Have you ever purchased a new item and you cannot wait to get home to try it out just to realize that there are no assembly instructions? The same type of dilemma is often encountered when implementing new software applications. In this case, you purchased SuccessFactors Compensation and now you need to determine whether you need to implement Variable Pay, as well. With so many features available to meet your compensation planning requirements, your decision on which one to use is key to achieving an optimal solution for your organization.

Let’s review the difference between the two applications. In part two, coming soon, we will cover key questions to ask yourself when deciding which application or applications you will need.

What is the difference between SuccessFactors Compensation and SuccessFactors Variable Pay?

Compensation

The SuccessFactors Compensation module addresses three main areas:

• Salary: Fixed salary paid to employees and includes Merit, Market Adjustments, Promotions, and Lump Sum Payments.

• Short-Term Incentives – Bonus Payments: The bonus calculations are not very complex in the Compensation module. They rely on the fact that a number of the calculations are being done outside of the worksheet and are either mapped for Employee Central (EC) customers or imported using a .csv file called the User Data File or UDF (this option is available for both EC and non-EC customers). Any pro-ration due to employees moving in and out of positions needs to be calculated outside of the Compensation module, and the results must be fed back into the worksheet by using the import file. The Bonus section (should you decide to include it in your Compensation worksheet in the future) will be included as one of the sections on the form in 1(a) above.

• Long-Term Incentives: These incentives include Stocks, Options, and RSU’s (Restricted Stock Units). There is a separate tab in the Compensation worksheet for the Equity data.

Variable Pay

The SuccessFactors Variable Pay module addresses complex bonus calculations that are based on one or more of the following goals:

• Individual goals
• Team goals
• Business/Group goals (can have more than one)

There is a separate section for each goal type with relevant weightings and multipliers. A History file enables you to import the assignments for an employee for the entire bonus period. Employees could have multiple rows within the History file if there was a change that could affect their bonuses.

To get this information in to the system, you can either:

• Import the file.
• Map the data fields to EC fields and run a program that will populate the data for you.

Variable Pay allows you to perform separate calculations for different time periods in a same year. You can perform separate calculation for employees who move from one business unit, division, or location to another. All of the separate calculations are then summed up to calculate one final payout amount. Upon opening the worksheet, the planner will see a total line for each employee:

Total Line (Planner Worksheet):

Upon making a selection to view the details, the planner will see the Assignment Details and Goal Details:

Assignment Details:

Goal Details:

The Employee History is usually only available to Compensation Administrators and not to the Planner. The information in the assignment history comes from the History file. It is also used to determine Business and Team goal information and to calculate the bonus payment for each section that will then be used to calculate the final payout amount:

Employee History:

In closing:

I hope that the information provided in this document will assist you in making the correct decision for your business. Remember that if you decide to create only a Compensation plan this year, there is nothing preventing you from having a Compensation and a Variable Pay plan next year.

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References:

• Compensation – Process Summaries from the SAP SuccessFactors Process Library
• SAP SuccessFactors Compensation Configuration Workbook
• Variable Pay Implementation Guide – Document Version: Q1 2018 – 2018-04-06
• Compensation Implementation Guide – Document Version: Q1 2018 – 2018-04-06

Note: You need an SAP S-ID to access the resources.

About the Authors

Vivian Reynecke

I started working on SAP in 1994 and I was hooked the first time I saw the system. I have worked in the HCM space right form the start, so I have evolved with the system. Because of my SAP experience, I had the opportunity to immigrate to the USA with my husband towards the end of 1995. I worked on all HCM modules but around 2005 my focus was the Talent Management modules (Learning Management, Compensation (including Variable Pay), Recruiting, Succession & Career Development and Performance Management). By the end of 2009 I was the Capability Lead for the SAP HCM Talent Management group. In 2012 (shortly after the acquisition of SuccessFactors by SAP) I started training on SuccessFactors. I was very excited because everything that was “missing” in SAP ECC, was covered in the SuccessFactors Modules. I was given so many wonderful opportunities over the years to expand my knowledge – I worked on proposals, resource allocations, project pricing and so many other things. As with everything else, life threw me a number of curveballs, but with the support and the encouragement of all of my colleagues, friends and family, I was able to overcome stumbling blocks. I recently became part of the GP Strategies family and I am very excited to see where this new adventure is going to take me.

With all of the different forms of technology in the learning space, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, simulations, and other experiences, it’s a challenge to determine when to “go digital” and when to “go analog.”

In a highly technical environment, this is an even more challenging question. With a new workforce entering the marketplace, it can be alluring to make the digital transformation in all the learning experiences we provide…but there are hazards to be considered…real hazards in the workplace.

Extremely Hazardous Environments

There are times when we need to train on handling extreme hazards and safety concerns, dealing with spills, identifying potential explosions, and knowing hazards before they happen. In this scenario, going digital can be a great option. It allows us to expose our learners to realistic hazards while keeping them perfectly safe behind their Google Glasses. We can virtually expose them to those spills and fires and allow them to practice their strategies and response time. However, some hands-on practice using personal protective equipment for safety should an event actually occur is still needed.

