17Synchronization of Onboarding (Transitions) With Onboarding
Synchronization of Onboarding (Transitions) With Onboarding
Onboarding (Transitions) Synchronization
The synchronization tool in Onboarding (Transitions) Administration copies most administrative objects from Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) in an automated manner.
For Legacy Onboarding customers who do not want to reproduce all of their data and processes in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) manually, Onboarding (Transitions) synchronization (referred to sometimes as the "sync tool") available with 13B and later versions of Taleo Enterprise enables them to copy almost all existing Legacy Onboarding information into Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) automatically: Legacy Onboarding processes, conditions, tasks, forms, message templates, documents, E-Signature and some UDFs. UDFs that are also in Taleo Recruiting, are not duplicated (simply because copying them would be redundant). OVI-based tasks, reporting and Taleo Connect integrations saw more extensive development efforts in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) so they require the intervention of the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator. Though New Hire Portal does not exist in name in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), Onboarding (Transitions) content pages can be created and configured for this purpose if desired.
After reviewing (and modifying if you wish) the processes copied into Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), you can enable them in your zone. Processes can then be started or stopped for candidates and employees through Taleo Connect or the Recruiting Center.
The sync tool compares the code of administrative objects in Legacy Onboarding with the code of objects in Onboarding (Transitions) (in the case for UDFs, the Onboarding (Transitions) code is compared with object names in Taleo Recruiting). Where a match is identified, the object is "skipped", not copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Where there is no match, the object is copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). An object's status in Legacy Onboarding is also copied during synchronization with the exception of processes. Following synchronization, the default status of all processes in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) is Draft.
In cases where a message template, text document or paragraph in Legacy Onboarding does not have a value in the Code field, synchronization generates a value for the field in the copied object in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
Every time synchronization is performed, a report is generated indicating whether each object in Legacy Onboarding examined by the sync tool was copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) (because it was new to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions)) or "skipped" (because it was found in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions)). In rare situations where an object was not reproduced perfectly, the Details - Changes and Placeholders column in the report indicates if placeholders or other substitutions were made automatically. For example, some types of Legacy Onboarding tasks are copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) as manual tasks and this information is duly noted in the report. Examining the report, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can easily identify those tasks and will typically replace them in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) with redesigned ones. The object list can be filtered by type of object (document, E-Signature, form, image, message template, task, user-defined field and user-defined selection, process).
Though there is no "export to Microsoft Excel" feature, the rows and columns in a synchronization report can be selected using a mouse and then copied and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet. In Excel, filters can be applied or the data can be printed.
Each row in the report is numbered, which enables Onboarding (Transitions) administrators to know the total number of rows in the report and to keep track of which rows they have examined. Each row includes the name of an object that was synchronized. The Details – Changes and Placeholders column displays recommendations if any. If recommendations are lengthy, administrators can click "…(more)" to view all of the recommendations for that object. Administrators then have the option of clicking "Next" to view all the recommendations of the following object that was synchronized or displaying the report list anew.
In most cases, performing synchronization once and making adjustments to some objects identified in the report will be sufficient. Customers will then enable their Onboarding (Transitions) processes for use in the Recruiting Center or with Taleo Connect.
In some cases, the nature of the changes made to objects might warrant running the sync tool again. The sync tool can be run any number of times. Recall that the sync tool compares the code of administrative objects in Legacy Onboarding with the code of objects in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) (in the case for UDFs, the Onboarding (Transitions) code is compared with object names in Taleo Recruiting). Where a match is identified, the object is "skipped", not copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions); where there is no match, the object is copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Modifying Legacy Onboarding elements between synchronizations might produce undesirable results in some situations. Suppose, for example, that you used the sync tool, copying forms, tasks, processes and so forth from Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Later, in Legacy Onboarding, you replaced the form associated with a task with a different form. If you performed synchronization again afterward, the sync tool would determine that a task with the same code was already in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) and would "skip" the task, not copy it. As a result, the task in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) would not be updated to include the new form associated with the corresponding task in Legacy Onboarding. A second example involves a Legacy Onboarding message template and the template copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Suppose the Legacy Onboarding administrator later added or removed fields from the Legacy Onboarding template. If synchronization was performed again, the sync tool would determine that both message templates had the same code so it would not copy the updated Legacy Onboarding message template to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). To summarize:
-
The sync tool does not compare the contents of administrative objects; it compares their codes.
-
If you need to run the sync tool more than once, avoid making changes to Legacy Onboarding objects until after you have no further need to synchronize.
The Onboarding (Transitions) sync tool operates within a single zone. For this reason, it cannot be used to copy data from a staging zone to a production zone, nor can it be used to copy data from different versions (Legacy Onboarding 12C to Legacy Onboarding 13A).
Recall that Taleo Recruiting and the new Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) product share almost all database information originating from fields common to both products. In addition, Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) features a new type of career section that combines the features of traditional career sections with onboarding and other processes that involve candidates and employees.
Configuration
Legacy Onboarding is enabled in the zone.
