Oracle HR Core Overview
Hello, Today, in this Medium blog that generally caters to a SAP-focused audience, we will discuss Oracle’s Core HR, which competes with SAP’s SuccessFactors product. Sourcing information about this new technology has been a bit challenging for me, as I am not an Oracle Consultant. Therefore, I will try to compile the information I found on the internet, combining it with my experience in SAP HCM consulting and technical interest. I may have inaccuracies and omissions, and I would be very pleased if you could correct them in the comments.
Oracle HR Core is a product developed by Oracle to manage and automate Human Resources (HR) processes. Typically offered as part of Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud, this solution provides a wide range of features to support various HR processes, including recruitment, personnel management, performance management, training management, salary management, and others. This product competes with rivals such as SAP SuccessFactors, Workday UKG, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources.
Payroll
The payroll module currently does not support legal regulations in Turkey. Oracle HR Core is integrated with other payroll services
Time and Labor
The Time and Labor module of Oracle HR Core is specially designed to enable organizations to effectively manage work hours, absences, time tracking, and workforce management. It is equivalent to the time management module in SAP. While contributing significantly to personnel management processes, this module focuses on the following key features:
1. Working Hours Tracking:
- Allows recording of daily, weekly, or monthly working hours.
- Supports special cases such as flexible working hours and shift work.
2. Leave and Absence Management:
- Easy recording, approval, and tracking of leave requests.
- Effectively manages various types of absences such as illness, vacation, personal leave, etc
3. Project and Task Scheduling:
- Tracking the time employees spend on specific projects or tasks.
- Supports project-based cost calculations.
4. Time Tracking Rules:
- Defining time tracking rules in accordance with workplace policies.
- Effective management of special situations such as lunch breaks, overtime, night shifts, etc
5. Working Time Calculations:
- Automatic calculation of working hours and integration with salary calculations.
- Ensuring legal compliance in working time calculations.
6. Self-Service Transactions:
- User-friendly self-service portal for employees to record their own working hours, create leave requests, and track their status.
7. Reporting and Analytics:
- Detailed reporting and analytical capabilities on employee time and workforce data.
- Powerful reports for productivity analyses and workforce planning.
Absence Management
Absence Management,” a submodule of Oracle HR Core, is a comprehensive solution within the organization’s time management, focusing on effectively managing and tracking types of absences such as leave, vacation, and sickness. In SAP, absence management, a part of time management, appears as a separate module with the following features
1. Leave and Holiday Management:
- Employees can create leave requests, and managers can approve these requests.
- Setting and managing vacation days, official holidays, and special days on the calendar.
2. Absenteeism Tracking:
- Monitoring and reporting on employee absenteeism status.
- Effective management of various types of absenteeism, such as illness, emergencies, official holidays, etc.
3. Rule-Based Management:
- Defining and implementing rules based on leave and absenteeism policies.
- Flexible rules allow for limitations on leaves, approval processes, and other customizations.
4. Reporting and Analytics:
- Powerful reporting and analytic capabilities on absenteeism data.
- Effective reporting of employee leave history used leave types and related information.
5. Self-Service Transactions:
- User-friendly self-service portal for employees to create their own leave requests and track the status of their leaves.
6. Automatic Calculations:
- Automatic calculation and updating of leave quotas.
- Flexible definition of different quotas based on types of leave.
Goal Management
The “Goal Management” module within Oracle HR Core is a comprehensive solution used by organizations to enhance employee performance, achieve strategic goals, and successfully manage individual objectives. This module assists employees in setting personal goals, tracking the processes to achieve these goals, and evaluating their performance. It includes the following features
1. Goal Setting:
- Allows employees to set individual and team goals.
- Supports goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART).
2. Performance Planning:
- Used to establish performance expectations between employees and managers.
- Strategic alignment of goals with organizational objectives.
3. Goal Progress Tracking:
- Enables employees to track their progress towards goals.
- Effective recording of progress status completed tasks, and achievements.
4. Goal Assessment and Feedback:
- Supports giving feedback between employees and managers during the goal achievement process.
- Can be integrated into performance evaluation processes.
5. Collaboration and Communication:
- Goal-oriented chat and sharing tools to enhance collaboration and communication among employees.
- Coordination between team goals and individual goals.
