2086614 - Writing Assistant & Coaching Advisor for Competencies & Behaviors - Performance Management

• How the Writing Assistant works?
• How to configure the Writing Assistant?
• What are Coaching Advisor texts?

SAP SuccessFactors Performance Management

Writing Assistant is a content development tool with an extensive library of development and mentoring recommendations. These recommendations help the Managers to provide targeted, effective and meaningful feedback to the employees. This article describes how to add teasers and choaching advisor texts that will be displayed in the Writing Assistant window in the Competency section of the form.

The Writing Assistant tool provides suggested sentences that describe the comments your users might want to use when evaluating competencies. Writing Assistant works with competencies. Writing Assistant adds the exact sentence in the form so you don't have to type anything at all. You can add as many sentences as you'd like, and once those sentences are in the form, you can modify them to better match your own writing style, or leave them as-is.

What are Teasers?

• Teasers are available for both competencies and competency behaviors, and work the same way with both. Teasers are short but specific statements that describe actions, attitudes, or skills that demonstrate proficiency in the competency at a specific performance level. Teasers can be organized into multiple performance levels, such as Meet Expectations, Exceed Expectations, or Needs Improvement. Teasers are sometimes called subtopics.
• For example, to show that an employee meets the Customer Focus competency, you might create teasers that state: Follows through with customers, or Gets customer feedback. When an employee exhibits these actions and attitudes, it demonstrates that the employee meets the definition of the Customer Focus competency. Similarly, to show that an employee does not meet the Customer Focus competency, you might create teasers that state: Appears unresponsive to customers, or Doesn't understand customer perspective. When an employee exhibits these actions and attitudes, it demonstrates that the employee isn't meeting the definition of the Customer Focus competency, and needs improvement in this competency.
• A teaser may seem very similar to a description of a competency, but they're not the same thing. The competency description provides a broad sense of the scope of the competency. Teasers break down the definition of the competency into tangible performance levels. This makes the competency easier to evaluate by your users.

Teasers are often used together with the content in the Writing Assistant tool. The Writing Assistant provides suggested sentences that describe the comments your employees might want to use when evaluating competencies. The Writing Assistant sentences are constructed on a competency's teasers. For example, if one of the competency's teasers is Gets customer feedback, then the suggested sentences will all describe that teaser. The sentences in the Writing Assistant are sometimes called tunings. You can't have tunings if you don't have any teasers.

Teasers are also often used together with the content in the Coaching Advisor tool. The Coaching Advisor provides concepts and text of developmental suggestions that address a defined problem area or encourage an employee strength. The Coaching Advisor content is based on a competency's teasers. For example, if one of the competency's teasers is Gets customer feedback, then the developmental suggestions all describe that teaser. You can't have Coaching Advisor content if you don't have any teasers.

In the Writing Assistant, select Give Advice to enter coaching advisor texts. You can use Give Advice alone as a mentoring reference, or along with Writing Assistant to provide complete feedback. For example, you can use Writing Assistant to help you create useful evaluation comments, then turn to Give Advice to help you add suggestions that support your evaluation comments.

Please check the PMv12a Implementation Guide - Writing Assistant for further examples of it's functions.

Create a New Teaser

Teasers display on the page in alphabetical order based on the first word of each statement, regardless of the order in which you create them. You can't change the order of the teasers; however, you can move a teaser from one performance level to another.

1. Go to Admin Center > Manage Competencies or Admin Center > Manage Writing Assistant and Coaching Advisor (if using JPB).
2. Select the Competency Library.
3. Click on the Competency Name link.
4. On the teaser page, if you haven't already customized it, there are three default performance levels: Improve, Meets, and Exceeds. Determine under which teaser level you want to create a new teaser.
5. Click Take Action > Add Teaser.
6. In the dialog that opened, enter the teaser name in the "Type a name for the performance detail..."
7. You may already add the tunings then click Save.
8. Click Save again at the bottom to finish.
9. The teaser is listed under the selected teaser level.

Note: In Provisioning, the teaser can be added or deleted via Managing Competencies and Skills > Competency Libraries > select the Competency Library > Competency Name > Teasers. Please see KBA 2985577 on how to import for reference.  If the Teasers mapped to competencies need to be updated, please contact your parter to make the relevant changes via the Provisioning. 

