How to keep your SAP consultant long-term
In a recent article by IgniteSAP, SAP Employees – Effective Strategies for Acquiring SAP Talent, we discussed how to build a team of experienced and qualified SAP consultants for your implementation project. Here we focus on how your company can ensure long-term retention of SAP consultants, ensuring business continuity and saving the time and cost of regularly rehiring the same role on the SAP team. guess
Developing a long-term plan for attracting and retaining SAP consultants is fundamental to any company investing in SAP solutions. The first aspect to consider is the economic environment, the SAP job market and how these change over time.
Trends in the tech job market
Although the German economy has contracted slightly recently, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is relatively booming, according to an assessment by the U.S. International Trade Administration, as it is under less economic pressure than other sectors. .
“Germany is home to one of the world’s largest ICT markets and Europe’s largest software market with 95,808 IT companies … with an estimated 1,124 million employees in 2022 … Key companies includes Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Adobe, IBM, Oracle, etc. SAP has a large market share.There are also many specialized SMEs in the market.Diverse IT in 2022 Subsector revenues consisted of $45.3 billion in IT services, $34.9 billion in IT hardware, and $34.1 billion in software subsectors.
German SAP services market
In the recent 2023 ISG Provider Lens SAP Ecosystem Report, German SAP service providers expect exponential growth. The main driver for this is the upcoming support deadlines for legacy SAP software, especially SAP ECC and SAP Business Suite.
Dr. Matthias Palletta, Director of German Technology Modernization at ISG, said:
“Service providers are actively preparing for the upcoming migration to S/4HANA. Many of them are responding by expanding partnerships with SAP and hyperscalers.”
SAP skill gap
The shortage of skilled IT professionals specializing in cloud computing, AI, big data, and IoT is further increasing the demand, which is especially relevant for hiring SAP consultants.
As SAP is committed to modernizing its software services routes and branches, SAP personnel will retrain and strengthen their skills to meet the growing market of SAP services for businesses using new SAP products and services. is needed.
This means that HR managers seeking SAP talent in countries such as Germany are operating in one of the most challenging job markets today, and highly qualified SAP consultants have no interest in whether or not they are already employed. It means that there are always job offers coming in. Make sure your business is an attractive employer for prospective and existing employees alike.
The salaries offered for regular employees must naturally be competitive, and companies must offer attractive non-financial benefits such as employee health insurance and paid maternity and childcare leave. But it’s not the only way to make your business stand out. Can be a great employer for SAP consultants.
Companies need a long-term plan for maintaining SAP consultants to meet their needs, and to do so, create a strategy to support this purpose that is integrated with the company’s long-term business goals. Developing a long-term SAP consultant hiring plan starts with understanding the different avenues for hiring consultants with SAP skills.
Employment type
SAP consultants can be hired on a contract (per project) basis or on a full-time basis. SAP teams can consist of many long-term managers working with both permanent and temporary staff. HR regularly needs his external SAP consultants, but internal team members build a network of trusted suppliers to maximize their ability to get the right consultants when they need them. increase.
Read more about how to optimize your contractor recruitment strategy
The SAP industry’s shift to cloud-based software service offerings also means that more staff are working from home offices rather than onsite, or a combination of the two.
Regardless of where employees are located, companies must work hard to create a safe and supportive work culture.
How to maintain a SAP consultant
1. Company culture
Because SAP consultants are highly regarded, they are very picky about the non-financial aspects of their employer relationship. This includes at least 30 days of paid vacation per year and flexible working hours where possible. This could extend to giving employees extended vacations if needed.
SAP consultants not only have a preference for how they work professionally, but also want to work for companies and organizations that have an attractive work environment that considers employee benefits.
This means that your company culture must be inclusive and focused on employee fulfillment and growth.
2. Inclusiveness and Diversity
In the early days of the tech sector, it was predominantly white and male, but today, SAP consultants are in every corner of the world and represent every member of society. HR departments actively seek skilled team members from diverse backgrounds to maximize the potential of their employable talent.
Companies can showcase their credentials by implementing and supporting inclusion initiatives, attending industry diversity events, and discussing them in social media posts and internal newsletters. This will demonstrate the company’s value in inclusion and diversity, expand the pool of talent available in the future, and organically enhance the company’s brand in the eyes of all employees. Become.