6. Reporting and Analytics:
- Detailed reporting and analytic capabilities on goal progress, success rates, and performance data.
- Capability to measure the contribution to strategic goals.
Performance Management
Oracle HR Core’s “Performance Management” module is a solution that assists organizations in effectively managing employee performance, conducting evaluations, and enabling them to achieve their goals. SAP also has a module with a similar name and purpose.
It includes the following features
1. Goal Setting:
- Allows employees to set individual and team goals.
- Supports goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART)
2. Performance Evaluation:
- Used to evaluate employees’ performance based on specific criteria.
- Ensures that performance evaluations are conducted at regular intervals
3. Progress Tracking and Feedback:
- Used to track progress in employee performance and provide feedback.
- Includes tools to facilitate interaction between employees and managers.
4. Talent Development and Training:
- Used to identify employees’ deficiencies and define areas for improvement.
- Capability to direct employees to relevant training and development programs.
5. Reporting and Analytics:
- Detailed reporting and analytic capabilities on performance evaluations, goal attainment rates, and other performance data.
- Analysis tools to assess the effectiveness of performance management processes.
6. Employee Motivation and Engagement:
- Emphasizing performance goals and achievements to increase employee motivation.
- Positive feedback and recognition processes to increase employee engagement.
While Oracle HR Core shows significant similarity with SAP on the functional side, it deviates a bit on the technical modules due to using an Oracle-based database, distinct from SAP and other competitors. Let’s explore the technical modules and features
Business Intelligence Publısher Reports
Integrated into Oracle HR Core, BIP (Business Intelligence Publisher) reports typically enable organizations to analyze data in their human resources processes and generate effective reports. BIP is a powerful reporting tool by Oracle and often operates seamlessly integrated with Oracle Fusion Middleware. It allows the creation of the following reports
1. Personnel Reports:
- Includes essential personnel information, recruitment processes, and demographic reports.
2. Absenteeism and Leave Reports:
- Provides detailed reports on leave usage, absenteeism status, and leave quotas.
3. Performance Management Reports:
- Provides access to comprehensive data related to performance management, including performance evaluations, goal achievement statuses, and talent management reports.
4. Time and Workforce Reports:
- Includes detailed reports related to workforce management, such as working hours, overtime, and time tracking.
5. Training and Talent Development Reports:
- Provides access to data related to training management, including training requests, training statuses, and talent development reports.
6. Salary and Benefits Reports:
- Includes detailed reports on salary information, benefits utilization, and salary structures
7. Recruitment and Employment Reports:
- Provides access to comprehensive reports on recruitment processes, vacant positions, and recruitment costs, among other recruitment and employment data.
8. Legal Compliance Reports:
- Assists organizations in managing legal requirements by providing various legal compliance reports to ensure adherence to regulatory standards.
Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence
Oracle HR Core, organizations with a comprehensive business intelligence solution by supporting OTBI (Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence) reports and dashboards. OTBI, as Oracle’s transactional data analysis and reporting tool, enables users to analyze transactions, transactions, and business intelligence data, customize, and create effective reports. It allows for the following reports
1. Personnel Analysis and Reporting:
- Comprehensive reports containing personnel data such as employee counts, demographic information, recruitment, and turnover analyses.
2. Absenteeism and Leave Analyses:
- Detailed analysis reports related to workforce management, including absenteeism rates, leave usage, and leave quotas.
3. Performance Management Analyses:
- Comprehensive analyses related to performance management, including performance evaluations, goal achievement statuses, and talent management reports.
4. Time and Workforce Analyses:
- Detailed analysis reports related to workforce management, including working hours analyses, overtime, and time tracking.
5. Training and Talent Development Analyses:
- Comprehensive reports related to training management, including training requests, training statuses, and talent development analyses.
6. Salary and Benefits Analyses:
- Detailed analysis reports related to salary and benefits, including salary structures, benefits utilization, and salary changes.
7. Recruitment and Employment Analyses:
- Recruitment and employment analyses, including recruitment costs, vacant position analyses, and recruitment process analyses.
What are the differences between OTBI (Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence) Reports and Dashboards, and BIP (Business Intelligence Publisher) reports in Oracle HR Core?
