The company was tasked by CEO Bill McDermott with making sure it was well-placed to take full advantage of the Millennial generation.
Tracey Arnish, Senior Vice President, Talent, spoke to HR Grapevine about what they did to achieve this goal.
“Bill sees Millennials as being critical to our growth and future leadership of our company,” says Arnish.
To this end, the SAP Academy has been launched. It not only features a state of the art training scheme, but also includes a blend of traditional classroom learning and hands-on training.
“They come in and immediately benefit from on-the-job training. At the Academy facility in Dublin, California, they really are exposed to cutting edge learning opportunities, both classroom and tech, plus on-the-job, working with experts as well as exposure to executives.
“We know Millennials like to work in an environment where there’s a high degree of collaboration, where the contribution and opportunity to make a difference can be felt immediately. All in an environment where they get continuous feedback.”
The process starts long before candidates enter the Academy. SAP has developed a new recruitment strategy that aims to make sure that new students at the Academy fit the company’s culture.
“One of the things that was really important was that we were bringing in talent that would be a really good cultural fit to the organisation. We felt this was an opportunity to start to think differently about the type of talent we want to bring in,” Arnish explained.