Understanding SAP SuccessFactors Career Development Planning

Watch the video to get started on SAP SuccessFactors Career Development Planning unit.

SAP SuccessFactors Career Development Planning (CDP) enables employees to benefit from a wide range of employee development and career planning activities, and provides managers with standardized methods to track the success of their direct reports. Career Development Planning includes the following:

• Development Plans

• Career Worksheets

• Career Paths

• Mentoring

Career Development Planning also integrates with SAP SuccessFactors Succession and SAP SuccessFactors Learning.

The Development Plan is the page where Employees and Managers can add, view, and update their development goals. These are the goals that users set up to help them not only develop in their current roles, but also develop for future positions.

Development goals can be composed of several fields. The most frequently used fields are as follows:

• Name

• Measure of success

• Status

• Start and due date

• Competencies

Watch the video to learn how to add a development goal.

The Competencies field type links development goals to one or more competencies that the employee is trying to develop. Only one competencies field is allowed per development plan. You can enable access to the competency browser so that the user can add additional competencies to the Development Goal that are not currently displayed.

Development goals can also have one or more learning activities associated to them. They can be added directly from the development plan. These activities can come from the catalog or users can add custom learning activities. If you are using an integrated system with the LMS, these learning activities can tie directly to a course in the LMS.

It is possible to add custom fields to the Development Plan Template.

Watch the video to learn how to add a custom field for a Help link to a Development Plan Template.

The Career Worksheet allows employees to select a future role and then compare their current competencies with the ones required for the future role. From the Career Worksheet, you can compare the last rating with the expected rating for the required competencies for the role. You can also add, edit, and remove development goals as well as learning activities directly from the Career Worksheet and they will be updated on the Development Plan.

Users can add target roles that they are interested in, or select from Suggested Roles, that provides a list of roles based on their competencies, targeted roles, career paths, and roles selected by peers.

The Role-Readiness meter automatically calculates the percentage of competencies met divided by the total number of competencies required for the role and turn it into a percentage.

If competencies are not met because they have not been evaluated yet, the employee can trigger a Role Readiness form from the Career Worksheet to evaluate their readiness for the competencies.

Watch the video to learn how to use Career Worksheets.

The Career Path displays information about the expected path for a position or various positions. Administrators or other assigned roles (HR managers, for example) are responsible for creating or managing Career Paths. Employees utilize the paths as visual next steps in career progression or transition.

If end users select a role from the Career Worksheet that is included in a career path, they will be able to select a link to open the career path. When employees review the career path, they will see a star for roles that are already selected in the career worksheet. They will be able to add or remove roles from the career path.

Watch the video to learn how to add a career path.

Mentoring is one colleague partnering with a more experienced colleague to enhance their knowledge, skills, and self-awareness in a certain area. Often, this critical knowledge is not captured in formal documentation, but passed down in person. Through Career Development Planning, you can formalize your mentoring process by using the program wizard to identify details, determine mentor and mentee groups, and set timelines for each individual program. Automated recommendations to identify the best mentors for each mentee are based on answers from a sign-up form.

A variety of program options exist to meet your organization's flexibility or structure level:

• Supervised: In supervised matching, a matching job will run based on your preference and configuration. The administrator can review and edit the matches. The program dates strictly follow the program process, for example, mentor sign-up and starts.
• Unsupervised: In an unsurpervised matching, the system provides guidance but mentees make direct requests to mentors. The program dates are also more flexible in unsupervised programs, for example, mentor sign-ups can continue even after mentee sign-up starts.
• Open Enrollment:Open enrollment programs do not have strict dates, and are open to all or a subset of the company. Users can be mentors, mentees or both at the same time. This option allows you to keep mentoring programs open at all times and allow self-registration.

Once the program type is selected, mentoring admins have the option to define the mentoring program details (program name and description, owner, dates, and so on.), select the mentors and the mentees, define the criteria for the sign-up form, and review the summary.

Watch the video to learn how to create a mentoring program.

Users can select from the open enrollment programs, the programs they have been invited to, and those programs they are already participating in as a mentor or mentee using the Mentoring page. Users can also review their matches and their mentoring preferences.

Watch the video to learn how users can sign up as a mentor or mentee.