Download SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most

White Paper:
SuccessFactors Global Benefits:
Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
by
Adam Kvist Lamaa
HCM Consultant
Sean Kennedy
HCM Consultant
GP Strategies®
White Paper:
SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
Introduction
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is evolving at an ever-increasing rate, and each enhancement promising to close a core
functionality gap raises an underlying question for customer adoption: Is the new functionality enterprise ready? Steering a
business towards adoption is easier when there is confidence that the solution can meet the requirements. This knowledge,
however, is only clear after early adopters have paved the way and identified an implementation approach for others to consider.
In November 2014, the Global Benefits module was introduced as another milestone towards reinforcing SAP SuccessFactors
Employee Central as the complete HRIS solution for global companies. Upon its release, the capabilities and configurations
were best understood from the Global Benefits implementation guide. As for key points to consider in an implementation
project, not a lot was available.
One of our clients, a global insurance company with over 10,000 employees in almost 30 countries, became an early adopter
and accepted the risks of using an untested product. Their goal was to migrate off a custom, on-premise SAP solution to further
consolidate their HR solution landscape and improve end user experiences of HR-related processes. This client had complex
requirements. Some even stretched the system beyond what SAP Product Management initially envisioned and required
concessions from the client. Nevertheless, in January 2016, Global Benefits rolled out company-wide, and the final solution is
a demonstration of the product’s flexibility to scale along with the complexity of a company’s constraints.
This document shares GP Strategies’ implementation experiences and suggests our best practices from SAP’s first global rollout
of Global Benefits.
About This Paper
While a full discussion of SAP SuccessFactors Global Benefits is well outside the scope of this paper, in terms of depth, it will
discuss many fundamental concepts. It does not outline other vendor products, provide step-by-step instructions, or attempt to
suggest a “one size fits all” solution. Rather, this paper presents a high-level outline of topics and best practices to adopt when
structuring a Global Benefits project for your company.
In this paper, you will find conclusions from our implementation through the following topics:
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Overview of Global Benefits
Requirement definitions
Extensibility options and considerations
Benefit data: sensitivity, access, and migration
Notifications and reporting
Overview
What is SAP SuccessFactors Global Benefits, and what does implementation require?
SAP SuccessFactors Global Benefits functionality is built on the Employee Central metadata framework (MDF) to bring globally
diverse benefit requirements under a single system of record. Companies will no longer need individual, fragmented country
or regional solutions that require integration, maintenance, and administration.
Fundamentally, Global Benefits provides the same functionality of any market-ready benefit solution. Employees receive a
company benefit based on eligibility criteria, currency, and schedule. These benefits can in turn be automatically assigned
or employees can manually select them. The manually selected benefits collect information from an employee that can then
optionally go through a workflow for administrators to review, edit, and in due course approve or deny.
The extended enterprise capabilities stem from building Global Benefits on Employee Central where the product automatically
leverages the available system functionality and employee data. Existing customers will already be familiar with features such
as customer-specific business logic, notifications, approval workflows, and reporting. Additionally, real-time employee data
is accessible to drive employee eligibility and entitlement calculations—a clear advantage compared to other modules such as
Performance Management where only select data is fed through Employee Profile synchronization.
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White Paper:
SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
From an implementation standpoint, the dependency on a company’s unique Employee Central setup means it is strongly
recommended to begin the implementation of Global Benefits only after going live with Employee Central. Trying to achieve
a simultaneous go-live is not realistic as the data models and compensation structures constantly evolve throughout the
Employee Central implementation. The benefit module relies on and requires stable configurations to define employee benefit
eligibility. Additionally, a Global Benefits project is likely more complex due to the multifaceted aspect of defining a benefit’s
requirements, as will be illustrated in the next section, when compared to capturing more straightforward employee data points
for Employee Central.
Requirement Definitions
In SAP SuccessFactors Global Benefits, the foundation starts with an understanding of the system-defined benefit types.
Benefit Type
Description
Examples
Reimbursement
Employee incurs an expense to the company or receives a onetime payment
Medical Bills, Club Membership
Allowance
Employee receives a payment on a recurring basis (e.g., monthly)
Fuel Allowance, Gym Membership
Deductible Allowance
Employee incurs a deduction on a recurring basis (e.g., annually)
Lunch Plan, Union Dues
Pension
Retirement fund contributions from the employee and/or
employer
Provident Fund, Pension Fund
Insurance
Employee makes policy selections and regular payments for
financial protection as part of life events and uncertainties
Life, Medical, Dental
Wallet
Payment to employees in the form of credits, instead of money,
that are redeemed as payment for other benefits
Employee Recognition
As part of a Global Benefits project, each company benefit is aligned with a type, which in turn structures data requirements
and drives system functionality.
