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Using AME to Approve an Activity in Self Service HRMS

Oracle Self Service Human Resources (SSHR) is all driven by a single workflow. The name of this workflow is HR and its short code is HRSSA. The workflow is kicked off as soon as any business activity is initiated in Self Service HRMS. This workflow can be customised to initiate AME for the generation of approval lists.

Let’s take approvals of Competencies for example. As standard when employees enter their Competencies, they don’t need approval. As a Professional Services consultancy, we need changes to Competencies approved so Line Managers are aware of their employee’s skill sets. As soon as you open the Competency Profile screen the HRSSA workflow is fired up.

How do you find out what workflow process to change?

The Competency Profile page on a Vision instance is found in the Employee Self Service Responsibility under the sub-heading Professional Details. Below are the steps to find out which workflow process is kicked off when you are on the Competency Profile Page:

Each Self Service HR page has a separate process in the workflow. To find out which function is associated with a specific page we need to go back a few steps. 

First we need to find the menu associated with the responsibility, in this case Employee Self Service.  Log in to the application using the System Administrator responsibility and navigate to Security, Responsibility, Define. Query back the responsibility Employee Self-Service. You can see the menu associated with this responsibility is Employee Self Service.

The Competency Profile function is under the submenu Professional Details, so we need to find the submenu name for that.  From the main navigator, navigate to Application, Menu. Query back the menu Employee Self Service (Note: this is the User Menu Name). Look for the prompt Professional Details and you should see that the submenu associated with this is Professional Details.

Now let’s find the function associated with this prompt. In the same form as above, find the menu Professional Details. Scroll down to the prompt Competency Profile and you can see that the function associated with it is Competency Profile.

Now we need to find the workflow process associated with this function. From the main navigation menu navigate to Application, Function.

Query the function Competency Profile (Note: this is the User Function Name).  The process name can be found in the Parameters field under the Form tab. This should match the Internal Name of the Workflow process.

How to route Approval through AME

We now know which workflow process needs to be changed. It is best practise never to change the original workflow process but to make a copy of it and then change the copy. Rename the copied version by appending XX to both the internal name and the display name so it is easily identifiable as customised code.

 

Change Workflow

Now that we know which workflow process needs changing, we need to know what to change within the process.

Every SSHR Workflow Process has a function named Review Page.  This function decides whether AME is switched on or off. The function has a parameter called HR_APPROVAL_REQ_FLAG – if this parameter is set to Yes or Yes – Dynamic Approval then AME will be called for Approval processing.

How to get the form to call the Custom Workflow Process

First you need a function in the Application to point to this workflow process. Again, best not to change the existing function in Oracle Apps, but copy it and then change it. Make sure the process name is exactly the same as the Workflow process name.

Attach this custom form function to the menu.

You need to add this custom function to the menu HR_GLOBAL_SS_FUNCTIONS_CUSTOM as well because this will facilitate usage of the custom Form Function in SSHR.

 

AME Configuration

To enable the workflows to use AME hierarchy list the profile option AME:Installed has to be set to Yes at application level. To do this, navigate to Profile and then System from the System Administrator responsibility. On the find screen enter Human Resources in the application field and AME:Installed in the profile field and Select the Find button.  Select Yes for the application value and save.

Now we must ensure that AME picks up our process. Our approver is going to be the HR Supervisor assigned to the employee assignment record. An AME Rule must be defined to go find this Supervisor. There is already an existing rule for this but we need to add the custom Competencies workflow process to the AME rule condition.

Change your responsibility to Approvals Management Business Analyst. This will open the Business Analyst dashboard. On the right hand side select the Transaction Type Oracle Self Service Human Resources and then select Conditions.

Find the condition that looks like below and choose Update.

WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME in (ADS_HR_COMPTNC_PROFILE_JSP_PRC, ADS_OTA_ENROLL_IN_TRN_JSP_PRC, ADS_USHR_HR_XFER_ICD_JSP, HR_APPRAISAL_DETAILS_JSP_PRC, HR_ASSIGNMENT_JSP_PRC, HR_ASSIGNMENT_TERMS_JSP_PRC, …)

 

Select the Add Another Row button and add the value XXHR_COMPETENCE_PROFILE_JSP_PRC and Apply your changes.

Please see the following link for more details on setting up Approvals in SSHR:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E18727_01/doc.121/e13507/T311T17551.htm

Testing

How do you know your workflow has worked and AME was initiated for Approval?

To see that our changes have worked we need to create a new competency profile for an employee using our new menu item we created earlier. To do this you need to log in to the application using the Employee Self Service Responsibility and navigate to Professional Details, XX Competency Profile page and create your new competency. Submit it for approval.

Now we need to check the workflow status to see if AME was kicked off. Log on to the application using the user SYSADMIN and responsibility System Administrator. Navigate to Workflow : Administrator Workflow, Status Monitor. For the Internal Name type in HRSSA and you can if you want select the person that the competency belongs to in the Workflow owned By field. Press the Go button.

Select your workflow item, and then select the Status Diagram button on top. You should see a diagram of the route followed by the workflow process (in green) and where it is. There should be two routes followed.

If you zoom into the process called Notification Process for Approver and Notifier then you’ll see that your workflow process is waiting for Approval.

Now if you logon as the supervisor, you should see the Notification for Approval.

Approve the notification and if you log back on as the user that submitted the competency, you should see the notification has been Approved. You can select the notification and open it to see the full message.

You should now see the Competency in the Competency Profile window.

 When the competency is rejected, the user is notified accordingly.

If the Approver wants then he can reassign the approval to another employee and it should appear in their notification screen for approval.

 

Conclusion

Approvals in Oracle Self Service Human Resources (SSHR) can be quite key to the operation of a business as you may want to control what users enter into the system. The HRSSA workflow contains a process for each SSHR page and you can use the method outlined in this article to turn on AME for approval on any of those pages. If your business does not use AME, you can still use the steps outlined here to find which workflow process you need to change, then you can make your customisations accordingly.

30 Jan, 2013 by Bhav Harfield

E-Business Suite