System administrators have the user permissions listed in the following table.
| User Type Permission | Location |
|---|---|
| Manage user-defined forms to display and collect data Manage text documents and paragraphs for use in content pages and message templates Manage user-defined fields, E-Signatures, and user-defined reporting Manage task definitions, related sources, content pages, and imagesManage Onboarding (Transitions) processes of all types |
|
User-defined Fields - Synchronization
The synchronization process ensures that the appropriate user-defined fields (UDFs) exist, or creates them if necessary, to be used by Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), for every UDF that was used in Taleo Onboarding.
The goal of the sync tool is to ensure that all the needed UDFs are available as building blocks for the later parts of the synchronization process. For example, in order for forms and message templates to get recreated in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), it will require all the UDF ingredients to be available for Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) to access.
When the sync tool runs, there are three sources of UDFs that are accepted to ensure that all Onboarding UDFs have a counterpart that will be usable and appropriate in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). The sync tool can either identify the right existing Recruiting UDFs, or can create new UDFs as needed within Taleo Recruiting, or can create new UDFs within Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) as appropriate. Here are more details:
If Onboarding UDFs match any existing Recruiting UDFs, then the sync tool does not need to create any new UDFs. Later, when synchronizing forms and other objects, the sync tool will use the Recruiting UDFs that were identified as matching, in place of the Onboarding UDFs from the original Onboarding forms.
If Onboarding UDFs do not match any existing Recruiting UDFs, then the sync tool creates them in Taleo Recruiting except in a few cases (see next bullet). These new UDFs are created in Recruiting under Candidate - Personal Information or under Candidate - Submission. Again, these new UDFs will be used later in the synchronization process, to be incorporated into newly-synchronized Onboarding (Transitions) forms.
In certain cases, the synchronization will match an Onboarding UDF by creating a new UDF in the Onboarding (Transitions)-specific UDF area. These Onboarding (Transitions) UDFs are not accessible by Taleo Recruiting.
In Taleo Onboarding, the code of a UDF is unique. In Taleo Recruiting, the name of a UDF is unique. Synchronization uses this information, comparing each UDF's code in Taleo Onboarding with each UDF's name in Taleo Recruiting, to determine if there are UDFs common to both products. Where there are matches, synchronization does not create new UDFs in Taleo Recruiting; Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) uses the Recruiting UDFs "as is" in forms, message templates, conditions and so forth. Where there is no match, synchronization creates new UDFs in Taleo Recruiting that Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) will use.
During synchronization, certain categories of UDF are copied to Taleo Recruiting (Configuration > [Recruiting] Administration > Candidate > Show Fields).
| Onboarding UDFs available in these categories... | ... become available in these Recruiting UDFs categories |
|---|---|
| Assignment | Submission |
| Education | Education |
| Job Application | Submission |
| Offer | Submission |
| Talent Master File | Personal Information |
| Work Experience | Work Experience |
If you have any Onboarding UDFs in the Evaluation category, these UDFs will not be synchronized. When the sync tool encounters Onboarding Evaluation UDFs, nothing will happen in the UDF area, neither in Taleo Recruiting nor in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). These UDFs are simply ignored and no counterparts are identified nor created. If any larger objects are using these Onboarding Evaluation UDFs as ingredients, here is what will happen:
Forms: Any Onboarding form page that included them will be synchronized to a blank page in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
Conditions: Any Onboarding condition that included them will be synchronized to use the Text Placeholder UDF in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
Message Templates: Any Onboarding message template that included them will be synchronized to not display anything where that variable remains.
PDFs: Onboarding PDFs never supported these UDFs, and PDFs do not get automatically synchronized either.
Some types of Onboarding UDFs are not supported in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) or Taleo Recruiting. In such cases, the sync tool creates substitutes. The synchronization report reveals the substitutes that will be used in place of the unsupported Onboarding UDFs.
Boolean-type UDFs were supported in Taleo Onboarding and continue to be supported in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions); however they are not supported in Taleo Recruiting. Therefore, during the synchronization process when any Boolean Onboarding UDF needs to be matched with its counterpart Recruiting UDF, a placeholder Recruiting UDF will be created. This Recruiting UDF will have two possible values, just like a boolean field: "Yes" and "No". These values come from another new object that gets created in Recruiting by the synchronization process: a short User-Defined Selection (SUDS). Whenever any Onboarding object relied upon an Onboarding (Transitions) boolean UDF, now the synchronized onboarding form or message template or other object will instead reply upon the newly-created Recruiting placeholder UDF with possible selection values Yes/No. This substitution will be listed in the synchronization report, so that proper UDFs can be created manually by the Recruiting or Onboarding (Transitions) administrator instead, to replace these placeholders manually anywhere needed.
Date and Date-and-Timezone UDFs were supported in Taleo Onboarding and continue to be supported in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions); however Date-and-Timezone UDF is not supported in Taleo Recruiting. During synchronization, each Onboarding Date-and-Timezone UDF needs to be matched with a Recruiting UDF. The newly-created Recruiting UDF is only of type Date, not Date-and-Timezone. This slight change will be listed in the Synchronization Report.
Taleo Onboarding references fields that do not have counterparts in Taleo Recruiting will be renamed "Reference/Middle Name" in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) . However, the Onboarding references fields that have counterparts will be synchronized into appropriate Onboarding (Transitions) fields. For example, these Onboarding fields have counterparts in Onboarding (Transitions): Organization, Location, Phone Number, First Name, Last Name, Email Address.
