Many global implementations require the ability to allow employees in the SAP ERP HCM system to go on an expatriate assignment or on a permanent country reassignment. In this situation, implementing the Management of Global Employees module may be an advantage, but there are certain factors to consider regarding configuration, payroll/time processing, and HR processes.

When implementing Management of Global Employees, several new personnel administration (PA) infotypes are activated, along with use of the person ID (global ID) and specific personnel actions. Management of Global Employees is a flavor of the CE module in SAP ERP HCM in that it allows multiple records to be associated with an individual. With Management of Global Employees turned on, an expatriate employee has two records under one person ID (Figure 1). The person ID concept is related to the module and is the global ID of the employee that relates to all of the assignments (set up hiring action of the employee). Many companies set the person ID to be equal to the original personnel number of the employee.

Figure 1

Relationship between person ID and personnel assignment

Whether you’re planning to include Management of Global Employees in a new or existing implementation, you should consider the following during the design phase:

• Personnel structure – Use of Management of Global Employees depends on two assignments for a specific global employee at a given time. You need to modify employee group/employee subgroups to have separate identifiers for inpatriate (host) and expatriate (home) records.

• HR processes – A review of HR process documents for global employees is required to ensure the new concepts are applied. For instance, Management of Global Employees allows the expatriate planning process to be entered into the SAP ERP HCM system. This lets the user enter data for expatriates who either do or do not go on an assignment.

• Reporting/interfaces – Using Management of Global Employees allows users to leverage the PNPCE logical database. You may want some custom reports/interfaces to use the PNPCE selection screen (Figure 2). The PNPCE logical database incorporates both Organizational Management (OM) and PA-related data and utilizes the database where Management of Global Employees and CE are based. In the case of an upgrade, you should review all custom reports and modify them to support the PNPCE screen. If you decide to use a PNPCE selection screen, be sure to add the person ID to the selection so you can query it against the employee’s global ID.

Figure 2

Sample PNPCE screen

• Personnel actions – Management of Global Employees-related actions such as expatriate planning, expatriate activation in host, and expatriate activation in home need to be incorporated into the design based on requirements.

• Infotype headers – When you activate Management of Global Employees, the infotype headers are different as both person ID and personnel assignment numbers are activated.  During implementation, you have the option to configure the personnel assignment listbox based upon requirements. For example, you may decide to show position text within the listbox instead of position ID (Figure 3).  

Figure 3

Sample infotype headers with personnel assignment listbox and overview

• Infotypes – Activating Management of Global Employees enables the use of additional PA infotypes such as 0702 (documents) and 0709 (person ID). In addition, using Management of Global Employees functionality results in the use of the detached infotype framework in SAP ERP HCM. The detached infotype framework allows companies to set up the concept of data sharing, which allows certain infotypes to be shared across multiple records. For example, you can set up infotype data sharing to have changes to infotype 0171 (general benefits) shared across all active assignments. This could result in further configuration of requirement/optional fields in table T588MFPROPC (HR field properties – customer table). Settings in T588MFPROPC affect the required employee portal for SAP ERP screens for personal data, address, and family related persons.

• Infotype sharing – When a new personnel assignment is created in the host country, infotype sharing can be configured within the implementation guide (IMG) and table T582G so that one change on one record is replicated on other records related to the person ID. For example, if the person ID changes on infotype 0709, the modification is replicated across other assignments (standard delivered). Take this into consideration when doing data conversion as your SAP system may override data based on changes.

• Employee portal for SAP ERP HCM – For customers implementing Management of Global Employees with enhancement package 3 or higher, it is possible to integrate the employee portal with the module by enabling global employees to manage both home/host personal data iViews with one portal logon. Users need to decide if they would like to have expatriates manage their home/host data within the employee portal or via a request to a centralized expatriate processing center.

• Payroll/time – Based on the current scope, activating certain components of Management of Global Employees enables the use of different payroll and time schemas. For example, non CE/Management of Global Employees projects within the US use payroll program RPCALCU0. Projects using CE/global payroll within the US use payroll program RPCALCU0_CE. On existing projects, this can be a major effort and should be reviewed carefully because different payroll schemas need to be used. Also, payroll processing could be more complex as payroll data can be shared across country assignments within a payroll run. If an employee is on several personnel assignments within the same payroll frequency, but different payroll areas, the assignments are processed together by payroll area. However, if the home/host records are in different payroll frequencies, the employee is processed in separate payroll runs.

Configuration of Management of Global Employees

To configure Management of Global Employees in SAP ERP HCM, you must take several configuration steps within Personnel Administration (PA). For example, you need to configure key HCM features (Table 1), PA basic settings (activation of Management of Global Employees in table T77S0), Management of Global Employees-related infotypes, and new personnel actions.

