Managing the Offer Process

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to configure the offer approval and offer letter.

Offer Details Record and Offer Approval

The offer details record is a collection of the salary, start date, and other elements the company wants to use while negotiating employment with the candidate. Before the offer letter is extended, candidate information can be reviewed and approved by specified users.

Offer Approval

An offer approval allows users to enter offer data and send that information for approval before creating an offer letter.

The offer approval workflow includes the following:

Offer details are entered by a recruiter or another authorized user.
The list of approvers are pre-defined in the back end of the system or approvers are entered ad hoc while creating the initial draft of the Offer Approval.
Approvers can approve or reject the form with comments.
All approvers have access to completed Offer Approvals and pending Offer Approvals in the To Do list and the Candidate Offer Approvals tab. Approvers can also view the data from previous versions of an offer approval, and compare it to the new version to see changes.
Due Offer approvals display on the To Do list.

How to Initiate an Offer Approval Workflow?

A user with proper permissions can start the Offer Approval workflow. To start the process, proceed as follows:

Open the candidate details in talent pipeline, click Offer, and select Offer Approval.
Select the template that you would like to use.
Review the details on the template.
If the information is not populated, check if the information is entered on a job requisition or candidate application form.
Review Approvers sections.
If the approvers are not predefined, define the approvers that will need to review and approve the offer before it is sent to the candidate.
Click Send for Approval to send it to the approver.

The screenshot shows the following comment under a candidate in the Comment field: New offer salary as requested and approved by compensation. Under Approvers: Version 2, the names have been inserted in the Hiring Manager and Recruiter fields.

Note

Offer approval fields never update the job application or the job requisition. Offer fields that correspond to fields from the job requisition or job application only allow data to flow one way, from the requisition or application to the offer approval.

Reviewing the Offer

Approvers can use the following options to access an offer that is ready for review:

Approvers receive an email letting them know they have an offer to approve.
Approvers click the link in the email to go directly to the approval in the system.
Approvers log into the instance and click the link from their home page To-Do list.
Approvers who also have a role in recruiting (for example, recruiters, hiring managers) may also access approvals from the Offer Approvals link on the Job Requisitions list page.

Checking the Offer Approval Status

All users can see where a pending Offer Approval is in the approval process and can see dates and comments for all approvers from the following locations:

Viewing information directly on the Offer Approval page
The latest information is available in Offer Approval section
Receiving the email notification

Email notifications can be created in Admin Center→Recruiting Email Triggers. Approvers can compare the data from a previous version of an offer approval to the new version to see what has changed.

A screenshot shows the offer details of previous versions.

Offer Letter

Offer letters can be extended to an applicant once the offer is approved. Usually the Offer status in the pipeline is configured for this feature, but it could be a status called Offer Letter, if it requires a separate status than that defined for the Offer Approval. The appropriate (permissioned) role (usually the recruiter) may initiate the Offer Letter by selecting the option in the dropdown list.

The offer letter is generated and data is populated from the selected template. The user may modify the letter and attach documents to be completed by the candidate. Once completed, the user clicks the Next Step button.

A screenshot of the Offer Letter template shows options to send it in different formats. The text provides more detail.

Offer letters may be sent in the following formats:

Email as PDF attachment: Attach the Offer Letter in PDF format to email. The email can be created from scratch, or an existing email template can be used.
Email as text: The system sends the Offer in an email format.
Print: The system prompts the user to download the Offer Letter as a PDF, which can then be printed and sent to the applicant.
Verbal Offer: No action taken by the system, but Verbal Offer is tracked in the Offer Letter audit trail portlet.
Online Offer: If this option is selected, the offer letter is sent to a secure online portal and candidates can login and accept, decline, or ask a question. This option has to be enabled by selecting Admin Center→Manage Recruiting Settings→Offer Letterand enabling Allow candidates to accept offers online.
Online Offer with eSignature: Permissioned Recruiting users can create and send online offers requesting electronic signatures from candidates within the Career Portal. Integration with DocuSign, Inc. is needed to enable this functionality.

Note

The action is tracked in the Offer Letter Audit Trail portlet.

Introduction to Dynamic Offer Letters

Dynamic offer letters were created to provide recruiters with the ability to reduce the large volume of templates needed to accommodate the various conditions offered to applicants, as well as provide a way for recruiters to further automate the process of customizing each letter.

Offer letters can be extremely complex depending on a variety of factors, including country/region, job level, and industry while also considering various incentives that are offered as part of the candidate’s total compensation package. To alleviate the amount of manual effort it takes to create and maintain various amounts of offer letter templates, SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting provides dynamic offer letters.

