Understanding Oracle HR: a Primer for Oracle Financials Users.

By Jeannie Dobney & Greg Sutton Introduction

This paper provides a high level overview of the Oracle HR suite. It is written for users who are already familiar with Oracle Financials, and this is reflected in the topics covered and the issues which are highlighted. Its objective is to assist Oracle Financials users to better understand HR implementation issues.

Business Background
The role which HR plays in organisations has changed radically in the last 20 years. Understanding that transformation will help understand the business drivers now likely to be encountered in an HR implementation. The change has been from a focus on activities and processes to an expert support role for activities which have been devolved to line managers and focusing on results that enrich the organisations value to employees and customers. The HR Department is now: Partner in Strategic Execution Agent of Continuous Transformation Administrative Expert These changes have been underpinned by the following factors: During the 1980s economic pressures across the western world drove most organisations to remove non value adding activities. Administrative and process oriented functions like personnel management were down-sized, outsourced or abolished (line managers were expected to absorb many remaining functions). At the same time senior management were looking for new sources of competitive advantage and decided their own staff might provide such advantage. Even though people are our most important asset is now cynically regarded as the biggest lie told by most organisations, its widespread use indicates how thoroughly this view has become part of the normative management model. These two trends gave rise to Human Resource Management (of which Dave Ulrich is a leading proponent, see References section). It covered the same functions as Personnel Management had, but it had a different emphasis, namely: Strategic focus Integration of the various people management activities around strategic business objectives People are viewed as assets to be leveraged to create value rather than variable costs A commitment-oriented model of labour management rather than the traditional control oriented model Line managers becoming the delivery point of employment policies A new focus on explicit management of organisational culture. Research suggests that business has embraced HRM but in a piecemeal and opportunistic fashion, based on where they saw value-adding potential. Nevertheless,

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empirical evidence now reveals that this evolution in people management practices to the HRM model is delivering bottom line results. Factors which impeded organisations moving to an Ulrich-like model of HRM included the recessionary economic climate of the 1990s which has favoured managerial short-termism. Some authors suggest that it is HRs role to be the advocate of the long term perspective and as the focus in the 00s shifts towards dealing with an aging workforce and the pressures of globalisation, HRM is now increasingly relevant.

For the implementation of HRM principles to succeed, the enterprise requires an Information System capable of minimising administrative costs, of supporting activities being devolved to end-users and line managers and of evaluating the cost effectiveness of specific policies targeted at e.g. retaining talented individuals. Oracle HR is such a system.

HR Suite Overview
Oracle Human Resources Management System (HRMS) is part of the Oracle E-Business Suite of applications and includes: Oracle Human Resources (HR) Oracle Payroll Oracle Self-Service Human Resources (SSHR) Oracle iRecruitment Oracle Time & Labor (OTL) Oracle Learning Management Oracle Advanced Benefits (OAB) Business Intelligence for Oracle HRMS (HRMSi)

The key core Applications are: Oracle Human Resources (HR) enables the efficient management of workforce data and supports all standard HR activities, and Oracle Payroll enabling timely payment of all employees according to your compensation rules. Oracle Human Resources and Oracle Payroll are separately licensed products and may be implemented separately. In addition there are a number of self-service applications which support additional functionality: Oracle Self-Service Human Resources (SSHR) enables your workforce to use a web browser to access and optionally maintain HR information and perform personnel actions. The self-service functions you can access depend on your licensing arrangements for other HRMS products. For example, you can use the self-service functions in Oracle Advanced Benefits only if you have licensed OAB. Oracle iRecruitment is a self-service module that enables managers, recruiters, and candidates to manage all phases of recruitment, from vacancy definition through recruiting and hiring new employees. Oracle iRecruitment supports both internal and external users.

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Oracle Time & Labor (OTL) is a web-enabled time-recording application that reduces administration costs associated with time and attendance record keeping. Oracle Learning Management (LMS) is a web-based Application which enables you to manage, deliver, and monitor your online and classroom-based training as well as measure the effectiveness of your training initiatives. In Oracle Learning Management, self-service access is available not only to the learner but also to those responsible for administration and content management, lowering the cost of organisational learning. Oracle Advanced Benefits (OAB) is a self-service Application that enables you to define and manage benefits programs, and comply with governmental regulations (e.g. FBT). The core HR Application offers a more limited set of benefit administration features so OAB appeals to organisations which rely more heavily on special perks to attract and retain talented staff. The web-based self-service functionality is designed to reduce the cost of administering these benefits. OAB also provides analytical tools to evaluate the effectiveness of your benefits programs. Oracle HRMS Intelligence (HRMSi) is part of the Business Intelligence suite and provides both a configurable analysis tool and a set of predefined reports that enable you to analyse budgets, view employee development and performance data, analyse salary trends, and monitor vacancies and recruitment.