Table 1

Common HCM features used in configuring Management of Global Employees

Feature IGMOD is often used on global implementations to properly control the different infotypes that come up on an employee personnel action based on where they fit into the enterprise/personnel structure and country assignment. You’ll need to configure IGMOD to put country-specific functionality within the expatriate/country transfer personnel actions such as specific infotypes, etc.

You can use feature Pxxxx to modify which screen control comes up with certain infotypes.  Screen controls allow implementations to change the infotype characteristics (which fields are required/optional/hidden) and are available for any PA infotype. When implementing Management of Global Employees, the CE module pool is used for several countries where available. Table 2 shows examples of screens that use the CE extension (within table T588M).

Table 2

Sample country screens enabled for Management of Global Employees and CE

Feature ACTCE is used to determine which actions are related to specific hiring/expatriate/and organizational re-assignment events. If users have customer-specific action types, such as Action ZZ for Expatriate Planning, you need to modify feature ACTCE for the EXPATPLANNING function (Figure 4).

Table 3

Configuration setting in table T77S0 to set up Mangement of Global Employees without CE

For example, if you try to hire an employee who is already in the system, the system prompts you and asks if you want to re-hire or move this person to a new assignment. Based on the user’s entry, a specific action type comes up that is customer-specific. When attempting to hire an employee who is already active in the system, the system calls feature ACTCE to see what SAP customer personnel actions could be used and retrieve the action type that is tied to an organizational re-assignment or additional assignment (Figure 5). New Personnel Assignment for Employee is based on the action type tied to ADDITIONAL_ASSIGNMENT and organizational reassignment is related to ORG_REASSIGNMENT.

Figure 5

Employee recognition dialog related to actions in feature ACTCE

Basic Settings

Activating Management of Global Employment within SAP ERP HCM takes place within system table T77S0. You need to configure specific settings in the CCURE group to enable specific elements of the CE or Management of Global Employees module you want to implement. Settings in Table 3 allow an implementation to enable Management of Global Employees functionality without the use of CE.

Table 3

Configuration setting in table T77S0 to set up Mangement of Global Employees without CE

Below is a list of key configuration entries to which you have access regardless of the enhancement package in ECC 6.0:

• CCURE GLEMP is the switch to turn on Management of Global Employees functionality without turning on CE. If CCURE MAINS is switched on (CE), Management of Global Employees is automatically enabled.
• CCURE GLOPY – This switch turns on global payroll for Management of Global Employees and allows both the home and host record to be reviewed during an SAP payroll run.  Further configuration and payroll considerations such as payroll schemas and pay rules need to be reviewed.
• CCURE PAUIX – Management of Global Employees/CE switch to allow the personnel assignment box to display while maintaining an employee in PA30 or PA40. This should be turned on to allow an HR user to toggle between assignments (home/host record or old/new country on a perm country transfer). This uses feature ACTCE for employment recognition upon entry into the company.
• CCURE PIDGN – Determines how the person ID is be defined. Many companies choose to set this value as two so the person ID is equal to the employee’s original personnel number. Other options are available to either set the person ID to equal the central person ID, value from infotype 0002 (PERID), or a customer-defined (Business Add-in BAdI HR_CE_PERSONID_EXT).
• CCURE PISDL – Allows HR to select employees via person ID (stored on infotype 0709).

Management of Global Employees-related infotypes 

When activating Management of Global Employees, several new infotypes are available to meet common requirements for global employees. Some examples of common PA-related Management of Global Employees infotypes are shown in Table 4.

Management of Global Employees-Related Actions  

When you activate Management of Global Employees, several new actions are available to meet HR process requirements on global employees. Some examples of common PA-related Management of Global Employees actions are shown in Table 5.

Table 5

Common Management of Global Employees personnel actions

Infogroup considerations

The following SAP ERP HCM infogroups are the global infotypes (non country-specific) that typically come up as personnel actions in the Management of Global Employees module. During implementation, you also need to consider several other country-specific and time/payroll-related infotypes based on the scope of the implementation, but the ones below are the most common global infotypes.