3. Internal communication and employee engagement
With the advent of cloud computing technologies and the ability to perform more projects remotely, internal communication strategies and platforms play a central role in both business processes and employee benefits and retention.
When employees feel isolated from their employers and colleagues, they are more likely to seek alternative employment elsewhere. Therefore, companies should initiate a proactive strategy for employee engagement to retain SAP talent and other team members. Here are some ways to increase employee engagement and build personal empathy for your business:
Surveyor: Regularly distributing surveys to employees asking their thoughts and feelings about the business helps them feel more part of the team when they are part of the conversation about the business as a whole. You can also assess how you will change as part of a team as your business grows and your company culture. Develop.
Core values: A company culture is defined by its core values, and ideally these values should be fully shared by all employees. By promoting core values such as inclusivity and employee well-being, companies can make employees personally perceive the company as a social group, giving them a sense of accomplishment when the company achieves its business goals. can be shared.
When all team members follow the same values, it also creates an emotional bond between members, improves communication, and works more effectively as a group.
Evaluate employee performance: Celebrating and rewarding the success of outstanding teams and individuals at work helps employees feel valued for their efforts and sets an example for others to follow.
This may include team members who go out of their way to help others. The reward is money or a gift experience, such as his day at the health spa.
Transparent and open communication: In addition to conducting regular surveys, employees should have access to non-email communication channels such as online bulletin boards. This gives team members a platform to stay up-to-date and voice concerns about their day-to-day operations before issues get out of hand. This also promotes equality between management levels, ensures that honest feedback reaches the chain of command to executives, and provides a clear picture of the current state of employee opinion on ongoing projects.
Open office: Traditionally, office environments have been designed as open spaces where employees can move freely and converse easily with colleagues. Businesses will benefit from open offices with a variety of shared private spaces offered for one-on-one meetings and conversations. This also helps employees feel part of the community.
Strategies that promote communication and employee engagement go a long way in showing SAP consultants that they are valuable team members, helping them equate business success with their own success and empowering employees. helps maintain this important part of the
Experience management tools like those in SAP SuccessFactors help employers track employee engagement efforts and keep employees focused and productive.
4. Advance your career and skills
In addition to developing an employee engagement strategy, companies should also pay particular attention to the need for SAP consultants to improve their SAP skills and advance their careers.
SAP is currently constantly innovating and developing a portfolio of software services focused on the areas of cloud computing, AI and ML, analytics and automation.
To keep SAP consultants performing at their best and meeting industry requirements, they need to update their SAP skills on a regular basis.
The legitimate employers of SAP practitioners must ensure that these employees have the opportunity to take courses in various modules of SAP offered by SAP through SAP Training Shop and SAP Learning Hub. In practice, this means offering these employees a period of reduced working hours while they take these courses, and furthermore, if it helps companies keep SAP consultants on staff, this investment will be worth it. can mean funding training as it provides a return on investment.
This is because procuring, evaluating, onboarding, and training new SAP consultants for business roles are high recurring costs for companies, all of which can be eliminated by retaining skilled SAP consultants. It’s for
Depending on the size of your business, it may also be advisable to promote SAP consultants internally to technical and administrative roles for the same reason, rather than having brand new hires take on new roles as your business grows. SAP consultants already employed by the business already understand the structure and operations of the business and have existing relationships with other team members.
5. Understand your SAP consultant needs
Like any relationship, the employer-employee relationship requires thoughtfulness and consideration, so it’s important to set aside the time and resources to honor that relationship.
SAP software and services provide companies with the means to take advantage of the transformative technologies that are disrupting the ICT sector, so having a long-term plan for attracting and retaining SAP talent is fundamental to your long-term business goals. becomes.
Without a strong SAP team, a company cannot keep up with market competitors in its business area, so the value of SAP talent to a company is greater than the cost of hiring them.
Ensuring that your business retains the best SAP consultants should therefore be considered part of a comprehensive business strategy.
The job market for SAP consultants is highly competitive and these valuable professionals know their own worth, so they are looking for a strong SAP team to help them digitally transform their business and make it future-proof. If you want to keep , it’s important to understand their needs and accommodate them.
Need help with your SAP adoption? Talk to one of our in-house SAP Career Specialists today. Call us on +49 (0)21173714895 or send us an inquiry and we will get back to you.
