1. Implementing Performance

11Development Planning Administration

Development Planning Administration

Configuring Development Planning

Development Planning

Development Planning complements the Career Management functionality. It offers the ability for employees to create and manage development plans both from a central location as well as in-context throughout Performance. The development plan enables employees to manage development goals and determine the specific development activities needed to achieve those objectives, whether it be to improve in a current role or to help attain a future role.

Development planning enables employees to not only explore future potential career paths, but to view, monitor, and progress through the development activities necessary to attain them. These activities can be to focus on suggested or desired areas of general improvement or in support of specific goals that the employee will be undertaking as part of their goal plan.

Both employees and managers can define development activities, either from the development plan itself or through the employee's talent profile, performance review, goal plan and/or career plan.

The development plan lists all activities, regardless of the context where it was added or created. However, when within a specific context, a mini development plan is available to users. This mini plan shows the due date of the activity as well as the status and progress information on top of all the other development activities linked to the selected item.

In addition, collaboration tools are integrated to facilitate social learning. Employees have the possibility to share development activities with others, benefit from a mentoring relationship, and rate and review development content such as courses, books, and coaches.

Configuration

Aside from the setting that provides the possibility to enable the Development Planning feature, various other settings are available to configure the feature and all related functions.

All settings are found under Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Settings. There are three categories of settings related to development planning. Each category offers numerous settings but there is always one setting required to basically enable the feature.

Development Activity Search

Performing a search allows employees to find suitable activities to add to their development plan.

Searching for a development activity launches the specified query to find the relevant activities, either in the development library or in the activities shared with the employee.

Various types of searches are offered to employees to find activities:

  • Keyword Search - where the string entered is searched in all activity names and descriptions.

  • Advanced Search - where the search is performed based on the specified context values.

  • Best Fit Activities - where the result shows activities that present the same organization, location, job field, job role, job level and competency as the employee performing the search.

  • Top Rated Activities - where the result shows activities having the highest rating, presented in descending order, from 5 stars to 0.

  • Activities Shared with Me - where the result shows private activities that have been shared with the current employee by others.

  • Activities Shared with Employee - where the result shows private activities that have been shared with the employee whose plan is in display.

Development activities can also be searched from and added to the Talent Profile and the Career Plan.

When searching for Development Activities from the Talent Profile, the context of the competency is kept and only the Development Activities associated to that original competency are returned in the search results. This allows for more focused career development discussions and provides more context for the employee.

Note: This contextual search functionality does not apply to Development Activities coming from Oracle Taleo Learn.

The image shows the Competencies page and the search option Search for a development activity.

Each of the Development Activities returned in the search results shown below are associated to the Leadership competency.

The image shows a search results. Each of the Development Activities returned in the search results are associated to the Leadership competency.

When searching for Development Activities from the Career Plan, the context of the Job Role is kept and only the Development Activities associated to that original Job Role are returned in the search results.

The image shows the Development Page window the development activities link to an HR Manager.

Each of the Development Activities returned in the search results shown below are associated to the HR Manager Job Role.

The image shows the Development Activity Search page and the results associated to the HR Manager Job Role.

Mentoring

Part of Development Planning, the mentoring functionality allows for formal mentor or development coach relationships to be created in the system.

Many organizations have some form of mentoring program in place since it is an excellent way to preserve organizational knowledge.

When a mentoring relationship is established and upon configuration of the proper mentoring settings, the system affords the mentor special access to view information about the mentee, such as the mentee's career or development plan. This access facilitates the dialog between the mentor and mentee, which can be captured by the system in the form of feedback tracking meetings, discussions, follow-ups and words of wisdom that the two parties might exchange.

Julia may want to move from her current job function in Marketing to a new job function in Sales. Her manager is a logical choice to mentor her in her current role, but he isn't necessarily the best person to mentor her to make the job change across functions. Therefore, she could benefit from a mentor who would be well-suited to help her achieve her career goal. Her manager can assign a suitable mentor for her.
Configuration

Various user type permission related specifically to mentors must be granted.

