Understanding Setting Up Search and Compare Profiles
The Search and Compare Profiles feature uses the PeopleTools Search Framework to search and compare profiles. Search and Compare Profiles enables employees, managers, and administrators to search for profiles that match selected search criteria and compare those profiles. Here are examples of the types of searches that are possible:
Employees can search for jobs that match their own personal profile.
Managers can select an employee who reports to them and search for other direct or indirect reports with similar skills.
Managers can search for direct or indirect reports who match the profile for a job opening that they want to fill.
Administrators can select a job profile and search for similar job profiles.
Note: Before users can run any searches, administrators must build the indexes and define the search queries available on the Search Configuration page. For a limited set of profile type properties, the indexes store only code-based data. These indexes support search word matching only on the property data.
(Fluid) For fluid Search and Compare, additional filters are provided for the Person Profile index on Regulatory Region, Business Unit, Department, Location, Job Title, Regular/Temporary, and Full/Part-time, where a full or partial description can be entered.
Note: To use Fluid Search and Compare you need to be on PeopleTools 8.57 or higher.
Define search types for your organization on the Define Search Configuration Page and (Fluid) Fluid Compare Configuration - Page Display Page. The high level keys for a search configuration are the object owner identifier, the sub application id, and the search ID. The object owner identifier enables other products to easily interface with the PeopleSoft Manage Profiles search engine. For Manage Profiles searches, select the HCM Profile Management (JPM) in the Object owner identifier field. The Sub Application Id field indicates other products using the Search and Compare processes, such as Succession Planning.
For each search configuration, you define:
Search Properties (source and target profile types)
The source and the target profile types are the two profile types that are being compared in the search. The source is the profile type that forms the basis for the search criteria and the target is the profile type being searched for matching profiles. These profile types (source and target profile types) must share a common set of content types (for Classic) or criteria (for Fluid), otherwise no search criteria items can be entered. For example, if an employee searches for jobs that match his or her personal profile, the source is the employee's person profile type and the target is the job profile type. All content types or criteria shared by both the person profile type and the job profile type are exposed as search criteria content sections.
Criteria Rule
The Criteria Rule field defines two aspects of the search: whether the system populates the search criteria based on the profile that the user selects for the search and whether users can view and adjust the search criteria.
There are three types of criteria rules:
Default, No Display: The system populates the search criteria from the source profile and runs the search without displaying the search criteria page. If you select any other criteria rule, the system displays the search criteria page and users can adjust the criteria before running the search.
Default and Display: The system populates the search criteria using the source profile and displays the search criteria so users can view and adjust the data before running the search.
No Default, Display (Adhoc): The search does not have default search criteria and users define the search criteria manually. For this type of search, the source and target profile types are not mandatory in the configuration. However, if these fields are blank, users must select source and target profile types before they define the search criteria.
Display Max
You can indicate the maximum number of profiles per page returned by the search query.
Roles (who can run the search)
You can set up searches for one or more of the roles: Employee, Manager, and Administrator. Users can only run the searches that are defined for their role. In addition, the search results list only those profiles to which the user has the appropriate security. For example, if a manager searches for employees that match a job profile, the search results include those employees that are direct or indirect reports of the manager.
Fluid Display Options
Specify the default sorting order of the search results. You can also identify a profile compare configuration ID that defines additional data to display for a person or non-person profile on the compare page.
Viewing Search Results
The profile type definitions are the basis for Search and Compare Profiles so it's important to understand how they affect the search results. When users select a search, to build the search criteria, the system:
Identifies the content sections to include in the search criteria.
The system compares the source and target profile types to identify which content sections appear in both source and target. Only the content sections that are common to the source and target profile types are included in the search criteria.
Identifies the properties to include in the search criteria for each of the content sections identified in the previous step.
The properties included are those defined as searchable in the target profile type.
Example: Search Criteria
To illustrate how Search and Compare Profiles works, consider the example of an administrator searching for employees who match a given job profile. In this example:
Source profile type is JOB.
Target profile type is PERSON.