Capital-Intensive Environments

There are times where we need to train on capital-intensive environments where we need to explain what is happening inside of a piece of equipment—or an end-to-end process that involves very costly equipment. Using immersive augmented reality is a great way to train while keeping our learners, our equipment, and our budgets safe. However, hands-on labs can be very effective, allowing our learners to transition from that augmented virtual experience to real life before being responsible for millions of dollars of equipment.

Highly Technical Environment

There are times when we need to train our people on highly technical equipment. Augmented reality is a great solution to allow us to manipulate equipment while not damaging it to examine the functionality. We certainly do not want to allow our learners to disassemble a million-dollar boiler and put it back together again as a learning experience (unless we know they will not have parts left over). However, then we should use hands-on training in a structured manner to transition and break down the fourth wall into the real-world application of the skills.

Going digital is not only an innovative way of approaching training in a challenging technical environment, but also an effective way of keeping our learners and our facilities safe. Following up the digital experience with a structured, analog, hands-on practice is key to transitioning those skills and knowledge from a virtual world to the real one we operate in.

About the Authors

Sheri Weppel

Sheri Weppel started her career as an art teacher covered in finger paint, clearly teaching people about out-of-the-box thinking (or at least off-the-construction-paper thinking). While working on her master’s degree in Instructional Design and Development at Lehigh University, she realized that we could learn a lot from the public-school classroom. Concepts like micro-learning, learning styles, gaming, and training on demand were common in grade school, but were considered new concepts in the corporate sector. Because one degree is never enough, Sheri continued her studies at Lehigh with a focus on Gaming for Instruction. In her spare time, she spent her evenings losing to her husband in Scrabble and wanting to throw the letter Q across the room, making her realize the emotional attachments we can have to games. If we could harness that desire to succeed, compete, or win to a learning environment, what impact could we have on learner motivation? Countless games of Scrabble later, Sheri started at GP Strategies as an Instructional Designer and was able to inject those concepts into solutions for her customers. This is often a challenge for customers that want to use gaming but often don’t believe they have the time or budget required to successfully launch into the gaming space. Sheri is driven to help these clients find a balance in embedding gaming elements into instruction in a practical manner. In the past nine years, Sheri has held many roles within the organization, from instructional designer to sales lead for blended learning, and is now focusing on the off-the-shelf product GPiLEARN+, growing the product into a true blended learning solution. Regardless of her role, Sheri is always focused on working with customers to help build impactful training solutions that focus on the needs of all populations. She helps clients determine specifically when to incorporate gaming versus using hands-on, traditional approaches. When she is not working, Sheri enjoys having adventures with her dog Olivia, attending barre classes, and learning new three-letter words that begin with the letter Q.

Corporate careers pages are the centerpiece of any effective online talent acquisition strategy. These sites give employers the opportunity to position their organizations as sought-after career destinations for those with the skills and experience needed to meet and exceed company goals. It can also be used to engage both active and passive job seekers who visit the site and create and maintain a relationship with them, allowing more opportunity to leverage that relationship when the time is right on both sides.

For years, SuccessFactors has offered an outstanding career site solution as part of the HCM Cloud Suite. Recruiting Marketing has been used by hundreds of clients to create powerful and effective career websites, all fully integrated with the SuccessFactors ATS, Recruiting Management. These sites not only allow for pinpoint employer branding and meaningful candidate engagement, they also feed a powerful analytics engine and passive seeker marketing tool that allow for analysis and refinement of the overall recruiting strategy long term.

One of the few drawbacks of this offering, however, is that the site is not at all self-administrable for the client. For even small changes, clients must submit their request to the Shared Services team at SuccessFactors. Depending on the current queue of work, clients can expect to wait several weeks or perhaps even several months for the change to be completed. This has robbed employers of their ability to agilely respond to factors in and outside the organization by changing aspects of their career site in near real time.

As a result, SuccessFactors now offers another implementation model for these sites. Career Site Builder sites are Recruiting Marketing career sites that implementation partners or customer administrators can set up and maintain with minimal engagement with SAP Support. Instead of outsourcing the development work to the shared services team, the client is able to use a set of tools that they can access directly from their BizX instance to build and maintain the sites themselves. The tools allow users to access a library of page components that can be added to various pages and then configured to meet the client’s specific needs. In this model, clients can nimbly react to the labor market, corporate influences, and other factors via the near real-time career site updates designed to best position them to their desired job seekers. No analytic or long-term passive seeker engagement functionality is lost using the Career Site Builder model.

However, as with most things in life, there is a tradeoff. As a result of having to use a set of predefined components to build and update the site, clients are often limited in some of their design and layout options. Many if not most clients are even unable to replicate their current production careers site using the Career Site Builder tool, and most are not able or willing to retreat from their current online employer profile in order to realize the benefits of the CSB implementation model.