User Type Permission Description
Performance > Performance Reviews > View — If this user is a mentor. The user has read-only access to performance reviews of employees for whom he is a mentor.
Performance > Performance Reviews > Manage — If this user is a mentor. The user has write access to performance reviews of employees for whom he is a mentor.
Performance > Goal Plans > View — If this user is a mentor. The user has read-only access to goal plans of employees for whom he is a mentor.
Performance > Goal Plans > Manage — If this user is a mentor. The user has write access to goal plans of employees for whom he is a matrix manager.
Performance > Development Plans > View — If this user is a mentor. The user has read-only access to development plans of employees for whom he is a mentor.
Performance > Development Plans > Manage — If this user is a mentor. The user has write access to development plans of employees for whom he is a mentor.
Performance > Employee Metrics > View — If this user is a mentor. The user has read-only access to employee metrics of employees he is mentoring.
Performance > Employee Metrics > Manage — If this user is a mentor. The user has write access to employee metrics of employees he is mentoring.
Performance > Employee Profile > View — If this user is a mentor. The user has read-only access to the talent profiles of employees he is mentoring.
Performance > Employee Profile > View — If this user is a mentor. The user has write access to the talent profiles of employees he is mentoring.

Enabling Development Planning

  1. Enable Development planning.

    1. From Configuration > [Performance] Settings, select Enable Development Planning and click Edit.

    2. From the Editor window, select Yes and click Save.

  2. Enable user permissions for required employees.

    1. From Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Types, select the user type associated with the employees.

    2. From Functional Domains, click Edit next to Performance > Development Plans.

    3. Enable the desired View and/or Manage permissions and click Save.

Development planning functionality is now available, to employees with access enabled, via PerformanceNavigation bar > Development.

Printable Development Plan

The development planning feature provides the ability to print development plans.

The printable development plan presents the following sections and fields:

  • Development Plan Information - General information about the development plan. This section is always part of the printed plan. However, if any of the fields don't have a value, they will display Not Specified.

    Printed development plan Development Plan page

    Section - Field
    Section right under Development Plan header Status The status of the plan shows in tool bar, next to the action icons.
    Approval Date The approval date shows only when the plan has been approved.
    Print Date No correspondence on development plan; just the current system date.

  • Employee Information - This section shows general information about the employee. This section is always part of the printed plan. However, if any of the fields don't have a value, they will display Not Specified.

    Printed Development Plan Source
    Employee Information Field The information in this section comes from the employee's user account information
    Employee Employee's First Name and Last Name
    User Name User Name
    ID Employee ID
    Title Job Role Title or User Title (depending on selected option)
    Manager Employee Manager
    Organization Organization

  • Current and Archived Development Activities - Theses sections list all current and archived activities, by alphabetical order, when the development plan has at least one current or archived activity. When there are none, this section is not printed at all.

Printed Development Plan Source Field
Current/Archived Development Activities Field Development Activity page

Section - Field
Sub-section on gray background section

When the Current/Archived Activities section prints, this sub-section always displays. If some fields have no values, they will indicate Not Specified.

 Name of the activity Specifications - Name
Status of the activity (in parentheses) Specifications - Status
Description of the activity Specifications - Description
Start Date Specifications - Start Date
Due Date Specifications - Due Date
Development Activity Information

The information in this section initially comes from the development activity definition when it was configured. Therefore, if some information was not provided in the definition, it will not display in the development activity page, or in the printed development plan.

When the Current/Archived Activities section prints, this sub-section always shows. If some fields have no values, they will indicate Not Specified .

 Name Development Activity Information
ID Development Activity Information - ID

This value is never available for custom activities.
Category Development Activity Information - Category
Type Development Activity Information - Type
Related Competency Development Activity Information - Competency
Measurement

When the Current/Archived Activities section prints, this sub-section always displays. If some fields have no values, they will show a value of 0.

