Oracle’s PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM) for Human Capital Management (HCM) plays a crucial role in ensuring that organizations using PeopleSoft HCM applications can effectively manage and maintain their HCM system. By “Staying Current”, organizations can take advantage of new functionalities that improve HR processes, enhance user experience, and increase productivity.
PeopleSoft HCM PUM Image 46 Highlights
We at Kovaion, always Keep up with the latest features to ensure that organizations remain competitive in the rapidly evolving HCM landscape. Come, Let’s check what PUM 46 Release has in store for Organizations in this detailed blog.
1. PeopleTools 8.60 Redwood Style Changes in HCM
2. Benefits Open Enrollment Insights
3. Health Savings Account Worksheet
4. Employee Self-Service Address Configurability
5. Performance Insights
6. Performance Management Writing Tools and Language Checker
7. Configurable Header
8. Remote Worker Home Address Edit
9. Employee Self-Service Canadian Federal TD1
10. Component Lockdown Framework
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What Oracle PeopleSoft Offers to Organizations through HCM PUM #46 Release?
1. PeopleTools 8.60 Redwood Style Changes in HCM
HCM Image 46 introduces the utilization of PeopleTools 8.60, bringing exciting enhancements to the PeopleSoft HCM system. One notable improvement is the introduction of a new color scheme called “redwood.” This fresh look is applied through a style sheet using CSS variables, which offers a unified and refreshed user interface across all Oracle applications. This new approach simplifies future changes and enables customers to easily apply their own branding if desired. While customers can still use the existing branding framework features, utilizing CSS variables is recommended for a more seamless branding experience.
Fig 1.1 PeopleTools 8.60 Redwood Style Changes
The banner in HCM Image 46 consists of two sections: a global section at the top and a contextual section at the bottom. In the global section, common controls like recently visited items and Favorites are easily accessible. Additionally, the global search field is always visible in the middle of the banner, enabling users to perform searches effortlessly, regardless of their location within the system. The contextual section displays the content’s title and provides available contextual actions in the More Actions menu.
2. Benefits Open Enrollment Insights
PeopleSoft PUM 46 introduces a new addition to its collection of Insights analytics: the Open Enrollment Insights tile.
- Accessing the Open Enrollment Insights Dashboard: This tile provides benefits administrators with a convenient dashboard where they can view and analyze the enrollment activity of their workforce within their organization. By accessing the tile, administrators can explore the Open Enrollment Insights Dashboard, which offers a visual representation of the open enrollment data for the workforce.
- Analyzing Open Enrollment Data: The Open Enrollment Insights Dashboard offers a range of tools and visualizations to analyze open enrollment data. Administrators can leverage predefined filters or create custom filters to focus on specific data subsets. The dashboard displays data related to the Schedule ID with the shortest remaining enrollment period.
Fig 2.1 Viewing Open Enrollment Insights
- Visualizing Enrollment Activity: The dashboard provides various visualizations to understand enrollment activity. The chart visualization presents the distribution of enrollments by employees over a specific period, allowing administrators to track enrollment trends. The Donut visualization showcases the distribution of enrollments by submission status, providing an overview of completed and pending enrollments.
- Department-wise Enrollment Status: Administrators can utilize the submission status by Department visualization to gain insights into employee counts by the department and enrollment status. This information helps identify departments with higher or lower enrollment rates and take appropriate action if needed.
- Managing Unsubmitted Enrollments: The Details grid displays specific details about employees with unsubmitted enrollments. Administrators can use this feature to access individual employee profiles, view event process pages, and notify employees to complete their enrollment. It streamlines the process of managing unsubmitted enrollments efficiently.
- Tracking Missing Attachments: The missing attachments count visualization provides an overview of employees with open enrollments that require pending document uploads. Administrators can use the Donut visualization to understand the distribution of enrollments by missing attachments and those with already uploaded documents. The Details grid offers a comprehensive view of attachments and enables administrators to notify employees accordingly.
Fig 2.2 Tracking Missing Attachments & Pending Approvals
- Approving Pending Documents: The Pending Approvals visualization allows administrators to review open enrollments with pending document approvals. Administrators can approve documents for employees directly from the Details grid, simplifying the approval process and ensuring the timely completion of enrollments.
- Monitoring Evidence of Insurability (EOI): The visualizations help administrators identify open enrollments lacking evidence of insurability or EOI proofs. They can view the distribution of these enrollments by benefits and access individual employee profiles to review the necessary information. The Plan links in the Details grid provide a comprehensive overview of election, entry, and event details, allowing administrators to address any discrepancies.
- Understanding Open Enrollment Activity Guide: Administrators can view the distribution of steps in the Open Enrollment Activity Guide based on instances and statuses. This valuable insight helps administrators understand how employees engage with the Activity Guide and identify areas for improvement or additional support.
Business Benefits
With these benefits and features of the Open Enrollment Insights tile, benefits administrators in organizations can gain valuable insights into the enrollment activity of their workforce. With its comprehensive dashboard and user-friendly visualizations, administrators can make informed decisions, ensure smoother enrollment processes, and enhance the overall employee benefits experience.