Enter GP Strategies. Using a tool provided by the CSB Product team, custom components can be added to CSB pages in addition to the standards found in the library. This allows client-customized components to be built and incorporated into the site, expanding clients’ ability to fully realize their desired career site vision, while still enjoying the ease and long-term agility of the CSB model. GP Strategies has worked to develop our own library of custom components designed to allow clients to fully replicate their existing site quickly and easily using CSB. We have organized them into small widget-like pieces of code that are themselves very easy to work with and maintain. This ensures that customization remains in the hands of the client, rather than just shifting from SuccessFactors to GP Strategies.

So now clients have a new choice when it comes to updating or creating their new careers site. The combination of the SuccessFactors CSB tool and GP Strategies’ library of strategic custom plug-ins allows customers to realize all of the benefits CSB offers without sacrificing design and branding standards they highly value.

About the Authors

GP Strategies Corporation

GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.

We have been told to think “outside the box” so often that it has become a meaningless phrase implying your usual thinking is insufficient.  

In my parallel life, I’m a fiction writer. In my work life, I’m an instructional designer, product manager, and consultant. There are a surprising number of ways one life informs the other. Allow me to share a few ideas from the world of creative writing designed to help you foster innovative thinking in business. Rather than pressuring you to think outside the box, I ask you to consider thinking along the contours of an hourglass. 

Removing Constraints for Creativity 

Expanding Possibilities with Time 

Picture the widest part of an hourglass; the point that, when filled, contains the greatest possible amount of time. When faced with a challenge requiring your creative thinking process, an expanse of time can inspire wider thinking. 

In writing a story, there are no wasted pages, but you will throw away many more pages than you keep. An eight-page short story can take 50 pages to write. Viewed from the outside, that inefficiency appears useless. But getting to the right idea right away is not often possible; it takes examination, thoughtfulness, research, and time to percolate. 

To take your creative thinking process to the next level, try expanding the possibilities even more. Apply a mind-opening question to your instructional design challenges, such as what if budget weren’t a factor? If you had one superpower, how would you solve the problem? 

Stepping Away to Create a Fresh Perspective 

After spending time working closely on a problem, it can be extremely beneficial to take a break. It is a long-established practice of writers to walk away from their manuscript before going back to revise. This creates the opportunity for objectivity as well as a fresh perspective.  

This practice also works to improve innovative thinking in business. Concentrated time followed by stepping away from the challenge can allow the problem-solving to take on a life of its own, creating the opportunity for moments of connection between otherwise unrelated phenomena. Overhearing a snippet of conversation on the bus ride home, crossing paths with someone with a particular experience related to your challenge, or happening across a headline that prompts a new idea can all lead to surprising conclusions previously unavailable. 

Some leaders have been known to set themselves a challenge overnight so that their subconscious problem-solves as they sleep. Others find the privacy of their car while driving sets the stage for new ideas. Taking a new route or even just trying a new food are simple acts that can create connections that were not previously possible. 

Applying Constraints to Focus Innovation 

How Structure Drives Creativity 

Now picture the narrowest point on the hourglass, the place where the sand sifts to the bottom. Removing and applying constraints are contradictory statements, but in fact, they are mutually beneficial. Structure can facilitate the creative thinking process. In the Outthinker Process, a structured step-by-step approach is applied to create big ideas, determine which idea to select, and brainstorm how to get others on board to apply the idea.  

This structured approach reduces the intimidating aspects of innovative thinking in business. Much like the constraints of a haiku poem (a three-lined poem consisting of five syllables, followed by seven syllables, finished with five syllables), placing structure on a creative challenge can lead to even more possibilities in the creative thinking process. Applying a structure or constraint of some type does not necessarily make innovative thinking in business easy, but it does create the setting for more original results. 

Lessons from The Five Obstructions 

In the documentary, The Five Obstructions, Jørgen Leth is required to remake his favorite film five times following the obstructions or obstacles provided by the Danish creator of his favorite film, Lars Von Trier. One obstruction is to recreate the film as a cartoon. One is to film it in Cuba. One is to place the film in the most miserable place on earth but not to show that place onscreen. These obstacles provided something valuable for Leth to respond to and in turn, resulted in unexpected creations he would not have come to without some limitation or requirement to work around. That is the benefit of applying particular parameters; they can create significant freedom to do something fresh and unconventional within the parameters. 

Time as a Creative Tool 

Using Time Limits to Boost Focus 

The concept behind The Five Obstructions may seem a little extreme and impractical for innovative thinking in business, but the same theory can be applied simply by introducing parameters around time, such as using a timer. Innovative ideas require time. But having too much time during the creative thinking process can be just as crippling. Shrinking the amount of time available can inspire focus and deeper thinking. 

