As part of Quest Experience Week (QXW) 2019, Robbin Velayedam, Senior Director of Product Management for PeopleSoft HCM, presented the PeopleSoft HCM roadmap and update.

PeopleSoft Strategic Investments

Generally speaking, PeopleSoft’s strategic investments are categorized into the four buckets of:

1. Simplification and Modernization: Conversational interfaces, centralized delegations and notifications, and a new stylesheet
2. Analytics: Pivot grids, analytics, Personalized Analytic Notifications, and Kibana analytics
3. Cloud and Emerging Technology: Cloud Infrastructure, PeopleSoft Cloud Manager, Oracle Digital Assistant, and Oracle Asset Monitoring Cloud
4. Configuration: Configuration tools, configurable features, isolating customizations, and personalization capabilities

There are several strategic initiatives specifically for PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM), including:

• Enabling compliance
  • ACA
  • OFCCP
  • Family and Medical Leave
  • Payroll Regs/Legs updates
  • OSHA
  • I-9
  • EEO-1
  • W4
  • Data privacy
  • eSocial
• Empowering administration
  • Kibana analytics
  • Modernizing job and person data
  • Profile management search, match, and compare
  • Fluid Benefits/T&L WorkCenters
  • OffBoarding/self-service termination
  • HR Business Partner
  • Paysheet for inactive employees
• Configuration over customization
  • Activity Guides
  • Page Composer for Approvals
  • Page and Field Configurator for data privacy
  • Event Mapping
  • Drop Zones for Classic pages
  • Attachment, Consent, and Questionnaire Frameworks
• Employee engagement
  • Chatbots
  • Onboarding
  • Online PaySlips
  • Employee Questionnaires
  • Employee Consent
  • Fluid Delegations
  • Fluid Employee Directory
  • Employee SnapShot
  • Fluid Time Entry
  • Notification via Text

What’s New in PeopleSoft HCM Image 32

PeopleSoft HCM Image 32, the most recent release, includes a variety of helpful features for HCM, pictured below.

HR Business Partner Feature

HR Business Partner is an additional feature that is now available in Image 32.  It is a liaison between HR and the business, and it oversees administration and compliance.  HR Business Partner also manages talent and identifies personnel gaps. Business Partners can be generalists or subject matter experts (SMEs).

Gartner stated that “Organizations that build high-performing HR Business Partners improve employee performance by up to 22 percent, employee retention by up to 24 percent, revenue by up to 7 percent, and profit by up to 9 percent.”

There are several unique features that most users find beneficial. You can build your Business Partner assignments based on simple or complex criteria. You can also configure actions that Business Partners can perform for employees.  Defining Business Partner types is also a unique feature. Users can set up alternate contact information and Business Partner Teams, view Business Partners on the Company Directory, and access all information through the Workforce Administration Home Page.

Conversational Interfaces

PeopleSoft’s thought process in regard to conversational interfaces is that people are using chatbots more often in everyday life and they should be able to use the same familiar interfaces at work also.

Customers that are using PeopleSoft Absence Management and are updated to at least PeopleTools 8.57 are able to leverage chatbots within PeopleSoft. The Absence Assistant helps customers with requesting or canceling an absence request, viewing current balances, forecasting absence balances, checking the status of absence requests, and support for multiple jobs.

There are several important things that you need to know as a consumer.  PeopleSoft is delivering “reference” bots, and they will be delivering more bots over time. In reference to all bots, they require 8.57.07 and Oracle Digital Assistant. You can visit www.peoplesoftinfo.com to find more resources.  Additionally, remember that experience in the partner community is very strong and growing.

PeopleSoft HCM Roadmap: Plans for Image 33

PeopleSoft HCM Image 33 is targeted for release in late January 2020. The graphic below shows the features that will be included in the new image:

Delegation Framework

There is a new Delegation Framework in Image 33. It is compatible across pillars in a clustered environment. There are Quick Search capabilities for proxies, and you can select multiple proxies and transactions to be delegated at one time. You can also provide delegators visibility into any actions performed by the proxies. The Delegation Framework also has support for the existing Classic delegation requests after moving to Fluid.

Page Configuration for Data Masking

Page Configuration for Data Masking is also available on Image 33 and is a very controversial and important topic. You can use Page and Field Configurator to enforce data masking. Using the Separate tab, “masking” allows limited access to view. The options of full masking and partial masking are available at this time.

Paysheet  Update Load Enhancement

Paysheet Update Load Enhancement is how you control who you pay and is also available in image 33. There are the options of Employee Status, Sources, Earnings and Deductions, and Groupings. Employee Status allows you to set allowable inactive employee status. Sources allow you to define paysheet update sources. Earnings and Deductions allow all or select specific earnings and deductions. Groupings allow all or you can define the company and a pay group.

Primary Incumbent Enhancements

Primary Incumbent Enhancements allow for five primary things to happen:

1. Identify primary incumbents for a position having multiple incumbents
2. Automatically assign primary incumbents based on job data changes
3. Route approval requests to the primary incumbent
4. Have the ability to review a primary incumbent of reports to a position in Job Data and Fluid Management
5. Have the ability to enable/disable the Manage Primary Incumbent feature

Additional HCM Roadmap Items

In addition to the key pieces of information listed above, there are several other notable PeopleSoft HCM roadmap initiatives, including:

• Chatbots for Company Directory, Employee Actions, Payroll, and Benefits
• Fluid Profile Management search, match, and compare
• Modernization of job data and person data for Fluid activity guide based, new search, and approvals
• PeopleTools 8.58
• Text notifications
• Updated Fluid design and navigation
• Fluid WorkCenters for Time and Labor and Benefits
• Kibana data visualization

To learn more about the PeopleSoft HCM roadmap, check out the full QXW 2019 presentation attached below.

Additional Resources

COLLABORATE 20 will take place April 19-23, 2020 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada! Don’t miss this chance to share inspiration, insights, and solutions with your peers, vendors, and the Oracle team! Register before March 6, 2020, to take advantage of Early Bird pricing.

If you’re looking for more PeopleSoft content, join us next year at RECONNECT 20, the premier deep-dive PeopleSoft focused event of the year! The event will take place July 21-23, 2020 in St. Louis, Missouri. Keep an eye out for more information on this event!

If there are products of interest to you, join a focus group to provide feedback and help the PeopleSoft team develop best practices. You can also join the Customer Advisory Board to help review, shape, and validate the strategy for PeopleSoft HCM applications and technology.