2395215 - Import Positions for Legacy Positions - Succession Management

This article explains the columns of the Import Positions template, actions you can take on positions, additional options and common error messages.

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SAP SuccessFactors Succession Management

Overview

Importing Position Data is intended for customers already managing positions in their HRIS or other “master” system, or customers who have purchased succession planning licenses for a smaller population than the number of total employees they are loading.

Permissions

To be able to Import/Export Positions, the user should have “Position import & export” permission, which is available under “Manage Succession” tab on Role-Based Permissions.

Users with the above permission should be able to see the following options in Admin Center > Succession:

• Position Management: Import Positions
• Position Management: Export Positions

Import File

The import file is used for creating and updating the incumbents of position records, as well as attributes of vacant positions. The same format can be exported from a position model on demand. The order of the columns may vary; additional fields may be inserted in the future.

File format is CSV. Extended ASCII characters (curly quotes, etc.) are not supported. The same file encoding options supported in the Employee Import function (including Western (ISO), Unicode (UTF-8), and foreign-language encodings) are supported here. Enclose text values in double-quotes.

The position import file format is as follows:

Column header	Sample value	Column required?*	Can be blank?	Description
MODEL	1	Required	No	In the future, we may support importing multiple distinct position models. Today, this value must always be "1".
POSITIONCODE	salesrep123	Required	Yes	The position code is a unique identifier for the position record. It can be customer-supplied (alphanumeric) or auto-generated (numeric). Leaving this value blank will always create a new position, but if supplied the system will use it to check for an existing position first and then update it if found.
POSITION_TITLE	Account Manager	Optional*	Yes	The Succession Org Chart displays the Position Title. To avoid this information being blank, this value is strongly recommended.
USERID	jsmith1	Required	Yes	The employee's user ID. The value in this file must match an existing active employee record (specifying a nonexistent or inactive userID will result in an error). If left blank, the current incumbent (if any) will be removed from the position, leaving the position marked as TBH.
MANAGERPOS	salesmgr32	Required for new records	No	The position code of the position that this position reports to. (Note that this is not a user ID; the employee's current manager could be different than the position they are projected to report to.) If a position has no manager, use the value NO_MANAGER. If updating existing positions this column is technically not required, but it should typically be included. Blank or invalid position codes will result in errors.
KEYPOSITION	0	Optional*	Yes	Indicates whether the position is key, or a level of criticality. This can be set by a rating scale, so while the most common options are 1 (Yes) and 0 (No), any numeric value that corresponds to a criticality rating can be used. If column is not included, value for existing positions will not be changed. If column is included but value is blank, record will be set to 0.
JOBCODE	salesrep	Optional*	Yes	Valid fields are: Title, Jobcode, Department, Division, Location, Manager (specify a user ID), HR (specify a user ID), Matrix_Manager (specify a user ID), CustomManager (specify a user ID), and Custom01 through Custom15. These fields only update TBH positions. If the position is occupied by an active user, these values will be ignored—active user records can only be changed via the employee import or updating functions. (Only the employee import/management functions have all the necessary rules that govern employee data changes.) Although technically optional, some or all of these fields are typically required to ensure proper permission control and display of TBH position records. Any field used to specify target populations in permissions should be included. The jobcode must be included for succession plans and talent pools to work properly with TBH positions. Use the same header and value format as in the employee import file. These fields are typically used when the company is doing succession planning for vacant positions and the permissions structure requires that these fields be specified to determine which positions users can create succession plans for. If a TBH position has no manager, use NO_MANAGER (just as you would in the employee import file). It is important to note that, if you want to change a TBH position’s user attributes, you should leave the incumbent field blank, so that the system creates a new TBH user placeholder with the new attributes.
TITLE	Account Manager
DEPARTMENT	Sales
DIVISION	ACE Software
MANAGER	cgrant1
Etc.
ACTION	DELETE	Optional	Yes	If you include the optional ACTION column in your import file, you can mark position records to be deleted on import. Valid options are: 1. Blank (null): performs an insert or update with the PositionCode and Incumbent ID as the key fields. 2. “DELETE”: this is a logical (soft) delete of the position record. It will disappear from the succession org chart and the position export file. This is equivalent to deleting a position manually on the succession org chart. 3. “REACTIVATE”: this will restore a position that was deleted with the “DELETE” action or deleted manually on the succession org chart. If there were successors nominated to the position, they will reappear as well. 4. “PURGE”: this is a permanent (hard) deletion of the position record. This action cannot be undone —you will need to re-create the position if you want to restore it, and new position will not have any successors. Deleting or purging a position has no effect on the incumbent employee record (if any).

*Columns that are optional can be omitted in their entirety from the import, and the system will only insert/update the other field values. However, the columns may still be required for effective use of the system, so all columns are recommended.

The same file format is used for both imports and exports.

The manager userID should be specified for TBH positions created via the import file to match the incumbent of the manager position, to ensure that planning and visibility permissions are correctly applied.

Import Options

When you import the position file in Admin Center > Succession > Position Management: Import Positions, you have the option to select “Do not delete positions which have successors nominated”. If you enable this option, the system will not delete positions that have successors nominated if you specified the ACTION “DELETE” in the Import File. Please note that this option does NOT apply to the ACTION “PURGE”.

Optional configuration

If you import all your position data from an HRIS, you may want to disable position editing functions for succession planners. You can do this in the Org Chart Configuration screen, Position Dialog tab, in Admin Center:

 Technical Details

In the import file format above, only the first 5 fields—Model, PositionCode, userID, ManagerPos, and KeyPosition—are stored in the SuccessFactors position record. All other fields are held in user records (including TBH positions, which get an invisible “vacant” user record). So:

• If you enter these values for a TBH position and then fill the position with an employee, the original “vacant” employee record is removed and the position now assumes the title, department, division, etc. of the new incumbent.
• Conversely, if you remove an incumbent from a position, the system will create a new vacant employee record, copying the title and the fields relevant for permissioning (department, division, matrix & custom managers, etc.) from the prior incumbent.

These “vacant” employee records are managed behind the scenes. With this mechanism, the position and employee records are never in conflict since the position takes on the qualities of the incumbent.

NOTE: If the “Position Title” field is not displayed in the Succession Org Chart (Admin Center > Org Chart Configuration > Succession Org Chart), it will not be included in the Position Export file or in the Import Template you can export from Position Management: Export Positions.

Position Import Error Codes

-5	Invalid Manager ID
-7	Invalid UserID
-10	Manager Cycle Detected
-15	Invalid Matrix Manager ID *
-17	Invalid Custom Manager ID *
-18	Invalid Second Manager ID *
-19	Second Manager Cycle Detected *

* These error codes will only appear for TBH positions (since the relevant fields for incumbents are not updated via the position import, even if you include the values in the import file).

NOTE: In legacy Position nomination method, Succession Org Chart is designed to display Position Title only, NOT Employee Title. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to enable 'Position Title' under Org Chart Configuration so the Position Title field becomes visible in the exported Position file and you can update Position Title accordingly.

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