Time-Blocked Sessions for Innovation 

By limiting the amount of time spent on a problem, you can increase your focus and depth. If you have a whole day and a blank page in front of you, you are likely to spend a lot of time agonizing about what to write. If you have only 20 minutes, there is not as much time for the internal editor to kick in and if you aim to keep your pen moving, you will be surprised what you can accomplish. Set a timer or an hourglass. Close your inbox, silence your phone, and commit to focusing on only one thing for 20 minutes. Focused, non-multi-tasking time allows you to build upon the good ideas you have. A time limit permits you to focus deeply. Even a short amount of time can be significantly more effective than trying to think something up while being pulled in many directions. 

Combining Constraints and Freedom for Innovation

Unconventional Problem-Solving Techniques 

Another way to apply a constructive constraint in the creative thinking process is to introduce a seemingly unrelated idea. This can force you to see the problem from an entirely new angle. In Dr. Kaihan Krippendorff’s Outthinker Process, learners are presented with one of 36 stratagems as a jumping-off place for expanding possibilities. If the challenge before you is to cut your organization’s travel budget by ten percent, what happens when you consider the phrase “Coordinate the uncoordinated,” or “Exchange a brick for a jade?” Applying an unusual or unexpected constraint can amplify the possibility of finding significantly more innovative solutions in the end. 

After applying a constraint or structure, it may become useful to remove it again to regain the breadth of possibilities. Thinking again of our hourglass, turning it upside down allows the process to begin again. 

Practical Techniques for Innovative Thinking 

If you are thinking, “That’s great, but I still don’t know how to get started,” consider the following ideas for a pragmatic approach to innovative thinking in business: 

• Block time on your calendar: Identify your peak time for creativity and block your calendar once a week for that time. 
• Create a monthly list:  Title the list, “What needs your innovative attention?” Keep the list short enough to remember and file ideas for each item on the list in related folders as you come across them. 
• Set up a meeting: Invite a small group to help you brainstorm. Set clear expectations ahead of time for your team members to allow them to come prepared to brainstorm on a particular topic so they arrive ready to jump in. 
• Let individuals brainstorm on their own first: This will help facilitate optimal contribution from those who require time to think on their own before sharing their ideas with others. 
• Go for a walk and/or change locations: Try out an empty conference room. A new setting can inspire new thoughts. 
• Outsource your initial brainstorming: Ask a team member to identify three to five ideas to jump-start your thinking. Offer the same in return for one of their projects. 
• Leverage Artificial Intelligence: AI programs such as Copilot and ChatGPT are ideal brainstorming tools. By drawing from vast datasets, these programs can offer insights and conclusions that you might not have reached on your own. 

Balancing Creativity and Structure to Enhance Innovation

The Hourglass Model offers a balanced framework that combines the freedom of expansive creativity with a focus on structured constraints. By integrating time management techniques, such as time-blocked sessions and strategic breaks, we can further enhance our creative processes. This method encourages us to think differently, challenge the status quo, and unlock new potential both within ourselves and our organizations. 

Do you need help unlocking your workforce’s innovation potential? GP Strategies’ Strategic Learning Consulting teams can help you create aligned processes, systems, and tools that enable your workforce to be their very best.  

About the Authors

Christin Rice

Christin Rice is a Leadership Development Consultant at BlessingWhite where she works with clients across industries to design, create, and implement learning solutions. She is the product manager for The Outthinker Process, an innovative and strategic thinking workshop based on the research of Dr. Kaihan Krippendorff.

Technology continues to shape the way we share and disperse information, and the way we handle Emergency Management is no exception. As far back as October 2016, FEMA began testing a new delivery model for their Public Assistance (PA) Program. As with most technology solutions, it can be cumbersome to navigate the new systems—I wanted to share some ways to help you prepare yourself for the unthinkable with the new FEMA PA Grants Manager and Grants Portal.

Overview – What’s new?

• The new model takes the applicant’s workload from the field and shifts it into centralized locations away from the disaster area, referred to as Consolidated Resource Centers (CRC), where subject matter experts are staffed to process grant applications across multiple disasters. Moreover, the new model streamlines and enhances grant management and fiscal responsibility processes through the entire lifecycle.
• The foundation for the new model is an improved system-wide technology that standardizes project workflows for program participants via two new computer programs: Grants Portal on the applicant side and Grants Manager on the FEMA side.
• Program applicants, FEMA, and state entities have complete visibility with all parties having user access to upload documents.
• There are no longer field “FEMA Project Specialists” who identify, scope, and estimate the damages from the disaster area. “Site Inspectors” are now responsible for documenting the damages from the disaster site. This is the primary duty of the Site Inspectors as they do not write scopes of work or estimates.