 Actual Value Measurement - Actual
Target Value Measurement - Target
Stretch Value Measurement - Stretch
Progress Measurement - Progress
Comments

When the Current/Archived Activities section prints, this sub-section only displays when there is at least one comment. If none, this sub-section is not printed.

 Author Comments - Added by
Date Comments - Added on
Message Comments - text
Linked Items

When the Current/Archived Activities section prints, this sub-section only displays when there is at least one linked item. If none, this sub-section is not printed.

 Item Specifications - Linked Items - Item
Context Specifications - Linked Items - Context

Note that the printed version does not reflect the standard field display of the development plan template. The fields that are part of the printed development plan (indicated in table above) will display even if they are set not to be displayed in the development plan template. For instance, if the Stretch Value field was set to not display in the template, it will still show up in the printed development plan, with a '0' value.

Configuration
For users to be entitled to print development plans, the following configuration is required:

  • The setting Enable Development Plan Printing must be set to Yes. (accessed via Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Global Configurations] Settings , under the Development Planning category. Note that this setting is private and disabled by default. Therefore, it can only be activated by Oracle, upon request.

  • The user needs viewing access to development plans (via the permission Performance > Development Plans > View

  • The development plan must contain at least one activity, either current or archived, for the plan to be printed.

Defining the Development Plan

Development Plan Template

The development plan template provides the ability to define the default content and behavior of the development plan to be used by employees.

The development plan template allows customers to decide what information about the activities in the development plan are displayed, can be edited and/or propagated and need approval if changed, who are the users entitled to approve development plans, if instructions are available, and if activities can be assigned to employees by their manager.

The information that is to be available for each activity in the development plan is configured using a series of standard fields that can be displayed in addition to any other user-defined fields the organization may decide to add.

The template also provides the ability to define the approval workflow of development plans, that is the roles and/or specific users that must approve the development plan of employees, as well as the permission for managers to assign activities to their direct reports.

It is important to know that the defined template applies to all users, as there is only one development plan template.

Edits to the development plan template can be made at any time and apply immediately. Therefore, changes made to the template, whether it be to display a new field or to hide one, will affect all employees' development plans. However, hiding information that was previously displayed does not delete the information; it remains in the database and can later be displayed if the corresponding field is exposed again.

Defining the Default Development Plan Template

The definition of the default development plan template allows the organization to determine the information that can be provided about each activity in the plan as well as the approval workflow of the development plan.

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Development Planning] Default Development Plan Template

  1. In the Default Development Plan Template page, click Configure to change the active languages.

  2. In the Properties section, indicate whether managers should be entitled to assign development activities to their direct reports, and if so, specify in which circumstances these activities can be added.

  3. In the Instructions section, enter instructions for each active language.

    If an active language does not have instructions it will display the base language instructions to the user in Performance. You can leave this section empty if you do not want to display instructions.

  4. In the Approval Workflow section, define the approval workflow of the development plan by selecting the desired roles and/or specific users required to approve development plans.

    1. If you want email notifications to be sent upon specific actions, select the appropriate message template.

  5. In the Standard Fields section, indicate the fields that are to be displayed on the development plan page, which are editable and which field information is to be propagated to the employee's development plan when a manager assigns one of his activity to a direct report. Also, when approval is required, select the fields that require the plan to be re-approved if their value is changed.

  6. If you wish to display additional information about activities in the development plan, you can add user-defined fields, which will need to have been created beforehand to be available for selection.

Any changes made to the development plan template affect all users and apply automatically.

Development Plan Template Field Descriptions

The following table presents a list of the fields related to the development plan template.