For example, an automatic monthly stipend for each C-level employee best aligns with an Allowance type where requirements
can dictate how often payments are made and if payments continue once an employee is on an extended absence such as
maternity leave. In this simplified scenario, the Reimbursement type does not align as it is intended for non-recurring payments.
Once a benefit type is identified, the project team begins to document the many details needed to build a benefit in the system.
Which employees are eligible? When are they eligible? How much money do they receive? How often? Along with a company’s
benefit administrators are a lot of topics to collaborate on and capture. Generally, however, requirements emerge from seven
categories of information.
Basic Details
Target Employees
Employee eligibility criteria
Payment
Calculation formula and frequency
Schedule
When can employees claim/enroll and when can
they claim/enroll again?
Information for Employee
Input From Employee
Approvers
GP Strategies Corporation Name, currency, activation date
Policy documents, forms to fill out, a point of
contact for questions
Receipt, comments, form uploads
If admin approval is required, who?
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White Paper:
SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
It is important to know that identifying the data points, calculations, and target audience of a benefit is rarely straightforward.
Maybe a subject matter expert missed the discovery meeting or an exception to the rule is found during testing. For example,
is marital status of “Married” equivalent to a “Domestic Partnership” in all countries?
A key factor for successfully implementing Global Benefits is to have an adaptable team and an iterative approach to build, test,
and refine the solution. In fact, it is recommended companies follow the agile SAP Launch methodology, which best guides a
project through successful implementations of SAP solutions such as Global Benefits1.
Benefit Considerations for a Global Workforce
Currency exchange rates, local approval teams, text translations, and government-mandated requirements are just a few of the
challenges defining benefits globally. Bring internal stakeholders and local experts to the table at the beginning of a project to
help decide what can and cannot be streamlined under a global benefit solution.
Additionally, plan for functionality nuances and limitations. Maybe the requirements for a benefit need to transform into two
similar but distinct benefits. Or, multiple validation rules should merge under one combined rule. The important takeaway is
that Global Benefits is not as mature as other SAP SuccessFactors modules and may not immediately meet every expectation.
In the end, consider challenging the status quo, and when possible, change business processes to achieve a workable solution.
Extensibility Options
Standard Functionality in the Cloud
SAP SuccessFactors product suite offers no customization options when standard functionality and module-specific configuration
settings cannot meet a company’s requirements. Instead, the company will need to change their internal processes or find
an alternate solution. Although this is a common outcome when implementing enterprise cloud solutions, such as SAP
SuccessFactors, it is not entirely undesirable.
Limiting customers to use only standard functionality allows vendors to offer ongoing support and regular product enhancements.
This is often a strong business driver when companies consider implementing a cloud solution instead of a custom-built solution.
Nevertheless, despite such ambitious intentions, many clients struggle during implementation to adapt their existing business
processes to only standard functionality of cloud solutions.
Benefit Standard Functionality:
Allows an employee to enter an amount and a comment, and
upload an attachment.
If, for example, the amount needs to be prorated based on
duration of employment, then an administrator should
validate the amount entered by an employee before payment
is issued.
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SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
Product Flexibility Is Both a Strength and a Weakness
Employee Central’s MDF, which Global Benefits is built on, takes functional configurability to the next level through product
extensibility. Through extensibility, customers can change areas of the product to closer align with their own processes and
conveniently deviate further away from standard functionality—all the while maintaining product support.
After a project team understands how standard benefit functionality aligns with the requirements, the team can then consider
the available extensibility options to overcome gaps. Is the right solution a specialized user experience that matches the company’s
“ideal” outcome? Or, is it better to change business processes so they better align with standard functionality? Somewhere in
between? Unique to each business and the project requirements is a balance between rewards, risk, and cost.