The difference between using the standard offer letter feature within SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting and dynamic offer letters is how much of the offer letter automatically changes from one offer to another while using the same template. Using standard offer letters, we can configure tokens within the template which allows individual fields to be interchangeable from one offer letter to another, for example, the first and last name of the candidate.

Whereas dynamic offer letters allow for entire paragraphs to be interchangeable from one candidate’s offer to another. For example, including the verbiage required for a US benefits package for full-time employees vs. a benefits package for part-time employees.

The configuration of dynamic offer letters is completely dependent on the business requirements for each customer. This configuration can be as simple or as complex as necessary, depending on how much of the offer letter must be customized per each candidate.

Watch this video to learn more about dynamic offer letters.

Using Conditional Offer Letter Tokens

The configuration of dynamic offer letters requires the maintenance of the ConditionalOfferLetterTokenobject within Admin Center→Manage Data. This object provides 100 tokens which can be used as placeholders for sections that need to be included within the offer letter. Each token represents a placeholder that can be used in the offer letter templates to insert paragraphs as needed. When updating this object, you will need to relabel each individual token to represent the different sections of the offer letter.

The labels of the offer letter tokens can be as specific as needed. Updating these labels helps clarify which token is used for which offer letter section when creating the business rule to add conditional sections in offer letters.

Sample Labels for the Conditional Offer Letter Token Object

Paragraph Data for Offer Letter Tokens

The next step in the configuration process is deciding how the offer letter paragraph data should be stored. Creating lookup tables (custom MDF objects) is the recommended method to storing dynamic offer letter data. By creating a custom lookup table, you can configure the table to store the offer letter paragraph details, as well as the variables that will help with the configuration of the business rule.

It is critical to understand each customer’s offer letter requirements prior to completing this step of the configuration. It is also important to note that a separate business rule may be created for each offer letter template that the customer has. This means that while there are only 100 conditional offer letter tokens, these tokens may be used differently within each offer letter template. This provides incredible flexibility and opportunities for our customers and their offer letter requirements.

Consider the following requirements:

How much of the offer letter should become dynamic (replaced with conditional offer letter tokens)?
Do you need to create a lookup table for each token? (ex. One lookup table will be created for benefits details that may be inserted into any offer letter template.)
Alternatively, do you need to create one lookup table to host all the variables and paragraphs for an offer letter? (ex. One lookup table will be created to host all possible paragraphs that may need to be inserted into an employment contract for German offer letters, along with the variables used to determine which paragraph is necessary.)
What are the variables (flags, validators) that determines which paragraph should be inserted?
- Are these variables fields that already exist on the job requisition, application or offer letter? If yes, include these in the custom lookup table.
- Do you need to create new fields to use as flags/validators? If yes, configure these fields first in the respective templates prior to creating the lookup table.

Configure the Object Definition

Once you have decided how the dynamic offer paragraphs should be stored, you are ready to create your custom lookup tables.

Steps

Go to Admin Center→Configure Object Definition
Select Create New→Object Definition
Enter the following metadata details for the Object Definition
- Code: cust_OL_Dynamic_TokenXX
- Effective Dating: Basic
- API Visibility: Editable
- Status: Active
- Label: XYZ
Define the fields needed for the lookup table
- You will need to create a Details custom field to host the paragraphs for the token. Remember to increase the maximum length to 4,000, or change the data type to CLOB if a larger number of characters is needed for the offer paragraph.
- Configure the fields that will be used as validators (or flags) to help create the logic of the business rule, determining when the paragraph should be used within the token.
Save

Example

Create Dynamic Offer Letter Paragraph Data

Now that the object definition has been configured, you can create the data necessary for the dynamic offer letter paragraphs. You can create the paragraph data directly within Admin Center→Manage Data or you can use the Import/Export function in Admin Center to create your paragraph data in bulk.

Steps

Go to Admin Center→Manage Data
Select Create New and search for the name of the custom lookup table you created.
Populate the object details as follows:
- externalCode: Provide a code for the paragraph
- externalName: Provide a label for the paragraph
- Effective Start Date: Enter the date you would like this combination to take effect, for example, today’s date, or you can use 01/01/1900.
- Details: Enter the required data for the custom fields you have created, including the paragraph details to be inserted in the offer tokens.
Choose Save

Example

Create the Business Rule to Add Conditional Sections in Offer Letters

After creating the paragraph data, you are ready to create the business rule to determine the data that should be inserted into the conditional offer letter tokens.