Expatriate planning infogroup:

0000 – Actions

0001 – Organizational assignment

0002 – Personal data

0006 – Address - subtype 1 permanent residence

0007 – Planned working time

0008 – Basic pay

0021 – Family members/dependents

0019 – Monitoring of tasks – subtype end of expatriate assignment

0171 – General benefits info

0710 – Details on global assignment

0715 – Status of global assignment – subtype HOST

Expatriate activation in host country infogroup:

0000 – Actions

0001 – Organizational assignment

0007 – Planned working time

0008 – Basic pay

0019 – Monitoring of tasks – subtype end of expatriate assignment (optional)

Expatriate activation in home country infogroup:

0000 – Actions

0001 – Organizational assignment

0007 – Planned working time

0008 – Basic pay

0171 – General benefits info

Withdraw Expat from Home Country infogroup:

0000 – Actions

0001 – Organizational assignment

0007 – Planned working time

0008 – Basic pay

0171 – General benefits info

Repatriation infogroup:

0000 – Actions

0001 – Organizational assignment

0007 – Planned working time

0008 – Basic pay

0019 – Monitoring of tasks – subtype end of expatriate assignment (optional)

0171 – General benefits info

Re-entry to home country infogroup:

0000 – Actions

0001 – Organizational assignment

0007 – Planned working time

0008 – Basic pay

The permanent country transfer is based on the hire/term actions in the relevant countries.

Sample Management of Global Employees HR Processes  

The following graphics show sample HR process flows (SAP-enabled) for implementations to consider when implementing Management of Global Employees. Implementations can use these as examples and incorporate any company-specific steps as desired. 

Figure 6 illustrates the typical HR process to identify the need for an expatriate assignment. Many of the steps in Figure 6 happen outside of the Management of Global Employees module (more planning and recruiting), and result in the proposed candidate being entered into the system.

Figure 6

Identify need for expatriate

Once you identify an expatriate, you can execute the personnel action expatriate planning (Figure 7). This allows the SAP system to create a new personnel number in the host country that links to the person ID (global ID). At this point, the host record is typically inactive and is in the system for planning activities (such as assigning proposed compensation items, checklist items, or expatriate assignment details). The host record should be placed in the inpatriate employee group.

Figure 7

Expatriate planning

Once the expatriate is authorized to begin work, the Expatriate Activation in Host action is processed on the host record (Figure 8). Once processed, the status of the inpatriate (host) record changes to active employment and the record becomes part of the host country’s headcount. In addition, the Expatriate Activation in Home action is processed on the expatriate (home) record to place the employee into the proper employee group (expatriate), position, or employment status.  

Figure 8

Assignment activation

Figure 9 illustrates a sample HR process of ending an expatriate’s assignment. You can execute different steps and action types based on whether the expatriate stays in the host country, goes on a separate expatriate assignment, or returns to the home country. The Repatriate action always has to be executed on the host country record to end the assignment. If returning home, the Re-Entry into Company action is processed to place the person back into Active status and in the proper position and pay details.

Figure 9

End of expatriate assignment

As noted, activating Management of Global Employees has many advantages for global projects and companies with an expatriate population. When implementing Management of Global Employees, project managers should pay special attention to the extra level of effort needed regarding process changes, configuration, and customizations. Example customizations and other functionalities include the ability to create offer letters for global assignments, relocation process management (using information on checklist infotype), compensation package management, and global payroll setup.  

Questions to Ask

The following is a series of questions you might want to ask during the design phase of your Management of Global Employees implementation. I’ve purposely left them open-ended, as there is no right or wrong answer. Discussing these questions with your project team is beneficial in determining what direction you want to go in with Management of Global Employees.

How will we maintain the expatriate/inpatriate employee population during transfers, promotions? Things to think about:

• Should global HR maintain the records in ECC only or should this be done by home/host country HR?
• Should manager portal forms be enabled for this?
• Should there be a special workflow considerations for expatriates?

Should home country records for an expatriate be left in Active status or put in Inactive/Withdrawn? Things to think about:

• How will this impact payroll/time/benefits?
• How will this impact reporting within the company (such as headcount)?
• Should the home country record be viewable in the manager portal for SAP ERP and employee search in the employee portal for SAP ERP?

Where should the home country/host country positions be placed within the organizational structure? Things to think about:

• Within the home country record, should the employee’s position remain in the home country manager’s span of control or should it be placed in an expatriate organizational unit? This could impact performance management and other workflow-related transactions.
• How should expatriates be reported on for managerial assignments?
• Will interface/reporting selection criteria screens be affected?

How will interfaces and reporting be further affected? Things to think about:

• If an expatriate has multiple records (home/host), which record should be passed on an interface?
• Do the reporting and interface selection screens need to be updated with the PNPCE selection screen?  If you’re using Management of Global Employees, you may want the ability to select employees based on person ID, thus requiring the PNPCE selection screen.
• Does home/host record get updated on inbound interfaces?

Mark S. Jackson

Mark Jackson has been working with SAP ERP HCM for more than 12 years and specializes in SuccessFactors Employee Central and the SAP ERP HCM Personnel Administration and Organizational Management modules. He has had numerous experiences with implementing and leading SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors globally and is a subject-matter expert in defining global templates for SAP/SuccessFactors implementations.

You may contact the author at Mark.S.Jackson@gmail.com.

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