<hris-associations>
<association id=”id” multiplicity=”ONE_TO_ONE” destination-entity=”geozone” />
<association id=”id” multiplicity=”ONE_TO_ONE” destination-entity=”payGrade” />
<association id=”id” multiplicity=”ONE_TO_ONE” destination-entity=”company” />
</hris-associations>
</hris-element>
4.3 Setting up the Succession Data Model
What is the Succession Data Model?
With the Succession Data Model, you set up data that is related to the people in a company. This data can be divided into the following areas:
● Person data:
This includes information that is linked to the person and does not depend on the job, such as the employee's address and national ID.
● Employment data:
This includes job-related information about a person, such as compensation and hire date.
You set up this data by defining person objects and employment objects in the XML file for the Succession Data Model. This is where you define what the fields are going to be called on the UI, which fields are hidden, and you can add customer-specific fields. In the following table you find more information about the person and employment objects included in the standard XML file delivered by SuccessFactors. The columns define the following:
● HRIS-element ID: This is the ID that is used to identify the person or employment object in the XML file.
● Standard label: This is the label for the HRIS element shown on the UI. You can overwrite this label. If no label is included in the standard XML file, then the label that appears on the UI is pulled from the backend system.
To overwrite the label, add the corresponding label tags in the XML file below the corresponding HRIS element and put the new label text inside the label tags.
● Portlet: Each HRIS element and its fields is shown in a portlet on the UI, that means, in a clearly defined area on the UI. Most HRIS elements have their own portlet. In this column you find the portlet name.
● Data object type: There are two types of data objects you define in the Succession Data Model — person objects and employment objects. Person objects appear on the UI on the Personal Information page in the Employee Files or when adding a new employee. Employment objects appear on the UI on the Employment Information page in the Employee Files or when adding a new employee.
The fields for the person objects globalInfo and homeAddress are defined in the country-specific Succession Data Model. For more information, see Setting up country-specific data models [page 69].
HRIS-element ID Standard label Portlet Data object type
personInfo Biographical
Information Biographical Information Person object
personalInfo Personal
Information Personal Information Person object globalInfo Global Information Part of Personal Information
portlet (appears when the user adds a country in this portlet)
Person object
All fields for this HRIS element are defined in the country-specific Succession Data Model.
nationalIdCard National Id
Information National Id Information Person object
homeAddress Home Address Home Address Person object
All fields for this HRIS element are defined in the country-specific Succession Data Model.
phoneInfo Phone Information Part of Contact Information portlet Person object emailInfo Email Information Part of Contact Information portlet Person object
imInfo Social Accounts
Information Part of Contact Information portlet Person object emergencyContactPrimary Primary
Emergency Contact
Primary Emergency Contact Person object
personRelationshipInfo Dependents Dependents Person object
directDeposit Direct Deposit Direct Deposit Person object
paymentInfo Payment
Information Payment Information
You have to activate payroll integration to use this feature.
Person object
employmentInfo Employment
Details Employment Details Employment object
HRIS-element ID Standard label Portlet Data object type
jobInfo Job Information Job Information Employment object
compInfo Compensation
Information Compensation Information Employment object payComponentRecurring Compensation Part of Compensation Information
portlet Employment object
payComponentNonRecurring Spot Bonus Spot Bonus Employment object
jobRelationsInfo Job Relationships Job Relationships Employment object workPermitInfo Work Permit Info Work Permit Info Employment object
Note that when you have activated the Global Assignments feature, the workPermitInfo portlet is displayed on the Personal Information page.
globalAssignmentInfo Global Assignment
Details Global Assignment Details You have to activate global assignments management pension payouts to use this feature.
Employment object
userAccountInfo Employee
Information Employee Information portlet on
the Add New Employee screen Employment object
The following HRIS element is only applicable to Employee Central 1.0: corporateAddress.
How do you set up the Succession Data Model?
1. Download the XML file for the Succession Data Model.
● If you're setting up the Succession 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 Succession Data Model, download the XML file from Provisioning under Succession Management Import/Export 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.
The XML file for the Succession Data Model is divided into several sections. Only some are relevant for Employee Central. Under “How is the XML file
structured?” you can find more information about all sections.
● Go to the section that includes the HRIS elements. Each HRIS element
corresponds to a person or employment object. You can adjust the HRIS elements and the HRIS fields just as you did in the previous step when adjusting the Corporate Data Model. For a list of all possible HRIS elements and fields, see Person object tables [page 240] and Employment object tables [page 255].
