It’s fair to say that COVID-19 has radically changed things, including the priorities in the workplace. Organizations are undergoing massive logistical challenges and HR is faced with large scale rapid changes in processes like employment status and nature of work. In times like these, we do stand on the shoulders of prior experience. For example, knowing the nature of influenza pandemics, it is unlikely that COVID-19 is going to leave us quickly. The more probable scenario is a nuanced and targeted return to work requiring tight monitoring of processes and strong reliance on agile measurement and data analytics. From the 2008 financial downturn cycle we know that companies which prepared for rapid reintegration of the workforce while at the bottom of the cycle did much better than those who did not prepare and took a less rigorous approach to managing the speed of ramping back up.
At the same time, it is reasonable to expect tight budgets for some time to come. Everyone is likely to be asked to do more with less. Companies are likely to postpone big purchases. The low-cost high-value emphasis will be scrutinized harder. So here is the set of likely emerging requirements:
- Maintain essentials: core processes, scalability, security
- Increase agility in collecting, processing and deploying information regarding workforce
- Reconcile the need for stability on one hand and the need for agility on another
- Do that without breaking the bank
Let’s look at the natural organic advantages that SAP SuccessFactors has in relation to these requirements. At its original core, the product was built on a simple foundation: a single flat file can support core informational needs of the entire organization. There are two key things that SAP SuccessFactors does well in this space: 1) pull reporting hierarchy from HRIS; and 2) configure key data attributes holding information that is integrated with the user and subsequently with the organization vis-à-vis the hierarchy. Because of this simple underpinning and maturity of SAP SuccessFactors processes, all of this can be done fast and with low cost. So, let’s do it for COVID-19, under which the vendor requirements have changed to something like this: we build the model over the weekend and the business rolls it out by the end of the week.
We can say that maintenance of essentials boils down to reporting hierarchy management, so decision makers in the organization have segmented org information at their fingertips.
At the same time, on the agility front, we can quickly integrate critical-of-need data elements into SucessFactors’ User Data File. It can be self-input, manager-input, HR-input, or centrally imported, depending of the essential needs of the customer. The question of data utility and data governance is for the customer to manage, but the technical underpinning of the data is on us and we can do it quickly, cost effectively and with high impact.
Here is a screenshot of SF partner solution organic within SF eco-system. We can take the entire org flat file and present data like this:
Essentially, this is dynamic org hierarchy that one can move around in. While “peeling the onion”, the hierarchy is color-coded by an attribute of the entire workforce: e.g. temporary leave status, working remotely, to be rehired ASAP, self-reported sentiment of latest experience, etc.
At the very least we can say that we can make this process agile: determine what customer wants to know, create space for that information in the system, help customer populate it with data, and give it back to the customer in a way that helps them gain insight and govern the situation.
This can be done in customer Test or Production Instance. All we need is a stable environment to host configuration infrastructure for org hierarchy and attributes.
Yes, there are requirements like good process management, process expertise and technical support. But that is where we have infrastructure and culture maturity: the space where we add value to the customer.
Where Do I Begin?
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The HRIZONS Team | SAP SuccessFactors Practice
