SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

3755473 - Enhanced People Search in SuccessFactors

Symptom

  • Knowledge Base Articles (KBAs) and help guides related to Enhanced People Search
  • Searchable fields that are supported in Enhanced People Search
  • How to enable the Enhanced People Search feature
  • FAQs for Enhanced People Search

Environment

SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite

Resolution

List of supported fields and searchable criteria when Enhanced Search is enabled.

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Username
  • Assignment ID
  • User Status
  • Login Name
  • General Display Name

For the complete list, please refer to this help guide -> Permissions for Configuring People Search | SAP Help Portal.

Note:
Make sure role-based permissions are configured so users can search for target employees using specific criteria or supported fields and control which employee details they can see in search results. 

This includes all searchable criteria/fields for both scenarios—when Legacy People Search is used and when Enhanced People Search is used. It also outlines the required permissions and indicates whether each applies to Employee Central or non-Employee Central employees.

Enable some search fields of Directory Search according to your organization's needs.

After ensuring that Enhanced People Search is enabled, you can additionally enable the following Directory Search fields below, which are not available by default.
From Admin Center > Company System and Logo Settings > Enable Certain Search Fields for Directory Search, choose one or more search fields to enable, and then save your changes. Please visit this Help Guide for more details > Enabling Search Fields for Directory Search on Enhanced People Search | SAP Help Portal

  • Department
  • Division
  • Location
  • Hire Date From/To
  • Tag
  • Customizable Field
  • Job Code
  • Job Role
  • Formal Name
  • Person ID 
  • Include Inactive Users
  • Business Phone
  • Skill and Attribute
  • National ID
  • Company 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Why do inactive users still appear in Global Header People Search results for Enhanced People Search, even when the “Show inactive users in people search (requires Role-based Permissions)” option is disabled?
A: As mentioned in the KBA 3694911, as of the 2H 2025 release, the Global Header People Search has been migrated to the Enhanced People Search framework, which is powered by the new Elasticsearch (ES)-based API.

At this time, the Enhanced People Search framework does not support the configuration setting “Show inactive user in people search (requires Role-based Permissions)” which applies only to the legacy SOLR-based search and therefore no longer affects the behavior of the Enhanced People Search. Because of this current limitation, inactive users will continue to appear in the Global Header Search. 

Regarding the inactive user search behavior, we would like to highlight that Enhanced People Search supports filtering by user status. If customers would like to exclude inactive users from their search results, they can utilize the status filter in their search queries by specifying "active" (for example, "active [employee name]").

You may also refer to the Improvements to Enhanced People Search | SAP Help Portal for additional details.

Additionally, SAP is planning to introduce a configurable switch in User Profile Settings as part of the 2H 2026 release. This enhancement will allow individual users to define their preference regarding whether inactive users should appear in search results, providing greater user-level control over search behavior.


Q: Why is the “Enable Enhanced People Search” option greyed out in Company System and Logo Settings?
A: Ensure that all prerequisites and permissions outlined in this help guide have been correctly followed -> Prerequisites and Permissions for Enabling Enhanced People Search | SAP Help Portal

Q: Unable to search for employees using the assignment ID?
A: Assignment IDs are currently supported only when Enhanced People Search is enabled -> Permissions for Configuring People Search | SAP Help Portal

Q: How to add customizable fields into Advanced Search?
A: Update the selection fields available by updating the data model file and adding elements to <custom-filters>,  it is possible to add the customizable fields up to 15. For detailed information and guidance refer to KBA 2464038 - How to add fields to Advanced Search in SuccessFactors

See Also

Keywords

assignment id search, people search, legacy solr, enhanced people search, personidexternal, userid, directory search, global header search, search fields, indexing, elasticsearch, LOD-SF-PLT-SRH, help guides, KBAs, FAQs, WEF-169005 , KBA , LOD-SF-PLT-SRH , Search , How To

Product

SAP SuccessFactors Platform all versions