback	Summarizes continuous feedback received from direct reports, offers details about specific aspects, and provides insights tailored to address managers' queries.	What are the top strengths and development areas mentioned in Marcus' feedback? I'm preparing for a performance review meeting. Give me a high-level summary of all feedback received by Alex Hall. What are Mike Smith's top improvement areas from recent feedback?
Summarize achievements	Summarizes the achievements of direct reports, offers details about specific aspects, and provides insights tailored to address managers' queries.	What achievements should I highlight for my direct report Alex? Summarize the major accomplishments of Mike this quarter. What insights can you provide on Marcus' achievements this year?
Summarize activities	Summarizes the activities of direct reports, offers details about specific aspects, and provides insights tailored to address managers' queries.	Summarize the activities Mike has completed this month. How many activities does Alex Hall have right now? What insights can you give on Marcus' activity trends?
Summarize performance and development goals	Summarizes the performance and development goals set by direct reports, offers details about specific aspects, and provides insights tailored to address managers' queries.	What progress has been made on the performance goals set for Mike Smith? Summarize the development goals for Alex Hall. Show milestones and target dates for Marcus' goals.
Summarize performance forms	Summarizes the performance forms of direct reports, offers details about specific aspects, and provides insights tailored to address managers' queries.	Highlight comments captured in the performance forms for Mike Smith. What are the objectives of Marcus in his performance form for 2024? What are the main takeaways from Alex Hall's performance form regarding his contributions?
Request feedback	Allows managers to request continuous feedback on behalf of their direct reports from relevant stakeholders.	I want to request feedback for Alex on his recent project. Can you ask for feedback from Mike Smith about Alex's collaboration? Help me gather feedback from stakeholders regarding Alex's performance on the last campaign.

What a demo of the Performance and Goals Agent here: Joule Agents: Performance and Goals Agent

Configuring Performance and Goals Agent

To configure and use the Performance and Goals Agent at its best, it is highly recommended to have Performance Management, Goal Management and Continuous Performance Management enabled, which allows the agent to access relevant data from the direct reports and provide more valuable analysis and actionable insights.

Hint

Refreshing CDM contents on a monthly basis is recommended to ensure all new Joule use cases work correctly. The following KBA includes more information: https://me.sap.com/notes/3612244.

Steps

Navigate to AI Services Administration using Action Search.
On the Promotions Feature Settings section, enable the Performance & Goals Agent switch.
It is required to accept the Terms of Use for Performance and Goals Agent, including access, term, and output considerations. When ready, check the box to accept the terms and continue with the button I Accept.
Navigate to Manage Permission Roles using Action Search.
Locate the Manager role and select it.
Choose Edit, and navigate to the step 2. Add Permissions.
On the AI Access category, located under User Permissions, select the Performance & Goals Agent.
Caution
Managers should also have Access to Joule permission. This is granted in General User Permission.

Summary

AI-Assisted Performance Insights generates summaries and insights for employee performance reviews and provides an overview, strengths, achievements, improvement areas, and talking points.
AI-Assisted Writing, with specific Performance and 360 Review capabilities, Generate Comments and Improve My Feedback to create and enhance comments for goals, competencies or skills in performance reviews.
Joule, an AI-driven assistant that understands requests and automates tasks conversationally, supports transactional, navigational, and informational patterns. Some of the use cases in SAP SuccessFactors applicable to Performance & Goals include navigational (view forms, goals, etc.) and transactional (create activity, give feedback, etc.) tasks.

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