HCM Trees

Trees graphically represent the hierarchical structures of your organization. You manage trees in the Workforce Structures work area under My Client Groups.

These tree structures are supported - department, organization, position, and geography. What nodes can be added to the tree is controlled by each structure type. With the exception of geography trees, you can create multiple trees for each HCM tree type, and multiple versions of each tree. However, only one version of a tree is active at any time.

Each tree version contains a root node that's at the highest level in the hierarchy. The lines connecting the elements in a tree structure are branches and the elements are referred to as nodes. These relationships are explained as follows: a node is a parent of another node if it's one step higher in the hierarchy. Child nodes share the same parent node.

For example, in the Department Tree figure, Operations is the parent of Human Resources, Legal, and Finance, which are its child nodes.

Department Trees

A department tree is a hierarchical representation of your departments. You can create versions of department trees but only one tree version is active at a time. A department can’t be added more than once in the same tree version.

Department Tree Uses

  • Maintain a hierarchy of all departments under one or multiple trees.
  • Select the department hierarchy tree structure in the Secure by Organization Hierarchy setup of the organization security profiles to secure access to departments within that tree.
  • Secure Areas of Responsibility (AOR) data using the Hierarchy Type list. The areas of responsibility defined for a hierarchy type can be used in securing by areas of responsibility while creating person security profiles to secure person records.
  • Use the responsibility types defined in the AOR setup to define approval rules so that representatives defined using department tree can be approvers.
  • Use the department hierarchy in your analysis to build roll-up analysis reports.
  • Default the line manager from the department manager in a worker assignment using the department tree. You can use the PER_DEPARTMENT_TREE_FOR_MANAGER profile option to configure this setting.

Example of a Department Tree

The following figure illustrates a department hierarchy that you can establish using a department tree.

This figures illustrates the HR, Legal and Finance departments and the different nodes under each department

Organization Trees

An organization tree is a hierarchical representation of your various organizational entities. You can select any organization including divisions, legal employers, business units, departments, and so on to create your organization tree. You can create versions of organization trees but only one tree version is active at a time. An organization can’t be added more than once in the same tree version.

Organization Tree Uses

  • Maintain a hierarchy of different organizational structures.
  • Select the Generic organization hierarchy tree structure option in the Secure by Organization Hierarchy setup of organization security profiles to secure access to organizations within that tree.
  • Secure Areas of Responsibility (AOR) data using the Hierarchy Type list. The areas of responsibility defined for a hierarchy type can be used in securing by areas of responsibility while creating person security profiles to secure person records.
  • Use the responsibility types defined in the AOR setup to define approval rules so that representatives defined using organization tree can be approvers.
  • Use the organization hierarchy in your analysis to build roll-up analysis reports, if departments are at the lowest level of the hierarchy.

Example of an Organization Tree

The following figure illustrates an organization hierarchy that you can establish using an organization tree.

This figure depicts the divisions, legal entities, business units, and department structure for InFusion Corporation

Position Trees

You can create multiple position trees using the predefined position tree structure in the Workforce Structures work area. You can then create multiple versions to establish reporting relationships among positions. Position trees can have only one top node.

Position Tree Uses

  • Use position hierarchies for budgeting and organizational planning.
  • Secure access to positions by identifying a position hierarchy in a position security profile. For example, you can create a position security profile that includes all positions in a position hierarchy under a specified first position. You can also include the position security profile in a person security profile to secure access to person records. In this case, the person security profile includes the person records of the people who occupy the positions in the position security profile.

Example of a Position Tree

The following figure illustrates a position hierarchy that you can establish using a position tree.
A figure that illustrates a hierarchy of positions within a company. In the position hierarchy the directors report to the Vice Presidents The General Auditor and the Vice Presidents report to the President and CEO of the company.

Geography Trees

You can create versions of the predefined geography tree structure to represent countries in which your enterprise operates. For each country, you can define lower-level nodes such as states and cities. For example, United Kingdom - England - London. You manage trees in the Workforce Structures work area.

Although you can create multiple versions, you can create only one tree in the hierarchy. Geography trees also have only one first node.

Calendar Events

You use the geography tree to specify the locations to which calendar events apply. You can create the tree using these conditions.

  • If an event applies to your entire enterprise, you can attach it to the first node in the tree, for example, Global.

  • If an event applies only to specific countries in your enterprise, you can attach it to the nodes for those specific countries, for example, United Kingdom.

  • If an event applies only to specific states or cities in a country, you can attach it to the state or city level nodes. For example, England, London.

Example of a Geography Tree

This figure illustrates the geographical hierarchy that you can establish using a geography tree.
A figure that illustrates a hierarchy of geographic locations. In the geographical tree, the hierarchy is built according to country, state, and city. For example, United States country has California state under it and under the California state there is San Mateo city. Similar hierarchies are built for United Kingdom, England, London and India, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.