SAP Learning Journey

Configuring the Goal Sections

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Configure the goal section(s)

Objective (Goal) Sections

The Goal section is one of the main standard sections in a performance form. It includes all the goals to be evaluated during the review process. We can create as many sections as needed and goals can be included automatically in the performance form using the auto-populate or the auto-sync functionality. Goals can still be added, edited or removed from the Goal section of the performance form. 

Goal Section Types

Even though we can have as many Goal sections as we want in a performance form, the type of sections can only be two.

Select the button to learn about the types of goals that can be added to the goals sections of a Performance Form Template.

Note
A Development Plan requires a Career Development Planning (CDP) Full License. 

Business Decisions

When implementing the Goal Management and the Performance Management module, decisions need to be made around how the users involved will work on their goals directly in the Goal Plan or in the goal section of the Performance Form. Should goals always be updated in a Goal Plan, or are we going to allow employees and managers to update goals in the Performance Form?

Let’s explore how employees can work on their goals:

Select the next button to begin the scenario.

Goal Population on Review Forms

In general, the goal process happens before the performance review process. Employees are evaluated on whether they met their goals and how they met those goals. In order to do this, goals from the goal plan are automatically populated to the performance form for evaluation.

There are two ways to populate the goals to a Performance Form: auto-populate and auto-sync.

Select the buttons to learn more about populating goals to a Performance Form.

Goal Management-Performance Management Sync Up

Goal Management-Performance Management Sync Up can be enabled either in Provisioning → Company Settings or from Performance Management Feature Settings. When GM-PM Sync is enabled, Goal Management (GM) will "push" the changes to Performance Management (PM) so that the PM module will not miss it. Without this option, if the PM form was not opened/saved since the last modification on GM, the update would not be included in the form.

When GM-PM Sync up is not enabled, there are two issues:

  1. Performance Management (PM) fetches the goals from Goal Management (GM) once a form is opened, and keeps a local copy in PM, which might later be used by Variable Pay. If the PM form was not opened since the last modification on GM, Variable Pay will not be able to get the up-to-date GM data.

  2. Form reports are generated based on the "feedback table" in PM. But again, PM only updates this table once a form is opened. In case the PM form was not opened since the last modification on GM, the report might include expired GM data.

Configuration of the Goal Section

There are three options when configuring the Goal section: general options, advanced options, and XML only options. In the following interaction, you  will learn how to configure the general options and advanced options in both manage templates and in XML. In the XML only options you will learn about the attributes and elements.

Select a button to begin.

Rating and Comment Options

The ratable sections of a performance form contain items which can be rated and commented upon. Items are either goals or competencies depending on whether the ratable section is a goal or competency section. 

Watch the following videos to learn about the four rating options: 

Rating Option="0": Allows for only one Rating Field that everyone shares: this is the official rating. 

Rating option="1": Allows all users to share the official rating. The employee has an additional rating field available. 

Rating option="2": Allows all users to share the official rating. In addition, all users have their own rating field. 

Rating option="3": Only the employee (E) and the manager (EM) can rate. The official rating can only be accessed by the EM role. 

Comments

There are two decisions the customer must make with regard to comments in the objective section: whether to include a comment for each individual item or an overall comment, and whether these comments are displayed side-by-side or stacked one on top of the other.

The cmt-opt attribute controls both individual item comments and overall comments.

CodeFunction
cmt-opt="0"Show both item and section comments.
cmt-opt="1"Show only section comments.
cmt-opt="2"Show only item comments.
cmt-opt="3"Show neither item nor section comments.
Note
Refer to the DTD and implementation guides for information on all available configurations.

Selective Addition of Goals

By default, all goals on the associated goal plan populate to the performance form, but some customers may wish to have only certain categories of goals present on the performance form. Currently, selective addition of goals is a function that you can only complete in the XML Template, not in Manage Templates.

To Selectively Add Goals in the XML Template

As with the competency section, you can choose to have goals from specific goal categories populate to the performance form.

Steps

  1. Under </fm-sect-scale>, add the code shown in the figure titled Selective addition of goals by category, set the <obj-sect-plan-id> to the desired goal plan ID, as located in the goal plan XML.

  2. In the <obj-category> sub-element, enter the exact name of the desired goal plan category. You can find this data in the goal plan in the <category-id> tag. This name is case and space sensitive.

Addition of Existing Goals

If the goal section of the performance form is auto-populated, goals that are created on the goal plan are not added to the performance form. If the customer wants the user to have the ability to "pull" those goals from the goal plan to the performance form, you can enable the Add Existing Objective button.

Note
If goals are auto-synced to this section, there is no need to enable the Add Existing Objective button.

To Enable the Add Existing Goals Button in Manage Templates

Steps

  1. Navigate to the form to be updated.

  2. Select the desired goal section.

  3. Select the checkbox next to the Show Add Existing Objective Button option.

Result

This button can now be fully permissioned.

To Enable the Add Existing Goals Button in the XML Template

Steps

  1. Navigate to the <objective-sect> element attributes, and find the hide-addexistinggoals-btn attribute.

  2. Set this attribute to false if you want the Add Existing Goals button enabled. Set it to true if not.

Result

This button can now be fully permissioned.

Addition of New Goals

It is common for customers to request that goals be added directly to the performance form. You can complete this action with the Add Goal button, and control it via the configurable attribute of the objective section element. You can fully permission this button by role.

