2080801 - How to update Foundation Objects, and the respective Employee Data

Symptom

This article explains the intended way to update Foundation Objects (FO’s), and the expected behavior of the system and how these changes need to be administered.
I have updated a “Location” Foundation Object (FO) name in Admin Tools > Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures, but when I look at a Job Information record for an employee that should be effected by this change, the change I made to the Location name is not visible in the Location field!

Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

Environment

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

Reproducing the Issue

Update a Location (for example Name) in Manage Organization, Pay and Job Strutures.
Navigate to the Job Information of a user with that Location.
The name change is not reflected in Job Information - View/History, neither EP Location field.

Cause

This is expected behavior.

A new record with effective date equal to or after the change to the Location needs to be inserted in Job Information of the user, for the change to be reflected in Job Information and synced to EP.

Resolution

There are a few things that need to happen if you are updating the data held in a Foundation Object. Firstly, Foundation Objects are Effectively Dated, the same as a Job Information record is. This means that when you want to make a change to a Foundation Object, you should never edit the Object directly; you should always use the “Insert New Record” to update the Foundation Object. Also note that some Foundation Object field propagate other fields in the system, for example the Location Foundation Object > Timezone field can be configured to propagate the Job information > Timezone field.

As with any change in a company, the change would be available from a certain date. This is how Foundation Objects should be updated also. For example, you need to update the Name of a Location Foundation Object. The process to perform this action is as follows -:

Go to Admin Tools > Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures and select Location from the “Search” drop-down menu.

Locate the Location FO you want to amend and select it. Once it has loaded on the screen, click the Insert New Record button in the top right.

It will ask you “When do you want your changes to take effect?” Set a date

Ensure that the date you set is either the today date or a future dated date. If you set the date in the past, this could affect Job Information records that are using the older Location value but the effective start date of that Job Information record is after the Effective Start Date of the Location FO’s changes. This is important!

Best practice is to set these FO changes to happen over a weekend, when Job Information changes are not likely to be made

Once the Foundation Object has been updated, you will also need to add a new Job Information record to all Employees that should have this updated Location. For example, if you updated the locations name from “Chicago” to “Chicago, USA”, the system will not automatically propagate that change to Job Information, so you will need to update all users who have “Chicago” set as their Location in Job Information. This is because FO’s are effectively dated, and so are Job Information records.

Another example of this would be Business Address. The company has moved their office at the location Chicago, from 1 address to a new address, and this address is shown in EC. You would need to follow this full process to force the system to update the Employee’s EC data.

NOTE: The date you set the Foundation Object change to take effect from, will restrict the visibility of the change in the system, until that Effective Start Date is reached. For example, if you Make an FO change to happen on 02/02/2013, and you got to an employee’s Job Information and insert a Job Info record that is effectively dated 01/02/2013, then the Foundation Object will not show the update, because the FO’s change occurs on effective date 02/02/2013. So always bear in mind the dating you use and how this affects your users data.

To make a change on mass, use the Mass Changes tool located in Admin Tools. If you do not have this tool enabled already, please raise a case with Customer Success to have this feature enabled. This is the easiest way to then create a new Job Information record for all users with the Foundation Object that needs to be updated in their Job Information records.
For more information on Mass Changes click here
You could also make the changes to Job Information via the EC UI or via Import.
2317955 - Correct or Remove Job Information record via Import in Full Purge mode
- 2740031 - Label remains with old value on Employee Export after being changed on Manage Data.- Employee Central
- 2964383 - MDF Field label name Change Doesn't Sync to Employee Profile Header after HRIS Sync (real time or Incremental Sync job)

FAQ - Additional Information

Q) Where can I get information on this from the Guide?

A) Guide: Implementing Employee Central Core

Chapter: Introduction to Foundation Objects

Keywords

field label is not updated, job information field label not updated, field label is not synced, manage org., Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures, location, label change, job history, Editing an Object, Foundation Objects, FoTranslation, Translation , KBA , sf employee central , LOD-SF-EC-FOO , Foundation Objects (Organisation, Pay and Job Structures) , LOD-SF-EC , Employee Central , How To

Product

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central all versions ; SAP SuccessFactors HCM Core all versions

2080801 - How to update Foundation Objects, and the respective Employee Data - Employee Central