From my point of view, the most relevant of these changes are presented below, starting with Recruiting Management, Recruiting Marketing then Recruiting Posting.
Recruiting Management
The most important updates in Recruiting Management are primarily enhancements to the Job Profile Builder functionality and a change in the use of Generic Objects. In addition, the end of the Marketing Central function was announced, which will be replaced by the Campaign URL Builder. Some small changes, such as the one- time password feature, are also worth mentioning.
Job Profile Builder Update
For customers using the Job Profile Builder in Recruiting, it is now possible to select a subheading level (H2 – H6) for each section of the job description template. Previously, it was only possible to set the font size of the headings and some basic formatting such as bold, underlined or italic. Existing requisitions use H2 as the subheading level by default. However, the options can be overridden individually, according to customer requirements.
Figure 1 – Heading level in job description template
First and foremost, this change makes your job profiles and job postings accessibility compliant, as screen readers can recognise subheadings in job descriptions. The different heading levels are also beneficial when clients want to colour-code the headings in job advertisements with the help of a custom plugin (this, of course, requires some coding).
Changes in Generic Objects in Recruiting
All Recruiting customers must now maintain the country/region data in the Country Generic Object and the currency data in the Currency Generic Object.
For existing customers:
- If a customer has not yet maintained the data in the generic objects, the data is auto-populated.
- If a customer has already maintained some or all the data in the object, SAP will not add or update any entries. The customer will need to manually add the missing information to the instance via Manage Data.
For new customers, the country/region and currency data are auto-populated in the corresponding Generic Object.
This improvement was made as part of the technical simplification of the product. It is no longer necessary to manually adapt this list in new recruiting projects and set a uniform standard.
Campaign URL Builder
The Campaign URL Builder replaces the Market Job function. This tool can be used to create URLs for tracking campaigns or job postings on job boards that were not initiated via Recruiting Posting.
Figure 2 – Campaign URL Builder
Nothing has changed in the already known functionality. It is instead a new naming convention.
Further updates in Recruiting Management
There are some further updates within the Recruiting Management module that are worth mentioning. To prevent phishing attacks, the verification email with a one-time password sent to candidates for account creation and updating of the contact email no longer displays the candidate’s name.
Furthermore, SAP has adjusted the ISO codes and labels for country/region and state/province for Mexico, Norway, and Swaziland. It is strongly recommended to adjust the corresponding values to avoid errors in job postings. Changes are necessary if the client uses any of the following three functions:
- Set up Job Board Options: If this function is activated and you have configured a custom selection, update your custom selection (for the countries concerned) by adding the latest ISO codes for country/region and state/province.
- Job Requisition Details: If the ISO code for the countries/regions or states/provinces concerned changes, the corresponding field in the job requisition would remain empty. Select the latest ISO codes for these fields and save the job requisition again.
- Business Rules: If you are using a business rule that refers to the ISOCountryList picklist, ensure that you select the updated values in the business rule.
Lastly, it should be mentioned that the labels for the standard Job Requisition fields businessUnit_obj, costCenter_obj, legalEntity_obj, and std_position_obj must now be maintained in “Manage Job Requisition System Field Labels” in the admin centre. Before the release, the labels for the four standard fields were derived from the Succession Data Model (Employee Central clients) or the Custom/Default language pack (non-Employee Central clients).
Recruiting Marketing
The changes in Recruiting Marketing in the 2H release focus mainly on optimising some administrator functions, such as SSL certificate renewal. New functionality that improves the candidate experience has now been introduced or requires an additional licence for Brilliant Hire.
Self-Service Support for Career Site SSL Certificates
In the Career Site Builder (CSB), companies can now manage the SSL certificates for the career sites independently, without assistance from product support. The new SSL certificates page allows organisations to upload and install both initial and renewal certificates directly. From 1 December 2021, Product Support will recommend using the SSL certificates page, and it will no longer be necessary to open a ticket via SAP Launchpad for this. Implementation partners can also use the page to add or renew an SSL certificate for a customer’s career site via CSB.
To install the certificate, you can either select the certificate based on a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) generated in the CSB (Option 1) or without a CSR by directly uploading the SSL certificate to the CSB (Option 2).
Until now, the process of renewing a certificate was very time-consuming and costly, as SAP Product Support was always needed. Customers are given more autonomy with the new admin interface and the reminder mail already published in the last release. The renewal process is thus simple and quick to realise.
Career Site Builder Functions Viewer
The new Functions Viewer in the Career Site Builder can be used to view and delete existing functions that have already been implemented. These functions convert strings into job posting data before they are forwarded to the external career site. In the past, this tool could have been used by implementation partners in the Command Centre to correct misconfigurations or make style changes. For example, a German special character such as “ß” could be converted into “ss” or an “ä” into an “ae”, and certain words specified by the client could be displayed in bold.
Figure 3 – Functions Viewer
With the new Functions Viewer, the customer can view these functions and delete them if they wish. If the table is displayed empty in a customer system, no functions are in use yet.
Further updates in Recruiting Marketing
Career Site Builder now has a new setting that lets organisations enable Brilliant Hire by SAP for their career sites. Enabling Brilliant Hire increases the functionality of the Career Site Builder to provide AI-powered personalised job recommendations. For instance, the Skill Matcher can be used to search for a job based on a person’s skills.
Figure 4 – Job recommendations based on personal skills
Important: To use Brilliant Hire by SAP, separate licences are required. This license is not included in the standard recruiting licences.
Recruiting Posting
The release in Recruiting Posting brings changes to both the administrator interface and the front end. In addition, new job boards have been added to the catalogue.
Multiple Languages Supported in Field Completion
As an administrator, it is now possible to set up rules for the automatic filling of job posting forms in different languages. Either default values can be used, or a mapping to the fields in the job requisition can be created. Previously, it was only possible to make a mapping for the fields in the main language of the job posting without the possibility to pre-fill fields in other languages. The function has now been improved so that multilingual advertisements are also supported.
Figure 5 – Multiple Languages Supported in Field Completion
Further updates in Recruiting Posting
In Recruiting Posting, there is now the setting “Job Posting Visibility”, which can specify that a user also sees published jobs in the Job Posting Table if he is not linked to the associated Posting Profile. If the job has expired, it can also be extended by the user. The system default setting is such that a user will only see job postings linked to their own posting profile. To change this, the Job Posting Visibility option must be deactivated in Manage Recruiting Posting in the Edit Settings options. Afterwards, the visibility of job postings is ensured regardless of the posting profile. This function facilitates substitution in case of absence and joint management of job postings.
In addition, as in every release, new job boards have been added to the Job Board Market Place. The list of new job boards can be viewed here.
Conclusion
Again in the 2H Release 2021, SAP has not published any substantially new functionality in Recruiting. The release focuses mainly on improving existing tools and facilitating some administrative processes. However, considering the current roadmap and its presentation at SuccessConnect 2021, I eagerly await the 2022 releases. Several new features have been announced that will benefit both recruiters and hiring managers. We can expect a completely redesigned user interface for the recruiter and hiring manager, ensuring simplified, faster applicant management. The candidate experience also remains the focus of development for SAP. The new search page will probably solve many existing problems, such as inconsistent data sets and configuration flexibility, significantly enhancing the overall experience. So we can all look forward to seeing what the HXM focus brings to the Recruiting module!