3519940 - Off Cycle Event Batch and EC Alerts and Notifications not triggering workflows or sending emails - Employee Central

• Attempting to trigger an Off Cycle Event Batch or EC Alerts and Notifications does not result in the expected workflow being triggered or emails being sent.
• Despite the workflow appearing to be triggered, no corresponding alerts or notifications are generated.

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

1. Complete the EC Alerts and Notifications configuration with Custom Email template.
2. Attempt to trigger a workflow or send an email.
3. Observe that the workflow does not trigger or no email is sent.

The issue arises due to product design limitations. Direct operations such as triggering a workflow using an Off Cycle Event Batch are not supported. Adjustments and workarounds are required to overcome this behavior.

Off Cycle Event Batch:

Modify/create a record on employee data that match filter->rule. Run on periodic basis and read the records in search of matching criteria since the last modification (last successsful batch). Can be applied for:

• Job Information (here the 'Enable Forward Propagation during Incremental Import" is needed to apply forward propagation for the updated record)
• Employment Details
• Employee Time
• Work Order Information (for Contingent Workers)

The full steps for na Off Cycle Event Batch requires create an Off-Cycle Batch Object (selecting the filter) -> Create a Rule and associate it -> Schedule a Job to run the batch. Detailed information on Off Cycle Event Batch | SAP Help Portal

Important Notes:

• The base object for the Off Cycle and for the rule associated to it should be the same
• Custom fields cannot be used as filters
• Only standard date fields can be used as filters
• If you want to use hire date as filter, read 2945528 - Employees are not evaluated as part of the Off Cycle Event Batch Filter
• You can use just an Off Cycle group instead of filters. In this case, if the users does not belong to the group he will not be updated for the Off Cycle.

 

Can I use it to trigger a workflow?

The associated rule in a Off Cycle Event Batch cannot trigger a workflow - the tool is design to automate data changes without human intervention (approval) and workflows have approval steps.

For data change workflows you can set custom email templates under document generation. You can see more about Email Notifications for workflows on Defining Workflow Email Notifications | SAP Help Portal

• IMPORTANT: Document generation (other than for email templates) and Mass Document Generation cannot be automatized by workflows or Off Cycle Batch. To use a custom document automatically sent by email it should be configured as an email template.

And what about alert workflows?

Off Cycle Event Batch directly trigger only the Work Order Alert.

You can set an Off Cycle Event Batch to change a record under the same base object you want the alert to be triggered.

Once you have a job to trigger the alert it will run in search of modifications done in the base object since the last successful run. Finding the modifications, the rule will be applied to read relevant data and trigger the alert.

The alerts are triggered by a job and can appear as a ToDo card and/or as email. Those emails are different from a regular data change workflow notification's emails and some features used for data change workflows don't apply for alert workflows. More information on Using Alerts | SAP Help Portal

Important notes:

• The approvers of the alert workflow will receive a ToDo alert and the CC role will receive the email
• Custom Document Generation email templates can be used for data change workflows, but not for alerts workflows, neither for the ToDO alert or for the email send as alert. More details about this scenario on 2782194 - Custom Email Notification is not Being Sent for an EC Alert and 2666252 - Can Email Templates Created in Document generation Be Used for EC and MDF Alerts? 
• The alert message supports only a few standard fields in the moment. No custom fields, documents or attachments are allowed, but a link for that attachment can be used in the alert. Please refer 2615287 - Unable to add Attachment Field to Alert Message - SAP for Me.
• You can see a list of supported tags for creating new alerts on Creating Custom Alert Messages | SAP Help Portal
• Alerts cannot be send to inactive employees, so caution with the effective date chosen to trigger the alert.

Refer to the following Knowledge Base Articles and SAP Notes for additional information:

• 2801182 - Workflow for Off Cycle event batch - SAP Employee Central
• 2156278 - How to set up EC Alerts and Notifications Using Business Rules
• 2431478 - Example Configuration of an EC Alert and Notification Rules
• 2558070 - Workflows: Custom Workflow Notifications
• 3458163 - Unable to search inactive user in Initiated For in Manage Alerts and Notifications tool

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