Using Action Search, other Searches, and Custom Navigation

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Modify People Search and Action Search.
  • Maintain Custom Navigations.

People Search and Action Search

At the top of the page, a search bar allows users to search for an action or for people.

Benefits of the People Search

People Search in the Global Header enables you to search for and find people in your organization.

The benefits of the Global Header People Search include the following.

• Easy access from every page.

• Supports for fuzzy matching, allowing you to find an employee by a search term that has one character difference from the target employee name.

• Supports searching for employee names that contain characters with accents, umlauts, diereses, and so on.

• Supports searching for employees by Employee Central names.

• Ability to control the EC (Employee Central) and non-EC user info displayed in the search results with Role-Based Permissions.

Name Matching Logic

If you want to search for employees and are not sure about the exact spelling of their names, you can use the special character "*" as a wildcard.

To help you better understand the matching logic, let's assume that Person A "Mike Adams" and Person B "Mike Williams" are in our employee database.

So when you search for "Mike adam", Person A appears in your search results. When you search for "Mike Willi", Person B appears in your search results. When you search for "Mi *ams", both Person A and Person B appear in your search results. When you search for "*ike Adams", neither Person A nor Person B appears in your search results

For further information check: Allowing Special Characters in Search Queries

Fuzzy Search in People Search

Fuzzy search allows you to find an employee by a search term that has one character difference from the target employee name. The feature applies to the following scenarios when searching employees:

• One missing or redundant character. If you search for "Joerg", the results also return "Jörg", and vice versa.

• One misspelled character. If you search for "ALLEX", the search results also return "Alex" and "Allen", and vice versa.

Prerequisites:

• User Search permission is granted in RBP.

• Enable Solr People Search is enabled in Provisioning.

To enable the fuzzy search:

  1. From the Action Search, go to Company System and Logo Settings.

  2. Turn on Enable fuzzy search function for People Search.

  3. Choose Save Company System Setting to save changes.

Note

In the 2H 2019 Release (also called the 1911 release) a change was made to the Company System and Logo Settings page and the Company Logo field was made a required field. For this reason if the URL of the Company Logo field is blank and you attempt to save changes you will get an error. To fix this you can follow the steps in the following Knowledge Base Article (KBA): 2888435 - Cannot save changes on Company System and Logo Settings due to the error "Specify a company logo URL"

Inactive users in the Global Header People Search

By default, inactive users are not included in People Search results. Use this configuration option to include them.

This company-level setting does not affect search functions on People Profile or Employee Directory. Likewise, feature settings and permissions used to control search functions on People Profile or Employee Directory, such as the Role-Based Permission Include Inactive Employees in the search, do not affect People Search.

Future hires are also displayed as inactive users in the People Search results in the Global Header.

Note

People Search uses the company-level Show inactive user in people search (requires Role-based Permissions) setting. In order to be able to Search Inactive Users in the Global Header, users must also have the permission Manage Recruits/Manage Hires IncludeInactive Employees in the search.

Action Search

Action Search is a feature designed to facilitate navigation and enhance overall system usability.

As an End User, you can use Action Search to find dozens of common actions directly in the search bar at the top of the page. You can use natural language to describe what you want to do, and then select from a list of suggested actions. You can also search for tools using English search terms, even if you log on SAP SuccessFactors with non-English language.

As an administrator, you can use Action Search to access your Admin Center as well. You can also do the following:

  • Create a search for relevant actions based on keywords and synonyms.

  • Manage and configure your own action keywords and custom links.

As an administrator, you can access Admin CenterCompany SettingsManage Action Search to customize the ways in which users find actions from the search bar in the page header. You can enable or disable actions, and add your own search terms or search labels, both for standard actions and your own custom actions.

There are a number of predefined actions and paraphrases within SAP SuccessFactors. If you would like for users to have additional key words or paraphrases to search by, you can add your own Custom Paraphrase within a specific Action.

For example, as an administrator, you may refer to Role-Based Permissions as RBPs. In Action Search, you can add RBP as a searchable paraphrase from Action Search. To do this, choose Action from the list on the left side of the page. Then choose the Add custom paraphrases option. Type in the new paraphrase under When the user searches for any of these… and the option you’d like to display in the search results under Display this paraphrase. Then click Save.

Note

You can find out more about People Search andAction Search by reviewing the documentation on the SAP Help Portal

Enable Fuzzy and Inactive Users Search

Business Example: In this exercise you will learn how to enable the Fuzzy and the Inactive Users Search.

Steps

  1. On "Company Systems and Logo Settings", enable the Fuzzy and Inactive User Search.

    1. Log into your instance. Use Action Search to search for "Super" and note, that there were no results.

    2. Use Action Search to navigate to Company System and Logo Settings.

    3. Use Ctrl+F to search for "fuzzy" and find "Enable fuzzy search function for People Search".

    4. Enable "Enable fuzzy search function for People Search" by checking the box in front of the line.

    5. Use Ctrl+F to search for "show inactive" and find "Show inactive user in people search (requires Role-based Permissions)".

    6. Enable "Show inactive user in people search (requires Role-based Permissions)" by checking the box in front of the line.

    7. Scroll down to the end of the page and click on "Save Company System Settings".

    8. To test your settings, use Action Search to search for "Super" and note that you find a user "super admin" that has the status inactive.

