How to activate EC Workflows without Employee Central

Introduction

The Employee Central Workflow functionality is used to address many business requirements: notifications about birthdays and anniversaries, mass emails, confirmation of compliance with corporate rules, approvals of employee data, and many others.

Employee Central Document Generation can be used to tailor each workflow with its own notification(s). Without EC, the Document Generation functionality needs to be activated via provisioning as described by Rahul Lala, 2015.

In this technical article, we will show how to enable EC Workflows without activation of Employee Central. We will also highlight limitation of these Workflows.

Details

Activation of Workflows

As you know, wfConfig is a Foundation Object of Employee Central and configured in the Corporate Data Model.

Since H1 2020 Release, it is possible to import/export the Data Model via Admin Center. For purposes of this article, it is sufficient to use the Master Data Model:

1. Download the Corporate Data Model (file EC-corporate-datamodel.xml) from https://help.sap.com/doc/180ae8b64b4e43c68e975ab9be597aa7/2105/en-US/Master_Data_Models.zip.
2. Enable Import/Export Corporate Data Model in RBP: Manage Foundation Objects -> Import/Export Corporate Data Model.
3. Import the EC-corporate-datamodel.xml file through Import/Export Corporate Data Model.

Configuration of Workflows

As you know, configuration of Workflows is done in Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures, which is enabled in RBP: Manage Foundation Objects Types -> Workflow (View/Create/Insert/Correct/Delete).

The following Workflow configuration is supported if the Workflow is enabled without Employee Central:

• Remind In Days;
• Is Delegate Supported;
• Approver / Contributor / CC Types: Role and Dynamic Group;
• CC Type: External Email;
• Approver / Contributoe / CC Roles: Self, Manager, Manager Manager, Employee HR, Matrix Manager(s), Custom Manager(s), Second Manager;
• Edit Transaction;
• No Approver Behavior;
• Days until Auto Approval;
• Relationship to Approver: Employee / Initiator;
• Respect Permission: Yes / No;
• Workflow Email Configuration (for approvals);
• Email Template Group (for CC).

As you can see from the list, a lot of Workflow functions are available without Employee Central. Bad news is that approval type Dynamic Role is not available because it requires jobInfo.

Good news is that all standard BizX roles and Workflow Groups are available (the latter are enabled in RBP: Manage Workflows -> Manage Workflow Groups).

Admin should have access to Manage Workflow Requests, which is enabled in RBP: Manage Workflows -> Manage Workflow Requests.

End users should have access to Pending Requests, which is enabled in RBP: Employee Views -> Pending Requests. Deep link for the Pending Requests is xi/ui/ect/pages/pendingWorkflows/pendingWorkflowV12.xhtml

Design of the Workflow itself depends on the particular business requirements. Below is an example, which can be configured within the enabled functionality:

Below are other good examples that can be configured based on the enabled functionality:

• Birthday and Anniversary Alerts as demonstrated by Dharmin Thakkar (2019);
• Mass Emails as demonstrated by Jitendra Kumar (2018).

Conclusion

Limited functionality of Workflows and Document Generation can be used without enabled Employee Central.

Reference list

1. Dharmin Thakkar, 2019. Birthday and Anniversary alerts to the employees in SuccessFactors. SAP Community Blogs, [online]. Available at https://blogs.sap.com/2019/07/03/birthday-and-anniversary-alerts-to-the-employees-in-successfactors/ (Accessed: 16 June 2021).
2. Jitendra Kumar, 2018. MDF Alerts and Workflows for Mass Email Functionality. SAP Community Blogs, [online]. Available at https://blogs.sap.com/2018/06/21/mdf-alerts-and-workflows-for-mass-email-functionality/ (Accessed: 16 June 2021).
3. Rahul Lala, 2015. Employee Central Document Generation. SAP Community Blogs, [online]. Available at https://blogs.sap.com/2015/10/29/employee-central-document-generation/ (Accessed: 16 June 2021).
4. The Master Data Models. Available at https://help.sap.com/doc/180ae8b64b4e43c68e975ab9be597aa7/2105/en-US/Master_Data_Models.zip (Downloaded: 16 June 2021).
5. Employee Central Workflows: Implementation and Administration. Document Version: 1H 2021 – 2021-06-11. Available at https://help.sap.com/doc/047cf17e14e34ff4bd57f1c0c6fd8894/2105/en-US/SF_EC_Workflows.pdf (Accessed: 16 June 2021).