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You are currently viewing How to use Data Disposal Functionality in HCM Cloud?
How to use Data Disposal Functionality in HCM Cloud?

In this article we will look into Data Disposal functionality released by Oracle from 19D.

This is a guest post by Vidyasagar Challa who is an Oracle HCM Cloud Functional consultant with more than 10+ years of experience in Core HR, Talent Management and Performance Management modules.

Previously consultants used to create HCM Extract to find out the data they want to delete and prepare a HDL file & delete the data using HDL framework. However Oracle has introduced Data Disposal functionality from 19D release. Data disposal is the feature introduced to remove/obfuscate of terminated worker data. In the later releases it is supporting “Candidate” data as well from Oracle recruiting cloud module.

User/administrator having access to this feature can delete Person data only if they can access that person’s data and Deleted data can’t be recovered.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

Users should have below privileges & roles to access the “Remove Person Information” section in data exchange work area.

  • HRC_CONFIGURE_PERSON_INFO_REMOVAL_POLICIES_PRIV
  • ORA_HRC_REMOVE_PERSON_INFORMATION

In addition, to execute the process, we also need these roles:

HCM Data Loader (HDL) is used to perform the data removal.
For HDL you need HRC_LOAD_HCM_DATA_PRIV (Load HCM Data)
For UCM upload/download, you need HCM_DATALOADER_IMPORT_RWD to upload data for Human Capital Management file based Import, HCM_DATALOADER_EXPORT_RWD to download data from Human Capital Management file based Export, and ‘Transfer HCM File from UCM and import into stage’ (HRC_TRANSFER_HCM_FILE_AND_IMPORT_PRIV).

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Data Disposal process

Data Disposal Process involves two steps:

  • Configure person information removal policies
  • Submit remove person information process.

One-time configuration step to define the policies governing the data removal. For example, delete all talent data.

Data Disposal Framework leverages HDL infrastructure, thus ensuring data integrity, enforcing application business rules.

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Configure Person Information Removal Process

We configure a policy that defines which business objects will have data removed or obfuscated.

Navigate to Data exchange> Remove Person Information>Click on Configure Person Information Removal Policies.

Click on create and we should fill below details on create template.

  • Name: The name of the template.
  • Code: The template code, defaults to the name of the template.
  • Category: The Business Object the template is created for: the options are Worker or Candidate.
  • Description: (optional)
image - How to use Data Disposal Functionality in HCM Cloud?

The Components tab displays the template information. In this tab, we select one or more Business Objects like Salary information, personal information etc. based on the requirements. Also in the components sections we can select the child objects under the selected business object.

image 1 - How to use Data Disposal Functionality in HCM Cloud?

We use the Rules tab to configure policies. We don’t need specific rules for objects that are configured for deletion. We can configure rules for objects which contain attributes that can only be obfuscated and not deleted. We can specify any generic value except null for a field.

Example: the Person Last Name can’t be deleted, so you must replace it by a static value, ZZZZZ is the default

After completion of defining the rules, we should enable the template then only Template will be Active and can be selected in the next step (Submit Remove person Information process). We can’t edit the template after making it Active. If you want to make changes, you need to define new template.

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Submit Remove Person Information process

Navigate to Data exchange> Remove Person Information>Click on Remove Person Information

Click on Submit process

  • Enter a process name and select a template from the searchable list.
  • Enter the Person Numbers, separated by commas, which you need to delete or obfuscate. You can upload a file containing a list of Person Numbers separated by commas instead.
  • Select a Process Mode, Report Mode, or Remove Mode.

The Report Mode only produces the .dat file that is zipped and can be downloaded locally for review. HCM Data Loader does not process the .dat file and no information is deleted or obfuscated when run in Report Mode.

The Remove Mode is a process that extracts key information for the records to be deleted or masked and generates an HCM Data Loader business object .dat file for each business object in the selected policy. The generated .dat files are zipped together and uploaded using the HCM Data Loader.

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Before we submit the process, we you must identify the population of workers to be discarded and select the data removal policy to use. Person Numbers to be mentioned there in comma separated. From 20D, this process supports uploading a file with Person Numbers separated by commas.

The policy in the template selected will determines which business objects you must remove and how.

We will see below information on the page after we submit the process:

  • Status: Success or Error.
  • Process Mode: Remove mode or Report mode.
  • Submitted By: The user who submitted the process.
  • Submission Date: The date the process was submitted
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Use the View Process Details icon to view different stages of the Person Information Removal process (i.e. the Data Generation step and/or Import and Load Data step), as well as the corresponding log files:

image 5 - How to use Data Disposal Functionality in HCM Cloud?

The log file provides you with all the steps completed in the process and the number of workers processed (for example, No of Employees Matching the Termination Criteria.

If you selected the Report mode, there is a Download Data File icon that you can use to download the zip file containing the .dat file, although this file can’t be used in another HDL process.

Candidate Data Disposal

We can manage the disposal of candidate data to meet data protection requirements of individuals and organizations.

image 8 - How to use Data Disposal Functionality in HCM Cloud?

Candidate details are masked in several areas such as emails, phone numbers, candidate job applications, attachments, interactions. Here is how values are masked:

  • NUMBER columns = 0000
  • VACHAR columns = OBF_ZZZ
  • CHAR columns = 0
  • DATE columns = 1900-01-01
  • TIMESTAMP columns = 1900-01-01 00:00:00
image 9 - How to use Data Disposal Functionality in HCM Cloud?

Points to consider

  • Ensure that the process is run on terminated workers only, with a termination date in the past.
  • The process details are stored (for example, templates and person number) but the worker data as per the template definition is removed.
  • Deleted data can’t be recovered so proceed with caution.
  • A user can delete data for a person if they can access the person’s data.
  • If the Work Relationship is removed, the link to the worker is lost and any data for this worker left in the system will no longer be purged by this process.
  • Person Disposal process will actually purge the employment data but person data remains in the system with masked data.(as per the configuration).
  • Source keys will be deleted for employment data. (Ex: Workrelationship, Assignment etc.) and Source keys remains same for person data. (Ex: Worker, PersonName, PersonLegislativeData etc.)

Troubleshooting

Error in the log file “Current User doesn’t have access to following Person Numbers”

Solution: The logged in user does not have access to those employees. Follow below steps:

  • Create a new “HCM-Job” role and add the policy “Configure Person Information Removal Policies” (HRC_CONFIGURE_PERSON_INFO_REMOVAL_POLICIES_PRIV) under Function Security policies.
  • Add Data security policy having “Person Detail” (PER_ALL_PEOPLE_F) as data resource with the condition as “All values” and action as “Remove Person Information
  • Add “Remove Person Information” (ORA_HRC_REMOVE_PERSON_INFORMATION) role under role hierarchy for accessing both Report and Remove modes.
  • Add the user under users tab.
  • Once the role is created, execute “Import User and Role Application Security Data” ESS job to sync the job roles.

Hope you learnt a new way to dispose off employee data.

Thank you Vidyasagar Challa for coming up with this interesting article.