Some of the available extensibility options include the following:
• Define additional data fields to collect from the employee
• Use business rules to validate input, automatically calculate amounts, and display error messages
• Define more than one workflow (i.e., approval team) per benefit
• Incorporate external data as criteria for eligibility or entitlement calculation
• Modify the user interfaces to make them more intuitive
Additional Data Fields
• Replace documents an employee would otherwise
download, fill out, and upload
• Conform employee input to formatted data types
(i.e., drop-down, date, number)
• Create custom reports from meaningful data
• Consider the low complexity to implement and
minimal impact to make future enhancements
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SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
Additional Data Fields + Business Rules
• Provide meaningful instructions relevant to the user’s
unique employment/personal data
• Systematically perform calculations or derive data to
reduce human error
• Validate user input and display error messages
• Reduce manual intervention by administrators
• Consider implementation complexity, which is based
on requirements; future enhancements may need
careful planning
Additional Data Fields + Business Rules
+ Custom User Interface
• Guide employees through a benefit selection with
easy-to-understand information and calls to action
• Further reduce manual intervention by
administrators as employee benefit selection requires
less training and fewer helpdesk issues
• Consider implementation complexity, which is based
on requirements; future enhancements are likely
complicated
• Allow for SAP quarterly product updates that may
impact the solution as core functionality is enhanced
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SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
Need and Want:The Extensibility Balancing Act
Cloud solutions are not known for enabling customers to have a custom solution as they are inherently a “one size fits all”
product. The extensibility options available to Global Benefits shifts this model in a new direction and in the favor of a
customer’s unique needs. Build a “custom” cloud solution that is still supported by the product vendor. Have your cake and
eat it, too! But is that a good thing?
The tradeoff comes from assessing both current requirements and resources along with future solution maintenance. As scope
expands, the project timeline increases, documentation grows, and test scenarios widen. Then after the project successfully rolls
out and an enhancement is needed or bug is found, does someone in the company still understand the solution intricacies
three months later? A year later? Two?
Consider including the company’s system support team as part of the project and their feedback on the solution design. Do
health insurance costs change annually? Are enrollments manually changed for employees on extended leave? What solution
changes are needed when a vendor later introduces new data requirements? The system support team can offer important
perspectives which shape project priorities and long-term administration.
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Little Potential Impact / Best User Experience
Moderate Potential Impact / Better User Experience
High Potential Impact / Standard User Experience
In the end, if a project sponsor decides that a positive end user experience is a core objective, then use every extensibility option
available. This will, however, have a direct impact on the overall cost both in the short and the long term. If such a mandate
does not exist, identify and implement the simplest solution to meet the bare minimum requirement.
Benefit Data
Sensitivity + Access
Enterprise HRIS solutions, including SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, are built on the premise of maintaining sensitive
data about company employees. With Global Benefits, even more data points are introduced and companies will want to
formulate a plan to manage access.
As a demonstration, companies can require employees to submit documentation as a condition of approving a claim. This has
the potential to inadvertently disclose employee information that the company did not intend to collect. For example:
• Invoices and receipts with credit card information
• Medical documents with details of patient medication, diagnosis, or information about non-employees such as a
spouse or child
• Copy of a driver’s license displaying a date of birth, home address, and physical attributes
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White Paper:
SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
The document uploads may be needed to meet government regulations or internal corporate guidelines. However, who has
access to benefit data? A line manager may need only basic details, the finance approver only the claim amounts, and a countryspecific approver validates document uploads.
Solutions for managing access with Global Benefits use field-level configurations on role-based permissions, MDF visibility, and
user interfaces. Finding the right balance between these will achieve the best practice of displaying only information required
for the employee, approver, or auditor taking an action.
Migration
Replacing one or more enterprise products often includes moving data to a new solution. When starting a Global Benefits
project, the very first data migration question is simply: Can we leave behind the old data? The overall project complexity is
quickly reduced both in time and resources when the answer is yes. Conversely, a company that needs historical data must then
analyze their current data and define a very clear migration scope. Some initial points to consider:
• Are benefits for all countries and legal entities needed?
• How many years of history should we keep? Total number of records?
• Is only payment information sufficient?
• Do files previously uploaded by employees need to move, for example, signed forms or purchase receipts?
• Do any benefits or data points exist in the legacy solution that will not match the new solution?
• Is there any required data in Global Benefits that does not exist in the current solution?
• Are there any benefits where employees submit multiple claims up to a maximum amount?
It is worth highlighting that migrated employee claims and enrollments need to align with a benefit configured in the system.
For example, an employee claim must occur when a benefit is active, the legal entity of the benefit aligns with the employee at
that time, and the benefit schedule is open at the time of the claim. An analysis of current data prior to requirements-gathering
discussions will help the implementation team build the right solution—one that supports both past and future needs.