Here is one view of how these work together:

Oracle HR Applications
Business Intelligence for Oracle Human Resources

web Applications leveraging HR data and functionality

Oracle SelfService Human Resources

Oracle Training Administration additional HR functionality via web Applications Oracle Time & Labour Oracle Learning Management Oracle Advanced Benefits

iRecruitment

core HR Applications

HR

Payroll

Data shared with: * Oracle Purchasing * Oracle Payables * Oracle Projects * Oracle Receivables * Oracle Assets

Financial information sent to Oracle General Ledger and Cash Management

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Oracle Documentation
The extensive documentation includes the following manuals: User and implementation manuals for each of the applications listed in the previous section: Oracle HRMS Implementation Guide Oracle HRMS Payroll Processing Management Guide Oracle Self-Service Human Resources Deploy Self-Service Capability Guide (i.e. Implementing HRSS) Oracle iRecruitment Implementation Guide Oracle Learning Management Implementation Guide Oracle Learning Management User Guide Implementing Oracle Training Administration Using Oracle Training Administration Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide 4 manuals on implementing and using Business Intelligence for HRMS (HR Intelligence) Additional documentation, which addresses cross application implementation issues: Oracle HRMS Compensation and Benefits Management Guide i.e. Compensation elements etc (described below) Oracle HRMS Configuring, Reporting, and System Administration Guide i.e System Administration topics Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide i.e. Organisation structures e.g. jobs etc Oracle HRMS FastFormula User Guide i.e. formulas used to derive values (described below) Using Application Data Exchange Application Data Exchange (ADE) links Oracle HRMS and Oracle Training Administration (OTA) to desktop tools such as word processors, spreadsheets and data query tools. This enables HR professionals to manipulate HR information, with familiar desktop tools, then upload the data back to HRMS and OTA. Oracle HRMS Workforce Sourcing, Deployment, and Talent Management Guide i.e. Recruitment concepts using the core HR Application, iRecruitment and HR SelfService A suite of specific manuals for various countries, which address local compliance and implementation issues: HRMS Documentation Set for the United Kingdom HRMS Documentation Set for the United States HRMS Documentation Set for US Federal HRMS Documentation Set for Canada HRMS Documentation Set for Australia HRMS Documentation Set for New Zealand The Documentation set or Australia (as an example) consists of the following: Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide (Australia) Oracle HRMS Workforce Sourcing, Deployment, and Talent Management Guide (Australia) Oracle HRMS Compensation and Benefits Management Guide (Australia) Oracle HRMS Payroll Processing Management Guide (Australia)

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 Oracle HRMS FastFormula User Guide Oracle HRMS Configuring, Reporting, and System Administration Guide The scope of this documentation indicates something of the scope of the HR Implementation challenge.

Similarities and Differences

This section provides an overview of what is similar between the Oracle HR suite and the Oracle Financial Applications, what is unique to the Oracle HR suite and the implications of these similarities and differences. Key Similarities The Applications are built in the same technologies: - The core Applications are built in Oracle Forms although observant Financials users may notice some different iconic buttons on the toolbar and other small differences - The Web-Applications use the Applications Framework (OAF), although many Financials implementers may be surprised at the degree of reliance on OAF personalisation which Self Service HR requires - Use of Key Flexfields (KFFs) to hold key data. In addition to sharing some KFFs (e.g. Job & Position), there are some HR specific Key Flexfields including the Cost Analysis and Personal Analysis Flexfields. - Use of Descriptive Flexfields to hold site specific fields, although many Financials users may be surprised at how extensively these are used, e.g. for Extra Information Types (EIT) - Extensive use of workflow technology. - The same underlying technology e.g. database, use of SQL and PL/SQL etc Shared data, The following table is reproduced from an earlier conference paper by ASSIST Pty Ltd (see reference section for details). It displays the Financials modules which use HR data and provides an indication of the need for careful co-ordination in a shared implementation.
Functionality Organisations Locations Jobs Positions Employees & Assignments Purchasing Payables Projects Receivables Assets

Shared System Administration. The same System Administration functionality is used by both HR and Financials, for example to assign responsibilities and profile option values. This can be especially challenging, when one profile option may have impacts for both sets of functionality. Once again careful co-ordination is required in a shared implementation.

