2227861 - Employee-Manager Relationship Not Reflected in Org Chart - Common Configuration Issues

• When opening the Org Chart, an error message appears.
• A user is not displayed as a direct report of their manager, even though the Manager field is maintained in the User Data File (UDF).
• The employee’s manager is not displayed in the Org Chart hierarchy.
• The selected user in Org Chart appears to have an invalid or missing upper-level manager.

• When searching for a user in Org Chart, the following error messages may be displayed:

  • Could not retrieve data for this user. Please try again later, or notify support
  • Unable to load data for this user due to a backend job lag

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

SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite

The following scenarios demonstrate how the issue may manifest in the Org Chart or People Profile due to configuration issues such as invalid manager assignments, inactive users, or mismatched user IDs (e.g., missing leading zeros):

Scenario 1: Application Error in Org Chart

1. Navigate to Company > Org Chart
2. An error is displayed: 
   
   "Could not retrieve data for this user. Please try again later, or notify support (with the error information of errorId={errorID x}, timestamp={timestamp y}, and the version information from the current screen) if the issue keeps occurring."
   
   OR
   
   "Unable to load data for this user due to a backend job lag. Please try again later."

Scenario 2: Missing Employee from Hierarchy

• Navigate to Org Chart
• Click the "One Level Up" button
• The Org Chart loads the manager and some direct reports, but the originally searched employee is missing from the view.

This behavior can occur due to one or more of the following reasons:

• The user is inactive.
• The user is not yet hired (applies only to Employee Central-enabled instances).
• The LnR job (Live and Related job) has not yet executed for the company — this job refreshes user relationships and runs every 30 minutes in the backend (not configurable in Provisioning).
• The user doesn't have a valid manager — for example, if user A's manager is B, but B is not a valid user, user A will not receive an LnR record.
• A cyclical relationship exists — for instance, user A reports to B, B to C, and C back to A. This breaks the hierarchy and no LnR records will be created for any of them.
• The Manager's User ID is stored in the system with leading zeros (e.g., 00012345), but the value maintained in the employee’s Job Information lacks those zeros (e.g., 12345). Since User IDs are case-sensitive and format-specific, this mismatch prevents the system from correctly mapping the reporting relationship.

To resolve issues where the manager is not displayed in the Organization Chart or People Reporting Structure, please follow the steps below:

1. Validate User Hierarchy with Check Tool

• Navigate to Check Tool > User Management > Hierarchy.
• Refer to KBA 2472648 - Using the Check Tool to check SuccessFactors configuration
• This tool can help verify if the Manager and Second Manager fields contain valid, active user IDs or are correctly set to "NO_MANAGER".

2. Check for Manager Cycles or Invalid Users

• Ensure there are no loops in the manager hierarchy. For example, A reports to B, B to C, and C back to A.
• Ensure all users in the hierarchy are active and properly hired.
• Use the Check Tool to identify cycles or references to inactive or non-existent users.

3. Review User IDs and Leading Zeros

• Ensure the Manager’s User ID in Job Information matches exactly with what is stored in the system, including leading zeros.
• User IDs are case-sensitive and leading zeros are significant. For example, 12345 is not equal to 00012345.

• To verify the correct User ID:

• Use Data Inspector to review the value in the Manager field.

• ⚠️ Note: If you're checking the UDF using Excel, leading zeros may be removed. Use a text editor like Notepad++ to preserve formatting.

4. Trigger the LnR (Live and Related) Process

• If the hierarchy appears correct but changes are not reflected, perform a Basic User Information Import:

• Import a single record with a manager change using an admin user (outside of the official hierarchy) to trigger the update.
• For guidance, refer to Managing Basic User Data by Using a Data File | SAP Help Portal
  
• After the import completes, verify the Org Chart reflects the changes.

5. Manual Hierarchy Trace (if needed)

• If the issue persists, manually trace the reporting line upward:

• Check the manager of the affected user, and their manager, etc.
• Any invalid or inactive user in the chain can cause the entire hierarchy to break in the Org Chart

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