Result

You have enabled Fuzzy and Inactive User Search.

Manage Action Search

Business Example

BCUI (Business Configuration UI) is a commonly used term to reference the Manage Business Configuration page in Admin Center. In this exercise you will add BCUI as a custom paraphrase to enhance Action Search using the Manage Action Search page.

Steps

  1. Add the term BCUI to Action Search results to allow users to use that common abbreviation to navigate to Manage Business Configuration.

    1. Log into your instance. Use Action Search to navigate to Manage Action Search

    2. In the field "All types" select Admin to reduce the number of actions listed.

    3. In the field "Search for action" enter "Manage Business Configuration" to reduce the number of Actions listed to a single result.

    4. Click on the 1 Action result listed: Manage Business Configuration.

    5. Near the bottom of the page click on + Add custom paraphrases.

    6. Near the middle of the page under Custom Paraphrases and under "When the user searches for any of these…" enter "BCUI".

    7. Under Display this paraphrase enter "Manage Business Configuration THR80".

    8. Near the bottom right of the page click Save.

    9. Wait 1 minute.

    10. Use Action Search and enter the term "BCUI".

    11. Confirm the result shows "Manage Business Configuration THR80".

Result

You have added the term BCUI to Action Search and users can use that term to more rapidly navigate to the Manage Business Configuration page.

Customize Navigation

Custom Navigations provide the ability to navigate to a new location, such as an external URL or a custom report, which is not accessible using default system options. Custom Navigations can appear in Action Search, the main Navigation Menu, People Profile "Jump To" and "Employee Records," and from "Take Action" and "Go To" within an employee quick card. This gives companies great flexibility in customizing their instance of SAP SuccessFactors, as they can now seamlessly provide quick access to other tools outside of SAP SuccessFactors, centralizing the workspace.

Custom navigation must be enabled in Provisioning.

To configure Custom Navigations in the instance, navigate in the Action Search. The following table describes the configuration options:

Field

Description

Menu Item Label

This is how the link appears in the user interface. For custom actions, this becomes the "display label" in Action Search.

ID

This can be any text or numeric value. You can use any convention you wish, but every custom navigation link, regardless of its location or locations, must have a unique ID.

Link Type

Custom actions created in Action Search do not reflect these settings. Action Search only supports "same browser" behavior. Both internal and external custom navigation actions open in the same browser tab.

For other custom links, you can select the following:

  • Internal Link

    Used with a SAP SuccessFactors deep link in URL field

  • External Link - Same Browser

    Used with an external URL. Opens in the same browser window.

  • External Link - New Browser

    Used with an external URL. Opens in a new browser window.

URL

Enter the URL or deep link that you want to make available in action search.

Menu Location

To create a custom action, select Action Search in the dropdown menu. For custom actions, it is recommended that you only select one location, Action Search, in this menu. This is due to the fact that localization and link types are handled differently in action search than with other custom link locations. For other link locations, you can select one or more locations.

Permissions

This dropdown displays the permission roles and groups configured in RBP. Only those selected will see the Custom Navigation.

Joule Now Supported in SAP SuccessFactors

Starting from the 2H 2023 release, Joule will have the capability of dealing with HR tasks, for example, employee and manager self-services. With the assistant, managers and employees can perform business tasks in a conversational context that is enabled by supported transactional use cases. Joule is available on all pages in the SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite.

As configuration requirement, the instance is set up for SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication service (IAS) and Joule. Joule is enabled. To set the permission go to "General User Permission" and enable "Access to Joule permission".

For the latest updates on the availability of Joule, refer to KBA 3390798 - Joule availability in SAP SuccessFactors Information published on SAP site.

AI-Assisted Writing

Employees can use the AI-assisted writing tool to enhance multiple aspects of their writing, such as clarity, conciseness, and tone when they write content in the text fields in SAP SuccessFactors applications.

AI-assisted writing is an interactive tool that uses generative AI capabilities to assist employees with their writing tasks.

For more information about the options available in the AI-assisted writing tool, refer to AI-Assisted Writing.

Note

Premium AI focuses on AI-assisted capabilities that involve complex tasks, intelligent business insights, and measurable business outcomes. Premium AI capabilities require purchasing of SAP AI Units license. All features using generative AI capabilities and Joule messages that exceed a customer's annual usage allocation are considered to be Premium AI.

Configure Custom Navigation

Business Example: In this exercise you will learn how to configure a customer specific navigation.

Prerequisites

Steps

  1. Add a customer specific item to the main menu.

    1. Log into your instance. Use Action Search to navigate to Configure Custom Navigation.

      Note

      This tool is only available if exercise "Edit Company Settings and add a New Administrator Account in Provisioning" was completed already.
    2. In the column "Menu Item Label" enter "Company Website".

    3. In the column "ID" enter "1".

    4. Select as Link Type "External Link – New Tab/Window".

    5. In the column "URL" type www.sap.com.

    6. Select as Menu Location "Top Navigation" by checking the box in front of this option.

    7. Select as Permission "Select all", click on "Save" and on "OK" in the confirmation box.

    8. To test your settings, log out and log back into the system and click on the main menu where you will find a new item called "Company Website".

Result

You have configured a customer specific navigation by adding a customer specific item to the main menu.

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