Some organizations might have enabled more languages in Taleo Recruiting than in Taleo Onboarding. When UDFs are copied from Onboarding into Recruiting, the sync tool substitutes the string "Need-To-Translate" for each language which is lacking a translation in the original Onboarding.
User-defined Selections - Synchronization
The purpose of user-defined selections (UDSs) is to provide the possible answer values for a user-defined field (UDF), for instance when displayed in a form to an assignee. Because the synchronization will consider all the UDFs in Legacy Onboarding and will transform them into Recruiting UDFs where needed, it is also necessary for the synchronization process to consider all the UDS in Legacy Onboarding and to transform these into Recruiting UDS for use within those new Recruiting UDFs.
Legacy Onboarding UDSs could be defined to permit multiple selections for a UDF, by a Legacy Onboarding form assignee. The sync tool will preserve this capability in the newly-created onboarding forms which rely upon these newly-created UDFs and UDSs. So any Legacy Onboarding UDS that was configured to allow multiple selection will be created as SUDS. This is because LUDS cannot support multiple selections when their UDF is assigned in a form. Also, please note that the minimum number of elements for the sync tool's SUDS/LUDS cutoff point will be large enough to allow the synchronization to create the largest Legacy Onboarding UDS as a Recruiting SUDS.
Some organizations might have enabled and provided corresponding values for more languages in Recruiting than in Legacy Onboarding. Consequently, when UDFs are copied from Legacy Onboarding to Onboarding (Transitions), UDFs in Recruiting will have the corresponding value for languages supported by Legacy Onboarding while the same fields will have no value for languages not supported by Legacy Onboarding. Take the case where Recruiting included a language not supported by Legacy Onboarding. Following synchronization, an Onboarding (Transitions) process was run. The process included a form that included a LUDS. In Onboarding (Transitions), the LUDS and its elements would display correctly in languages supported by Legacy Onboarding. On the other hand, in the language not supported by Legacy Onboarding, the LUDS would not be displayed in Onboarding (Transitions).
A user-defined selection in Legacy Onboarding must have at least one element if it is to be synchronized from Legacy Onboarding into Recruiting so that they can be used in Onboarding (Transitions).
If synchronization identifies user-defined selections in Legacy Onboarding that are already in Recruiting, these are not copied to Recruiting.
E-Signatures - Synchronization
The Onboarding (Transitions) sync tool copies all 50 generic E-Signatures in Legacy Onboarding to Onboarding (Transitions).
If a name is changed in Legacy Onboarding, the change is reflected in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) following synchronization and recorded in the synchronization report. In the rare case where an Onboarding (Transitions) administrator modified an E-Signature configuration manually in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) for any reason and then ran the sync tool a second time, the E-Signature configuration in Legacy Onboarding would overwrite the changes he/she made in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
Running the sync tool does not affect the four additional E-Signatures available in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions): three intended for use with I-9 forms and the fourth intended for use with E-Offers.
Images - Synchronization
Though synchronization copies Legacy Onboarding image files to Onboarding (Transitions), Onboarding (Transitions) administrators must update manually all URLs in forms and message templates copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) that point to images.
During synchronization, the code of each image in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) is compared with the code of all the images in Taleo Legacy Onboarding. The sync tool copies only images whose code is not found in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) (and that have a URL) and it adds a new Onboarding (Transitions) URL automatically to each copied image.
The Legacy Onboarding administrator should avoid modifying an image file after it has been copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). If they modify the file and later perform synchronization again, the new Legacy Onboarding content will not be reproduced in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions): the sync tool will determine that the image code is already in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) and will "skip" (not copy) the file.
Documents and Paragraphs - Synchronization
The Onboarding (Transitions) sync tool copies documents in Taleo Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) as well as paragraphs that are part of at least one document.
The comments in this section refer to HTML-based documents and paragraphs created in Taleo Legacy Onboarding, not to PDF files created with Acrobat or other products.
Paragraphs not included in any document are not copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
If documents in Taleo Legacy Onboarding contain variables, the documents copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) typically include the variables updated to the corresponding Taleo Recruiting variables that Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) recognizes. If the sync tool does not recognize a variable, it replaces the variable with a placeholder in the document in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). This makes it easy for Onboarding (Transitions) administrators to identify locations in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) documents where they will want to replace the placeholders with the desired correct variables that are relevant in Onboarding (Transitions).
If the languages enabled in Taleo Legacy Onboarding and Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) are exactly the same, all the language versions of HTML-based documents and paragraphs created in Taleo Legacy Onboarding are copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). On the other hand, if some languages are enabled ("activated") in Taleo Legacy Onboarding and not in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), versions of documents and paragraphs in those languages are unavailable in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
PDF-type Documents - Synchronization
Onboarding (Transitions) synchronization copies the properties of each PDF-type document from Taleo Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). The name, code, status and description are the same. However, no PDF files are actually copied and attached to the PDF-type documents copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can download the PDF files from Taleo Legacy Onboarding, manually replace placeholders added by the sync tool with variables used by Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), and add the updated files to the appropriate Onboarding (Transitions) documents. Replacing placeholders with Onboarding (Transitions) variables can be done using the variable's name from the onboarding form builder, replacing the forward slash with a period. For more information, please refer to the "Inserting Variables in a PDF Document" section of the Onboarding (Transitions) Configuration Guide.