UI Element Description Header
Allow managers to assign development activities Setting that entitles managers to assign development activities to their direct reports. Properties
Add activities even if the employee's development plan does not exist Setting that entitles managers to assign development activities to their direct reports and add those activities even if a development plan has not yet been created for the employees. Properties
Add activities even if the employee's development plan is approved Setting that entitles managers to assign development activities to their direct reports and add those activities even if the development plan has already been approved. The development plan will go back to an unapproved status. Properties
Language Each active language is available from the list. Instructions
Instructions These instructions are available at the top of the development plan. The base language instructions are used if the instructions for an active language variant have not been written. Instructions
Available Approval Roles List of all available roles in the company that can be selected as approvers. Approval Workflow
Approval Workflow List of the selected approvers, which can be approval roles or specific users. In Edit mode, the approvers can be reordered as desired using the up and down arrows. Approval Workflow
Assignment Correspondence Field that indicates the message template to use when an approval task is assigned. Approval Workflow
Completion Correspondence - Approval Field that indicates the message template to use when an approval process is completed by an approval. Approval Workflow
Completion Correspondence - Rejection Field that indicates the message template to use when an approval process is completed by a rejection. Approval Workflow
Completion Correspondence - Termination Field that indicates the message template to use when an approval process is terminated. Approval Workflow
Name Column that lists the name of the standard fields that can be part of the development plan template. Standard Fields
Displayed Option that indicates that the standard field is to be displayed on the development plan. Standard Fields
Editable Option that indicates whether the standard field is editable or read-only. Standard Fields
Propagated Option that indicates whether the value of the standard field is propagated when an activity is assigned to an employee by the manager. Standard Fields
Required Approval Option that indicates whether a change to the value of the standard field needs to be approved. Making a change to a field requiring approval puts the development plan back into an unapproved status. Standard Fields
Name Column that lists the name of the user-defined fields that are part of the development plan template. User-defined Fields
Type Type of field, which default from the type assigned when the user-defined field was created. User-defined Fields
Editable Option that indicates whether the user-defined field is editable or read-only. User-defined Fields
Propagated Option that indicates whether the value of the user-defined field is propagated when an activity is assigned to an employee by the manager. User-defined Fields
Requires Approval Option that indicates whether a change to the value of the user-defined field needs to be approved. Making a change to a field requiring approval puts the development plan back into an unapproved status. User-defined Fields
UI Component Value that indicates the type of input, which can be: Text Input, Check Box, Date Input or Numerical Input. User-defined Fields
Creating a User-Defined Field

Creating a user-defined field allows an organization to create and define company specific information that can later be added to various contexts, according to the context for which it was created.

Configuration > [Performance] Administration > [Performance Reviews] User-defined Fields

Configuration > [Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Employee Goal User-defined Fields

Configuration > [Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Competency Goal User-defined Fields

Configuration > [Performance] Administration > [Employee Management] Employee Information User-Defined Fields

Configuration > [Performance] Administration > [Employee Management] Employee Metrics User-Defined Fields

  1. In the User-Defined Field page of the selected context, click Create next to the User-Defined Fields header.

  2. In the New User-Defined Field page, specify the properties of the new field.

    Note that once created and saved, only the name can be edited.

    Also, if more than one language has been configured, a name will be required for each language before saving is allowed.

  3. Click Save.

The new field displays in the list of User-Defined Fields and is available for selection.

Once created, the user-defined field can be added to a review's custom section, to a goal plan or development plan template or to the Talent Profile form, depending on the type of field created.

Creating a User-Defined Selection List

Creating a user-defined selection list allows system administrators to create additional selection lists having a set of user-defined values (or elements.) The selection list may be later used to define a user-defined field. This functionality can be used in performance reviews, goals plans, development plans or in the employee management section of the Talent Profile.

Configuration > [Performance] Administration > [Global Configurations] User-defined Selections

Configuration > [Performance] Selection Lists

  1. In the User-Defined Selections page, click Create next to Selections.

  2. In the New User-Defined Selection page, specify the properties for the new selection.

  3. Click Save.

  4. In User-Defined Selection page, click Create next to Elements to define the elements of the list.

  5. In the New Element page, specify the properties of the new element.

  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each element composing the selection list.

The new selection list name displays and is available for use in the list of domain fields when creating user-defined fields.

Once the properties are created, you must activate at least one value (element) to then activate the selection for the newly created selection list to be available as a user-defined field to be added in custom sections of performance reviews, goal plans, development plans and the employee management section of the Talent Profile.

