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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 mostorganisations 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 ofcompetitiveadvantage and decided their own staff might provide such advantage. Even thoughpeople 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 Ulrichis 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 businessobjectives
People are viewed as assets to be leveraged to create value rather than variablecosts
A commitment-oriented model of labour management rather than thetraditional 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 andopportunistic 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 HRMincluded 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 dataand supports all standard HR activities, and
Oracle Payroll enabling timely payment of all employees according to yourcompensation 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 webbrowser 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, andcandidates 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 thatreduces administration costs associated with time and attendance record keeping.
Oracle Learning Management (LMS) is a web-based Application which enablesyou 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 todefine 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 enableyou 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:
HR Payroll
iRecruitment
Oracle TrainingAdministration
Oracle Time &Labour
Oracle LearningManagement
Oracle AdvancedBenefits
BusinessIntelligence forOracle Human
Resources
Oracle Self-Service Human
Resources
coreHR Applications
additional HRfunctionality via web
Applications
web Applicationsleveraging HR data
and functionality
Oracle HR Applications
Financial information sentto Oracle General Ledgerand Cash Management
Data shared with:* Oracle Purchasing* Oracle Payables* Oracle Projects* Oracle Receivables* Oracle Assets
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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 (HRIntelligence)
Additional documentation, which addresses cross application implementation issues:
Oracle HRMS Compensation and Benefits Management Guidei.e. Compensation elements etc (described below)
Oracle HRMS Configuring, Reporting, and System Administration Guidei.e System Administration topics
Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guidei.e. Organisation structures e.g. jobs etc
Oracle HRMS FastFormula User Guidei.e. formulas used to derive values (described below)
Using Application Data ExchangeApplication 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, withfamiliar desktop tools, then upload the data back to HRMS and OTA.
Oracle HRMS Workforce Sourcing, Deployment, and Talent Management Guidei.e. Recruitment concepts using the core HR Application, iRecruitment and HR Self-
Service
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 GuideThe 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 theOracle 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 Purchasing Payables Projects Receivables Assets
Organisations
Locations
Jobs
Positions
Employees &
Assignments
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 ultimatebusiness driver is common across the entireeBusiness 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 countrylocalisations (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 thatsome 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 centralfinance staff.
Whilst data security is an issue across the entire eBusiness suite, thesensitivity ofspecific 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 someprofile 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 theHR: User Type profile option. The three valid values are:
- HR with Payroll User
- HR User
- Payroll UserTheHR: 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 toproducepayments. 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 ofspecific HR functionality, some of which will bediscussed in more detail later in the paper. One of the most immediately apparent
features to Finance users logging into HR is theEffective Date feature, which enables
both forward dating of specific transactions and retention of full transaction history.
Oracle HR makes extensive use ofOracle 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 morefamiliar functionality has HR specific features . Forexample, 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 ofwhat those issues are will be the starting point for this.
Co-ordination of Application specific implementation and / or ongoing maintenancetasks into a roadmap which is feasible for all stakeholders.
Both of these tasks are facilitated by open and frequent communication in a spirit ofperceived 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.
Assignment
Compensation &Benefits
People
WorkStructures
EmployeeCompensation &Benefits History
Employee Applicant &Contractor
Assignment History
CompensationEntitlement Rules
and Conditions
People Data
This is information about current and former employees, applicants, contingentworkers (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 StructuresWork 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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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 GroupAt 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 athird party payment from an employee, for example Superannuation Funds.
Employer or Bargaining Association: Used when defining an organisation that isinvolved 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 whichemployee disabilities are registered.
Medical Service Provider: Used when defining an organisation that provides anymedical 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 attestsemployee qualifications.
When defining each of these, specific additional information is required via the others button
on the Organisation form. These Otherfields 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). Foreach 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 subsequentlyuse 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 ofemployee 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, non-
payroll 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 andSuperannuation 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 theFast 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, andperform 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 howmuch 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, andcontingent workers.
Configure the people management templates in a number of ways, includingsupplying 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 fromthe 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? Arethere 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 anemployee record required?
Is there a requirement to perform What-if analysis based on a Life Event anddetermines a participants eligibility, electable choices and associated costs.
In a high volume transaction environment, is there a requirement for batch processingof 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 automaticallyreimburse 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 akey 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 placingpart 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 ofeffort. 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 usermenu.
2. The application calls the Personal Information workflow process
3. The FNDdata security is checked to make sure that this function is permitted for thelegislation code of the current users business group.
4. Oracle Workflow runs theMaintain Personal Information activity5. A page is displayed based on the definition of the document in the MDS Repository.
The page is influenced by anycontext-sensitive flexfields and the cumulative effect of
anyPersonalization Framework configurations that relate to this document (see
below).
6. The user selects an action. Depending on the choice the user makes, different pagesare 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 aJavaScript 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 isperformed byHR Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
9. When the changes are complete, the user returns to the Review page and clicks theSubmit Information link to save the changes.
10.The number of approval levels and approvers is determined by the configuration ofDynamic Approvals (via Oracle Approvals Management).
11.The workflow item is routed for approval according to the configuration of theApprovals process.
12.When the approver approves or rejects the transaction, the user is notified of thetransaction 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 technicalskills. 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 learningmaterial available to learners)
Scheduling and administration of learning resources like trainers, classes and trainingrooms.
Learner administration, including self-registration, enrolment for events and progresstracking
Creation of assessment instruments and tracking of the outcomes of learnerassessment.
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 keyFlexfields:
The Training Resources key flexfield is an essential feature of the application.
The optional Personal Analysis key flexfield enables you to define and trackinformation 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 providesmechanisms 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 informationeffective 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, theAlter Effective Date window displays.
There is a user profile option calledDateTrack:Reminderthat determines when the Decisionwindow appears. There are three possible values for this profile option:
- Always- Never- Not Today
TheNot 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 aDateTrack: Date Security user profile option, which determines whether you
can change your effective date. Your system administrator sets this profile option. There arefour 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 mayprompt 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 theFolder 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 ManagementGuide (Australia), Release 11i
Ulrich, D., 1998, A New Mandate for Human Resources inHarvard 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 authorswish 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-Recruitmentby 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
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