To Enable the Add Goal Button in Manage Templates

Steps

  1. In the Performance Management template, navigate to the Advanced Options area.

  2. Select the checkbox next to the Allow users to add/remove goals within this section option.

To Enable the Add Goal Button in the XML Template

Steps

  1. Navigate to the <objective-sect> element attributes.

  2. Add the code configurable="true". The Add Goal button is now visible in that goal section.

Configuration of Weights in the Objective (Goal) Section(s)

When working within a goal plan, users generally set weights for goals. You cannot enforce limits for those weights on the goal plan, but you can enforce them on the performance form.   

Select the Start button to learn about the options available for the configuration of weights in the Goal section.

Note
When discussing the Goal section of the performance form with the customer, you must address how to handle the existing goal weights. 

Configure the Goal Section and Populate Goals

Business Example

You are the implementation consultant for a small company and must configure and populate the goals section of the performance review form according to their HR department’s requests.

Note
Code solutions: Sometimes the solution code must be broken into small sections to include the entire section code. Copy and paste each section in order in your XML data model for each section to function correctly.

Learn how to configure the Goal section from Manage Templates and XML.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Task 1: Create and Customize a Goal Section on a Performance Form in Manage Templates

Steps

  1. Replicate the goals section illustrated in the figure, Create a goals Section, in your form in Manage Templates (you do not have to change the fields from your Goal Plan).

    1. Log into the instance, and navigate to Manage Templates using Action Search. Select the Performance Review tab, and select your form template to start editing it.

    2. Use the section name and description text boxes to enter the name and section text.

    3. Verify the radio button for the Goal Section is selected.

    4. Verify a Goal Plan with goal wizard is enabled

    5. Verify that there is text in the Unable to Rate field.

    6. Select the Show advanced options link and enable additional features as illustrated in the figure, Goal Section Check List.

    7. Log into the instance and navigate to Form Template Settings or, alternatively, navigate to Manage Templates, select your template, and then select General Settings → Advanced Settings.

    8. Check the boxes displayed in the figure.

Task 2: Populate Goals From the Goal Section of the Performance Form

Your customer would like to implement the following scenario to populate goals from the Goal Plan:

  • When the review cycle starts (forms have been launched) and users create new goals from their Goal Plans, the goals should immediately populate into the goal section of the performance form.
  • If goals are deleted from the goal section of the form, the goals should not display in the Goal Plan anymore.

Steps

  1. Determine and implement the right method according to the customer requirements to populate goals to the goals section of the form in Manage Templates.

    1. Log into the instance and navigate to Manage Templates using Action Search. Select the Performance Review tab, and select your form template to start editing it.

    2. Select the Goal section.

    3. Expand the Show advanced Options link.

    4. Check the Synchronize goals from a Goal Plan and a review form box.

  2. Verify in the Goal Plan XML your changes done from Manage Templates to implement the method to populate goals according to your customer's requirements.

    The auto-sync attribute can be true (auto-sync), where there are constant updates between the Goal Plan and performance form or false (auto-populate), where new goals added or existing goals deleted do not update on either the Goal Plan or performance form, but edits to fields of existing goals do transfer between the plan and the form.

    1. Navigate to Form Template Settings using Action Search.

    2. Choose your form template and select Download Form Template to download and edit the XML template.

    3. Review the full code solution in the Goal Section in XML figure and compare it with your XML template. Verify the options highlighted in the image.

      • Users can add/remove goals within the section (configurable="true" )
      • The total weight for the section is 100% (<weight-total><![CDATA[100.0]]></weight-total> )
      • If section is not 100%, a warning message should display (<weight-total-option><![CDATA[warn]]></weight-total-option> )
      • Goals will be auto-synced between the Goal Plan and the Goal section of the form (  <obj-sect-type autosync="true"><![CDATA[plan]]></obj-sect-type> )

      Result

    4. Validate the XML and save as a new version.

    5. Navigate to Provisioning, and locate the option Form Template Administration

    6. Select the form template that you will be updating with the latest changes in the XML.

    7. Select Update by upload, and confirm.

Task 3: Configure a Dialog Pop-Up Message of Overall Section Weight

Steps

  1. When routing the form from the self-assessment step to the manager assessment step, you should receive the dialog pop-up window as illustrated in the figure, Section Weight Warning, when the total weight of the Goal section is not 100%.

    Note

    Make sure "Lock Item Weights" is disabled in the Goal section (lock-item-weights="false" or disable the option from Advanced options in Manage Templates), otherwise, weight-total validation will not work. When "Lock Item Weights" is enabled, the system will ignore the weight-total-option warning or error message when moving the form to the next step.

  2. Verify that the dialog pop-up box, Section Weight Warning, populates in your form when Goal Section is not 100%.

    1. Navigate to Launch forms from the Action Search bar.

    2. Select an employee to launch a form and Proxy Now as the employee when the form is created, to open it from your Inbox.

    3. Make sure the goals in your section do not add up to 100% weight (or exceed 100%). Make the necessary adjustments.

    4. Try to send the form to the next step, and verify you can see the warning message. You should still be able to move to the next step of the form.

      Note
      If the message displayed is not a warning but an error (hard-stop) that prevents from sending the form forward, the total weight of the goal section must add up to 100% as a requirement. It may depend on the <weight-total-option> configuration. warn will display as a warning only, whereas error will not allow you to send the form to the next step.

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