We see new technology being adopted in every department in organizations.
Today, when it comes to HR, we see new systems and modules being explored to reduce bias in the hiring process, store company-wide talent data, or make succession planning easier and more effective.
Why should HR reporting be the same boring and mundane experience in such a scenario?
With the introduction of stories in SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics, you can present your data in a more visually engaging and communicative manner.
Let’s find out more about it!
What is SuccessFactors Stories?
SAP SuccessFactors Stories is part of People Analytics that leverages cloud story creation tools to create dynamic interactive visualizations that help communicate or portray important data to stakeholders.
It uses visualizations, charts, texts, images, and pictograms for easier data consumption by HR decision-makers.
It is described as a next-generation experience for consolidating insights. The best part is that it combines all the legacy SuccessFactors transactional reporting tools into a single platform for reporting, dashboards, and insights.
You can create and export these stories in different formats like PDFs, MS Powerpoint, and MS Excel so you can present them in a way that suits your team or organization.
If you are curious about how much data can be included, currently, a story query can include up to 30 columns selected from a maximum of 30 tables. The resulting query can contain up to 1,000,000 cells of data.
The key features of Stories are:
- Provides a single data model for all the modules across the SuccessFactors suite
- Includes a toolset that helps create dynamic and interactive visualizations to tell stories with your data
- Integrates with Role Based Permissions (RBPs) so you can provide selected permissions to people on your team or outside. This allows for tailored and secured information sharing
What are the benefits of SuccessFactors Stories?
These stories signify a paradigm shift in the data reporting capabilities that were being offered to SuccessFactors SAP consumers. There are many benefits that you can realize by adopting it. Let’s take a look at the key advantages.
- Access live data to gain key insights that back your decision-making processes instead of relying on your gut instincts.
- Increased capability to handle more complex calculations
- Ability to report on modules and MDF fields unavailable through legacy tools, including Job Profile Builder, Onboarding 2.0, etc.
- Perform suite-wide analysis by getting data from different modules in one story, like in HR data analytics tools. For example, recruiting, onboarding, employee central, and other modules.
- Use improved schema structures that allow the right data elements to be found easily and quickly, including the functionality of important fields being automatically suggested.
- Reduce complexity by using smart insights powered by machine learning that provide deep context. For example, understanding the top factors influencing time to hire without building multiple reports and dashboards.
- Perform date calculations and other calculations using Boolean fields.
- Understand your team and people better by receiving notifications on important issues like attrition, flight risk, absenteeism, training, fair compensation, etc.
- Create reports irrespective of data access permissions. It means you can add fields to the query even if you don’t have access to the data. However, when you run the report, you won’t be able to see data for those fields.
How do you create a Story in People Analytics?
A great way to start with stories in the SAP Analytics cloud is by using readymade templates that you can load at no additional cost.
You can follow the steps below to start using stories:
1. Go to the reporting module. The Report Center page will appear on your screen.
2. Click “New” and select “Story.” The Query Designer page will appear.
3. Create one or more queries to base your story on.
4. On page 1 of the Story Designer, click on the Chart or Table icons under the Insert menu to add a widget that represents the story.
5. Select one of the queries for the Data source of your widget
6. Build the selected widget's structure under the Chart or Table structure. You can do everything like selecting the chart type, defining the chart orientation, selecting measures and dimensions, and adding colors here.
7. If you want to add Filters to your story, click the Add Filters option under Filters in the Builder section of the Design pane.
8. Click the styling icon if you wish to style your chart, table, or selected widget
9. Click Save in the File menu
10. Enter the Story title, add a suitable description, and click Ok.
You have successfully created a story!
By implementing these Stories, you make the reporting function easier, and decision-makers can easily view these stories to get quick insights on a lot of data.
To understand how to use this feature best, watch TalenTeam’s on-demand webinar on creating cross-topical, visually-oriented reports to tell a consistent story.
You can also get in touch with us to see SuccessFactors in action!.