User Defined Element Fields

The following table presents all the user-interface elements found in Performance Administration in relation with user-defined selections and fields.

UI Element Description Applicable to
Code Unique code assigned to the user-defined selection. Properties
Code Unique code assigned to the element composing the user-defined selection. Elements
Code Unique code assigned to the user-defined field. User-defined Fields
Domain Type of value the user-defined field will contain. In addition to the default domains, the other domains correspond to the name of active user-defined selections. The default domains are:

  • Date

  • Text

  • Numerical

  • Multilingual Text

  • Date and Time Zone

When the domain selected corresponds to a user-defined selection, the type of selection must also be specified.

 User-defined Fields
Name Name of the user-defined selection. Properties
Name Name of the element composing the user-defined selection. If more than one language has been configured, a name will be required for each configured language. Elements
Name Name of the user-defined field. If more that one language has been configured, a name will be required for each configured language. User-defined Fields
Order Sort order of the elements when a list of possible values is offered. Possible values are:

  • Alphabetical Order

  • Sequential Order

 Properties
Selection Type of selection list to be displayed when a user-defined selection is used as a domain. The possible values are:

  • Single - the elements of the list are presented with radio buttons

  • Multiple - the elements of the list are presented with check boxes

 User-defined Fields

Building the Development Library

Development Library

The development library is the container of all predefined development activities that employees can add to their development plan.

The development library, which is delivered empty, is maintained by the customer and is flexible enough to accept content from multiple types of third party systems. The most common integration with Taleo's development library will be with the customer's Learning Management System (LMS). Integration is done using Taleo Connect Client (TCC). The library can store fields describing course information (such as name, description, prerequisites and cost), which can then be searched by employees during the process of building out the development plan. Please refer to the Data Dictionary for fields that are exposed for import and export.

The development library can be built with many different types of development activities. In addition to storing formal activities such as courses and books, the library can contain informal, on-the-job activities such as: rotational assignments, project participation, job shadowing assignments, etc.

When information on an activity in the development library needs to be created or edited, this can be done in the Configuration module.

For employees to find a predefined activity in the development library they must perform a search from their development plan. Various search options are offered, such as: keyword or advanced search, best fit, top rated and shared activities.

Development Activity

A development activity is any activity that can contribute to improve the capability of an employee to perform in his/her current job and his/her potential to perform future roles.

Development activities can take various forms:

  • activities defined by the company, which are considered to be public and made available from the development library;

  • custom activities created by employees themselves, which are considered private and can only be made available to other employees if shared.

Development activities are added to an employee's development plan by the employee himself or assigned by the employee's manager, by searching amongst the predefined public activities in the development library or by creating new custom private activities.

When adding an activity to the development plan, the user can provide various information about the activity, link the activity to a specific context, such as a goal, a review item, a competency or skill or even to a job role to indicate the purpose of the activity, indicate how the progress will be measured and archive the activity.

Details about a development activity can be seen from the development plan itself as well as from the mini plan, accessible via multiple contexts in the application. The Development Activity Details page shows the name, description, status and dates of the activity, lists the items that are linked to the activity and displays measurement information and other activity information, based on the type of activity.

Since development plans are not time-bound and may contain activities that can span any duration, the employees have the possibility to archive development activities that are completed or that they do not want to have displayed in their active development plan view. Archived development activities can be accessed at any time through the Archived Development Activities view.

Development Activity Category

A development activity category provides the ability to group activities in defined groups to facilitate their organization within the development library and provide some guidance to employees searching for activities.

The activity categories are set by the customer according to its specific needs and are used in two different situations:

  • When an employee creates a custom development activity, the ‘Custom' type categories can be used to categorize the various activities.

  • When the administrator is creating public activities to be added to the development library, the ‘Other' type categories can be used to group activities that are not courses or documents, therefore assisting employees when searching for activities in the development library using the advanced search.

Creating a Development Activity Category

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Development Planning] Development Activity Categories

  1. Click Create next display the New Development Activity Category page.

  2. Enter the code, name and type.

    Type is used to control which development activities can be associated with the category. Activities can only be grouped under categories of the same type.