3. Health Savings Account Worksheet
PeopleSoft provides this new feature called Open Enrollment Insights, which includes a useful worksheet for employees enrolling in a Health Savings Account (HSA) plan. This worksheet enables employees to estimate their plan contribution, providing them with valuable information for making informed decisions. Here are the key features of the HSA worksheet from PUM 46.
Fig 3.1 Health Savings Account Worksheet
- Estimating Plan Contributions: The worksheet allows employees to estimate their plan contributions in two ways: based on an annual contribution or per pay period. If employees choose the annual contribution method, they can enter their desired yearly contribution value. On the other hand, selecting the per pay period option enables them to estimate their annual contribution based on the amount contributed during each pay period.
- Automatic Calculation for North America Payroll Users: For users of the North American payroll system, the worksheet simplifies the estimation process even further. It automatically populates the year-to-date contribution and remaining pay period values for each employee. This automation eliminates manual calculations and provides employees with up-to-date information for more accurate estimations.
- Defined Limits and Error Notifications: To ensure compliance and adherence to defined limits, the system has built-in checks. If an employee enters a contribution amount that exceeds the defined limits, the system displays an error message. This feature prevents employees from entering erroneous or excessive contribution amounts, ensuring compliance with the plan guidelines.
Business Benefits:
These enhancements streamline the estimation process, promote accuracy, and ensure compliance with plan guidelines.
4. Employee Self-Service Address Configurability
Before HCM Image Update 46, employees had limited capabilities to update only their home and mailing addresses in the Personal Data section. However, with the introduction of the Address and Contact Type config pages, organizations now have the ability to customize the address, phone, and email types that employees can view, update, or delete.
Fig 4.1 Employee Self-Service Address Config Page
The configuration options allow organizations to modify the available address, phone, and email types for use in Personal Data. Furthermore, they can determine the level of control granted to employees. There are several options to choose from:
- Full Edit Access: Employees are given complete editing privileges, allowing them to add or delete a contact type.
- Add/Update Only: Employees can add or update an item, but they are not permitted to remove it.
- Display Only: This option displays an address or contact type to employees without allowing them to edit or delete it.
- Not Available: Organizations can specify that certain addresses or contact types are not available at all in the Personal Data section.
Fig 4.2 Address & Contact Type Config Page
When employees access their Personal Data, the Addresses or Contact details pages will show the specific information they can maintain or view. Depending on the configuration settings for each address or contact type, different options will be available.
For example, when an employee selects a row, the secondary page will appear in one of three modes:
- Display Only Mode: The page will be view-only, allowing employees to see the information but not make any changes.
- Editable Mode: The page will be editable, enabling employees to modify the information as needed.
- Delete Button: If permitted by the configuration, a Delete button will be present at the bottom of the page, allowing employees to remove the selected address or contact type.
Business Benefits:
The Address and Contact Type configuration pages provide organizations with greater flexibility in managing the types of addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses that employees can access and modify. This configuration enhances control and customization options while ensuring that employees have the appropriate level of access to update their personal information.
5. Performance Insights
PeopleSoft Performance Management has been updated with two Dashboards designed to assist managers and administrators in effectively tracking employee reviews and gaining insights into overall employee performance. These Dashboards provide valuable tools and visualizations for managers and administrators alike.
Fig 5.1 Dashboards Available in PeopleSoft Performance Management
Document Insights Dashboard:
Focusing on the manager’s Dashboard called “Document Insights” First, it offers a range of visualizations to provide managers with information about the status of employee performance evaluations. Here are the key features:
- Pie Chart: The Pie chart visually represents the distribution of documents by their status, allowing managers to quickly identify any potential issues or bottlenecks in the review cycle.
- Metrics Panel: The metrics panel provides relevant metrics and key performance indicators that help managers assess the progress of employee evaluations. These metrics offer insights into the overall performance review process.
- Details Grid: The Details grid presents comprehensive information about current documents, allowing managers to review the details of each document. Managers can access individual document details through document links for a more in-depth analysis.
- Bar Charts: Bar charts provide a breakdown of data by department and location, enabling managers to view performance evaluations based on different organizational segments. Managers can also review overdue steps in documents by status and notify employees about missed steps.
Team Performance Insights Dashboard:
The Team Performance Insights Dashboard offers a broader perspective on overall employee performance. Here are the key features:
- Bar Charts: Bar charts display the distribution of employees’ completed evaluations based on performance ratings. This visualization allows managers to analyze employee performance relative to their comparison ratio (comparison to market pay) and years of service in their positions.
- Additional Visualizations: Managers can track the progress of employees’ goals and competencies within current documents using additional visualizations. The Item Details grid provides a detailed view of individual item information, assisting managers in evaluating specific goals and competencies.
It’s important to note that these visualizations are applicable to managers only. Administrators, on the other hand, can access the talent administrator homepage to manage and oversee the entire performance management process.