How to Navigate the New System

• A Program Delivery Manager (PDMG) is the FEMA Field Manager that is assigned to each applicant. The PDMG is the new “face of FEMA” and primary FEMA point of contact for the applicant.
• The applicant has the option to formulate their own projects and submit them with all supporting documents to FEMA through the Grants Portal.
• Applicant-level documents are uploaded into the Grants Portal. These documents include but are not limited to:
  • An applicant procurement policy, a force account labor policy, insurance policies, a request for assistance, etc.
  • Note: These standard programmatic documents will follow the applicant through multiple disasters for years.
• Project-level documents are uploaded into the Grants Portal. These documents include but are not limited to:
  • Contractor invoices, contractor estimates, an insurance adjuster report, an insurance settlement/denial, force account labor spreadsheets, force account materials and supplies spreadsheets, a photo report, an applicant-provided scope of work, a project estimate spreadsheet, and all other documents that support the damages and repairs for the project
• Numerous FEMA managers/supervisors review the submitted FEMA package before it is forwarded to the CRC for review.
• The CRC reviews the submitted FEMA package for accuracy, program eligibility, appropriate supporting documentation, and other requirements per FEMA PA Program policy.
• The CRC applies any applicable insurance, federal road, and other applicable reductions to the overall cost of the project.
• The CRC then submits the reviewed project back to the PDMG for applicant signatures.

Conclusion

This two-part platform is not only designed to promote transparency and accountability for all stakeholders involved in the PA grants process, but also to improve timeliness and enhance simplicity in the PA Program.

Still have questions about FEMA’s updates to its existing disaster recovery grant systems? Get up to speed now before disaster strikes. Contact GP Strategies by leaving us a comment below or by reaching out to one of our experts at jnorman@gpstrategies.com or (972) 978-0949.

About the Authors

Josh Norman

Mr. Norman is the Director of Emergency Management for GP Strategies. He is a highly experienced Recovery Manager leading major engagements for the City of New Orleans Katrina Recovery, the State of Texas, Massachusetts, Florida, and South Carolina. As a pioneer in the field of Recovery Management services, Mr. Norman has supported the National Advisory Council Stafford Act Sub-Committee on policy changes to Debris, Emergency Protective Measures and Alternate and Improved Projects.

A majority of organizations often struggle with “siloed” behavior. Quite naturally, people and teams under pressure to perform focus on what is right in front of them in order to meet the demands of an endless set of urgent tasks.

Ironically, in challenging and complex environments, the best teams do just the opposite. These “elite” teams effectively slow down to speed up. They come together and think enterprise first, adapting to the needs required to deliver today without losing sight of tomorrow. Their ability to pivot quickly and think above and beyond the positions in which they operate sets them apart.

In a recent webinar, I shared how the principles behind Mission Leadership, a philosophy born from military Special Forces and adapted for business teams, effectively enable teams to reach new heights.

If you missed the webinar, a recording is now available for you to watch online. By the end, you will see relevant examples from military, sports, and business to exemplify how your teams can apply some of these ideas to become better leaders, inspire new levels of engagement, and perhaps most importantly—meet the demands of any performance challenge.

After the presentation, several great questions came up from the audience and I wanted to share them with you. Below are those questions and my best answers. This is an ongoing conversation, and I encourage you to keep the questions coming in via the comments section at the bottom of this page.

Q: So are cross-functional team better then siloed teams?

A: Any team of people working to deliver results on behalf of the organization should not be stuck in their silos. This can be an intact team, a cross-functional project team, or essentially anyone inside the organization regardless of their team or workgroup designations.

Silos work against any business because people become solely focused on what they have been asked to do WITHOUT understanding why it is important or how it adds value to the firm. Focus and delivering on our own commitments are of course critical but not if they come at the expense of the strategic intent of the company. People who understand this connection not only deliver against their targets, but they also may adapt as appropriate to meet changing needs in a very dynamic environment.

For example, an IT professional who has a set of three applications that she is working on or supporting inside the organization may get a request for a fourth from someone in the business that is violating the process for how to escalate these things. Now, the very idea of that happening drives IT leadership crazy and it should. So they will remind the person requesting the new application to go through a chain of requests to escalate and maybe, only then they may one day prioritize it. But what if this fourth request is actually a game changer and the IT professional, through her understanding of the business and its strategic intent, realizes that this idea is much better than anything she is working on? What should she do? Compromise her own performance objectives (the three applications to which she supports) to help escalate the fourth? Of course that’s what she should do, because it is the right thing to do. But silo thinking doesn’t allow for that.

Q: How do you apply this model with so many people working in virtual teams today?

A: The principles around team performance apply just the same, though they are magnified given the gaps “psychological distance” affords from not working alongside your colleagues. This comes in the form of spatial, social, and experiential differences in the way the various team members see things, contributing to strikingly different perspectives that make it difficult to build team cohesion. But, if leveraged properly, these gaps can be closed; however, it requires effort. For example, those weekly check-in video calls are important to attend, be attentive at, contribute toward, and be seen (use the video and don’t say you are not presentable). These sessions have to be facilitated well.