  3. Click Save.

The category is added to the Development Activity Categories list in Draft status.

The category needs to be activated so that development activities can be associated with it.

Creating a Development Activity

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Development Planning] Development Activities

  1. Click Create to display the New Development Activity page.

  2. Enter the required information for the activity.

    • To help organize activities, they should be associated with a Category.

      An activity cannot be associated with a provider

      The properties available are dependent on the activity type.

  3. Click Save.

The activity is added to the list of activities in the Development Activity Management page.

For the activity to be added to the development library and available for selection to employees searching activities, the new activity needs to be activated.

Activating a Development Activity

The activation of a development activity is required for the activity to be added to the development library and later be selected by employees to add to their development plan.

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Development Planning] Development Activities

In the Development Activity Management page, click Activate next to the activity to be activated.

The activity will show an Active status.

Duplicating Development Activities and Categories

The development object must be in draft or inactive status.

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Talent Profile Management] Talent Profile Layout

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Development Planning] Development Activities

  1. Click Duplicate and the properties page for the object is displayed, with a number prefixed to the object name.

  2. Click Edit to change the object name and other properties and then click Save.

  3. Click Add to edit other required settings.

If the object used for duplication was associated with a provider, the new duplicated object is not and cannot be associated with the provider.

Activate the object, enabling it to be used with a development plan.

Third-Party Development Activity Provider Support

Oracle Taleo Enterprise Edition increases the flexibility for customers to have a robust and comprehensive development activity library with each implementation, by adding third-party provider support.

This feature provides Oracle Taleo Enterprise Edition with the ability to partner with development plan providers and offer a wider range of development activities to Oracle Taleo Enterprise Edition customers.

When a third-party development activity library has been associated with the system, it can be enabled by Oracle Customer Support in the configuration module. Once enabled, system administrators can configure individual development activities within the library to be displayed or hidden. Administrators can create and delete custom development categories and activities for a specific system, but can only enable, disable and edit those supplied by a third-party vendor.

Employees can use their own internal development activities and those from external providers in the same system. When a user searches for an activity, a provider column is included in the activity list, enabling the user to quickly identify the source of the development activity.

Configuration

After purchasing an external development plan library, associating it with your Performance implementation is the responsibility of Oracle. Once that is completed, you can enable the providers via

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Development Planning] > Development Activity Providers

Setting the Status of Development Providers

If you are deactivating a provider you should ensure that provider's development activities and categories are not in use.

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Development Planning] > Development Activity Providers

Click Activate or Deactivate as required and if needed click Yes in the confirmation window.

Activities for activated providers are displayed in the Development Activities page and those activities which are in an active state are displayed in Performance. Activities for deactivated providers are removed.

Development Activity Fields

The following table presents a list of the fields related to development activities in Performance Administration.

UI Element Description Header
Author Name of the user who created the activity, selected from a list of valid users. Development Activities
Code Code of the activity. Development Activities
Code Code of the development activity category. Development Activity Categories
Cost For course type activities only. Cost associated with the course, expressed in dollars and cents, but without the dollar sign. Development Activities
Description Free-form text field holding the description of the activity. Development Activities
Description Description of the activity category, in the specified language. If more than one language has been configured, a name will need to be specified for each language before saving is allowed. Development Activity Categories
Development Activity Category Lookup field that is used to associate a category to the activity. When a category is selected, the activity type related to the category is automatically assigned to the Type field. Development Activities
Document Author For document type activities only. Name of the author of the document. Development Activities
Duration For course type activities only. Duration of the course expressed in number of hours. Development Activities
End Date For course type activities only. Date on which the course ends. Development Activities
Equivalent Titles For course type activities only. Free-form text field indicating any equivalent courses. Development Activities
External ID For course type activities only. ID that is assigned by an LMS or other 3rd party system when the courses are integrated via integration from another system. Development Activities
ID ID of the activity, that can serve as an extra identifier to the code. Development Activities
Institution For course type activities only. Name of the institution giving the course. Development Activities
ISBN For document type activities only. ISBN code of the document. Development Activities
Language Language of the activity. Development Activities
Location For course type activities only. Location where the course is given. Development Activities
Name Name of the activity. Development Activities
Name Name of the activity category, in the specified language. If more than one language has been configured, a name will need to be specified for each language before saving is allowed. Development Activity Categories
Objective For course type activities only. Free-form text field indicating the purpose of the course. Development Activities
Prerequisites For course type activities only. Free-form text field indicating any prerequisites to the course. Development Activities
Provider Refers to the third party provider of the development activity library. This value cannot be edited. Development Activities
Publisher For document type activities only. Name of the publisher of the document. Development Activities
Scoring Type For course type activities only. Method used to measure the success level of the course. Possible values are:

  • Graded

    Pass/Fail

    Not scored

 Development Activities
Start Date For course type activities only. Date on which the course starts. Development Activities
Status Status of the activity indicating whether the activity is active, inactive or just in a draft mode. Development Activities
Type Type of activity. Possible values are:

  • Document - Used for any category to be associated with document type activities.

    Course - User for any category to be associated with course type activities.

    Other - User for any category to be associated with activities other than courses or documents.

 Development Activities
Type Type of activity associated with the category. Possible values are:

  • Custom - Used for any category that are to be associated with custom and private activities employees might create for themselves. This category is only available to employees creating custom activities, not to administrators creating activities to be added to the development library.

    Document - Used for any category to be associated with document type activities.

    Course - User for any category to be associated with course type activities.

    Other - User for any category to be associated with activities other than courses or documents.

 Development Activity Categories
URL Web address of the activity, where more information can be found. Development Activities

Working with Learning Management Systems

Integration with Learning Management Systems

Via Taleo Connect Client, customers are able to import data into an employees development plan, as well as export data out. More importantly, they can synchronize development activities with an external system.

Taleo offers, via Taleo Connect Client (TCC), import and export services for Development Plan and Development Goal entities.

Development activities can also be contextualized using Taleo Connect Client. Previously, courses and other items could be loaded into the Development Library using TCC. However, if a client customer wanted to tie that course to a competency, OLF, or job level, they had to do so in Performance Administration - now, this association can be done via Taleo Connect Client.

For example, clients use an LMS to track and manage courses. Employees have the course in a plan on the LMS. They may also want to track that course on Performance's development plan. The new TCC capability would allow the customer to build an integration that maps an activity in the external LMS to the course on the employee's development plan in Performance so that fields like status and progress can be synchronized. With this process, employees don't have to remember to update the course information in both systems.

These integration services provide the ability to perform the following actions:

  • Ability to create a development activity on an employee's development plan using TCC by populating a number of different fields.

  • Ability to export the content of an employee's development activity from a development plan using TCC (employee ID, development activity name, description, start and end dates, status, progress, etc.)

  • Ability to update fields on a development activity via TCC (status, progress, description, etc.)

Configuration

The learning management system provider URL is configured by Oracle via Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration[Production Security] Authentication ConfigurationSAMLSPURL Configuration.

Enabling a Learning Management System Provider

Configuration and activation of the integration is the responsibility of Taleo Support.

A Learn.com Activation Guide is available, containing specific implementation details.

Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Production Security] Authentication Configuration

  1. From the Authentication Configuration page, click Show next to SAMLSPURL Configuration.

  2. Click Add next to SAML Service Provider URLs.

  3. In the SAML SP URL window, specify the URL and select the SAML SP consumer from the list of available consumers.

Access to Taleo Learn

Learning functional domain user type permissions are part of configuring access to Taleo Learn.

Configuration

In addition to the Learn permissions listed below, you must have the Learn module and the Development Plan module enabled, along with Development Plan user permissions.