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Unique HR Functionality A more detailed overview of functionality and implementation issues related to the HR Suite is included later in this paper, however, here is some HR specific functionality which Finance users will encounter in the Oracle HR suite. It could be argued that the ultimate business driver is common across the entire eBusiness suite, i.e. Financials, HR, CRM etc, i.e. the need for competitive advantage. However, how this competitive advantage is realised is often quite different for HR and Finance. In addition to reducing the costs of administration, HR is likely to be concerned with legislative compliance and attracting and retaining talent. The degree of emphasis on legislative compliance is reflected in the need for country localisations (or globalisations as they are also known). Such legislation includes HECS liability, PAYG, Privacy legislation, Superannuation etc and will put a premium on having implementation team members who really understand these issues. Industrial Relations can also be a factor in an HR implementation in the sense that some of the changes introduced by the implementation may have widespread workforce impacts and thus the risk of active resistance is probably higher than in a Financials Implementation where the impacts may be largely confined to central finance staff. Whilst data security is an issue across the entire eBusiness suite, the sensitivity of specific data is unique to HR. The flow-on effects of this will be felt during data migration and cloning the Production database (where payroll details will probably need to be scrambled before Developers are allowed system access). There are some profile options that deal with these security requirements within HR. For example display of some fields in windows share by both HR and Payroll is controlled by the use of the HR: User Type profile option. The three valid values are: - HR with Payroll User - HR User - Payroll User The HR: Security Profile can be set to View All to give super-users access to all the records in the Business Group It may come as a surprise to some Finance users that Payroll does not use Payables to produce payments. Implementing Payroll provides a parallel mechanism for organisational payments and only relatively recently have these payments been integrated with Cash Management to simplify bank account reconciliation. There is obviously a whole range of specific HR functionality, some of which will be discussed in more detail later in the paper. One of the most immediately apparent features to Finance users logging into HR is the Effective Date feature, which enables both forward dating of specific transactions and retention of full transaction history. Oracle HR makes extensive use of Oracle Approvals Management (AME) technology (OAM). Whilst AME is used with the Financials Applications, e.g. by the Payables Invoice Approval process, this use is not central to the Financials Applications and thus this technology should be essentially classed as HR specific. In addition, some of the more familiar functionality has HR specific features. For example, Organisations which are discussed below, have some additional classifications which are quite crucial to the way Oracle HR operates.

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Shared Challenges As the above has suggested, a successful joint implementation of Oracle Financials and Oracle Human Resources may be able to leverage some of the same resources, e.g. Database Administration and Developers, however it will require: Careful co-ordination of implementation of shared functionality - and awareness of what those issues are will be the starting point for this. Co-ordination of Application specific implementation and / or ongoing maintenance tasks into a roadmap which is feasible for all stakeholders. Both of these tasks are facilitated by open and frequent communication in a spirit of perceived mutual respect for one anothers skills and challenges. The following details are provided to help the rest of us understand the challenges faced by Oracle HR Practitioners. The authors believe that a better appreciation of one anothers challenges will help to facilitate successful communication on shared implementations.

Key HR Implementation Concepts

This section provides an overview of key HR concepts which may be helpful for all Applications implementers and users. Key Data Stored in Oracle HRMS Oracle represents the key data required to administer HR in the following model. It effectively summarises the scope of Oracle core HR and Payroll.

Employee Applicant & Contractor Assignment History

People

Employee Compensation & Benefits History

Assignment

Work Structures

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation Entitlement Rules and Conditions

People Data This is information about current and former employees, applicants, contingent workers (contractors), and contacts such as dependents. Standard information stored includes addresses, nationality, interview records, qualifications, hours of work and work choices and absence information. Descriptive Flexfields can be used to store medical history, previous employment, or outside interests. Work Structures Work structures provide the framework for defining the work assignments of your workforce. The Business Group is the largest unit and represents your enterprise as a

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whole. Other work structures include your internal organisations (such as departments or divisions), payrolls, jobs or positions, grading structures, and any special workforce groupings that you use in your enterprise. Compensation and Benefits Compensation and benefits, for example special payments available for working in remote locations are defined as compensation elements. A business rule links the element and the specific location - then when you assign employees to the location, they automatically become eligible for the payment and Oracle maintains employees compensation and benefit history if they change jobs. Assignments In Oracle HRMS, the assignment describes employees and contingent workers role, grade, location, etc within an organisation. Oracle maintains a record of their work history if these assignments change. Your compensation eligibility rules link compensation and benefits to jobs or grades.