Please note that for multilingual zones, several different PDF files might be associated with a Legacy Onboarding document to support different language variations. The synchronization process does create the proper document name and description for all of the languages that are enabled in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator then needs to upload the associated PDF files for each language after manually inserting the same Onboarding (Transitions) variables for all languages.
Forms - Synchronization
The Onboarding (Transitions) synchronization tool copies forms from Taleo Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
In most cases, the copied forms require no intervention from the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator. If there are cases where fields on a form require intervention from the administrator, they are listed in the synchronization report.
During synchronization, all forms in Taleo Legacy Onboarding whose code is not found in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) are copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). The onboarding forms have the same form name, code, status, page names, images, text and formatting as the corresponding Legacy Onboarding forms. These forms are listed in the synchronization report as “Missing” and “Added”.
Almost every field in these Legacy Onboarding forms is transformed into an equivalent field in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Most fields are easy to synchronize: most standard fields from Taleo Legacy Onboarding have an obvious equivalent field in Taleo Recruiting, and most of the UDFs from Taleo Legacy Onboarding have been matched to equivalent UDFs in Taleo Recruiting.
There are several exceptions to this simple transformation, and these are handled in various ways (see Forms - Synchronization - Exceptions). Each time an exception arises, the synchronization report lists the situation and any specific details. It is the responsibility of the system administrator to remedy the problem by changing Onboarding (Transitions) as needed, after the automated synchronizing is finished.
Each time the sync tool is run, it compares the code (not the name) of all Legacy Onboarding forms with the code of all onboarding forms. If no matching onboarding form code is found for a Legacy Onboarding form code, the sync tool copies that form into Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) as faithfully as possible. The synchronization report lists this form as “Missing” and “Added” to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). If the tool does find a matching Onboarding (Transitions) form code, it takes no action: the form is not copied and the synchronization report lists this form as “Existing” and “Skipped”. This matching onboarding form could exist due to a prior run of the sync tool, which was intentionally created on the Onboarding (Transitions) side.
Regardless of the cause, whenever a Legacy Onboarding form code matches an Onboarding (Transitions) form code, the sync tool does not examine the content of the forms. This means that if two forms have the same code but their pages and/or fields differ, they will not be synchronized. In other words, after the initial sync if the sync is run again, any changes made directly in the Legacy Onboarding form will not be updated into the onboarding form, and any changes made directly in the onboarding form will not be overwritten by the Legacy Onboarding form.
It is possible to enable languages in Taleo Legacy Onboarding that differ from those in Taleo Recruiting, and it is possible to enable different languages in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) as well. If Legacy Onboarding and Onboarding (Transitions) have the same list of active languages, then everything is synchronized: each form is copied along with each of its language versions. If Legacy Onboarding has more languages enabled, however, the form will not appear in those languages in Onboarding (Transitions) following synchronization.
Forms - Synchronization - Exceptions
There are several exceptions with regard to the synchronization of forms and it is the responsibility of the system administrator to examine the sychronization report and remedy these exceptions where necessary.
Each time an exception arises, the sync tool creates an entry in the synchronization report. Entries can include specific details.
Check box UDFs and Date-Time UDFs
Boolean UDFs are supported in Taleo Legacy Onboarding but not in Taleo Recruiting. For this reason, synchronization creates a Recruiting UDF for each Boolean UDF. When a Legacy Onboarding form containing Boolean UDFs is synchronized, the corresponding onboarding form displays a list containing “Yes” and “No” values in place of each Boolean UDF. Similarly, Legacy Onboarding Date-and-Time UDFs are not supported in Taleo Recruiting. These UDFs are synchronized into Onboarding (Transitions) forms to display as Date UDFs from Recruiting.
These substitutions are listed in the synchronization report. The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator does not need to make any adjustments.
Requisition and Offer Fields Cannot be Edited
Taleo Legacy Onboarding had its own independent copy of many requisition and offer fields, whose values were updated via Legacy Onboarding forms. Unlike Taleo Legacy Onboarding, Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) shares the fields with Taleo Recruiting, which means that updates to these fields in Taleo Recruiting are immediately reflected in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). In addition, the fields can only be updated through Taleo Recruiting—not via onboarding forms. Consequently, if these requisition and offer fields are editable on Legacy Onboarding forms, they are read-only on the corresponding Onboarding (Transitions) forms following synchronization.
These changes are listed on the synchronization report. The system administrator does not need to make any adjustments.
Empty Pages from Obsolete Fields
A few groups of Legacy Onboarding fields are obsolete in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Fields that handle E-Verify in Taleo Legacy Onboarding are not supported in onboarding forms, nor are fields in the areas of competencies, evaluations, assets, hiring process steps/job submission history. If a page in a Legacy Onboarding form contains even one of these fields, synchronization renders the page as an empty page in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) containing only the name, code, status, page name(s) etc. of the form.
If the page is not complex, the administrator can simply recreate the page in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) using supported fields.
If removing the obsolete fields from the Legacy Onboarding form is feasible, the administrator can substitute them with supported fields, change the value of the Legacy Onboarding form's Code field and perform a new synchronization. The sync tool will then copy the form with the supported fields to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) as a new form.