Q: Teams can be transient with members moving in and out often. How does this impact the way you go about embedding some of these ideas?

A: Elite teams develop a set of rituals, or “tribal dances,” that represent how they operate. Because they are a part of the way they go about delivering high performance day in and day out, there is always a full commitment to them. As new members come into the team, they see people “dancing” a certain way and they join in. First, this happens because they want to belong and be seen as part of the team. But over time, they see the power in these rituals. One example is to label any decision meeting as such—we call it a “Decision & Action” meeting. And the ritual for the meeting always has a clear AIM (make the decision on X in order to ensure that Y happens) in addition to the following:

• A pre-read be sent 48 hours in advance so people come prepared
• During the meeting the pre-read that was sent is not presented again, only the conclusions debated (how many times do meetings run out of time because the presenter spent the entire meeting going through the 49-page deck?)
• People align and commit to an outcome, and the meeting is evaluated

Holding these kinds of meetings correctly allows teams to effectively “slow down to speed up” because they have full commitment when it is over and don’t have to rehash decisions.

Q: How do members in these teams sustain their commitment to the rituals to which you spoke in the face of all the challenges in the business?

A: These rituals are simply agreed-upon ways of working. They represent how we operate. Unless we change them, they are not debatable as they have become important parts of who we are—our culture. Leadership commits to sticking by them and calling out poor behavior when team members are not operating at their peak. Delivering high performance is not negotiable. Your organization has you there for a reason, and frankly, who has time for mediocrity? It’s boring.

Q: You mentioned several books that sound interesting. Can you send a list?

A: Yes, I’ve listed several on the following page: https://www.gpstrategies.com/recommended-books-duke-maines/

About the Authors

Duke Maines

Duke Maines has a history of success in enabling people and businesses to unlock opportunities to transform their organizations. As a commercial leader, Duke built and led what is widely considered the best sales organization in beer industry at Boston Beer Company—brewers of Samuel Adams.   After starting his own brewery, he established Oregon Ale & Beer Co. as a top ten craft brand within just one year.  All of this came after he paid his own way through University from the proceeds of a start-up t-shirt company.    Recognizing his true passion—and personal purpose—he began a career in learning and development which led to critical experiences in all areas of OD including leadership development, talent management, recruiting, workforce planning, change management, and internal communications.  In this capacity, Duke has  led change management efforts of two of the largest mergers in history as well as found unique and creative ways to help companies tap into their core purpose to accelerate culture transformation efforts.   His past positions include the Chancellor of Challenge, Emir of Excellence, Optimus Prime of Talent Maximization, and the Dark Over Lord of Learning.  These “official” titles provide a sense of the style, passion, and energy, Duke brings to any organization—especially those who want to enjoy life while they deliver exceptional results.

Posted by Kevin Kane, Senior Consultant at GP Strategies

It seems more and more customers are choosing SAP Cloud Platform Integration (SCPI) as an alternative to Dell Boomi for integration between SAP ERP and SuccessFactors Employee Central. This presents integration consultants in the space with the opportunity to learn a new technology. Unsurprisingly, developers with Boomi experience will recognize commonalities within SCPI at a high level but will find differences up close. Let’s quickly compare the two.

3 Key Differences

Structure Mapping

SCPI funnels everything toward XML. Mapping between XML and CSV, a common scenario for EC customers, is a multi-step process in SCPI. Instead of putting an XML profile and a CSV profile on opposite sides of a mapping in Boomi, SCPI requires an XML-to-XML mapping and then a separate step to convert from XML to CSV.

Versioning

This is one key difference between SCPI and Boomi. In Boomi, every time the user saves a change to a process, a new version is generated that can be viewed or reverted. In SCPI, however, artifacts have buttons for “Save” as well as “Save as version.” Distinguishing between saving and version generation has the obvious drawback of making it difficult to revert to just the right version. However, for users who are constantly saving (never a bad idea), the upshot is that the user has the option to keep a cleaner history with only essential versions.

Click-and-Drag Method

The SCPI interface has some UI quirks that distinguish it from Boomi. Boomi’s click-and-drag method of placing components into a process can prove to be a hard habit to unlearn when moving to SCPI’s click-and-click method. While this example is hopefully an easy “day one” takeaway for new SCPI users, it’s representative of several simple differences that can prove time-consuming for those coming from a Boomi background.

2 Similarities

Field Mapping

Other than SCPI’s bias toward XML, individual field mapping is similar on the two platforms. SCPI has a different layout for working on one field mapping at a time while still seeing the larger picture, but the differences are more cosmetic than fundamental.

Scripting

Boomi developers versed in Groovy script will be pleased to find that it’s also supported in SCPI. The SCPI web UI doesn’t always handle syntax issues gracefully, so you may want to copy/paste from a text editor to avoid losing work when you’re making changes.