Modelling Work Structures Organisations Organisations are an Oracle Applications concept used to signify various organisational structures; these structures are organised into a hierarchy. The functionality of each organisation is identifed by a classification attached to the organisation record. Coming from a Financials background, users will be familiar with the following type of Organisational classifications and hierarchy:

One Database Instance

Diagram Key Database - a single integrated installation of Oracle software Set of Books - a Financial concept based within GL Legal Entity - Tax / Statutory, mostly future features Operating Unit - applicable primarily to AP, OM, AR & PO (except receipts)

Set of Books Set of Books

Business Group Business Group

Legal Entity

Legal Entity

Master Inventory Organisation Item and bill of material setup Inventory Organisation Inventory, Receiving, Shipping

Operating Unit

Operating Unit

Within this, we are also familiar with the Business Group, a primarily HR concept which segregates employees and typically sits at about the same level as the Legal Entity

Inventory Org

Inventory Org

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Oracle HR uses Organisations, however in slightly different ways and understanding this is crucial to a successful shared implementation. The following provides an overview of organisation concepts. Business Group At business group level the legislative rules and terms of employment rules necessary for paying employees and regulating their work are set up. Generally the laws are so different in each country that to be compliant, there must be a different business group for each country in which an enterprise has employees.

Legal Entity/Employer / Government Reporting Entities (GREs) HR implementations use this classification to represent a legal employer for all employment-related activities. Employees can only be attached to organisations at or below this classification in the organisation hierarchy. In Australia this is the level at which you enter PAYG information. It is therefore likely that you may have one or more of these types of organisation within a Business Group.

Below the level of the Legal Entity, organisations are usually used to represent internal structures like Cost Centres or Divisions or external third parties with which HR deals. You can use the Organisation Type field to distinguish a Division from a Department etc. Here are some of the classifications which will be new to Financials users but may be important in an HR implementation. Payee Organisation: Used to define an external organisation that is the recipient of a third party payment from an employee, for example Superannuation Funds. Employer or Bargaining Association: Used when defining an organisation that is involved in negotiating a collective agreement for example a trade union. Representative Body: Used for example when defining a Social Club.

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Disability Organisation: Used when defining an external organisation with which employee disabilities are registered. Medical Service Provider: Used when defining an organisation that provides any medical services, such as medical assessments, to the people in your enterprise. Constituency: Used to define a constituency to group together workers eligible to vote for particular elections. Company Cost Center: Used to represent Oracle GL. Professional Body Information: Used to define a professional body which attests employee qualifications.

When defining each of these, specific additional information is required via the others button on the Organisation form. These Other fields are like context sensitive Description flexfield. i.e. the segments displayed depend on the classification value selected. It is also possible to set up additional segments displayed as Extra Information Types (EITs). Multiple instances of an EIT may be defined for each of the six main entities in HRMS: Jobs, Positions, People, Assignments, Locations and Organisations. This allows you to set up unlimited amounts of extra information. EIT information is viewed and entered on a separate form (except for organisations). For each EIT you can have up to 30 fully validated segments (or 20 for organisations). EITs also allow you to restrict access at responsibility level. Each EIT has its own form so you can restrict certain users access to certain EIT forms if required. For example, you may define EITs to hold medical details and certain security information. You can then restrict access to the EIT form so that only certain responsibilities, eg senior managers can access the information. You may require technical assistance to set up these EITs, as you have to insert a row for each EIT into the relevant Information Type table using SQL. We will return now to the topic of organisational set-up. Much of the challenge of implementing Oracle HR comes in understanding the complex flow on effects each option has. For example, you must set up your Business Group first, and once you classify an organisation as a business group, it is not reversible; but in order to be able to subsequently use Oracle iRecruitment you must select automatic applicant numbering when you set up your Business group. The implication for shared implementations of Oracle HR and Financials is that because of the significant impacts for both groups of implementers, the design of your organisation hierarchy must be a collaborative exercise. A win-lose solution is not possible it will be either win-win or lose-lose. This is more important and critical than ever, now that Daily Business Intelligence encourages the use of AutoOrg, which automatically creates an HR organisation for each Cost Centre. This may present special challenges if your financial cost centres are different to your HR organisations. If you choose not to use the AutoOrg process to automatically co-ordinate your Cost Centres and HR organisations, you will need to implement a business process to have your GL team notify the HR team when changes are made. Organisation Hierarchies As well as constructing hierarchies to reflect reporting lines, you can also use hierarchies to control access to information. For example, you might want to give each regional manager access to the records of the employees in the organisations in their region. When you run