Placeholders from Demographic and Biographical Fields
Taleo Recruiting can capture many fields for tracking diversity and EEO information. Taleo Legacy Onboarding possesses its own independent version of these fields, which can be updated on Legacy Onboarding forms. Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) cannot copy these fields, however, which means the fields cannot be updated or displayed in onboarding forms. Wherever one of these fields appears in a Legacy Onboarding form, the sync tool replaces it with the newly-created UDF placeholder in the onboarding form:
A single Recruiting Candidate UDF named “UDF_TEXT_PlaceHolder” replaces all Legacy Onboarding text fields such as Citizenship, Maiden Name, Military Status, and Ethnicity.
A single Recruiting Candidate UDF named “UDF_DATE_PlaceHolder” replaces all Legacy Onboarding date fields such as Visa Valid From and Visa Valid To.
A single Recruiting Candidate UDF named “UDF_NUMBER_PlaceHolder” replaces all Legacy Onboarding numeric fields such as Age, Height, and Weight.
A single Recruiting Candidate UDF named “UDF_LIST_PlaceHolder” replaces all Legacy Onboarding list-based fields such as Marital Status, Height Unit of Measure, and Weight Unit of Measure.
All such replacements are listed in the synchronization report. The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator replaces these temporary placeholders with the correct fields or removes the placeholders from the onboarding forms. Because a single placeholder can be substituted for multiple different obsolete fields, it is important to replace or remove the placeholders when the synchronization process is finished. If a placeholder is left as is and a single field is updated once in an onboarding form, the value will be reproduced in every other place the placeholder is used, where different field values would be expected.
Placeholders for Address Fields
Taleo Legacy Onboarding can capture many current address fields including the two multi-row tables named “Secondary Addresses” and “Previous Addresses”. Taleo Recruiting supports only the current address and one multi-row table named “Address Book History”. For this reason, the synchronization process replaces any unsupported Legacy Onboarding address fields in forms copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) with placeholders.
In the current address area, the single Recruiting UDF named “UDF_TEXT_PlaceHolder” replaces Legacy Onboarding fields such as PostOfficeBox and Unit.
In the current address area, the single Recruiting UDF named “UDF_DATE_PlaceHolder” replaces Legacy Onboarding fields such as CurrentAddressFromDate and CurrentAddressToDate.
In the Secondary Addresses and Previous Addresses tables, the single Recruiting field “StreetAddressLine2” replaces Legacy Onboarding fields such as PostOfficeBox and Unit. This field retains its normal meaning, and also used like a placeholder here.
All such replacements are listed in the synchronization report. The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator replaces these temporary placeholders with the correct fields or removes the placeholders from the onboarding forms. Because a single placeholder can be substituted for multiple different obsolete fields, it is important to replace or remove the placeholders when the synchronization process is finished. If a placeholder is left as is and a single field is updated once in an onboarding form, the value will be reproduced in every other place the placeholder is used, where different field values would be expected. Furthermore, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator should reconsider the new storage of address tables.
Errors from Old Forms
In rare cases, the sync tool can generate an error: the process status changes from “Running” to “ERROR” and the tool stops working. An error can occur when a Legacy Onboarding form is too old to be processed correctly or when a form was created in a very old version of Legacy Onboarding and was not modified until now.
The name of the form is included in the error message. The system administrator can resolve the situation as follows:
In Taleo Legacy Onboarding Administration, open the Legacy Onboarding form causing the error.
Revise the form by removing a column from each multi-row table on the form.
Save the form using the same name and code.
In Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), start a new synchronization.
Four new forms have been provided in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) for the sole purpose of avoiding this type of error. The four forms are in Draft status and their codes match the codes of four Legacy Onboarding forms that are very likely to be unchanged since an old version of Legacy Onboarding. Because the codes of the four Legacy Onboarding forms match the codes of the new forms, the sync tool skips them thus avoiding the error.
These four "built-in" onboarding forms are not listed in the synchronization report. It is recommended that the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator take action in some way:
If any of the "built-in" forms will be used in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can change their corresponding status from Draft to Active.
If any of the "built-in" forms were customized in Taleo Legacy Onboarding, the changes will not be reproduced in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) because the forms will be deliberately skipped during synchronization. The system administrator can manually customize a "built-in form" in Onboarding (Transitions) and then change its status from Draft to Active.
If none of the "built-in" forms will be used in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator can delete them because they have Draft status. This can be done only after the last synchronization is performed; otherwise the error mentioned earlier will occur when the synchronization is run again.
Message Templates - Synchronization
The Onboarding (Transitions) sync tool copies message templates and their file attachments in Taleo Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
All the message templates originally created and configured in Taleo Legacy Onboarding are also in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) following synchronization. The formatting, graphics and text in any Taleo Legacy Onboarding template are identical to those in the corresponding template in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). A template's status in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) following synchronization is the same as the status in the other product.
The synchronization process reproduces perfectly the majority of Taleo Legacy Onboarding variables in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). This means that after Legacy Onboarding message templates that include variables are copied, the corresponding Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) templates include variables for Recruiting's candidate, offer, requisition and user-defined fields. A few Legacy Onboarding variables are not supported in Onboarding (Transitions). The sync tool replaces these unsupported variables with placeholder variables.
