The German company SAP is a leading provider of enterprise software. Although it operates almost solely on the B2B market, it is competing for talent with other technology giants like Apple, Google or Facebook. In order to reach the young generation of workers better, SAP has decided to modernize its employer brand building strategy.
The new strategy has been up and running for 18 months. Under the leadership of Matthew Jeffery, VP Head of Global Sourcing & Employment Branding, SAP has grown its online community of potential employees to more than half a million members and won the best employer award by the ERE.net recruiters community. The LinkedIn Talent Blog summed up the specific changes the company has made.
1. Connecting Sourcing and Employer Branding divisions
The company realized that it makes no sense to have a separate team to deal with marketing its employer brand without having a real impact on recruitment. These two divisions have merged into one at the global level.
2. New career website design
The corporate career website got a new look and optimization for mobile devices. The content is more visual than before. When they enter, visitors are guided to newly created sections for students, graduates and professionals. When visitors identify themselves as members of a particular group, the company can offer them more specific content and increase its chances of attracting them.
3. Employee videos
The company hired a professional who prepared forty videos in which employees tell stories about their careers. The employees were not given any marketing texts to learn. The aim was to capture the maximum authenticity of the corporate environment.
4. Involvement of social media
The company produces content entitled "Life at SAP" which shows work in the company in terms of human experience. The content is regularly shared via the social networks Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. The company monitors responses and measures success.
5. Broader cooperation with schools
In the past, SAP focused mainly on students of prestigious universities. Today, it wants to reach a wider group of students. For example, it launched a program called "Academy for Sales" to attract sales talents regardless of the school they attended. They use social networks and a simple online tool for candidate testing. Each candidate knows immediately if he passed the test.
6. Big data and analytics
The company has implemented analytical tools for the purpose of revealing what works and what doesn't. For example, it monitors which competitors most new employees come from and also which competitors most employees leave for. It runs campaigns on various websites and social networks and measure success. The quality of the candidates is measured as well.
7. Cancellation of the employer brand building budget
The original system of allocating a specific budget has been replaced by a cafeteria-like system. There are several levels of services the brand building team can offer (free, gold, silver, bronze and platinum). It is then up to the particular business unit to decide on the investment.
In the near future, Matthew Jeffery wants to focus on the ROI of involving gamification, advanced digitizing of the recruitment process, the development of talent communities and external recommendations of talents.
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