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some of the Oracle HRMS standard reports, you can specify an organisation hierarchy to determine which organisations and employees the report covers. You can also use this approach in your own standard or ad hoc reports. You can create additional organisation hierarchies just for analysis and inquiry purposes. Locations Organisation records also specify location information. This location data including addresses and telephone numbers is also shared with other Oracle applications, for example Inventory and Purchasing. Modelling Your Workforce: Jobs, Positions, Grades etc Jobs and Positions flexfields will be familiar to procurement or projects users. You use them to define the roles people have within your organisation. A Job is a generic role, which is independent of any single organisation, eg Manager. A Position is a specific occurrence of one job, fixed within an organisation, eg Finance Manager. You can choose to use job or positions, or both, to define the roles of your employees within your organisation. If you choose to use positions, you can also define position hierarchies to represent your reporting structures. You can also use position hierarchies to control access to information. Note that creating and maintaining positions can be very labour intensive because each position is linked to a job and organisation. If a position needs to be linked to a different organisation, you have to end the existing position and create a new position against the new organisation. If you require positions and position hierarchies, you should try to keep the definitions of organisations and jobs as broad as possible to help reduce the maintenance of positions during reorganisations, which could cause high resource overheads. You use the Grade Name Flexfield to define the way you record the relative status of employee assignments and to determine compensation and benefits, such as salary, overtime rates, or company assets. You can define one or more valid grades for each job or position. For example you may define senior and junior grades, or you may have more complex grading. The People Group flexfield is used to define any other special groupings of employees that your business requires. You can use these groups, for example to define eligibility for compensation and benefits, to segregate them for their access through the Self Service HR Application or to identify their workplace agreement. It is different to all other key Flexfields in that you can have as many instances of it as you require.

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Modelling Your Workforce: Employees and Assignments One of the most obviously necessary elements of an HRMS system is the effective management of employee records. Oracle HRMS uses the People window, (which may be familiar to some Financials users), to enter all information for employees, contractors, applicants and external people. An employee must have a current assignment at all times. The assignment is the way you relates the people you employ to the structures in which they work and the compensation and benefits for which they are eligible. Modelling Your Compensation and Benefits The primary function of Oracle Payroll is the management of compensation, thus much of what is discussed here concerns Oracle Payroll. Even if you do not produce your employee payments using Oracle Payroll, however, you must still set up payroll information. You require a payroll in order to give an employee a salary. A Payroll is defined as a set of employees whose pay is processed at the same, regular intervals, for example, weekly or monthly. You can define as many payrolls as your organisation requires. Payroll costs are linked to the General Ledger using information in the Cost Allocation Key Flexfield. Just as Oracle Payables interfaces information to GL and a concurrent process which will transmit details regularly. And just as Payables produces remittance advice for suppliers, Oracle can produce a payslip (or format data for employees to access via HR Self Service). As mentioned above, Payroll now also interfaces to Cash Management. Oracle use Elements to represent your types of compensation and benefits. Elements are essentially the building blocks for payroll processing. Some of the types of elements you would usually define would be: earnings, such as salaries, wages, bonuses; absences, nonpayroll payments such as employee reimbursements; assets provided to employees such as tools, mobile phones, computer; voluntary and involuntary deductions; employer taxes; and other employer liabilities such as superannuation. Some elements are supplied by the system, others are generated by the system when you define certain types of compensation and benefits, and others you can define yourself to suit the needs of your organisation. The Australian HR localisation also provides elements to support PAYG information and Superannuation Guarantee Information.

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In order to give an employee an earning or deduction, you have to make an element entry. An entry can contain up to fifteen items of information, which you define when you create the element. For example, for a mobile phone element, you may want to record the make, model, phone number, date of issue etc. These items of information are called input values. You decide what validation to apply to these values, whether they are required, and the type of information they can accept i.e. money, time, date. The input values are used as the basis for calculations performed by Payroll. During a payroll run, so-called fast-formulas process the input values and other database information to produce run results. For example, if you make overtime payments, you might need to write a formula to calculate the payment amounts for each assignment from inputs of the overtime rate and the hours worked for the period. Note that not all input values are used in calculations for payroll some input values may record information for reporting and analysis purposes only eg mobile phone information.

Many elements are only available to certain groups of employees. For example only the sales executive staff may be eligible for a company car. To determine which employees are eligible for an element, you have to build links to the assignment components that employees must have in order to receive entries of the element. For example you would define a link between the company car element and the job of sales executive in order for sales executive staff to be eligible for the company car benefit. The assignment components to which you can link elements are: payroll, salary basis, employment category, organisation, location, job, grade, people groups, and position. When you define elements, you can also define qualifying conditions, such as a minimum age. You also specify rules about entries when you define an element, such as default values, minimum / maximum values, lookup values. Some element entries are valid for one pay eg a bonus, whereas others occur every pay. When you define an element, you select a processing type of recurring or nonrecurring. Employees must be assigned to a payroll to receive nonrecurring elements.

