Defining Eligibility Rules for the Compensation Plan

Eligibility rules can be defined at the following three levels:

• Compensation plan template level

• Component level

• Field level

Rules based on application-specific scenarios have reduced risk of misconfiguration and the process of rule creation is simpler. Application-specific rule scenarios are preconfigured with common parameters for criteria used when defining rules. (See example below)

By creating the IF condition using the business rule engine, you've filtered the population (for example, employees belonging to the pay type Hourly) for eligibility. The THEN condition is performed in the Compensation Eligibility engine screen. Select at which level the filtered employees will be excluded or included.

Select Apply to initiate the process; this can take significantly longer to process depending on the complexity of the rules and the number of employees in Employee Central.

Standard XML eligibility keys can be used to determine eligibility and always override the rules set using the Employee Central Rules engine. The object/field to be used for eligibility mapping must be available in Employee Central. As an example, a custom MDF object is created in Employee Central for the purpose of overriding eligibility rules.

<comp-field-definition id="meritEligible" isCustomField="false" isVisible="false" type="string" reloadable="true"><comp-field-label><![CDATA[Merit Eligible]]></comp-field-label>

<comp-ect-input-field-map componentType="employmentInfo" fieldName="cust-AddlCompInfo.cust_MeritEligible"/></comp-field-definition>

This mapping can only be done in XML and is not available in the Design Worksheet.

There are two ways to manage eligibility rules on Compensation worksheets:

• In the user interface (UI), using the Eligibility engine

• In the user data file, using eligibility flags

Which method should you use? High exception programs will likely be calculated externally and passed through the user data file. Consistent programs should seek to use the system Eligibility engine.

The Eligibility Rules engine works best when the customer has straightforward eligibility rules without special exceptions. You may want to consider using the user data file to manage eligibility if your customer has complex eligibility rules with many special exceptions. Whichever method you and the customer select, consider handling eligibility exclusively through that method. Sticking to one method is the best way to avoid confusion.

To easily copy eligibility rules from one plan to another, use the import/export functionality. Eligibility rules are exported in CSV file format, which can be edited before importing to a different plan or environment. Please note this only works on non-Employee Central integrated plans.

Are terminated employees ever eligible? This is rarely considered outside the bonus. This is often driven by specific legal requirements.

Remember, when we discuss eligibility when discussing SAP SuccessFactors Compensation, we refer to defining a set of rules that work as filters. The rules will depend on your starting point eligibility.

• If you started with All active employees are eligible then create rules to EXCLUDE employees.

• If you started with No employees are eligible then create rules to INCLUDE employees. The system cannot create any worksheet unless the eligibility rules have been defined.

For Employee Central integrated plans, eligibility rule is created using MDF Business rule engine or Configure Business Rule tool.

The Eligibility engine can be accessed in the form template menu under the Plan Setup section. Go to the Plan Details dropdown menu and select Eligibility. The system will remind you which starting point has been chosen in the settings.

1. Access the Eligibility engine.
2. Click Add Rule.
3. Create a Rule Name and click Add to select from a list of possible conditions that trigger the rule. You can utilize both standard and custom fields for eligibility conditions. For example, filter employees using Rating.
4. Identify the desired parameter of the condition, for example, employees with >3 performance rating.
5. Now select what that population is NOT eligible for.
6. Only mark what they are not eligible for and leave other items marked as Not Applicable.
   Note

   If the starting point is NO employees are eligible, make sure to set ALL items to YES.

7. Save the rule.
8. Click Apply.
   Note

   After the rule has been created, make sure to click Apply for the rule to take effect. Running eligibility usually takes an hour or less. If the job seems to have been running for an unusually long time, you can use the Clear Eligibility Rule Flag in Provisioning to stop the job and start over. This rarely happens. However, when rules are applied during the same time that system maintenance is being performed, eligibility jobs can get stuck in the process.

You may also edit, clone, or remove specific rules using the respective Take Action dropdown menu options. When compensation plans are cloned, an option to copy eligibility rules from the source template can be used to avoid recreating rules.

Managing eligibility in the user data file eligibility may be preferable when there are a lot of exceptions to employee eligibility. So instead of creating rules, you can directly flag employees in the user data file. This is done by setting the employee's eligibility field to FALSE / TRUE, depending on your eligibility starting point.

Here are the steps for adding eligibility flags to the user data file:

1. Go to Plan Setup → Design Worksheet → Eligibility Fields → Add Eligibility Column.
2. Select the appropriate standard eligibility columns to be used.
   • The Compensation (compensationEligible) column is used as an overall compensation planning flag. Setting a FALSE flag at this column will exclude user at all levels of planning.
   • The Salary(salaryEligible), Bonus(bonusEligible) and Stock(stockEligible) Tabs are used to define eligibility at the component level.
   • Merit(meritEligible), Lumpsum(lumpsumEligible), Promotion(promoEligible), Units(stockUnitsEligible), Stocks(stockStockEligible), Options(stockOptionEligible), and so on are used to define eligibility at the field level.
3. Enter the import key corresponding to the user data file eligibility flags. If the user data file eligibility flags haven't been created, the import key entered here will create a new custom column in the user data file.
4. Export the user data file only if the flags have not been created previously.
5. Enter TRUE/FALSE in the respective columns. If the starting point is All employees are eligible, users are included by default set eligibility flags to FALSE. To make the individual eligible again, simply remove the FALSE flag.
6. Import the user data file (if there are in-progress worksheets, select the Update Eligibility option).
7. Create worksheets to test the eligibility flags.

User data file flags will overwrite eligibility settings made in the Eligibility Rules engine.

You can define rules for 20 custom fields. This allows for customer specific formulas to be used as a criterion. For example, it is common that customers will base budgets on percentages of custom fields which may take eligibility into consideration. Prior to being able to use custom fields for eligibility, you would have to implement complex workarounds to calculate the budgets.

To mark a custom field as useable for eligibility rules, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to Compensation Home → Choose a template → Plan Setup → Design Worksheet.
2. Click a custom form field on the left.
3. On right side, under Other Options, select Enable Rules Eligibility and Reportable.
4. 

Making a custom field useable for eligibility rules – marking the field as Reportable is also required.

To create an eligibility rule with a custom field, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to Compensation Home → Choose a template → Plan Setup → Plan Details → Eligibility.
2. Click Add Rule.
3. Under Population is eligible for: you will find your custom field(s) to define eligibility.

When creating an eligibility rule, you may use custom fields and formulas as criteria.