Steps

Navigate to Admin Center→Configure Business Rules.
Select + to create a new business rule.
Select the Recruiting category and choose the business rule to add conditional sections in offer letters scenario.
Enter the following business rule details:
- Rule Name: REC_Dynamic Offer Letter_[ENTER SECTION NAME]
- Rule ID: Prepopulates by the system
- Rule Start Date: 01/01/1900
- Rule Description: (Optional):
- Job Requisition Template: Select the appropriate Job Requisition template to create the rule against.
Select Next.
On the next screen, you will first create the IF/THEN expressions of your business rule. You can set the IF statement to be always true if there is no conditionality that needs to be met.
Create your THEN statement as required:
- Select Output type Set
- Under Job Application Template, expand Offer Letter Paragraph to find and select the token you wish to replace with a paragraph.
- Change Text to the Lookup() function and select the lookup table you have created as the base object.
- Select Output field as the paragraph details field you have created.
- Effective Date is equal to System Context Effective Date.
Specify the following parameters to be validated using the + icon to add a new expression:
- Use the expression to select the field in the lookup table that should be validated against a field in the candidate’s application, job requisition that they’ve applied for, or their offer details.
- You can create as many expressions as needed to validate as many variables as necessary.
Select Save

Example

Simple Business Rule to Set Conditional Paragraphs in Offer Letters using a Lookup Table

Apply the Business Rule in Manage Rules in Recruiting

Once the business rules are created, you must apply the business rule within Manage Rules in Recruiting under the Application tab. Select the job requisition template that you have created the rule against.

Under the Template-level rules, you will find a section for Conditional Offer Letter templates. Select the offer letter template and apply the appropriate business rule.

Best Run's Offer Letter Template

Best Run’s offer letter template is mostly static, meaning that most of the offer letter template does not need to change beyond basic personalization (candidate name, job title, hiring manager, salary, and so on). However, Best Run would like to utilize the dynamic offer letter feature for their benefits paragraph, which changes based on country.

Using the dynamic offer letter configuration, a conditional offer letter token is relabeled for the benefits section of the offer letter. A custom lookup table is created for the benefits offer letter token, hosting the benefits package details for each country. A custom field is defined within the custom lookup table to host the country code which will be validated against the job requisition the candidate is receiving an offer for in the business rule.

Preview for a job offer in the United States:

Create an Offer Letter and Offer Approval

Business Example

In this exercise, you will:

Determine the approval process
Create the template in Admin Center
Send an offer letter to a candidate

ExerciseStart Exercise

Task 1: Determine the Approval Process

Steps

Log in as the recruiter.
Open a requisition that has candidates in the Interview status.
Move a candidate to the Offer status.
Create an Offer Approval. Notice the fields that are populated on the requisition or application are pre-populated on the offer approval.
Enter values for the remaining fields.
Hint
If values are not entered, tokens used on the offer letter populate with the token key instead of the respective values.
Caution
Depending on the setting in the back end of the system, the approvers might be already pre-defined or you will need to nominate the approvers.
Save and send for approval.
Complete the approval process by logging in as each approver.
Add a comment and reject the offer by the first approver.
Edit the offer until it is acceptable to all approvers.
Review the completed offer approval as the recruiter.

Task 2: Create the template in the Admin Center

Steps

Log in to the instance as an admin user.
Click Admin Center→Manage Offer Letter Templates.
Create an offer letter with the following requirements and text:
1. Set the Country to United States.
2. Enter a name for the template and set the status to Enabled.
3. For the subject and the body, enter the text in the following example. Use tokens for the fields in bold, using the icon labeled Insert Job Requisition Field.
Subject: Please join the staff at ACME!
Dear Candidate,
We are pleased to extend an offer for the position of Job Title reporting to Hiring Manager.
Your starting salary will be Salary / Salary Frequency, and you will be eligible for a bonus in the amount of Target Bonus Amount at the end of your first year.
This offer is contingent upon passing the background check. Please respond no later than one week from today.
Sincerely,
Recruiter
ACME Recruiting Department
Save the template.

Task 3: Send an Offer Letter to a Candidate

Steps

Log in as the recruiter and generate an offer letter for the candidate.
Click Next Step (or Preview) to verify all token fields are populated.
Send the offer letter to the candidate as text in an email.
Note
The best practice is to email the offer letter as a PDF attachment. Use a recruiting email template to supplement an attached offer letter.
As the candidate, review the letter.
As the recruiter, open the candidate’s summary page and review the Offer Letter portlet.

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