All such replacements are listed on the synchronization report. The system administrator must replace these temporary placeholders with the correct variables or remove the placeholders from the templates when the synchronization process is finished. The entries in the report enable the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator to determine which message templates include placeholders that need to be replaced by correct variables.
Another special case is variables whose default formatting was modified in Legacy Onboarding message templates. If Legacy Onboarding administrators changed the default color, font, size, etc. of text for variables, the equivalent Onboarding (Transitions) variables are not produced in the corresponding Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) message templates. Consequently, the variable values will not be displayed in Onboarding (Transitions) messages that include such variables. If an organization had Legacy Onboarding message templates that included formatted variables, it is important that Onboarding (Transitions) administrators examine the corresponding Onboarding (Transitions) message templates following synchronization and manually replace any remaining Legacy Onboarding variables with the correct Onboarding (Transitions) variables.
The following message templates are in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) by default so the corresponding templates in Taleo Legacy Onboarding are not copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
General Validation Request
Standard notification for a reminder
Task has been assigned to you
Be aware, however, that if you edited these templates in Taleo Legacy Onboarding and wish to reproduce your changes in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), you will have to edit the corresponding templates in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
The following message templates are copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) but because they contain the URL that leads to the New Hire Portal in Legacy Onboarding they have no useful purpose and you should assign them Inactive status in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
The following message templates in Legacy Onboarding were used to help new hires manage their Legacy Onboarding passwords. These message templates contained variables that are not supported in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), which uses candidates' career section passwords instead. The Legacy Onboarding message templates are copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) only because certain tasks in processes might depend on them. It is the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator's responsibility, however, to remove any references to the message templates following synchronization and they can then change the status of the message templates to Inactive.
Standard notification for a First Login
Standard notification for a Password Reset
Standard notification for a Forgot Password
Tasks - Synchronization
The Onboarding (Transitions) synchronization tool copies tasks in Taleo Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
All tasks originally configured in Taleo Legacy Onboarding also exist in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) after synchronization. The code, guidelines, status, notifications, and reminders related to each Legacy Onboarding task are recreated in the corresponding Onboarding (Transitions) task. Usually the name, action type, and related source of each Legacy Onboarding task are also preserved in Onboarding (Transitions), but two types of exceptions exist. Both external service tasks and E-Verify system tasks instead get converted into a placeholder task, and this conversion is listed on the report each time the synchronization runs. See Tasks - Synchronization - Exceptions.
Tasks - Synchronization - Exceptions
During synchronization, exceptions can occur regarding external service tasks and E-Verify system tasks.
External Service Tasks
External service tasks communicate with third-party service providers known as Oracle Validated Integration (OVI) partners (formerly referred to as Passport partners). Whenever the synchronization process encounters a Taleo Legacy Onboarding external service task, it creates a placeholder task in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) and adds an entry to the synchronization report. This is because Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) partners needs to be validated differently from Taleo Legacy Onboarding partners and tasks might require quite different configurations. No automated synchronization process can convert a Legacy Onboarding partner to an Onboarding (Transitions) partner.
All external service tasks in Taleo Legacy Onboarding are replaced by a placeholder task named “Placeholder Manual Task” in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). This placeholder task has Draft status. The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator examines the whole area of third-party services following synchronization to determine which partners are wanted and available, and then configures the corresponding tasks. The placeholder task can be deleted after these decisions are made.
Obsolete System Tasks for E-Verify
Taleo Legacy Onboarding no longer supports the U.S. E-Verify process (although several external service partners currently support it within Taleo Legacy Onboarding and Taleo Onboarding (Transitions)). Consequently, synchronization does not copy Legacy Onboarding system tasks in this area to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Instead, such tasks are converted into a single placeholder task named “Placeholder Manual Task” in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). This is a manual task and has Draft status.
This manual task is listed in the synchronization report. The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator examines the whole area of U.S. I-9 and E-Verify following synchronization to determine the appropriate actions to take. The manual task can be deleted after the actions are taken.
Processes - Synchronization
The Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) synchronization tool copies processes from Taleo Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
All processes that exist in Taleo Legacy Onboarding get automatically synchronized into Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) including their name, code, guidelines, assignees, steps, transitions, conditions, and OLF restrictions if any.
The process owner, supervisors if any, and the step/task assignees are all synchronized from each process in Taleo Legacy Onboarding to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). However, system administrators must take note of one caveat in the area of users and their Taleo permissions. Probably not all Taleo users with Legacy Onboarding user types today have been granted the equivalent Onboarding (Transitions) user types, especially if Onboarding (Transitions) is not yet rolled out across the organization. Yet these same users are being copied from Legacy Onboarding task assignees to become Onboarding (Transitions) task assignees. (The user interface of Onboarding (Transitions) Administration does not permit selecting assignees who lack Onboarding (Transitions) permissions; however this is allowed within the synchronization process only.)
Nothing is recorded in the synchronization report pertaining to permissions and process owners, supervisors, and step/task assignees. Still it is imperative that the system administrator grant the appropriate Onboarding (Transitions) permissions to these users at the appropriate time before these new processes get launched for any new hires. Otherwise, the assignees may receive task notifications but will be unable to access the tasks they are required to execute, so the processes will stall and not move forward.
