What are country-specific data models?
Certain types of information need to be entered in a specific format depending on the country the company is located in. For example, the format for national ID can vary depending on the country – for USA, the social security number follows the format 999-99-9999, in Great Britain the format is AA999999A.
By setting up country-specific data models, you reflect these country-specific differences by defining the following:
● Which fields are country-specific
For example, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is only valid for USA.
● Which different values a field can have that is used for all countries
For example, the local job title can vary depending on the country in which the employee works. You can set up specific picklists for each country that contain country-specific values.
● Which fields need a country-specific format
A field that is applicable to all countries, but that can be formatted differently in each country, for example, the address or national ID.
What country-specific data models exist?
There are two country-specific data models:
● Country-specific Corporate Data Model
You use this data model to set up country-specific fields and picklists for HRIS elements that have been previously defined in the Corporate Data Model. For example, country-specific job codes. You can also change the format for the corporate address for a country.
In the standard XML file, the following setup is already included:
○ For all countries listed in the data model, the corporate address (HRIS-element ID:
corporateAddress) with country-specific address fields is already defined. Also, custom fields you can use as a basis to define own fields are listed.
○ For USA, in addition to the above mentioned information, legalEntityLocal and jobClassLocal are defined, which include fields for the legal entity type, federal reserve bank, EEO job categories, and the FLSA status.
● Country-specific Succession Data Model
You use this data model to set up country-specific fields, formats, and picklists for HRIS elements that have been previously defined in the Succession Data Model. For example, international formats for addresses and national IDs.
In the standard XML file, the following setup is already included:
○ National ID format for all countries listed in the standard XML file
○ Home address with country-specific fields for all countries listed in the standard XML file
○ Global information for some of the countries listed in the standard XML file
For example, ethnic group, religion, or for USA, information about veterans and Visa type. To each field the corresponding picklists are assigned.
○ For USA, in addition to the above mentioned information, the job information is defined which includes fields for the FLSA status, the EEO job group and EEO categories.
You can find more information about the country-specific fields for each country in the Employee Central Country-Specific Implementation Handbook.
How do you set up country-specific data models?
1. Download the XML file for the corresponding country-specific data model:
● If you're setting up the corresponding data model the first time for a company, download the most current version from this link: http://
confluence.successfactors.com/display/PRODINFO/Data+Models+and +Picklists .
● If you're changing an already uploaded data model, download the corresponding XML file from Provisioning:
○ Succession Management Import/Export Country Specific XML for Succession Data Model or
○ Succession Management Import/Export Country Specific XML for Corporate Data Model
2. If no changes are required to the XML file, you can proceed directly to step 3. Otherwise, open the XML file in an XML editor and adjust the data model according to the company's requirements.
In the data models, you can do the following:
● Change existing fields in the standard XML files
You can overwrite labels, change attributes, or delete fields not needed like you did in the Corporate or Succession Data Model.
● Add custom fields to contain country-specific information
1. If the HRIS element the field belongs to is not yet included in the data model, copy it over from the Corporate or Succession Data Model and insert it under the corresponding country. Consider that you can add country-specific fields only to those HRIS elements listed below:
Country-specific Corporate Data Model
You can only add country-specific fields, values, and formats for the following HRIS elements and their fields:
● Corporate address (HRIS-element ID: corporateAddress) This is the address format used in the location foundation object.
● legalEntityLocal: All fields relevant for legalEntityLocal are defined in the country-specific Corporate Data Model.
● jobClassLocal: All fields relevant for jobClassLocal are defined in the country-specific Corporate Data Model.
Country-specific Succession Data Model
You can only add country-specific fields, values, and formats for the following HRIS elements and their fields:
● Job information (HRIS-element ID: jobInfo)
● Employment information (HRIS-element ID: employmentInfo)
● Compensation information (HRIS-element ID: compInfo)
● Address information (HRIS-element ID: homeAddress)
● Global information (HRIS-element ID: globalInfo): All fields relevant for global information are defined in the country-specific Succession Data Model. This is the country-specific element for the Personal Information.