All in all, SCPI and Boomi are similar enough for Boomi developers to transition to the newer platform pretty quickly. Hopefully seeing a rundown of some similarities and differences will give you the confidence to take a swing at it.

For questions or a more in depth explanation, please contact me at kkane1@gpstrategies.com.

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About the Authors

GP Strategies Corporation

GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.

The GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, was proposed by the EU Commission and will be put in to effect on May 25, 2018. The new regulation will impact the way that organizations handle personal data of any individuals that are EU citizens.

In this blog, we will discuss what you need to know about this new EU data privacy regulation and how you can prepare for the changes to come.

What exactly is the GDPR?

The GDPR is a regulation put in to place to protect the data of the individuals in the EU. It gives individuals the control and protection of their personal data in the digital world that we live in today. Data controllers and processors will be most affected.

How will this affect you and your organization?

The regulation will apply to any organization that has employees or manages and processes personal data of individuals’ activities in the EU.

Organizations located outside of the EU will still need to comply with the rights of individuals and comply with the obligations of controllers and processors of personal data. Organizations that don’t follow the regulation will be penalized. Below are the two possible fines.

Penalties up to:

• 4% of annual global revenue OR 20 million euros (whichever is greater)
• 2% of annual global revenue OR 10 million euros (whichever is greater)

Why is this important to HR functions?

• Personal data on the internet and computer systems is increasing.
• With new technological development comes an increase in use of personal data.
• The usage of personal data creates advantages for corporations, customers, and employees.
• Managing personal data is a decisive parameter for handling competition and fulfilling customer expectations.
• HR systems are full of personal data, from employees to applicants.

Things to consider:

1. Software and applications may enable compliance – SuccessFactors is on a current basis, releasing new functionality related to GDPR (and will continue to do so).

2. Companies must document processes and decisions taken with respect to registrations and use of personal data. It is key for each company to identify data elements that house employee personal information, where it is physically stored, and how they use each piece of information.

3. Implementing a new solution does not guarantee compliance, BUT it is an excellent enabler to be compliant, i.e., there is significant overlap in tasks required for proper HCM software implementation and GDPR compliance.

• It is easier to document fewer standard/global processes and decisions than many local process variations.
• It is easier to operate with a standard solution supporting a consistently applied process rather than various local systems.
• With a cloud solution like SuccessFactors, you can guarantee that data resides within the EU and even to a specific data center.

The new regulations will be coming in to effect in the next few months, so organizations need to be ready with their business process definition, technology solution, and documentation regarding employee personal information.

For more information or to inquire whether your organization is ready for May, check out this blog by Mark Miller of GP Strategies. You can also contact me directly with any questions at dnesper@gpstrategies.com or Ole Andersen at oandersen@gpstrategies.com.

About the Authors

Dave Nesper

David has over 20 years of consulting and industry experience in information technology and human capital management working with multinational companies primarily focused on global HCM related projects utilizing SAP platforms and products. David draws on a balanced blend of experience including information technology and software development as well as Human Resources related business process development and optimization. As a Solution Architect for numerous large scale multi-country implementations David has produced key deliverables for projects including human resources management systems (HRMS) roadmaps, global business process and configuration templates adaptable for local implementations, structured business requirements gathering and definition, software configuration, technical solution design and construction and structured testing methods. Since the early 1990’s David has displayed entrepreneurial drive and developed expertise in business development and management as well as talent acquisition. This set of skills along with proficiencies in project management, managerial and executive coaching, project planning and budgeting, and software engineering and quality assurance allows David to deliver high quality solutions across his client base.

Historically, ERP training had a much longer shelf life than it does in today’s fast-paced, cloud-driven world. The needs of the user in a system delivered via subscription have evolved, and training itself has been forced to evolve at the same pace and toward the same subscription model.

In the early days of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, not only were the systems smaller and less complex, but they were also generally focused on scheduling pertaining to materials for manufacturing (in fact, in those days the ERP was known as the MRP, short for Material Requirements Planning). The lack of an ERP powerful enough for a massive global enterprise didn’t matter as much because organizations simply weren’t as large or as complex as they are today, but as they grew and the needs became more apparent, the technology had to be willed into existence.

Users involved in manufacturing were often brought into a classroom where they would be taught the ins and outs of their MRP, which would remain practically unchanged until the entire system was replaced years later. This lack of constant change meant that training content could be used over and over again for new employees and likely would not change very much, if at all. A worker with years of experience on an MRP system could teach newcomers further tips and tricks that may not have been included in the training and would become the first “super users.”

As the MRP evolved into more complex ERP systems, training was updated to reflect changes that were made with each additional software rollout. Students were gathered back into the classroom for updated training—yet these changes did not occur with overwhelming regularity. The cadence of major releases to systems like Oracle’s PeopleSoft or E-Business Suite would often be years, not months, as with today’s cloud-based systems. This updated training, however, would come with an expense. Organizations would either need to pay someone on staff to become an expert and update the training (not to mention deliver the classroom training as an instructor), or they would need to hire outside help to come in and re-do all of the training with the updated materials. As the frequency of software updates greatly increased, the cost of training maintenance increased concurrently.