In the end, data migration is a multi-layered topic where each requirement can lead to more requirements. Migrating no historical
data or simple payment information is quite straightforward. Otherwise, a company’s historical data requirements, supported
with a thorough analysis of the data, will help the implementation team identify dependencies and propose an overall plan.
Notifications
SAP SuccessFactors Global Benefits has two standard notification features: one for administrator approval and the other for
employee enrollment.
1. Standard Global Benefits uses Employee Central workflows when administrators must approve employee selections.
Workflow actions (e.g., approval, rejection, etc.) then trigger email notifications to employees and approvers.
2. Once employees enroll for a benefit and the enrollment is approved, they can receive an email notification regarding
the same. Benefit types Allowance/Reimbursement, Pension, and Insurance each have a notification template.
These notifications are configurable to keep employees, managers, approvers, and other interested parties aware of benefit
actions in the system. For example, an employee is copied on the progress of their submitted claim, a benefit administrator is
alerted they need to approve, and the finance department is notified a payment is needed when approved.
The limited number of standard notifications is not ideal. Nonetheless, those that are available are flexible and the Employee
Central system that Global Benefits is built on can be leveraged for additional options.
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White Paper:
SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
Reporting
There are four pre-delivered reports for Global Benefits available through Advanced Reporting in Employee Central:
• Benefit Enrollment
• Benefit Employee Claims
• Benefit Cost Analysis
• Benefit Pension Enrollment
Companies are able to adapt these reports to fit their needs, or they can create custom reports through the Online Report
Designer (ORD) product. With custom reports a company can report on any benefit data points for internal analysis, government
compliance, data integrity, and sending formatted employee data to vendors electronically. Including all the data previously
collected in employee paperwork and now captured by an online benefit solution.
Is Global Benefits enterprise ready?
There is no simple answer. At best, the answer is “Yes, but with some caveats.” Most likely, companies will need to make difficult
decisions if requirements are not easily met or too costly for the project.
Global Benefits is still immature when compared with the rest of the SAP SuccessFactors product suite. There are limitations
to how far the product currently bends, and those constraints are not always clear. Basic functionality continues to transition as
the SAP Product Team aggressively fixes issues and simultaneously incorporates major enhancements in each quarterly release.
Meanwhile, missing features that align with the complex requirements of a large company, such as administrator enrollment
on behalf on an employee, may be 6 to 18 months out on the product roadmap—if at all.
A company’s own SuccessFactors maturity should be considered just as much as the Global Benefits product. As mentioned
earlier, Employee Central is a prerequisite for going forward with this solution. Focus first on understanding core functionality
to allow an organization to learn and build on the breadth of its capabilities. The implementation of Global Benefits will have
many similarities to Employee Central, but just as many differences as well.
Ultimately, it comes down to risk aversion and willingness to change business processes when requirements cannot currently
be met by SuccessFactors’ cloud solution. In time, what is already a quite flexible product will become a proper competitor in
the HRIS solution space.
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SuccessFactors Global Benefits: Finding the Most Value from New Functionality
Our Approach
While SAP Global Benefits did successfully roll out globally for our client, there were a lot of unknowns to overcome. Take our
experiences and build from them when you make the transition.
• Implement Employee Central first to build on team knowledge of core functionality.
• Bring global and local experts to the table at the beginning of a project to thoroughly identify requirements and
streamline a global solution. Be willing to change existing business processes.
• Clearly define the project goals, time, and cost. Align these with an extensibility approach.
• Carefully plan for and protect sensitive employee data.
• A solution without data migration is easier but not necessarily possible. Analyze current data and future needs before
starting the project.
About the Authors
Adam Lamaa is an HCM Consultant and holds a SAP SuccessFactors Professional Employee Central certification. Over the
past three years, he has been a lead architect on global implementations, one which has received an EMEA SAP Gold Quality
award. He has extensive knowledge of integrations and the MDF that Global Benefits is built on.
Sean Kennedy is an HCM Consultant and holds SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, Learning, and Workforce Analytics/
Planning certifications. He has over 10 years of experience in the HCM space and has led projects for clients in many industries.
He has a background in computer programming and uses this to make the most of the extensibility capabilities offered by
Global Benefits on the Employee Central MDF.
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For more information contact
Adam Kvist Lamaa
HCM Consultant
GP Strategies
[email protected]
Sean Kennedy
HCM Consultant
GP Strategies
[email protected]
Notes:
1
https://connect.successfactors.com/professionalservices/Documents/Project%20Kickoff%20Deck%20-%20SAP%20Launch.pptx
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