Oracle HR Core provides users with extensive reporting options through both OTBI (Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence) reports and BIP (Business Intelligence Publisher) reports. However, there are distinct differences between these two reporting tools. Here are some key differences:
1. Data Source and Processing:
- OTBI (Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence): It is a tool that analyzes transactional data to generate real-time and detailed reports. It typically focuses on data directly associated with transactions.
- BIP (Business Intelligence Publisher): It is a tool that creates reports containing a broader dataset using business intelligence data. The customization capability is often higher.
2. Ease of Use and Self-Service:
- OTBI: It offers a user-friendly interface, allowing users to create their own reports with filtering, grouping, and visualization capabilities.
- BIP: It provides more customization capability but can be more complex, and users often may require more technical knowledge.
3. Report Design and Output:
- OTBI: Typically offers interactive features and allows for quick analysis of data, with elements like tables, charts, and dashboards in its content.
- BIP: Relies on a specific format, generally providing a more static output and creating reports that adhere to specific design requirements.
4. Integration Capabilities:
- OTBI: Tightly integrated with Oracle’s transactional applications and operates with data from these applications.
- BIP: Provides a more general integration capability, allowing the merging of data from different sources and reporting on it.
5. Distribution of Reports:
- OTBI: Offers users the ability to visualize and share reports directly through an interface.
- BIP: Provides the ability to export reports in various formats and distribute them automatically according to specific schedules.
Extracts
Oracle HR Core typically facilitates data management processes for organizations by offering various data extraction options. These data extraction processes allow organizations to retrieve specific datasets from the Oracle HCM (Human Capital Management) system and transfer them to external systems or reporting tools. It possesses the following features and use cases:
1. Usage of Data Pump or Data Loader:
- Oracle HCM typically supports data extraction processes using tools such as Data Pump or Data Loader. These tools enable the extraction of data from specific tables and transfer it to external systems.
2. Oracle BI Publisher (BIP) Reports:
- BIP reports can be used to extract data from Oracle HR Core. BIP allows you to create customizable reports and export them in various formats.
3. Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) Reports:
- Oracle HCM typically supports the OBI (Oracle Business Intelligence) reporting tool. OBI reports provide a robust solution for extracting and analyzing business intelligence data.
4. RESTful Web Services:
- Oracle HCM allows you to perform data extraction processes through RESTful web services. These web services enable you to retrieve specific datasets and integrate them with external systems.
5. SQL Queries and Database Access:
- Data extraction processes can be performed either directly using SQL queries on the Oracle database or through database management tools.
6. Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC):
- Oracle Integration Cloud is a platform that manages data integration between Oracle HCM and other systems. Data extraction processes and integrations can be conducted through OIC
Oracle Human Resources Data Loader (HDL) & HCM Spreadsheet Data Loader (HSDL)
Oracle Human Resources (HR) Core uses tools such as HDL (HCM Data Loader) and HSDL (HCM Spreadsheet Data Loader), which are essential for managing significant data loads and streamlining Oracle’s human resources processes. These tools enable the large-scale loading of data related to recruitment, personnel management, performance management, salary management, training management, and other HR processes into the Oracle HR Core system.
HCM Data Loader (HDL):
- HDL typically supports data loads in XML format.
- It allows bulk loading of large datasets into the Oracle HR Core system through XML files.
- It supports data loading with validation, security, and monitoring features.
HCM Spreadsheet Data Loader (HSDL):
- It is a solution similar to LSMW Batch Input in SAP.
- HSDL typically facilitates data loads using Excel spreadsheets.
- It allows preparing datasets using tables in Excel format and loading this data into the Oracle HR Core system.
- It enables users to perform data extraction, manipulation, and loading processes more user-friendly using Excel tables.
Oracle Fast Formulas
Fast Formulas” in Oracle HR Core generally refers to a specialized formula language used for complex calculations, conditional logic operations, and other custom operations. These formulas are utilized to customize and implement calculation and evaluation logic, especially in personnel management, salary management, performance management, and other Human Resources (HR) processes. The key features of Fast Formulas are as follows:
Flexible Formula Language: Fast Formulas support a flexible formula language to perform mathematical operations, conditional expressions, loops, and other complex logical operations.
Areas of Operation: It can be used in salary, personnel records, performance, recruitment, and other HR modules. For example, it can be utilized to create custom logic for salary calculations or performance evaluations, similar to PE02 Payroll Calculation Rules in SAP.