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If an element is defined as recurring with standard links, the system makes an entry automatically for all eligible assignments. If an element is non-recurring, you cannot define standard links. This means that you have to enter the element manually. You can make entries individually or in a batch for faster data entry using Batch Element Entry (BEE). The BEE function allows you to rapidly enter batches of element entry information into a temporary table. You can then validate, correct and update the information before you transfer the information to the database. Note that the Fast Formulas referred to above can be used for a wide variety of purposes and are not restricted to payroll processing. Oracle provides an entire manual on the creation and use of Fast Formulas; the following list provides an indication of the scope of their use: Check the validity of various data entered into Oracle HR Create rules for benefits administration, such as eligibility determination Select the database information you want to display in a QuickPaint report, and perform calculations for the report. Perform legislative checks during a payroll run. Specify the rules for Paid Time Off accrual plans, such as how much time is accrued and over what period, when new starters are eligible to begin accruing time, and how much time can be carried over to the next accrual term. Calculate the duration of an absence, given the start and end dates and times. Generate custom global person number sequences for employees, applicants, and contingent workers. Configure the people management templates in a number of ways, including supplying additional information to be available from fields on the template, and validating field entries. Validate forms by calling formulas from the Custom Library. Calling formulas from the Custom Library also allows you to easily create and maintain business rules. Set up business rules and call them from other PL/SQL applications Define Oracle Business Intelligence Systems reports

As this image of a Formula shows, there is a significant body of knowledge which must be mastered to leverage this tool effectively just as there is skill required for other non-trivial aspects of an implementation.

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Oracle Advanced Benefits If the standard benefits functionality provided within the core functionality of HR is not adequate for your organisation, Oracle Advanced Benefits (OAB) enables the administration of a more complex mix of employee benefits Your organisation is likely to require or benefit from OAB if the following are true: Do you need to offer benefit programs that are funded by flex credits Is the automatic flagging and management of life events integral to your process? Are there many different types of life events that the benefits department has to process? Is the ability to define automatic and default enrolments, when a change occurs to an employee record required? Is there a requirement to perform What-if analysis based on a Life Event and determines a participants eligibility, electable choices and associated costs. In a high volume transaction environment, is there a requirement for batch processing of all eligibility, choice and enrolment activities? If there are a large number of employees, is there a need for a Service Centre concept for employee information updates? Do you require certifications or actions to be completed for completion of enrolment? Do you require benefits information in multiple languages? Are there Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) that you would like to automatically reimburse through payroll? Do you require certifications or actions to be completed for completion of enrolment? Would you like to suspend an enrolment if a certification was not received in time by an automated process? For further detail refer to the OAUG conference paper Oracle Benefits: Standard or Advanced which is right for you? By Lynda Tollefson, available from the OAUG Conference database.

Additional Application Functionality

This section provides an overview of the functionality provided by the web-based HR Applications, which have not yet been covered. iRecruitment Oracle iRecruitment gives you flexible control over your entire recruitment cycle, from the stage where a vacancy is first identified, through to the rejection or appointment of an applicant. Competency is a central concept in Oracle iRecruitment. If a company uses its core competencies to be competitive, it is likely that the recruiting piece of competencies will be a key aspect of its overall competency strategy, because one way to build competency is to acquire new talent. This is not to say that those implementing iRecruitment must be completely strategic with their intentions, but the product is there to provide that capability. Functionality provided includes the following: Advertise vacancies internally and / or externally (although the implication of placing part of the eBusiness Suite outside your organisations firewall should not be underestimated).

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Schedule interviews and to update the assignment status of applicants. Produce a report on applicants and their interview schedules. Record both the competencies required for a position and those held by an applicant. Using the web-based Suitability Matching tool, you can then identify which applicants are most suited to the position by making a comparison between the competencies required and the competencies held by each applicant. Create standard letters and link them to assignment statuses. For example, you can set up a standard letter that is triggered when an applicants assignment status changes to Rejected. Compose a job offer on the web and route it to the appropriate managers for approval. If approval is given, you can generate an offer letter and track the candidates response. Convert your applicants or ex-employees to new employees with the minimum of effort. In addition, the hiring process supports a wide range of other business needs, such as back-to-back employment. It also provides you with validation. For example, you places limits on the rehiring of an ex-employee.