To make any changes, proceed as follows:
1. HRIS elements
You can change the following for the HRIS elements:
● Delete HRIS elements
You can delete the HRIS element you don't want to use from the data model. For example, a customer might decide that they don't need phone information or compensation information, so you can delete the phoneInfo and compInfo HRIS elements from the data model. You can delete all HRIS elements except for the following mandatory ones:
○ employmentInfo
○ jobInfo
○ personInfo
○ personalInfo
When you delete an HRIS element, the corresponding portlet is also not shown anymore on the UI.
● Change the label for HRIS elements
If you want to use a different label text on the UI, overwrite the existing label text of the corresponding HRIS element or, if there is no label included in the standard XML file, insert a label with the corresponding text.
2. HRIS fields
You can change the following for HRIS fields:
● Hide or show fields on the UI by setting the visibility attribute accordingly
For example, set the visibility of fields the customer does not want to use to “none”, so they don't appear on the UI and no data import is possible.
For some fields, you should leave the visibility attribute to “none”
or “view”, for example, for fields that are calculated by the system and should not be filled by the user. To check for which fields you can change this attribute, have a look at the Person object tables
[page 240] and Employment object tables [page 255].
● Change labels for HRIS fields by overwriting the existing label text
● Make fields mandatory by setting the required attribute to “true”
● Mask data entry on screen by including the pii attribute
● Configure custom fields
○ You can add custom fields as you did for the Corporate Data Model.
○ Interaction between data models — the “type” attribute
Do not use the type attribute for the field custom-string1 of the jobInfo HRIS element.
○ You can connect custom fields from the Succession or Corporate Data Model to any foundation object to copy its behavior. You do this by using the attribute
type=”foundationObject”. The custom field is displayed as a separate field with its own label on the UI, and its own attributes if you define them here, but it takes over the following behavior from the foundation object it is connected to:
○ List of values: If the Admin has already created or uploaded data for the company foundation object, this data is shown in the custom field as a list of values to choose from. As soon as the user starts entering a value in the custom field, the possible values of that list are displayed.
○ Effective dating: If the foundation object is effective dated, the custom field will also be, that means the user has to enter a start date as of which the changes are supposed to become effective.
○ Search: If the search-criteria attribute has been defined for the foundation object, it is also applied to the custom field.
See the following example, where the HRIS field “custom-string7” in the Succession Data Model behaves like the company foundation object from the Corporate Data Model:
<hris-field max-length="256" id="custom-string7" visibility="both" type="company”>
<label>Legal Entity of Contract</label>
</hris-field>
○ You can use the type attribute to define your own customer-specific foundation object. For this, you have to create a generic object first (see What are generic objects?
[page 88]). In the Succession Data Model, you can then add a custom field of the type custom-string and add the type attribute referencing the generic object. You have to use the external code of the generic object as the type, as in this example:
For using the type attribute with generic objects, use only a custom field of the type custom-string.
○ You can also use the type attribute to connect a custom field to the user “worker”. Then the custom field contains the list of users contained in “worker”. This is the same list the system proposes for the HRIS field manager-id. This is an example how to use the attribute for this purpose:
<hris-field max-length="256" id="custom-string7" visibility="both" type="worker”>
<label>Payroll Manager</label>
</hris-field>
● For jobInfo HRIS fields, you can define sections
For more information, see below under XML Examples, under Sections for jobInfo.
● Permission group filters
If you want to set permission group filters to enable fields to be available for setting up permission groups, go to the section with the <dg-filters> tag.
Permission groups are used to define which group of people is granted certain permissions. For example, you can set up a group with all members of the sales department located in the USA and allow them to view the employee data of all employees in the United States. Instead of having to search for each member of the sales department to add them one by one to a permission group, you can select the department and automatically include all members of that department in that group. You can set up that you can also use other selection criteria apart from department to set up a permission group by defining it in the Succession Data Model. You select the HRIS element and/or the corresponding HRIS field, for example, the cost center. The cost center will then appear in the dropdown list with all other selection criteria when you set up a permission group under Administration Tools, in the Manage Employees portlet under Set User Permissions Manage Permission Groups . For more information on permission groups, refer to the Role-Based Permissions Handbook.
Permission group filters for the following HRIS fields are included in the standard XML file:
○ For the HRIS element jobInfo:
○ Business unit
○ Name of the department
○ For the HRIS element compInfo:
○ Pay group
To add permission filters, copy one of the existing permission group filters and overwrite the value of the refid attribute with the HRIS-element ID of the data object that contains the field you want to use to filter the search for permission groups. Then you have to refer to the field that is part of that HRIS element with the hris-field-ref tag as in this example:
<dg-filters>
In the above example you define that the cost center, department name and country field for the company are shown in the dropdown list when the user creates permission groups.
For cost center, you enter the HRIS-field ID of the cost center that is part of the jobInfo HRIS element. For department, which is a foundation object that is reused as a field in the jobInfo, you can narrow down the search to a field within that foundation object (name) by using the ref-field attribute.