User Type Permissions
Name Description Location
Access Learn as a default user This provides standard user access to Learn. This enables users to see LearnCenter pages and learning content. All sub permissions (in Learn) except View Course Offline are automatically selected. The user can also use the Com Center. Learning > Learn
Access Learn as a supervisor This provides Learn supervisor access which typically provides manage access in Learn to users, user communications, completion certificates, assignments, enrollments, development plans, goals, and reports. Learning > Learn
Access Learn as an administrator This provides Learn administrator access, typically enabling users to manage LearnCenter configuration options and set up courses. Learning > Learn
Access Learn as user 1, user 2, user 3 These are custom user types, which must be aligned with custom user accounts in Taleo Learn by Taleo Customer Support. Learning > Learn

Please consult Taleo Learn documentation for full details on user permissions within the Learn system.

Development Plans and Taleo Learn Activities

Taleo Learn items can be added to and viewed from Development Plans, as development activities.

The integration of Taleo Development and Taleo Learn provides multiple methods for populating a given employee's development plan:

  • Taleo Learn administrators can assign learning activities to employees based on criteria such as, their job, department, or location

  • employees can search the Learn item catalog and self-register for development activities, enabling employees to be actively engaged in their professional development process

  • employees can create custom activities, such as on-the-job learning, mentorships, and other company initiatives on an ad-hoc basis

Taleo Learn supports multiple types of learning items, approvals and enrollment for those learning items. This increases the options available for the type of development activities that can be added to someone's development plan.

Learn items can be added as independent development activities and added to a custom context. Items that require enrollment or approval can be added and their processing will be handled within the Taleo Learn Center.

When a Learn item is added to an employee's development plan, its details are saved as a development activity in Performance. This enables the details of the Learn item to be included in reports and when printing. When a Learn item is updated in the Learn Center, this update will be relayed to Performance, so that the data in the development plan accurately reflects the current state of the Learn item.

After adding Learn items to a development plan, any actions or updates that affect the progress or details of a Learn item occur within the Learn Center. This includes actions such as, approvals and enrollment, and updating completion status and scores. Within the development plan you can comment on the Learn item, link it to a context, and view its history.

Once a Learn item is completed it can then be archived. You cannot share, rate, or enter additional comments for Oracle Taleo Learn activities when archiving them. Rating and sharing is done within Taleo Learn.

For details on Oracle Taleo Learn, see their Online Help, or the Oracle Taleo Learn documentation on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

Configuration

  1. Customer must make request to Oracle Sales or Support to have Oracle Taleo Enterprise Edition Learn enabled for their zone.

  2. Oracle Production and Services complete the implementation steps outlined in the Operations Guide - Learn User Integration Configuration Guide.

  3. Configure Learn user type permissions per the Access to Learn section of this document.

  4. Configure Performance settings as indicated below:

Configuration > [Performance] Settings
Name Description Setting Security
Enable Development Search Yes enables the Search for an activity... and Assign Activities option for user's with the required Development Plans user type permissions. This must be enabled to search for development activities, regardless of content provider or development activity library. When set to No you cannot search for a development activity and the remaining three settings do not affect the system. The default value is Yes. Public
Search Content Provider Indicates whether the Performance development activity library or Taleo Learn is used to provide activities for development plans. If Taleo Learn is selected, additional configuration is required. The default value is Development Activity Library For TEE to Learn integration to work the Taleo Learn catalog must be enabled and the Performance Development Activity Library disabled. Private
Taleo Learn Search URL This provides the address for the library of development activities that users search through when the Search Content Provider setting is Taleo Learn. If the content provider is not Taleo Learn this setting is not used. This is a static URL that will need to be updated manually if there are any changes in the production environment. Public
Taleo Learn Item Detail URL This is required for the Taleo Learn UI widget that is displayed in Performance. This is a static URL that will need to be updated manually if there are any changes in the production environment. Public

The following fields are imported from Taleo Learn and used in the Development Plan module:

Taleo Learn Fields
Code Duration Location (Facility)
Cost End Date Name
Currency Equivalent Titles Objective
Description ExternalID Prerequisites
DevelopmentCourseDurationType Institution (Provider) Start Date
DevelopmentCourseScoringType Language URL