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The Pillars of an Award-Winning Program
SAP was selected as a 2023 Campus Forward Award Winner for their unwavering commitment to seeking out and hiring early career talent, their emphasis on diversity & inclusion, and investments in nurturing and retaining the next generation of talent. Please see below for the highlights of their approach to early career recruitment.
Demonstrated Investment in Early Career Hiring
SAP is rooted in shaping tomorrow, together. This can only be done with the help of interns and early career talent, who SAP believes brings invaluable, fresh insight and perspective to the company. SAP offers student programs such as the SAP Internship Experience Program, as well as vocational training and early talent programs within services, development, sales, finance, human resources, and consulting services. Early talents are valued for their new opinions, which drive breakthroughs, and, seeing as SAP’s CEO started as an intern at the company, it is evident how much SAP values the work of early talents.
Innovative and Multi-Faceted Approach to University Recruitment
SAP harnesses its goal of making the world run better to drive the recruiting of a diverse and driven group of candidates to align with SAP’s values of innovation. What makes the SAP early career talent attraction team standout is its willingness to constantly adapt to feedback, while positioning itself at the forefront of new engagement methodologies. SAP focuses on early career talent recruiting heavily, believing that students bring the ‘X-factor” to the company — something that is unique to each student. The intent of the array of webinars, university fairs, and early career workshops is to make early career roles at SAP accessible to everyone. By utilizing several university recruiting platforms, online and in person, the early career talent recruiting team constantly strives to ensure talents have access to an early career role at SAP, no matter where they are located or how they have been educated.
Overarching Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
SAP’s early career talent attraction team has redefined early talent recruiting by using innovative strategies and a diverse collection of platforms. When hosting virtual informational panels and in-person hiring events, the team focuses on diverse location selection and ensuring that HBCUs are included. Further, to prep for these events, the team attends conferences such as the Grace Hopkins convention to learn more about how to recruit and support diverse candidates in historically underrepresented roles. To recruit candidates, SAP devotes time to sourcing from several organizations, including CodePath’s info session and virtual career panel, Tech Together Seattle hackathon for women, O4U Tech Conference for LGBTQ mentorship and recruiting, and the SAP HBCU Summit Part 2 virtual info session. SAp also hosts early talent panels and 1:1 career conversation opportunities both virtually and in-person. For the fifth consecutive year, in 2022 Forbes granted SAP the “America's Best Employers for Diversity Award”.
Impactful Internship Program
SAP’s Internship Experience Program (SAP iXp) is a global program that provides interns the opportunity to learn from board executives, network with top talent from around the world, and work on projects where creative collaboration abounds. From the beginning, board executives such as SAP’s CMO Julia White hold online and in-person seminars exclusively for the interns. Interns are given buddies, who serve as a first point of networking. Job-shadowing is another option for interns who want to step outside of their specific field and learn from a professional in a different area. SAP also holds quarterly career weeks consisting of virtual and in-person learning sessions for the interns to ensure that they are on a path to success (events include personal CV and interview workshops). Interns can participate in the Intern Spotlight, which gives interns who are looking for a full-time role greater visibility within the company.
Growth and Development of the Next Generation of Talent
The early career roles that SAP offers provide an excellent opportunity for recent grads to begin their professional journey, but beyond that, the company offers opportunities for those in early career talent to grow personally. SAP offers in-depth role-specific training, consistent coaching and feedback, and a clear promotion path, all while offering engagement opportunities such as ENGs, networking events, and volunteer opportunities to help early career employees grow outside of their role specific tasks. One such example is SAP’s 'Pro Bono for Economic Equity' program, which allows employees to leverage their professional skills to volunteer for Black-owned businesses. SAP is dedicated to ensuring its early talents find a place for their professional career to grow and thrive in sync with SAP’s core values.