THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SAP’S TALENT JOURNEY

Reworking the Notions of Talent
By Raluca Druta
TEC Research Analyst
www.technologyevaluation.com

Technology
Evaluation Centers
 SAP’s Talent Journey—Reworking the Notions of Talent

In the past couple of years, SAP—as the employer—has been driving the
evolution of talent. Talent management is of critical importance in SAP’s transition
to a cloud-based company. But the company has not taken a textbook approach
to talent management—it has emerged as an innovator in the corporate software
market with heartfelt pursuit of its talent journey.

Obtaining a comprehensive understanding of its entire talent landscape has been

an important area of focus for SAP, particularly in the past 24 months. Owing to
this effort, the company has been able to attain a complete picture of its
employees and where their potential lies. Additionally, SAP has put together a
talent management strategy team that has been tasked with assessing the
company’s talent needs based on SAP’s mid- and long-term business plans and
goals. By combining these two sources of knowledge, the company has been able
to identify the existing talent at SAP, the mid- and long-range talent needs of SAP,
and where talent gaps lie.

The exceptional part about SAP’s talent journey is its perception of each individual
employee. Traditionally, talent management has been understood as a strategy
that identifies those individuals in an organization with high potential—i.e.,
the top 8–10 percent. However, that is not the vision that SAP has embraced.
In fact, the company recognizes that if it is to achieve its ambitious goals in the
cloud and software innovation market, it needs to understand and leverage all
of its talent. To that end, the company has followed a new type of talent
management philosophy that looks at every single employee as talent.
Throughout the past 12 months, SAP has used its talent management processes
to assess the performance and the potential of every single employee in the
organization—i.e., all its 65,000 employees around the world.

In the end, SAP has sought to find the intersection between organizational needs,
passion, and talent to enhance employee engagement, productivity, and retention.
In other words, SAP has set out to understand each individual’s passions and
talents, and further to match these with the right organizational opportunity that
would allow the individual to best utilize his/her strengths and bring enthusiasm
to work every day.

Communicating the new vision internally

The ‘Everyone is a Talent’ concept is one that must be handled in a delicate and
tactful manner by SAP. In the past, SAP’s talent management strategy focused on
enhancing the talent of its high-potential employees—i.e., the top 10 percent of
its workforce, whereas the vast majority of its workforce, the remaining 90%, was

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 not pursued for talent promotion. Today, by approaching its entire workforce from
this perspective of talent, SAP offers an opportunity for all employees to achieve
their career aspirations and to feel that they are contributing significantly to the
company’s success. At the same time, SAP has had to undertake a diplomatic
approach not to alienate in any way those individuals previously identified as the
company’s top talent. In fact, SAP’s message is that everyone has a special place
within the company and that no one’s work, contribution, and importance have
been devalued but, rather, that the efforts of all the employees are now being
recognized.

The mandate of SAP’s talent management team has become one of educating
board members and management teams about the importance of understanding
and leveraging the diverse talent housed by a company the size of SAP. SAP
managers have been instrumental in promoting the most critical aspect of SAP’s
leadership—i.e., the aim to develop great talent. SAP’s new talent management
strategy involves clearly communicating this message. From this perspective, SAP
talent management strategists have been closely collaborating with SAP leaders to
define a composite skill set comprising the core behaviors, skills, and
competencies of SAP leaders. Thus, SAP can safely say that leadership strategies
have been made by the leaders for the leaders, and that they are reflected in the
succession planning, job profiles, and the corporate talent policies of the company.

‘Run with Purpose’ at SAP

To gain external visibility, talent experts at SAP are actively blogging, speaking
at various conferences, and contributing to white paper creation. Over the past 8
to 10 months, SAP has made significant strides in enhancing its employer
branding and representing itself as an employer of choice for great talent. This
branding has afforded opportunities to make a loud statement about the SAP
organization and brand in the external talent market.

SAP knows that 80% of the available talent is passive and not engaged in finding
work. So, the vendor aims to make good use of its sourcing, branding, and campus
strategies to go find that talent. In other words, SAP recognizes that its teams’
members need to go to events and interact with people, and go on campuses and
engage students, showing them that SAP is a cloud company where people can go
and ‘Run with Purpose.’

Furthermore, SAP takes advantage of social media sites such as LinkedIn,

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., to source talent and additionally employs the
SuccessFactors recruiting technology, which allows it to establish an enhanced
social and Web presence. The SuccessFactors capabilities have enabled SAP to
create talent communities and thereby identify potentially interested talent.
These communities are pulling in potential candidates interested in SAP and
granting them access to current and future opportunities with the company.