Removing a Teaser

1. Go to Admin Center > Manage Competencies or Admin Center > Manage Writing Assistant and Coaching Advisor (if using JPB).
2. Select the Competency Library.
3. Click on the Competency Name link.
4. On the teaser page, check the Teaser/s you want to delete.
5. Click Delete Selected then click Yes in the next prompt.
6. Click Save.

What are Tunings?

Tunings are complete sentences about a single teaser that describe the same teaser in terms that are more or less positive, or more or less personal. The tunings allow your users to choose the tone they want to use to provide feedback during an evaluation. For example, for this teaser: Gets Customer Feedback, you might create 3 levels of tunings:

• One that uses fairly neutral language (for example, Employee makes an effort to get customer feedback and is usually willing to adjust his direction based on their input.)
• One that uses slightly more negative or vaguer language (for example, Employee usually tests new ideas with customers. He is often willing to change if customers seem unresponsive.)
• One that uses slightly more positive or praising language (for example, Employee seeks customer feedback before taking any action that might affect them. He remains flexible and is able to adjust the direction of his thinking based on their input.)

You can create as many tunings as you want for each teaser. After you've created tunings, your users see the exact text you've entered when they use Writing Assistant. The tunings make up the Writing Assistant content and appear as sentences that your users can copy into their evaluation forms.

Create or Modify Tuning Texts

Tunings display on your user's Writing Assistant page in order from least positive to most positive. You can create tunings in any order, but you may need to rearrange the order once you're finished so that they display in the correct order on your user's page.

1. Go to Admin Center > Manage Competencies or Admin Center > Manage Writing Assistant and Coaching Advisor (if using JPB).
2. Select the Competency Library.
3. Click on the Competency Name link.
4. On the teaser page, locate the teaser you want to work with, and click that teaser's name link.
5. If you haven't already created it upon creation of the teaser, enter the tuning text that you want to use. Enter the tuning texts for First Person (I), Second Person (You), and Third Person (Employee Name). SuccessFactors allows you to customize this text by including the employee's first name [EmployeeName] directly in the text, or by using the appropriate gender pronoun (that is, he/him or she/her). Note: This level of customization is only available when a user accesses the Writing Assistant tool directly from within a form.
6. Click Save in the dialog after you entered the tuning texts.
7. Click Save to finish.

Note: in Provisioning, tuning texts can be added or deleted via Managing Competencies and Skills > Competency Libraries > select the Competency Library > Competency Name > select the Teaser Name > Create New Tuning Text. The tuning texts for Competency Behaviors can be added via Provisioning.

What are Coaching Advisor Texts?

Coaching Advisor content typically contains developmental conceptual information as well as recommendations. You can determine the scope and organization of your content. For example, you might divide your content into two sections: Recommendations for Employees and Recommendations for Managers. Or you can organize your contents as: Possible Remedies. When you create Coaching Advisor text, the text you enter makes up the content in Coaching Advisor, and your users can copy all or part of the content into their evaluation forms.

Create or Modify Coaching Advisor Texts

The Coaching Advisor tool provides sentences of developmental suggestions and concepts that address a defined problem area or encourage an employee strength. Coaching Advisor text displays on your user's Coaching Advisor page in the order you determine. We recommend that you create the content in the order you'd like the content to display on your user's page.

1. Go to Admin Center > Manage Competencies or Admin Center > Manage Writing Assistant and Coaching Advisor (if using JPB).
2. Select the Competency Library.
3. Click on the Competency Name link.
4. On the teaser page, locate the teaser you want to work with, and click that teaser's name link.
5. Go to Coaching Advice tab.
6. Enter Description.
7. Add New Type of Advice or edit existing type.
8. Click Add New Advice.
9. Click Save in the dialog after you entered the coaching advice texts.
10. Click Save to finish.

Note: In Provisioning, coaching advisor texts can be added or deleted via Managing Competencies and Skills > Competency Libraries > select the Competency Library > Competency Name > select the Teaser Name > Click Edit Coaching Advisor. The coaching advisor texts for Competency Behaviors can be added via Provisioning.

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