12.2 Maintaining Incumbents: Transfers, Reclassification, Global Assignments, and Right to Return

12.2 Maintaining Incumbents: Transfers, Reclassification, Global Assignments, and Right to Return

Quick Answer: Job Information is where employees are assigned to positions. With the position hierarchy leading, move positions to change reporting lines, and do not edit supervisors directly in Job Information. When incumbents' job data changes, the system may run a Position Transfer (manager change) or Position Reclassification (attribute change), guided by the Job Information to Position sync rule. Right to Return keeps a position for employees on leave or global assignment.

Ways to Change an Incumbent's Job Information

• MSS: Take Action > Change Job and Compensation Info, or the pencil icon on the block
• Job Information History: Edit, Delete, or Insert New Record in the past, present, or future
• Position Org Chart: select the incumbent, open the profile preview, then All Actions
• Add New Employee for new hires
• Import Employee Data with the Job Information entity

When editing, you pick a position from the list (optionally only vacant ones) and can check its place in the hierarchy with the org chart icon. History is for administrators. Inserting requires an event and event reason. Validations such as position status, multiple incumbents, and FTE run through Centralized Services for History edits and imports.

Manager Changes with the Position Hierarchy Leading

• Parent position changes (in the position record or Position Org Chart) change the supervisor.
• Supervisor changed directly in Job Information: the position hierarchy is not updated correctly, which creates inconsistency between the Position Org Chart and the reporting structure.
• Position changed in Job Information: the supervisor defaults to the next available supervisor in the position hierarchy.

Moving a Position Under a New Manager

When the supervisor is updated in Job Information, users can choose to move the assigned position below the new manager's position. With Yes, the position moves with all lower-level positions and incumbents, and for mass or shared positions all incumbents move. With No, only the employee moves. Prerequisites:

• the permission Option to Move Position to New Manager on Job Info Change (SAP's permission list also calls it …to New Supervisor…; see Section 11.2)
• View Current on the Position object
• the position hierarchy leads
• the employee has a position that is not being changed
• the new supervisor has a position
• the change is made in MSS
• the supervisor field is part of the job information section in BCUI

SAP recommends making manager changes for a position in Manage Positions, not from the incumbent's Job Information, as the Position Management IDP documents.

Position Transfer and Reclassification

Synchronize Job Information to Position is a rule that decides which common fields flow from Job Information to the position. It applies only when the system treats the change as a Position Transfer or Position Reclassification.

Position Transfer (Manager Change)

When the employee's manager changes, the employee needs a position under the new manager. By default, the system searches for a matching To Be Hired position below the new manager. If one exists, the employee is assigned to it. If none exists, a new position is created below the new manager's position. The transferring employee's direct reports then report to the previous manager. If another position was selected manually, no transfer happens, and the previous position is not automatically marked To Be Hired.

Position Reclassification (Attribute Change)

The incumbent stays in the same position, but its attributes change, for example location or cost center:

• Single incumbent: the position record is updated from the Job Information data, using the Job Information to Position sync rule.
• Shared position (several incumbents): the position is not changed. The system searches for a To Be Hired peer position under the same parent. If one matches, the employee is assigned. Otherwise a new peer position is created. Direct reports and lower-level positions are not affected.

The system matches only fields in the sync rule. Higher-impact changes such as Department or Business Unit should flow from the position to the incumbent, not the other way around. Managers should make volatile, lower-impact changes such as location or cost center through self-service.

Concurrent Employment and Global Assignments

• Concurrent employment: a person holds more than one active employment. In Position Management they have a primary position and secondary positions.
• Global assignment: manages expatriates with home and host assignments. Prerequisites include:
  • enabling Global Assignment Management in Manage Employee Central Settings
  • enabling globalAssignmentInfo fields (assignment-type, planned-end-date, company, end-date, start-date) and the global_assignment_type picklist (short-term, long-term)
  • adding the events Add Global Assignment (GA), End Global Assignment (EGA), Obsolete (OGA), Away on Global Assignment (AGA), and Back from Global Assignment (BGA) with matching event reasons
  • adding the employee-status values Discarded and Dormant. Dormant is recommended for an employee away on a global assignment.

Global Assignment Details can be shown on the position card.

Right to Return

Right to return guarantees an employee on a global assignment or leave of absence a way back to their original position. The position shows a right-to-return icon, and details appear in the side panel.

• Leave of absence: the leave unassigns the position and creates a right to return tag. On return, the employee goes back to the original position.
• Global assignment: creating the assignment automatically updates the home assignment and creates the tag, so the position is held in the home country.
• Configure rules and event reasons in Position Management Settings > Right to Return (Section 13.3).

Considerations:

• Changing the leave or assignment start date also changes the start date in the Right to Return object.
• An employee unassigned from a position still reports to the same supervisor.
• If a supervisor is unassigned, their direct reports report to the next available manager in the position hierarchy for the duration, if the position hierarchy leads. Otherwise the reporting line is unchanged.
• If the supervisor's leave or assignment dates change later, the hierarchy is not reset to the new start date.

Transition Periods

A transition period lets a successor be assigned before the leaver departs, so the position is temporarily overstaffed by incumbent or FTE. Set it in Position Management Settings > Transition Period with a Period and a Unit (days or months), globally or through position types.