Business Benefits:
These Dashboards equip managers with the necessary tools and visualizations to track employee reviews, identify potential issues, and gain insights into overall employee performance. By utilizing these Dashboards, managers can make informed decisions and drive performance improvements within their teams and organizations.
6. Performance Management Writing Tools and Language Checker
PeopleSoft provides encashments in Fluid Performance Management to assist reviewers in providing feedback during employee evaluations.
Performance Management Writing Tools:
The system offers writing tools that provide text suggestions when entering final evaluation comments for employees. These writing tools are available to any user with supporting access roles or permissions. The writing tool link can be found in the evaluation items, sections, and summary sections, which are based on the configured templates. Within the writing tools, you can receive text suggestions from various sources.
Fig 6.1 Performance Management Writing Tools
Within the writing tools, you can receive text suggestions from various sources – Evaluator Comments, Development Tips, Result Writer & Performance Notes.
Language Checker:
The language checker in the system identifies improper use of words and phrases in review comments. When enabled, it becomes accessible to managers during the evaluation step of the review process. For each instance of an improper word identified, the manager can view the reason why it is considered inappropriate and examine usage examples provided in the system’s setup.
- Managers have three options: edit the text using the change button, skip to the next instance of the same improper word using the ignore button, or move to the next identified improper word using the ignore all button.
Fig 6.2 Language Checker
7. Configurable Header
Peoplesoft HCM enhances the employee header configuration, allowing to display of relevant fields on fluid application pages. The header design supports up to three lines of employee information.
Each field can be customized to include additional details. For example, the phone field can show a business or mobile number. Display options are available too, such as showing the department code, description, or both. Configurability is extended to more fluid pages, including self-service and manager self-service in both time labor and absence management.
Fig 7.1 Employee Header Page Configuration
An example of the configurable header in action is the manage absences page. This update (image 46) brings configurability to even more fluid pages, providing flexibility for the header feature.
8. Remote Worker Home Address Edit
Employees can now validate and modify their home addresses while submitting a remote worker request. The remote worker activity guide includes a step to verify the address. When an employee enters a home address change, the request details, review, and submit pages will display the proposed address if “home” is selected as the remote location. The updated address information is also visible on the personal detail pages of self-service. Once the request is approved, the system will update the address accordingly.
Fig 8.1 Verify Remote Worker Home Address
9. Employee Self-Service Canadian Federal TD1
In fluid Employee self-service, Canadian employees can update their federal tax withholding information using updatable forms. Multiple Canada Revenue Agency tax forms, such as form TD1, form TD1X, and form TD1-IN, are available for employees to update based on the system setup. Employees can select the relevant tax form, make the necessary updates, and submit it for processing. If approval is required, the tax withholding changes will be applied in the system after the request is approved.
Fig 9.1 Verify Remote Worker Home Address
10. Component Lockdown Framework
Peoplesoft HCM introduces an enhanced framework for data lockdown in components during payroll processing or on a specified schedule. When accessing a locked-down component, a configurable message informs users that no updates can be made. Clicking “OK” renders the component in read-only mode. Let’s explore the configuration pages for the HCM lockdown framework.
Fig 10.1 Component Lockdown Framework Setup
- Component Eligibility:
- Identity components eligible for lockdown by selecting the “Eligible for Lockdown” checkbox. These components can only be selected in the next step if they are not part of a component group.
- Lockdown Component Groups:
- Group eligible components for lockdown. Only lockdown-enabled components can be added to these groups.
- Lockdown User Groups:
- Create lockdown groups based on user roles or product keys. Specify who is affected by the locking, including options to include or exclude selected members.
- Lockdown Event Definition:
- Define lockdown events, specifying when, why, and for whom the component should be locked. Events can be general, or process based.
- Manage Lockdown Events:
- Lockdown Options: Configure lockdown options to enable or disable events.
- Lockdown Message: Specify a message text explaining the reason for user lockdown.
- Lockdown Group: Determine which users get locked out based on roles, process keys, or phases. Component group ID defines what gets locked out.
- 5.4 Lockdown Schedule Options: Enable, disable, or delete lockdown schedules.
- Lockdown Product Setup:
- Process Phase Setup: Configure processes and phases for product lockdown. These phases appear in event definitions.
- Key Values and Drivers: Define additional criteria, such as key values, to group lockdowns beyond users and roles.
- Locking Overrides: Override event mapping definitions when updating the component eligibility table.
The component lockdown framework supports lockdown capabilities in global payroll, absence management, and payroll for North American processes.
What Oracle PeopleSoft Offers to Organizations through HCM PUM #46 Release?
On the Whole PeopleSoft HCM PUM, 46 ensures that organizations can leverage the latest features to maintain system stability and security, meet regulatory requirements, and have control over the update process. By utilizing PUM 46, organizations can maximize the value of their PeopleSoft HCM investment and keep their HCM system aligned with their evolving business needs.
Author: Nandhini Devi Raman, Oracle PeopleSoft Consultant