You can also use country fields for permission group filters as in the example above for the company.
● HRIS Sync Mapping
With HRIS sync, you can define what information that the user enters in Employee Central is transferred to Employee Profile. With this you guarantee that the information entered in Employee Central is the same in both places, as well as in all other modules that are connected to Employee Profile (for example,
Performance Management, Goal Management, 360 Degree Review, Learning &
Development and Jam).
The standard XML file includes mapping of the following information:
○ Phone Information
○ Email Information
If you want to have more fields using HRIS sync than delivered in the standard XML file, proceed as follows:
1. Go to the section with the <hris-sync-mappings> tag.
2. Copy an existing hris-sync-mapping.
3. Enter the following information:
● The field ID of the HRIS element used in Employee Central as refid value of hris-element-ref
● The ID of the standard-element used in Employee Profile as refid value of standard-element-ref
The standard-elements are listed on top of the XML file for the Succession Data Model.
4. Towards the end of your implementation, you have to define when HRIS sync is triggered. You find more information in Managing Human Resource Information System (HRIS) synchronization [page 160].
3. Upload the Succession Data Model in Provisioning under Succession Management Import/Export Data Model .
What are the next steps?
The company's Admin can now add employees to the system or import employee data in the system. You might have to show the Admin where this is done in the system:
● To add an employee, go to Administration Tools. In the Manage Employees portlet, select Update User Information Add New Employee .
● To import employee data, go to Administration Tools. In the Manage Employees portlet, select Update User Information Import Employee Data . If you want to know more about data imports, refer to How do you import employee data?
XML examples
How are person and employment objects defined in the XML file?
In this example, you see how the employment object jobInfo is defined in the Succession Data Model:
<hris-element id=”jobInfo”>
In the XML file for the Succession Data Model, the HRIS element defines a person or employment object. Each person or employment object has an ID you should not change. The label is the portlet name shown on the UI. Below you find a standard set of fields that are grouped within the portlet Job Information. You can change the labels of the
fields and the HRIS element. You can also hide fields by changing the visibility attribute. You can also add customer-specific fields (Custom String 1) by changing the label accordingly and changing the visibility to “both”, for example.
How do you use sections for jobInfo fields?
The fields contained in the jobInfo HRIS element are divided on the UI into several sections with the following titles:
● Organization Information
● Job Information
● EEO Information (for USA only)
You can see these sections as part of he Employment Information of the employee, for example:
If you want to define yourself which fields for jobInfo appear in which section on the UI, you have to define sections in the Succession Data Model XML file by inserting the tag <hris-section>. You can also adjust the section title.
If you do not define sections in the data model, it is predefined which fields appear in which section on the UI.
The standard data models delivered by SuccessFactors contain sections for jobInfo that you can adapt to your own needs.
This is an example of sections in the Succession Data Model XML file:
<hris-element id=”jobInfo”>
<label>Job Information</label>
<hris-section id=”positionInfoList”>
<label>Position Information>
<hris-field max-length=”256” id=”position” visibility=”both”>
<label>Position</label>
</hris-field>
</hris-section>
<hris-section id=”orgFieldsList”>
<label>Organisation Information</label>
<hris-field max-length=”256” id=”company” visibility=”both”>
<label>Company</label>
</hris-field>
Which hris-sections can you use?
Here is a list of the hris-sections that you can use:
Hris-section ID Standard
Label How To Use This Section positionInfoList Position
Information If you want to use hris-sections and you have activated Position Management, you have to add the position HRIS field to this section. You cannot use other fields in this section.
orgFieldsList Organization
Information You can use this section for fields related to the company.
If you use the following fields in your data model, you have to put them into this hris-section:
Information You can use this section for fields related to the job, for example:
● Job Classification
● Job Title
● FTE
timeOffRelatedFields Time Off
Information You can use this section for fields related to Time Off, for example:
● Holiday Calendar
● Work Schedule
● Time Profile
eeoFieldsList EEO
Information You can use this section for fields related to equal employment opportunity (EEO). This is only applicable to USA.
If you use the following fields in your data model, you have to put them into this hris-section:
Do you have to use sections in the Succession Data Model?
No, only if you want to influence which fields appear in which section on the UI. If you do not define sections in the Succession Data Model, the system defines which fields appear in which section.
Where in the data model do you include sections?
The hris-section tag has to be inside the start and end tag of the jobInfo HRIS element.
Can you add customer-specific fields for each section?
You can add customer-specific fields to all sections except positionInfoList.
Can you leave fields outside of sections?
If you use sections in the data model, all fields that are part of the jobInfo HRIS element have to be inside an
If you use sections in the data model, all fields that are part of the jobInfo HRIS element have to be inside an