Implicit in all of this is extensive use of Workflow and Oracle Approvals Management (AME) technology. As mentioned earlier, whilst Workflow is used across the entire eBusiness Suite, it is very likely that AME skills will only be required

Self-Service Human Resources It may be helpful to think of Self-Service HR less as an application that provides additional functionality, but more as a set of tools with which one can create self-service access to existing core HR functionality. SSHR functionality is put together during the implementation using building blocks called modules. The following are examples of these modules: Enter Process i.e. Select a person from a list Manager Actions - enables the user to select the function, or action, to be performed Document Manager - enables you to automatically generate business documents. These are combined with workflow activities and controls from the Oracle Approvals Management (AME) application to manage approval logic. Oracle provide the following example which illustrates the broad mix of skills required to create such self service processes 1. The user chooses the Personal Information function from the user menu. 2. The application calls the Personal Information workflow process 3. The FND data security is checked to make sure that this function is permitted for the legislation code of the current users business group. 4. Oracle Workflow runs the Maintain Personal Information activity 5. A page is displayed based on the definition of the document in the MDS Repository. The page is influenced by any context-sensitive flexfields and the cumulative effect of any Personalization Framework configurations that relate to this document (see below). 6. The user selects an action. Depending on the choice the user makes, different pages are displayed in sequence i.e. different flows.

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7. When the user has entered the information (or is ready to complete the transaction), they click the Continue link at the bottom of the page. Any field-related errors (bad formatting, missing fields, and so on) are flagged by a JavaScript procedure stored on the client and the user is asked to correct this information. 8. Web page data is sent from the client to the server and server-side validation is performed by HR Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). 9. When the changes are complete, the user returns to the Review page and clicks the Submit Information link to save the changes. 10. The number of approval levels and approvers is determined by the configuration of Dynamic Approvals (via Oracle Approvals Management). 11. The workflow item is routed for approval according to the configuration of the Approvals process. 12. When the approver approves or rejects the transaction, the user is notified of the transaction status and the transaction details are deleted from the transaction tables. If the transaction is approved, the data is loaded into the HR tables. As this quick overview illustrates, the configuration of Oracle Self-Service functionality will require the collaboration of both HR functional expertise and a broad range of fairly technical skills. Some of those skills are probably common to Financials implementations, however some of them especially Oracle Approvals Management, may be almost uniquely required for HR implementations. Oracle Learning Management (OLM) Implementing OLM is a significant additional implementation task, unlike Self-Service HR which essentially extends core HR functionality, OLM provides the additional functionality to support the administration and delivery of an on-demand learning solution. This includes the following functionality: Content management, (content is defined as any piece of web-playable learning material available to learners) Scheduling and administration of learning resources like trainers, classes and training rooms. Learner administration, including self-registration, enrolment for events and progress tracking Creation of assessment instruments and tracking of the outcomes of learner assessment. Integration of price lists and interfacing of cost information to Oracle General Ledger (using Oracle Training Administration (OTA), which involves the implementation of that Application as well). The implementation of OLM and OTA require the implementation of 2 additional key Flexfields: The Training Resources key flexfield is an essential feature of the application. The optional Personal Analysis key flexfield enables you to define and track information about the people in your system. The Personal Analysis flexfield is different from all other key flexfields because you can define an unlimited number of instances. Once you define your structures, you then assign each instance to the required business group. Each instance is referred to as a Special

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Information Type (SIT). Each SIT can have up to thirty fields, where each field is a segment of the flexfield. You can also set up cross validation if you need to ensure users enter correct combinations. SITs are usually used to capture groups of related data that is not provided by the main system, that your organisation needs to hold about people, jobs and positions. For example you may need to record medical details or Occupational Health and Safety information. You determine where you can view each instance: in the job, position or personal information windows. You can use the Personal Analysis flexfield for form level security on certain forms and restrict the segments (special information types) that the user can see.

There are some considerations that need to be taken into account when determining the setup of your Personal Analysis flexfield. You cannot link SITs, so you should not base your SITs on compensation. All descriptive and key flexfields produce database items for use in FastFormulas, except for special information types. Therefore, if you need data in a FastFormula, you need to plan for it to be in a database item and not in a SIT.