As with the synchronization of other objects, it is the process code (not the name) which is compared between Taleo Legacy Onboarding and Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). If the sync tool encounters an Onboarding (Transitions) process with the same code as a Legacy Onboarding process, that process is considered “Existing” and it gets “Skipped” and not created in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). If the sync tool identifies that no existing Onboarding (Transitions) processes have the same code as a Legacy Onboarding process, that process is considered “Missing” and it gets “Added” in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Again, no analysis is done of the other fields or contents of the process: merely the codes are compared. This means that any manually-introduced differences between processes with the same code will never get automatically synchronized when the sync tool gets run or re-run.
The code of processes and sub-processes is considered all together, so the existence of an Onboarding (Transitions) sub-process with a code will prevent the synchronization of a Legacy Onboarding process with the same code, and vice versa. The system administrator must be aware of any overlaps in codes across the system.
All processes and sub-processes are synchronized into Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) in the Draft status, regardless of their original status in Taleo Legacy Onboarding. This is convenient for two reasons:
-
The system administrator can make any adjustments to steps/tasks and can configure new content pages to show as desired, before enabling the processes.
Any unneeded processes can be deleted from Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), for instance if the Legacy Onboarding process list contains several incorrect or obsolete prior versions of any processes.
The synchronization process adds the process type “New Hire” to each newly-created Onboarding (Transitions) process. This field does not exist in Taleo Legacy Onboarding, but in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) it is required in order for any Recruiting Center user to launch the process for individual candidates. System administrators do not need to remember to add this information after the synchronization process, because it is done automatically.
Tasks Performed by Onboarding (Transitions) Administrators
Though the Onboarding (Transitions) synchronization tool automates most tasks necessary to replicating Taleo Legacy Onboarding administrative objects in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), Onboarding (Transitions) administrators have to perform other tasks themselves.
New Hire Portal
Onboarding (Transitions) administrators create content pages—tasks that contain content that typically targets specific audiences and purposes.
The New Hire Portal, familiar to Taleo Legacy Onboarding customers, new hires and candidates, is not part of Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Instead, the career sections familiar to candidates now include a Tasks tab that displays new tasks to be completed related to onboarding, pre-hire processes, and so forth.
The Legacy Onboarding New Hire Portal enabled candidates and new hires to perform tasks and receive information. Customers had the opportunity to configure branding, logos, colors, welcome messages, customized documents and links to useful resources for the New Hire Portal. Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) offers all of these possibilities and more. They are managed differently in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), however, so they are not handled automatically by the sync tool: the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator recreates these elements.
Branding
Career Section administrators already know how to configure branding, logos and color schemes. Because the Onboarding (Transitions) Tasks tab is an integral part of the career section, it is subject to the same branding, logos and color schemes (automatically). For this reason, "Display Properties" from Taleo Legacy Onboarding is not copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
Welcome Information
Paragraphs and images are presented in the form of Content Pages in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). The content pages are configured in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) and can include rich content such as text, images, variables and links to externally-hosted video and Web pages. Content Pages are displayed as tasks on the Tasks tab in career sections. For this reason, the "welcome text" areas in Taleo Legacy Onboarding's New Hire Portal are not copied to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
General and Personalized Documents
Each Legacy Onboarding New Hire Portal contained a single Documents section where PDFs could be displayed to candidates and new hires. The PDFs could include variables to "personalize" the information. In Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), each Content Page can include HTML-based text or PDFs, and a process can include as many Content Pages as is required. In addition, Content Pages (and their corresponding documents) can be placed at the most appropriate positions in the task sequence of a process. For this reason, "Documents" lists from New Hire Portals are not copied to Onboarding (Transitions) Content Pages.
Links to Other Resources
Each Legacy Onboarding New Hire Portal contained a single "Links" section composed of URLs (links) that pointed to Web sites. In Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), Content Pages can include links in any paragraph or image, and of course a Content Page can include any number of paragraphs. For this reason, the sync tool does not copy New Hire Portal links lists to Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
Single Sign-on (SSO)
Single Sign-on (SSO) is not supported by the Legacy Onboarding New Hire Portal but it is supported by Taleo Career Section. Because the Onboarding (Transitions) Tasks tab is an integral part of career sections, if SSO is enabled in the customer's zone, employees who are already logged into a Taleo Enterprise product can access their pre-hire, onboarding, offboarding tasks, etc. in the career section without performing a second login procedure.
External Services (OVI Partners)
Oracle Validated Integrations (OVI) partners offer a variety of services, including background check services, for Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
Oracle Validated Integration (OVI) is a mechanism by which third-party vendors integrated their specialized services into Taleo Legacy Onboarding. OVI-enabled partners' Web pages and activities to exchange data fields related to tasks in each candidate's or new hire's Legacy Onboarding processes.
U.S. tax forms
U.S. I-9 and EVerify
U.S. WOTC and incentives management
background check
For up-to-date lists of OVI partners and the services they provide (by category), please refer to the Oracle OVI Web pages.
Legacy Onboarding zones might have partners in the area named "Services" and Legacy Onboarding processes might have been configured to include external service tasks which "call" the services of the partners. The synchronization process does recognize these services or any external service tasks originating from them.
For this reason, the Onboarding (Transitions) administrator or Oracle Taleo consultant is responsible for considering the information and performing the actions described in this section before proceeding with synchronization.
