A few weeks ago, I encountered an issue while trying to address a client’s requirement within SuccessFactors. The issue arose when an employee submitted a leave request, filled out a form, and sent it for approval. The problem was that the approver, upon receiving the request through a workflow, found the fields in the form to be disordered. Specifically, the attachment field appeared at the top of the screen, which was visually inconvenient.

Arranged fields on the termination form

Disarranged fields on the workflow

When conducting research to address this issue, we came across a note with the following description:

“Currently, it is not possible to customize the layout of the workflow approval page. The workflow approval page has a hardcoded layout, which dynamically updates based on the type of workflow being triggered. This means that fields cannot be rearranged, added, or hidden.”

SAP note

Despite what this note indicated, my team and I have devised a straightforward solution to the problem of organizing and arranging fields on the Workflow Approval Page. My intention is to share this solution with you in this post. I will demonstrate using the specific example we encountered, but the same solution I present in this post is applicable to any other workflow within the system.

SuccessFactors allows an employee to request their own leave, just as it enables a manager to request leave on behalf of their direct reports.Typically, once this leave request is made, it needs approval from a designated company member with an approver role. The approver can either directly approve the leave or make edits within the workflow.

The specific challenge, as mentioned above, is that while we can edit the initial leave form filled out by either the employee or the manager, we lack the same functionality or capability to rearrange fields when the approver accesses the leave request. In fact, what we’ve observed is that the fields appear in a different order than the original form.Next, we will walk through the process, starting from when an employee submits a leave request to when the approver accesses the request to edit certain fields. Subsequently, we’ll explore how we can indeed modify the sequence of fields, both in the leave request itself and in the view of the leave request by the approver. Finally, we will showcase the outcome, illustrating how the fields have been rearranged. To do this, we will present an image before the modifications and another one after implementing the changes.

Request for a termiation by the commander or employee.

To make this request, simply go to the search bar located in the top right corner. Enter the word “terminate” and click on the suggested option “Terminate…”. Next, add the name of the person for whom the termination is being requested, and when the system suggests the employee, click on their profile.

Initiate termination

The leave request form automatically opens. Once completed and sent, the workflow we’ve designated triggers, directing the request to the approver.

Upon submission confirmation, our approver receives a notification on their homepage, from which they access the workflow. To edit or modify any fields, the approver must click on the “Update” button. This action opens the form, revealing a disorderly arrangement of fields compared to the form the employee filled out. While the same fields appear, they are disorganized.

While we have the capability to organize and choose which fields to display from the “People Profile” for the initial form, this option does not extend to the Workflow Approval Page.

Manage Configuration UI (a)

Manage configuration UI (b)

So, how can one rearrange the objects in this approver’s view? The answer is simpler than one might expect.

Navigate to “Manager Business Configuration” and click on “Employmentinfo”. Here, you can see all the fields (standard or custom) within this section, realizing that this is where all the fields appearing in our leave form are located. All you need to do is click on “Take Action” > “Make Correction”.

Rearranging fields on Employmentinfo (a)

Rearranging fields on Employmentinfo (b)

Now, using the arrow icons that appear to the right of each field, we can rearrange the fields. In our case, we place them in the same order as they appear in the initial termination form and save. Subsequently, if we proxy as the approver, open the workflow, and click on “Update,” we can see that the fields have been reordered as desired.

Final result

As you can see, sometimes solutions are simpler than we imagine. I genuinely hope that this solution proves useful to you, which is why I wanted to share it.

I’m relatively new to the SuccessFactors world, but I hope you can share this post with anyone you believe it might benefit. Additionally, I encourage you to leave comments with your thoughts, questions, or suggestions for improvement.

Best regards.

Esteban