Today, of course, modern ERP systems are vastly more complex, as are the businesses that deploy them. Cloud ERP systems can be easily and remotely updated, with changes in the software arriving with more regularity. These constant updates have created the need for a newer, modern model of training. The modern user, fully equipped with the wealth of mankind’s knowledge at the swipe of a thumb or the click of a mouse, is used to immediate access to any information they desire. Therefore, the classroom model of training has become somewhat antiquated.

Cloud computing, or software as a service (SaaS), means that ERP-makers can deploy updates, bug fixes, and new features to their software whenever they feel so inclined. This makes the traditional model of classroom training nearly impossible because by the time the material is developed and put into writing, it is already out of date. Enter training as a service (TaaS).

I am proud to be a member of the GP Strategies team in which one of our divisions, Maverick Solutions, has been working on delivering one of the first TaaS offerings that I have seen in the marketplace. Their solution, built for Oracle Cloud users, is geared toward saving the modern user the time of going to a classroom for training and allows them to access the information they need, when they need it. Maverick’s solution, Engage, is subscription-based, much like the cloud software itself. The organization subscribes to ERP training, which is continuously updated to reflect changes in their Oracle software, at a fraction of the cost of hiring their own training maintenance staff or bringing instructors onsite to deliver constant updates. Users can now access ERP training much the same way they access other information that interests them—with their mobile devices, or from their home or office computers, in mere minutes, and it’s always up to date.

While much of the training industry struggles to adapt to the modern world, GP Strategies and Maverick Solutions continue to lead the workforce performance industry with exciting and creative new developments that keep users engaged, informed, and performing at their highest level.

About the Authors

Derek Levandowski

Derek Levandowski is a Field Marketing Specialist with GP Strategies, focused on Technology Adoption and Human Capital Management Services. He joined the GP Strategies team in February 2017 after three years with Maverick Solutions, a Division of GP Strategies. A New York native, he currently resides in Wake Forest, North Carolina with his wife Melissa.

Imagine this conversation…

The “Business Partner” (BP): I have this sales team. A clear differentiator between good and great sales consultants is their ability to handle questions and objections around the competition. We need to build those skills so that we can close more business.  I need training.

You: I’d love to hear more about what those skills are.  However, if I had to give you some ideas, we can design and build a really immersive class with realistic scenarios.

BP: Nope. No travel budget. Global audience. Back to the drawing board…

You: What if we did a virtual cohort, using breakout sessions that allow people to practice?

BP: We could…but it’s never really like the real thing, and half the time conversations during the breakout sessions derail and we end up never really practicing the skills we truly need to develop.

You: We could design and create a structured manager guide, complete with role-play scenarios and meeting agenda topics, and the two individuals can practice together during their 1:1 conversations.

BP: I like how it’s getting into the workflow, but it’s still rather subjective. What if the manager doesn’t even have the right skills to coach on how to perfect those competitive objections?

You: Good point. What about a video coaching platform where we can create immersive challenges that sales consultants respond via video?

BP: Tell me more…

You: We can create those rich sales scenarios and even produce videos of what the customer would say to a sales consultant. Then, we would challenge the sales consultants to respond to the customer as if they were talking to the customer using their webcam or phone. Once a consultant uploads the video, she can assess herself against a rubric of how to overcome a competitive objection. We can have the consultants assess each other, which then even drives some competition with a leaderboard. We can even film one of our best sales consultant to show “what good looks like.” We can have a series of challenges that we launch every couple of weeks.

BP: Yes, that. Do that. Is it expensive?

You: How about we pilot it with one small team? See how it works at minimal cost. We can benchmark their sales and then track them over the next month or two to see if it moved the needle and is worth investment.

BP: Count me in.

Notice that the Learning Professional was able to ideate several options and help the business partner really think through what he was trying to achieve.  It’s all about expanding your thinking and going beyond what you are comfortable writing, designing and deploying.  Go from order-taker to innovator and ideator.  Start by growing your learning activity toolbox today!

About the Authors

Britney Cole

Britney is a learning leader with experience in organization development, human performance, and corporate learning and has worked remotely, managing virtual teams for more than a decade. Britney lives in Minnesota with her husband and three small children (ages 5, 7 and 8) where she keeps warm with plenty of blankets and cozy hats. She likes to talk, so you might see her at learning conferences as a speaker. Britney has provided consulting for clients in the financial services, pharmaceutical, steel, chemical, media, technology, retail, manufacturing, and aerospace industries. She forms lasting partnerships with her clients helping them with learning design and architecture, content development, leadership and professional development, performance consulting, technology implementation, and change management. Most recently, she is helping pioneer new experiential learning methods and defining learning 3.0 taxonomy.