Suppose that the JOB profile type has the following content sections and properties that are defined as searchable:
|
Content Section |
Searchable Properties |
|---|---|
|
Competencies |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Competency) JPM_RATING1 (Target Proficiency) |
|
Degrees |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Degree) COUNTRY (Country) |
|
Test/Examinations |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Test) |
|
Responsibilities |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Responsibility) JPM_YN_2 (Critical) |
Suppose that the PERSON profile type has the following content sections and properties that are defined as searchable:
|
Content Section |
Searchable Properties |
|---|---|
|
Competencies |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Competency ID) JPM_RATING1 (Proficiency) JPM_INTEREST_LEVEL (Interest Level) |
|
Degrees |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Degree) COUNTRY (Country) MAJOR_CODE (Major Code) |
|
School Education |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Education Level) SCHOOL CODE (School Code) COUNTRY (Country) AVERAGE_GRADE (Average Grade) |
|
Test/Examinations |
JPM_CAT_ITEM (Test) |
In this example, the search criteria are:
|
Content Section |
Properties |
|---|---|
|
Competencies |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Competency) JPM_RATING1 (Target Proficiency) JPM_INTEREST_LEVEL (Interest Level) |
|
Degrees |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Degree) COUNTRY (Country) MAJOR_CODE (Major Code) |
|
Test/Examinations |
JPM_CAT_ITEM_ID (Test) |
Notice that:
Responsibilities and School Education are missing because these content sections do not appear in both the source and the target profile types.
The properties included in the search criteria are those defined as searchable in the target profile type.
The labels displayed on the Search Criteria page are those defined in the source profile type for those properties that are defined in both the source and the target profile type.
In the example, the label for the property JPM_RATING1 is Target Proficiency in the source profile type and Proficiency in the target profile type. When users run the search, the JPM_RATING1 field is labelled Target Proficiency on the Search Criteria page.
(Classic) Importance and Mandatory Properties
The classic pages allow you to use the Importance and Mandatory properties when retrieving results. These properties are not used in the Fluid pages.
The Importance (JPM_IMPORTANCE) and Mandatory (JPM_MANDATORY) properties appear on the Search Criteria page for each of the content sections included in the search criteria. The system automatically adds these fields to enable users to adjust the search as follows:
The Mandatory check box enables users to specify profile items that must appear in the matching profiles.
If the Mandatory check box is selected for any profile item, the search results include only those profiles containing that profile item and having the same property values as those in the search criteria. For example, if the search criteria includes an item 0100 - Abstract Thinking and a proficiency of Good for the item, if you specify that the item is mandatory, the search results include only profiles that contain both the 0100 - Abstract Thinking item AND a proficiency equal to Good. Any profiles that have the item but with a lower or higher proficiency value are not included in the search results.
If the Mandatory property is included in a content section definition, the system uses the setting of the property in the profile as the default value in the search criteria, but users can override the default.
The Importance field is a way to define the profile items that are most or least important.
When the search runs, the search framework uses the Importance field to determine the ranking of matching profiles. The default value is 3 - Average, but users can override this value.
For searches with a criteria rule of Default, No Display that do not allow users to modify the search criteria, the system automatically assigns the default importance value (3 - Average).
If the Mandatory property is included in a content section definition, the system uses the Mandatory setting in the profile as the default value for the Mandatory field in the search criteria, but users can override the default.
(Fluid) Exact Match Property
The Fluid Search and Compare process uses the Exact Match property.
The Exact Match property appears on the Search Criteria page for each of the content sections included in the search criteria and enables users to specify profile items that must appear in the matching profiles.
When an exact match is specified for a criteria item, the search process incorporates the boolean logic to determine if a match occurs. When you use the OR operator between items or groups, the results can still return a profile if matches occur on other criteria items. However, when there is only one criteria group and the items are connected with the AND operator, then the results will not return the profile if the property or rating do not match exactly for that item.
If the Mandatory property is included in a content section definition, the system uses the Mandatory setting in the profile as the default value for the Exact Match field in the search criteria, but users can override the default.
See also (Fluid) Searching and Comparing Profiles.
Search Filters and Advanced Filters
The Search Criteria page includes filters if you have set up searchable profile group types for the target profile type. Search filters enable you to narrow the search to specific data and will vary based on your user interface.
(Classic) When using the classic Search Criteria pages, the top of the page will display a collapsible Search Filters section. You use this section to narrow your search to specific profile groups, locations, or travel preferences.
(Fluid) When using the fluid Search Criteria pages, the page will display an Advanced Filters tab. Access this page to narrow your search by advanced filters (regulatory region, business unit, department, location, job title, regular/temporary status, and full/part time status) and by profile groups.
To illustrate how this works, consider the following example:
The profile group type GLOBAL includes the profile type JOB.
The profile groups for GLOBAL are REGION1, REGION2, and REGION3.
When users select a search where the target profile type is JOB, the search filter link enables users to select one or more of the profile groups REGION1, REGION2, and REGION3. The search results are limited to profiles that belong to the selected profile groups. The Search Filter feature is particularly useful if your organization has large numbers of profiles.
(Classic) Current Location and Travel Preferences filters are only available in the classic pages if the target profile is configured to include those content sections. Current Location and Travel Preferences do not display in the Advanced Filters section of the fluid pages.
See (Classic) Searching and Comparing Profiles and (Fluid) Searching and Comparing Profiles.