Further Detail on HR Specific Concepts

Transaction Type Wizard The Transaction Type Wizard is an HR specific tool which guides the user step by step through processing a group of like transactions like position changes, reallocations etc, including the routing and approval of these transactions. Position Control Public sector organisations (and others which are more bureaucratic or rules-based) typically have strict control over organisational roles. Oracle HRMS position control provides mechanisms to address these needs. These enable you to: - Maintain strict control over the creation or modification of positions - Keep position-related costs in line with available funds (e.g. the application triggers warnings or errors when entering an assignment that would put you over budget) - Meet legislation-mandated funding and reporting requirements - Route business transactions for approval automatically

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DateTrack In contrast to work structures, which are simply dated, other key dynamic information in Oracle HRMS is date-tracked. This includes information on workers, assignments, and compensation and benefits. DateTrack allows you to maintain a continuous history of the information over time. When you set an effective date for your work, DateTrack ensures that only information effective on that day is used for any processing, validation, and reporting you carry out. When you make a change, you can choose whether it is a correction to the last update or a new update to be recorded in the history of the record. You can use DateTrack History to view a report of every update ever made to a record. You can identify windows containing datetracked, rather than dated, information by the presence of a region labelled Effective Dates. When you are new to DateTrack, you may find it useful to be reminded of your effective date whenever you open a window where you can enter or change datetracked information. The reminder appears in a Decision window and asks whether you want to change your effective date. If you choose Yes, the Alter Effective Date window displays. There is a user profile option called DateTrack:Reminder that determines when the Decision window appears. There are three possible values for this profile option: - Always - Never - Not Today The Not Today value causes the reminder to appear when you navigate to a window where you can change datetracked information and your effective date is not todays date. You can set the value of this profile option in the Personal Profile Values window. To find out whether the assignment existed before 1 January 1999, you should use DateTrack History. There is also a DateTrack: Date Security user profile option, which determines whether you can change your effective date. Your system administrator sets this profile option. There are four possible values: - All: You can change to any other effective date. - Future: You can change between todays date and any future dates. - Past: You can change between todays date and any past dates. - Present: You cannot change to a date other than today. When you delete datetracked information, Oracle HRMS prompts you with the following options: End Date: This ends the record on your effective date. When you re-query the record, this end date displays in the To field. Purge: This totally removes the record from your database. If there are any future updates to the record after your effective date, Oracle HRMS may prompt you with another two options: All: This removes all future updates to the record. The current snapshot is valid until you make another change. Next: This removes the next future update to the record. It then resets the current snapshots end date to the end date of the deleted update. You do not always see all of these options when you choose to delete. Some windows do not allow all four operations.

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To see all the changes made to a date-tracked record over time, use DateTrack History. 1. Choose the DateTrack History icon from the Toolbar. The DateTrack History Change Field Summary window opens. Each row shows which fields were changed on the From date. 2. Choose the Full History button if you want to open a DateTrack History folder showing the value of each field between the effective dates. The row for the current snapshot (corresponding to your effective date) is highlighted.. You can use the Folder menu to select the fields to view in the folder. Note: It is possible to customize the information displayed in the Folder by modifying the DateTrack History view for the underlying

Conclusion
The Oracle HR suite is a suite of powerful Applications which can be used to support the move by an organisation from administrative to strategic HR Management. A successful shared implementation requires open communication and an understanding that some careful co-ordination of shared functionality will be required.

References
Oracle Human Resources Management Systems Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide (Australia), Release 11i Ulrich, D., 1998, A New Mandate for Human Resources in Harvard Business Review, January -February 1998 pp. 124 134 Re AME, see: Implementing Oracle Approvals Management, available on MetaLink Oracle HR the Australian Way by ASSIST Pty Ltd, an OAUG conference paper in 2000 (also available from ASG Ltd) (The ASSIST paper was designed to explain the use of the Australian HR localisation but provides an excellent introduction to Oracle HR for Finance users; unfortunately it is now hard to obtain. This paper has built heavily on the work already done by ASSIST and the authors wish to acknowledge that.) Various other conference papers from the OAUG database: Oracle Benefits: Standard or Advanced which is right for you? By Lynda Tollefson Customizing HRMS using Fast Formulas By Jerry Bulla and Ajay Arigala The Scoop on I-recruitment! Implementing, Managing, I-Recruitment by Lisa Palermo Oracle iLearning and You! By Melissa Sider Demystifying OTM And OTL by Tony Tella

About the Authors of this Paper:

Jeannie Dobney is an independent consultant specialising in Oracle Financials. She has over a decades experience with Oracle Application and can be contacted by email at jdobney@bigpond.com Greg Sutton is Australias most experienced Oracle HR implementer and is currently principal of Presence of ITs Oracle Applications practice. Greg can be contacted by email at greg.sutton@presenceofit.com.au
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