Oracle Cloud HCM 25A Release: What's New?

The tentative Oracle HCM 25A release date is set for February 2025. Are you prepared?

This blog offers a high-level summary of the new features that come with the Oracle HCM 25A release. We think you’ll love the new benefits and enhanced capabilities available to you in this update, which features improved generative AI interactions and easier ways to filter, view, and manage data.

If you’re excited about getting started on the Oracle HCM 25A release rollout for your organization, don’t forget that thorough testing is crucial to maintaining seamless operations. Opkey’s AI enabled, no-code test automation platform can make updates quick and painless. As an official Oracle partner and #1 rated app on Oracle marketplace, we are uniquely equipped to assist in Oracle update testing.

Explore our concise advisory, designed to provide quick, functional, and technical insights into the latest Oracle Cloud 25A release.

Key Benefits of Oracle HCM 25A Release

• Employees can now interact with the AI platform to get answers instantly like getting information about promotion policies for specific employee grades. This saves time and reduces back-and-forth communication.

• Generative AI will streamline onboarding journeys as smart suggestions will make the onboarding process simpler and quicker. This feature will improve efficiency and productivity.  

• The Jobs and Locations pages now let users filter options based on their needs. Users can customize lists to show only what matches their specific parameters, making it easier to find exactly what they are looking for.

• Instead of manual updates, HCM Data Loader allows users to handle large volumes of data in one go, saving time and reducing the risk of errors. This update simplifies users’ workload and gives them more control over responsibility templates, so they can focus on strategic tasks.

Learn how the Northwell Health utilizes Opkey to migrate their HCM systems from Oracle EBS HRMS to Oracle Cloud.

Details of the Oracle HCM Cloud 25A Release Notes: What’s New?

Global Human Resource

• The Redwood Document Type and Document Records pages now feature an upgraded rich text editor with advanced formatting options. Supported Fields:

• Description for Document Types

• Issuing Comments for Document Records

• The Redwood Document Type page now features simplified input widgets by replacing radio buttons with List of Values (LoVs) for options like:

• Approval Required

• Allow Multiple Occurrences

• Publish Required

• Restrict Create, Update, and Delete

Journeys

• A new AI Agent Task Type in guided journeys enables employees to interact directly with the AI platform. For example, managers can query promotion policies for specific employee grades.

• Line Managers and HR Specialists can use Generative AI to quickly create journeys and tasks, such as onboarding journeys. AI suggestions streamline task creation for new or existing journeys, available exclusively in the Redwood experience.

Benefits

• Users can now manage benefits more intuitively with the Redwood Experience on the Benefits Summary page. Use the Enroll button in the Evaluated Life Events section for streamlined enrollment. Access via My Client Groups > Benefits > Benefits Summary

• The application is now streamlined for benefits administration with the Redwood Experience for the Pending Actions region on the Benefits Summary page. Access this intuitive feature via My Client Groups > Benefits > Benefits Summary

Absent Management

• The new integration architecture will improve absence reporting, timecard reprocessing, and troubleshooting through auditing.

• The new Forfeit Positive Balance checkbox in the Balance Disposition Rules section can be used to configure absence plans to forfeit balances upon loss of eligibility, legal transfer, or termination.

Compensation

• The Comments and Attachments section is now visible only when approvals are enabled for Redwood actions/pages such as Change Salary, Salary History, Personal Contribution, Individual Compensation, and Administer Compensation.

• Approvers can now view salary amounts and numbers formatted to their preferences in Redwood salary notifications and approval processes, enhancing ease of understanding and user adoption. No setup is required to enable this feature.

Payroll

• Users can group balances with similar exception criteria into balance groups for efficient creation and management of Balance Exception reports

• Users can now utilize the context switcher on the redesigned Redwood View Flows page to choose between:

• All Flows: View and filter all scheduled and submitted flows by status or flow pattern.

• Activity Center Flows: View flows with milestone payroll processes using payroll and payroll period filters.

Oracle Recruiting Cloud

• Users can now streamline the candidate application process with Express Apply, a mobile-friendly interface.  

• Candidates can effortlessly import their profile details directly into job applications.  

• With smart block-by-block validation, mandatory fields and errors are highlighted for quick fixes, ensuring a smooth and efficient application journey for everyone involved.

• Administrators can now configure quick move destinations for candidate selection process states, enabling faster and more guided transitions between phases and states.  

• Quick move options exclude terminal and certain offer phase states and allow flexibility in bypassing mandatory phases, ensuring efficient management of job applications.

Talent Management

• The Redwood Opportunity Marketplace now offers AI-matched career roles on the Explore tab.

• The Redwood Opportunity Marketplace now includes a Role Guides tab on career details pages, displaying specific guides for a career role.

Time and Labor

• Users can now benefit from calendar enhancements that improve organization by displaying late-night events only on their start day, simplifying the list view to show start times, and optimizing holiday visibility based on shifts. These updates enhance clarity and require no action to enable.

• The Generate Timecards process now creates time entries using worker schedules from the the workforce or the legacy scheduling app. If no published schedule is found, it retrieves schedules from the availability hierarchy.

Technical Updates

• Using HCM Bulk Data Loader for Responsibility Templates, users can create, update, and delete a responsibility template's scope, criteria, and directly assigned workers.

• Support for Allocated Checklist REST resource (/allocatedChecklists) will be discontinued in Update 25C.

• The enhanced Redwood Absence Balance page now offers faster performance with REST API by reducing SQL executions when using the findByLastCalculationDate or findByCurrentDate finders.

How Opkey Can Help

As an official Oracle testing partner, Opkey can expedite Oracle Cloud quarterly update certifications, cutting timelines from weeks to days.  

Before each update is applied to your environment, Opkey empowers you to execute a comprehensive suite of automated tests, ensuring new features and updates are thoroughly validated and seamlessly compatible with your system.

Opkey validates:

• Performance optimization 

• End-to-end business processes and workflows 

• Customizations and configurations 

• System integrations 

• End user experience  

• Test reporting and documentation