● National ID (HRIS-element ID: nationalIdCard) 2. Insert the custom field within the HRIS element tags.
3. Overwrite the label with the text you want to appear on the UI, and set the visibility to “both”, for example, if you want the field to be visible and editable on the UI.
● Make fields used in the Corporate or Succession Data Model country-specific 1. Insert the HRIS element the field belongs to into the country-specific data
model under the corresponding country. Copy also the label and the xml:lang translations over, if existing. Do not forget to insert the end tag of the HRIS element at the end. Consider that you can add country-specific fields only to those HRIS elements listed in the previous step.
2. Copy the HRIS field from the Corporate or Succession Data Model and paste it in the country-specific data model within the HRIS-element tags.
If you want to make a field from the Succession Data Model country-specific, consider the following:
● If you want to change only the label depending on the country, you can copy the field over into the country-specific Succession Data Model and change only the text inside the label tags.
● If you want to change attributes of the field depending on the country, you have to delete the field from the Succession Data Model as you can use the field and its attributes only once — either in the Succession Data Model, or in the country-specific Succession Data Model. This does not apply to fields from the HRIS element homeAddress — these can be used in both data models with different attributes.
3. Adjust the label and attributes according to your country-specific needs.
With the attribute display-order-follows you can influence the field order of the country-specific field on the UI. See below under XML examples in the section How can you influence the field order?
4. If this field is also to be used in other countries, insert the corresponding HRIS element and HRIS field also under the corresponding country ID.
Only for fields from the country-specific Succession Data Model that belong to jobInfo, employmentInfo, compInfo or
nationalIdCard, keep this in mind: If you reuse a country-specific field across several countries, you can only change the label, but you have to keep the same attributes for all the fields (visibility, required, and so on).
5. Repeat the steps for all fields you want to make country-specific.
You can find some XML coding examples below under XML examples.
3. Upload the corresponding data model in Provisioning:
● Succession Management Import/Export Country Specific XML for Succession Data Model or
● Succession Management Import/Export Country Specific XML for Corporate Data Model
XML examples
How do you set up a country-specific field?
In this example, you define that if the employee works for a company that is located in the United States, the field
“EEO Job Group” to identify the equal employment opportunity (EEO) class of the employee is displayed in the job information. The 3-letter code for the country is the ISO code. The ID for the HRIS element is the ID from the Succession Data Model for the job information. The predefined values the user can select come from the picklist EEOJOBGROUP_USA. For more information about picklists, see How do you manage picklists?
<country id=”USA”>
<hris-element id=”jobInfo”>
<label>Job Information</label>
<hris-field max-length=”256” id=”eeo-class” visibility=”both” required=”false”
How do you set up a country-specific format for a field?
In this example, you define that the format for the national ID for USA follows the structure XXX-XX-XXXX. You can make this the only format allowed if the employee works for a company in the USA. The ID for the format group is the ID defined in the Succession Data Model for this field. Display format is a hint for the user in which format to enter the national ID if the entry is not correct. <reg-ex> is the regular expression which is used to validate the user input.
<country id=”USA”>
How can you influence the field order?
The field order in which you enter the data for country-specific elements is only relevant for the HRIS element homeAddress. Here, the order of the fields you define in the country-specific data model is the order the fields appear in on the UI. In all other cases, the system follows the field order as defined in the Corporate or Succession Data Model.
If you want to override this field order, you can only do so for the Succession Data Model. With the element display-order-follows in the XML file of the country-specific Succession Data Model, you can define that a certain field follows some other field on the UI. Look at this example from the country-specific Succession Data Model where the field “FLSA Status” is displayed after the field for the employee class for the country USA:
<hris-field max-length=”256” id=”flsa-status” visibility=”both” required=”false”
pii=”false”>
<label>FLSA Status</label>
<picklist id=”FLSASTATUS_USA” />
<display-order-follows ref-id=”employee-class” />
</hris-field>