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 SAP in turn collects prospect information into its database so that it can build an
ongoing relationship with these candidates. The company will launch a new
career Web site—an important point of entry for talent. In addition, to ensure
ongoing communication with interested talent, SAP leverages mobile to ensure
that every point of contact with the company from potential talent can be done
via a mobile device.

Perhaps the most creative way of engaging both internal and external talent is the
‘Run with Purpose’ campaign—that further echoes SAP’s new talent management
principles. The campaign is centered around telling the SAP story through the
employees themselves, enabling employees to share their experiences and
“reasons they love working at SAP” with candidates. It helps SAP employees see
how what they do each day matters—not just to them individually, but to the
people they work with, to SAP, and to the broader world. This approach shows the
real, authentic SAP. Stories are shared both internally and externally, in our
“Life at SAP” social channels.

The value proposition of the campaign is two-fold. It drives internal engagement

by helping employees understand what their purpose/passion is and how they
find the path to living that passion at SAP. For candidates, it shows the true,
authentic view of what SAP life entails.

People at SAP bring a wealth of professional experience to work every day,

but their personal experience is also invaluable, especially to others in similar
circumstances. SAP aims to tap into this experience to provide people with an
amazing source of support that is close by—the SAP community. SAP is
introducing several Ally Networks to connect individuals with others at SAP who
understand firsthand what they are going through and offer to act as a trusted
resource.

SAP’s starting small and intends for these new networks to grow organically
over time. Initially, they will focus on the needs of parents, people who are
experiencing autism in their personal lives, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) community. Each network will have its own private online JAM
community group. The idea is simple: people who want to serve as allies can post
a profile. Those seeking an ally can look through profiles and reach out directly to
allies. From there, each ally pair can connect however works best for them. SAP
sees a great opportunity with these Ally Networks to foster a giving and inclusive
workplace culture.

Technology brings experts closer to people’s needs

Today SAP has the technology to tackle its talent management strategy head on.
The company has been able to set out on this journey due to the SuccessFactors
talent management technology in conjunction with SAP human capital

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 management (HCM) technology. As a result, SAP leaders and human resources
(HR) professionals around the globe are able to work with SAP’s talented
employees in a consistent and very simplified manner. Specifically, HR
professionals are able to make talent management decisions as they relate to
succession planning and internal mobility (sourcing internal talent), while leaders
can better plan and optimize work as well as stimulate innovation. SAP technology
becomes the focal point for all HCM activities, as it feeds directly into structuring
learning programs, skills and competency development, career planning, internal
recruiting strategy, among other programs.

As a result of using its own technology, SAP also has the means to aggregate
employee data in real time and yield rich information that stimulates
conversations about the people that work for the company. A case in point:
SAP management teams and HR professionals from around the world have been
able to look at integrated data for their teams and infer that it is essential for SAP
to offer cross-functional and cross-team opportunities. This allows SAP employees
to gain a better understanding of the work of others at the organization, which
may serve to not only bring a sense of togetherness or organizational unity, but
also facilitate working relations with others and inspire future opportunities. The
technology not only feeds much more simplified processes and data access for
managers and HR, but also supports HR business partners and leaders to play
more of a faciliatory role as opposed to an administrative or supervisory one.

Multi-perspective learning experiences

SAP seeks to provide choice and flexibility in the workplace. The company
recognizes that a considerable portion of learning should be delivered on the
job alongside formal education or training. In addition, SAP believes that giving
employees the opportunity to work in different parts of the business is important,
as building cross-business experience allows employees to be far more successful
than being focused in one area of the business.

To that end, SAP has put a few programs in place, two of which are the most
well known:

 Fellowship program. SAP allows employees to apply for positions that

take them out of their typical roles for a period of 6 months and place
them in another part of the business—sometimes in another location.
And upon completion of their fellowship program, employees resume
their previous position. The end result for a lot of people is an
introduction to the next business opportunity, allowing them to grow
and take their careers to the next level and in a new way.

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  Social sabbaticals. Rolled out multiple times a year, this program sends
about 20 employees to emerging parts of the world where they work in
teams with not-for-profits to bring their technical skills and abilities to a
project of critical need to that organization. This has been a very
successful program, as it has allowed employees to get some of the
real, functional, hands-on skill-based learning, as well as to develop
leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. All that experience
and knowledge is then brought into a market that is of importance to the
world and to SAP. At the same time, SAP employees have the opportunity
to give to those less fortunate in a very meaningful way.