Database Connection: Fast Formulas typically have the ability to connect to the Oracle database, providing access to database tables and other data sources.
Conditional Logical Statements: The ability to make different calculations based on specific conditions using conditional statements.
Dynamic Calculations: Fast Formulas stand out with the ability to perform dynamic calculations, allowing the calculation of values that vary based on specific conditions, positions, or business processes.
Excellence Rules: Fast Formulas can be used to define excellence rules. These rules determine how specific situations, processes, or personnel policies should be handled.
Performance and Measurement: Fast Formulas include optimized algorithms to enhance the performance of calculations and can typically work effectively with large datasets.
Fast Formulas is a critical feature that enhances the flexibility and customizability of Oracle HCM applications.
Workflow and Approvals and Notifications
Oracle HR Core içindeki iş akışları (workflow), onaylar ve bildirimler, genellikle organizasyonların İnsan Kaynakları süreçlerini yönetmelerini ve otomatikleştirmelerini sağlar. Oracle HCM (Human Capital Management) uygulamalarındaki iş akışları, bir dizi tanımlanabilir adım ve onay sürecinden oluşur ve genellikle belirli bir eylemin gerçekleştirilmesi için bir dizi otomatize edilmiş adım içerir.
The fundamental concepts related to workflows, approvals, and notifications in Oracle HR Core are as follows:
Workflows: Workflows consist of a series of automated steps associated with a specific task or process. For example, a recruitment process, a performance evaluation, or a leave request could be a workflow.
Approvals: Workflows typically include a series of approval steps. These steps involve obtaining the necessary approvals for a specific action to be taken. Approvals are often carried out in a hierarchical sequence or by specific roles.
Notifications: During workflows and approvals, relevant individuals receive notifications through emails, in-app notifications, or other communication tools. Notifications may include information about the status of the process, approval requests, and other important details.
Role-Based Workflows: Workflows are typically associated with specific roles. For example, if an approval process requires approval from a manager, the workflow is associated with the manager role. This can be customized based on the organization’s structure and business processes.
Customizable Rules and Conditions: Oracle HR Core provides a wide set of rules and conditions to customize workflows and approvals. This allows organizations to configure specific workflows and approvals according to their needs.
Traceability and Reporting: Workflows are often traceable and reportable. This is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of processes and making improvements when needed.
Oracle HR Core’s workflows, approvals, and notifications are essential features for organizations looking to automate and streamline various HR processes using Oracle HCM applications.
Customizations
The Oracle HR Core offers a broad range of features and can be flexibly customized to meet the specific needs of organizations. From my experience with SAP HCM, I can say that there are similarities in the adaptations made in both systems.
The customizations that can be made in Oracle HR Core are outlined as follows:
Screen and Form Customizations: Screens and forms in Oracle HR Core can be customized to fit the needs of organizations. This allows adjusting the user interface to the organization’s business processes and preferences
Data Fields and Templates: Custom fields can be added to the database, and data templates can be customized. This is used to meet specific data requirements
Fast Formulas and Custom Business Calculations: Calculations within Oracle HR Core can utilize Fast Formulas to perform conditional logical expressions and other custom operations. This can include custom salary calculations, additional payment rules, and similar custom calculations
Workflows and Approval Processes: Workflows and approval processes can be customized to automate and tailor human resources processes. This is used to configure specific business processes and approval mechanisms according to the organization’s needs.
Reports and Dashboards: Oracle HR Core provides customizable reporting tools and dashboards. This allows organizations to create reports tailored to their needs and track essential data, enabling better decision-making
Integrations and Web Services: Oracle HR Core provides various integration tools and web services for seamless integration and data sharing with other systems. This allows organizations to easily manage data flow between different systems.
Personal Opinions
The main motivation behind creating this blog is to compile and share the notes I have taken, providing a comparison and preview based on my experience with SAP HCM. Although there isn’t a significant difference in the functional aspects, what particularly caught my attention is Oracle HR Core’s ability to perform tasks similar to what SAP’s Data modules do, leveraging the integrated structure of the Oracle Database
If I have the opportunity to work as an Oracle consultant in the future, I can provide a personal comparison between SAP and Oracle, incorporating my experiences gained in the professional field. Currently, I’ve shared my general impressions and information I found on the internet with you. Until the next post, goodbye.