Are the partner services currently enabled in Taleo Legacy Onboarding also desired for Taleo Onboarding (Transitions)? If the answer is "Yes", is the vendor an OVI partner for Onboarding (Transitions)? If the vendor is not an OVI partner for Onboarding (Transitions), is there an OVI partner who could perform the same service?
After selecting a vendor and concluding the contractual arrangements, the service must be enabled in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Even if the vendor was the Taleo Legacy Onboarding partner, a new, separate activation must be performed. This is accomplished by creating a ticket with Oracle Support who will then request the partner to enable the Onboarding (Transitions)-specific service.
Once the service is available for Onboarding (Transitions) in the zone, it can be configured using the account information provided by the partner. Please refer to the "Configuring External Services" section in the Onboarding (Transitions) Configuration Guide. Such configurations are not copied by the sync tool (even if the Legacy Onboarding partner is also an OVI partner for Onboarding (Transitions)).
When the sync tool is run, any external service tasks in Taleo Legacy Onboarding are represented in Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) by placeholder tasks. These are "manual tasks", which are not related in any real sense with services from any OVI partner. The Onboarding (Transitions) administrator removes these manual tasks and creates and configures new external system tasks for OVI partner services for use in Onboarding (Transitions) processes. Please refer to the "Request External Service" section of the Onboarding (Transitions) Configuration Guide.
Occasionally a Legacy Onboarding process is configured to rely on additional tasks surrounding a partner's external system task. These can be parallel tasks assigned to a candidate, new hire or a Legacy Onboarding WebTop user. The tasks act as invitations to visit the partner's site or as updates about status changes. Though these parallel tasks (in the form of forms, email messages or routing tasks) are not required by Onboarding (Transitions), they are copied during synchronization and must be removed manually from the Onboarding (Transitions) processes that include them. Afterward, invitations and updates can be created in Onboarding (Transitions) using the new "Invitations" area. Please refer to the "Correspondence Versus Invitations" section in External Services.
Custom Reports
Full support for Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) in Oracle Business Intelligence is planned for a future release.
Reporting capabilities will be updated for the entire Oracle Taleo Cloud suite, from the current reporting solution, Business Objects, to Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI). OBI-based reporting for Taleo Recruiting will include reporting capabilities on candidate information for both Taleo Recruiting and Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Full OBI reporting support for Onboarding (Transitions)-specific tasks and processes is planned for a future release. At that time, the following information should be reportable in OBI: information about candidates/new hires, standard and user-defined fields, and Onboarding (Transitions) task completions and process statuses.
Until OBI becomes available, most candidate information in the Onboarding (Transitions) process will be available for reporting purposes using Business Objects. Candidate information, including both standard and user-defined fields, is now unified and shared between Taleo Recruiting and Taleo Onboarding (Transitions). Consequently, the Business Objects solution for Taleo Recruiting can now encompass this aspect of Onboarding (Transitions) reporting as well.
Information about candidates' task completions and process statuses are unavailable for reports in Business Objects, however. Reporting for these areas is planned for a future release in OBI.
During the phasing in of the OBI reporting environment, existing customers could choose to continue to run Recruiting reports in Business Objects while adopting full Onboarding (Transitions) reports in Oracle Business Intelligence. This would require managing concurrent reporting environments for a finite time period.
Integrations
The following information should be considered before adapting any existing Legacy Onboarding integration scripts for use with Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
Importing and exporting data from the Taleo Legacy Onboarding has always been highly configurable using the powerful features in Taleo Connect Client (TCC) and Taleo Connect Broker (TCB). With the new Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), the same integration features can be used for importing and exporting purposes. However, many underlying changes in data storage mean that the sync tool cannot simply transform any existing Legacy Onboarding integration scripts so that they work with Taleo Onboarding (Transitions).
The following information should be considered before adapting any existing Legacy Onboarding integration scripts for use with Taleo Onboarding (Transitions):
Where Taleo Legacy Onboarding managed a separate copy of many candidate, requisition and offer fields, Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) shares this information with Taleo Recruiting.
Where Taleo Legacy Onboarding had no effect on the records in SmartOrg's list of users, Taleo Onboarding (Transitions) processes can in some circumstances create new user accounts in SmartOrg.
The unification of candidate-related data, might simplify matters for customers who want to adapt their existing exports from the system. Customers who used Taleo Recruiting and Taleo Legacy Onboarding might have configured an initial export of new hire data from Taleo Recruiting to their HR management system and a second export in a different format from Taleo Legacy Onboarding after gathering additional data from Legacy Onboarding forms. With Taleo Onboarding (Transitions), two exports in two different formats are unnecessary. Instead, a single format can be used for exporting the desired candidate data fields and importing them into an HRMS both before and after an Onboarding (Transitions) process is running.
Due to the automatic creation of Onboarding (Transitions)-type users in SmartOrg (See SmartOrg Onboarding (Transitions) User Account Administration), it is recommended that customers consider synchronizing their employees from their HR system into SmartOrg proactively. This will help prevent the creation of duplicate candidate records in future situations, thus ensuring the integrity of the candidate lists and SmartOrg. This complex area can differ for each customer configuration, and it can be explored with a consulting engagement with Oracle Taleo services.