Cool and diverse work environments

The talent of the 21st century seeks a work style that is consistent with a small
company mindset and environment, allowing for entrepreneurial initiatives,
innovation, individual contribution, and a diverse work population. To offer this
to its employees, SAP has placed the concept of diverse and appealing work
environments at the core of its talent management strategy. Thus, it is not
surprising that the company has put in place diversity key performance indicators
(KPIs) and employs a chief diversity and inclusion officer who ensures that SAP
is on the right track to achieve its goal of providing a diverse work environment.

SAP has a number of different programs focused on diversity. SAP autism at work
program is very well known outside of the company for its aim to employ
hundreds of people with autism as part of the corporate team. The program has
been developed in conjunction with University of Cambridge. At the local level,
SAP supports a number of employee-driven networks, such as the business
women network; the LGBT network; and the Hispanic network—all of which the
company sponsors with funding and executive leadership.

The company has also made investments in providing attractive work spaces for
its SAP Labs. For example, for its Labs location in Silicon Valley—which is known
for the vast number of opportunities for great talent, SAP seeks to show that the
company can realize a start-up work style.

This starts with its new facilities and physical environment—which have been
redesigned to promote a start-up look and feel and allow for collaboration.
In both Palo Alto and Vancouver—two of its main Labs locations, SAP has
introduced new innovative and flexible work spaces with movable walls and
furniture. These work spaces are meant to allow for collaboration at any point
in time, flexible meeting spaces, etc.

Furthermore, SAP policies and practices promote flexible work arrangements,

consistent with the style of a start-up. So, employees have the flexibility of being
able to work when and where they want to work. In addition, by embracing the

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 agility of a start-up, SAP expects it leaders to support and ensure the realization
of the entrepreneurship initiatives of their employees. For example, talent
management encourages managers to give an employee’s initiative (such as
developing new uses for a product or introducing new audiences to a product)
the necessary resources and collaborative efforts in a timely fashion to bring it
to fruition, as opposed to shelving it as an idea for future thought.

Moreover, SAP’s internship programs at the Labs allow students to work in

projects that deliver clear value-add to the organization, as opposed to
performing routine administrative tasks or process work. Students are involved
in challenging projects that create opportunities for learning and for realizing
specific innovations during the timeframe of their internship.

Women at SAP now and next

SAP runs several programs that help women accelerate their careers at the
company. One such program, which launched in the United States this year,
is called the Leadership Acceleration (LEAP) program. It takes 50 high-performing
women who are at a midpoint in their careers and helps them think about the
brand that they have in the company and the brand that they would like to have,
for building strong networks, getting executive exposure, mentorship, etc. As a
result, women can better understand their aspirations, career opportunities, etc.,
and hence place themselves in better positions for achieving promotion within
the company.

On the technical side, SAP looks at not only its current female talent or the female
talent that comes out of universities, but also the next generation of talent—i.e.,
the talent at the high school or elementary school level. SAP has established
relations in the past years to help promote education in the Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields as well as direct partnerships with
high schools in both the New York City and Vancouver school districts. SAP is
partnering with these schools to be able to bring education and support to female
students who are showing interest in any of the STEM fields.

At the elementary school level in Vancouver, SAP partners with a local university
to bring a technology and science program to grade seven girls; it is known that
this is a critical age when girls start thinking about their careers and making
decisions on areas of interest. As preoccupations with these disciplines may give
a nerdy allure to girls and thus create challenges and other issues for them, SAP’s
presence in the schools is meant to boost girls’ confidence and excitement about
STEM.

SAP has also designed a global program that brings together male and female
leaders to understand the gender intelligence and differences between the
genders from biological—brain chemistry—perspective. SAP works in partnership

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 with Barbara Annis Group—an organization led by Barbara Annis, a world-
renowned expert in the area of gender intelligence—to put as many managers
as possible through this program. This program helps leaders understand the
biological differences between men and women so that they can be better
equipped to lead both genders.

Final word
SAP understands that talent is not only about rock-star employees, but also about
nurturing the potential of all employees through equal opportunities while still
encouraging those individuals who are willing to push their limits. Recognizing this,
SAP has opted for supporting an open culture that promotes individuality and
maximizing everyone’s potential, rather than supporting a corporate mandate
which has promoted the potential of preexisting leaders (making them more
credible) while keep the majority of the company in supporting positions. While
SAP develops strategies and programs to reach as many employees as possible,
the approach is to infuse—not to enforce—a diverse work environment that
encourages individuality.

Large companies have an important footprint on society either directly through

job creation and treatment of their employees or indirectly through interactions
with customers, partners, and governments, among others. SAP’s talent
management strategy is aligned with a more general strategy toward responsible
and conscious business development that encourages socially responsible
behaviors in its employees, partners, and customers.

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SAP’s Talent Journey—Reworking the Notions of Talent

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