Symptom
- Email notifications are not triggered in the expected language during the Onboarding process.
- The system defaults to a standard language (for example, English) despite maintaining a preferred language in Recruiting.
- The
defaultLocalefield does not reflect the expected locale value (for example,fr_FR,de_DE).
Environment
SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding
Reproducing the Issue
- Enable Native Preferred Language.
- In Recruiting, select Native Preferred Language = French for the candidate.
- Initiate Onboarding and proceed to Review New Hire Data.
- Submit Review New Hire Data; the candidate receives the IAS activation email in English.
Cause
By design, email triggering in IAS depends on the locale value maintained in the User Sys Info table (table_users_sys_info), specifically the defaultLocale field.
For candidates initiated from Recruiting, the defaultLocale is typically set to a default value (for example, en_US) unless it is explicitly updated during the data flow.
In the standard process, the preferred language captured in Recruiting is not directly used to update the defaultLocale. As a result, if no mechanism is in place to derive and pass the appropriate locale value, the defaultLocale remains unchanged.
Consequently, IAS uses the default locale value for email notifications, leading to emails being triggered in the default language instead of the expected preferred language.
Resolution
To ensure email notifications are triggered in the expected language, it is required to update the defaultLocale field with the correct locale value during the data flow and ensure it is correctly consumed by downstream processes.
Please verify and ensure the following:
- A valid locale value (for example,
en_US,fr_FR) is derived based on the preferred language captured during the Recruiting process. - The derived locale value is stored in a field that is used to update the
defaultLocale. - The value is successfully propagated through the process and synchronized via HRIS Sync to the User Sys Info table (
table_users_sys_info). - The
defaultLocalefield reflects the expected locale value after synchronization. - Any IAS/IPS transformations are correctly configured to:
- Consume the
defaultLocale(or relevant mapped field), and - Apply appropriate filtering/logic to determine the email language.
- Consume the
- Ensure that corresponding language templates are maintained in IAS for the expected locale values.
- Validate the behavior by reprocessing a test candidate and confirming that:
- The
defaultLocaleis correctly updated, and - Email notifications are triggered in the expected language.
- The
Note:
- The method used to derive and pass the locale value (for example, configuration, business rules, or transformations) may vary depending on the implementation design.
- It is important to ensure that the value maintained is in the correct locale (external code) format, as expected by IAS/IPS.
See Also
Keywords
ias activation email language, Preferred Language, defaultLocale, Email Language, IAS, IPS, HRIS Sync, Recruiting to Onboarding, Locale Mapping, table_users_sys_info, Email Default Language, identity authentication , KBA , LOD-SF-OBX-IAS , IAS User Authentication , Problem
SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public