Utilizing Calibration with Succession Planning

Calibration is the process that organizations use to compare and potentially adjust ratings of employees to ensure that performance is being measured fairly across an organization. Managers often use different approaches to employee appraisals, which can introduce various levels of unconscious biases. SAP SuccessFactors Calibration provides tools to help eliminate these biases and standardize grading processes. Depending on company needs, calibration can be part of a performance review process, a talent review process, or a compensation review process.

At a functional level, calibration allows managers to discuss how to apply similar performance standards for all employees and help eliminate any potential manager bias. For example, before using performance review calibrations, all employees working for one manager may receive "outstanding" ratings while employees working for another manager may receive a wide variety of ratings for the same job performance. A review by both managers during a Calibration session allows them to consider different reviewing styles and get a better idea of who is really doing well and who is not. HR can facilitate these reviews and help the managers align their grading.

Most customers use Calibration in conjunction with Performance Management and integrate Calibration into their performance review processes. For this reason, Calibration is covered in detail in THR82 (SAP Performance and Goal Management Academy). Learners wishing to get a complete picture of Calibration configuration should review material in that course. The Calibration Implementation Guide is also an important resource that can be found on the SAP Help Portal. However, since Calibration can also be used to adjust data in Succession and People Profile, this unit will cover those use cases.

After the Calibration module has been activated and configured, administrators can create calibration templates. This is where the selection of data to be calibrated is made. Rating data can come from People Profile if companies use Employee Profile to gather rating data. The items available to be rated depend upon the background elements configured in the Succession Data Model (sometimes called simply data model) and can include some or all of the following:

• SysOverallPerformance
• SysOverallPotential
• SysOverallCompetency
• SysOverallObjective
• SysOverallCustom01
• SysOverallCustom02

If these background elements are included in a company's data model, then you find them on the Data tab when configuring a calibration template below the Performance and Compensation options. It is likely that the underlying elements have text labels that are different than the element IDs. For example, SysOverallPerformance is often displayed as Performance **Manager view only and SysOverallObjective is displayed as Overall Objective.

You can modify these labels in the Succession Data Model and those changes will be reflected on the Data tab of all calibration templates. For rating data to be included, the start and end dates for the rating must be contained within the calibration template date range.

Talent Flag data can also be configured in calibration templates. Like People Profile data, the items available depend on a company's data model configuration. The following flags can be activated:

• Risk of Loss (standard element: riskOfLoss)
• Impact of Loss (standard element: impactOfLoss)
• Reason for Leaving (standard element: reasonForLeaving)

During a review of employee ratings these three talent flags can also be modified by managers.

After configuring Talent Flags, calibration templates can also be configured to show other important pieces of data in the Others section:

• Allow access to Development.
• Allow access to Learning Activity.
• Show Succession status icons from the Succession Matrix Report.
• Display QuickCards.
• Allow access to Continuous Performance Management Achievements.

The Succession status icons are the same ones configured for the Succession Matrix Reports and Quick Cards are the small rolodex-card icons shown next to each employee's name in most name lists in the system. Quick Cards provide team and performance information about employees. The other three items are used to display data from Career Development, LMS, and Continuous Performance Management. It's important to remember that these other items are for reference only and cannot be calibrated. They provide additional information to help managers adjust People Profile and Talent data.