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Hiring the right SAP team the first time around
As published in Inside SAP magazine - Everjoy Consulting assists organisations to hire the right SAP team - first time every time
As a leader in your organisation, you need a solid SAP team to help you realise your strategic goals, and allow you to focus on the most important elements of your own job. Without a strong SAP team in place, especially at the leadership level, you will find it increasingly difficult to enhance your presence in the Australian and New Zealand marketplace.
This article is aims to offer you a short list of guidelines to help you hire the right SAP team the first time around. This recruiting process should help you to make seamless additions to your talent pool.
When putting your SAP hiring team together, don’t assume they will conduct a great interview and sell your company the way you would. Candidate interviews can be difficult as they are a combination of skill evaluation, seeking the correct cultural fit, relationship building, and selling your company as well as the role. Often I have spoken to candidates post-interview and they have relayed that different interviewers have given very different perceptions of the company’s requirements. “I don't think they really know what they want," has often been the feedback.
To remedy this, prior to interviews, confirm with your SAP interview team that they are all on the same page about the role. Remind them that their job is to sell the company and the position as well as to evaluate candidates. Whether it is a challenging or abundant candidate market, a large part of the interview process is to show candidates that your company is a good place to work, with the right mix of challenges, stability, and career progression.
Ensure you have a list of agreed questions prepared. For example,
- Why do you want to work for us ?
- What interests you about our products/services?
- What interested you about this position?
- What technical experience can you bring to our company?
- What do you want to be doing in your career one, three, and five years from now?
After the initial interview, don’t drag your feet with feedback. You can’t expect your candidates to wait a week or two before they hear from you. Particularly in a market where candidates are in short supply, to obtain the best SAP candidate for your team, speed is a must. In the majority of cases, your recruiter will not be able to keep candidates ‘warm’ for a length of time. I have seen companies lose the best candidate to a competing offer due to the length of the decision-making process.
To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, give your managers and interview team deadlines for delivering feedback on CVs and interviews. Also, stay in touch with your HR department during the offer process to ensure they’re not dragging their feet. The faster you can deliver a decision, the faster you can deliver results!
Like all successful relationships, communication is a key factor. As you refine your search or your needs change, you need to update your job specification, and keep your SAP recruitment consultant up to date as well. This will keep an efficient timeline running to find the right candidate, and ensure your search partner is can maintain a supply of high quality resumes to you.
If you do not communicate specification changes to your SAP recruitment consultant, you are slowing down your own process. The easiest way to avoid this is to inform your recruitment consultant of any changes in the job requirements, and any developments as they occur. The sooner they know, the sooner they will adapt their search and find the right candidate for your role.
The need to be flexible with your salary limits is also a factor to consider. As with gold, real estate, and petrol, the SAP market sets the price when it comes to talent – Keynesian supply and demand theory. For example if you want to hire an experienced SAP project director who has managed 150 people across 20 countries supporting 13,000 users, the market may well set the salary package at $220,000, for example. If you have only a limited amount to spend, say $150,000, you will have to work within your budget and adjust your talent expectations. One alternative is to get creative with sign-on bonuses, options, or benefits, or look at a candidate who can step into the role over time.
An example of this kind of creativity: recently one of my clients offered a completion bonus to the candidate if they delivered a critical piece of work before the required date. This was on top of the base, superannuation, and bonus package. Also, offering staff company share options is a regular practice with a few of my clients.
Another hiccup can be caused by relying on your Human Resources department – which is generally staffed by generalists – to handle your recruitment process. Your Human Resources department is responsible for payroll, benefits, training, and employee relations. In all fairness, the majority don’t know the intricacies of SAP, so how can you expect them to conduct a thorough SAP candidate search? Do they have the training to recognise SAP talent? What type of resources does HR have at their fingertips to conduct the kind of proactive and targeted SAP search that you require?
To get around this, hire an experienced SAP recruitment consultant who reports directly to IT managers or team leaders, or nominate someone on your staff to partner with HR in recruiting and resume review. Alternatively consider partnering with an experienced SAP recruitment consultant who knows their market, and who can be considered as a long-term strategic partner, and can keep your recruitment process streamlined.
In the final part of the recruitment process, don’t forget about the candidate once they have signed their offer letter. When an offer is accepted by a candidate, you enter the slightly dark period until they start their new role with you, when occasionally things can go off the rails. This can include a hefty counter offer, waiting too long for contracts from HR, doubts on relocating their family across the country, or even leaving family behind.
The best way through this sometimes difficult time is to leave it to your SAP recruitment consultant. An experienced SAP recruiter will hold a candidate's hand through the resignation process, and help them deal with possible counter offers. Your recruiter will also ensure there is contact between you and your candidate during this notice period. This will reinforce to the candidate that they have made the right decision in joining your organisation.
The recruitment market is ever changing, as is the availability of SAP professionals. A successful partnership with your recruitment provider should ensure you remain abreast of these changes, and help you to plan accordingly. By engaging a specialised SAP recruitment consultant who will have their finger on the pulse, and know what is on the horizon, your hiring process will be seamless. Through this successful partnership you can affirm your status as a leader within the SAP marketplace in Australia and New Zealand.