Working for SAP
Germany’s Best Employer
The great number of applications for positions we again received worldwide in 2007 indicates how attractive SAP is as an employer. This is underscored by the praise that others accorded SAP. In February 2007, the Great Place to Work institute once again named SAP as Germany’s best large employer. For the third year in a row, we achieved the top ranking in the category for companies with more than 5,000 employees. Additionally, our employee health management program won us the special prize in the health category. This award was based on the results of a survey of employees, so it was our own people – not a jury – who awarded us the honor. Overall, 198 companies of all sizes and from all sectors competed in the contest, which in Germany was run by Great Place to Work in cooperation with Capital magazine and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology’s New Quality of Work initiative, with other partners. The standardized method employed in the survey was specifically designed for such surveys and is used internationally by the Great Place to Work institute. Around 60 questions concerning their employer and dealing with fairness, team spirit, credibility, pride, and respect were anonymously answered by 343 SAP employees. The result confirms the importance of our corporate culture to our employees: Aspects employees mentioned as crucial to a “great place to work” included their own responsibility for customer-centricity, innovation, and quality, and the pursuit of product excellence. The criteria for these awards reflect every relevant aspect of working practice and the relationships within the employer’s organization.
Our own global survey – which we conduct every two years – confirmed our employees’ sense of identification with SAP.
- 91% of the respondent SAP employees believed in our products and services
- 90% believed in our goals and objectives
- 86% were proud to work for SAP
- 79% thought SAP was a great place to work
Human resources marketing firm Trendence’s Graduate Barometer, the biggest and most influential survey of students in Germany, found – for the second time in successive years – that we were one of the most popular employers in Germany overall. We were ranked first among IT companies, up from second place in 2006.
We were also judged one of the 100 best employers again in the 2007 Best Workplaces in Europe awards. A survey by Hewitt Associates, The RBL Group, and Fortune placed SAP among the Top 10 European Companies for Leaders.
According to the Swiss Graduate Barometer survey conducted by Trendence and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper, young professional staff in Switzerland perceive SAP Switzerland to be one of the best employers.
SAP Labs India took part in the Businessworld Great Places to Work survey for the first time and achieved eighth place among the top 10 employers in India. SAP Labs India also won the Indiatimes award in the Excellence in HR through Technology category. In an annual Australia and New Zealand study, SAP Australia & New Zealand was selected as a 2006/2007 Hewitt Best Employer. The first ever Great Place to Work survey in Japan ranked SAP Japan in its top 20.
SAP Canada was a winner in the Mediacorp Canada Inc. 2007 guide to Greater Toronto’s top 50 employers. Mediacorp publishes an annual Canada’s Top 100 Employers guide. The evaluation criteria include, for example, employee communications, performance management, and training and skills development.
The Move Europe initiative selected SAP for its first European prize in recognition of our excellent holistic employee health management program. It was SAP’s third prize for employee health management best practice in 2007. Move Europe is an official initiative of the European Commission in 27 countries. In Germany, the Commission’s partner on the initiative is the BKK, the German association of employer-operated health insurance providers. Move Europe identifies and promotes healthy workplace lifestyle practice on a pan-European level.
Our success starts with our employees. Their innovativeness and commitment are crucial, as is their level of higher education. Most people we employ have a university degree in science, engineering, or business. In 2007, we continued our policy of investing in skills development to maintain high levels of employee proficiency.
As part of our major global Employer of Choice campaign, we continued an initiative at German universities that we kicked off in November 2006 to recruit highly qualified young employees, especially for our Walldorf, Germany campus. We identified the 100 best IT and business graduates for an “SAP Future Team” in a highly competitive selection process. This was the first step in an international campaign we are planning, involving various European universities, where we are backing our efforts with direct mailing campaigns, road shows, and campus info days.
Three educational institutes in Bulgaria, including the University of Sofia, and two universities in Romania joined the global SAP University Alliances program, which fosters tomorrow’s business and IT talent. It gives students hands-on practice with SAP software, practical experience of today’s working environment, and access to a wide range of learning materials. The program is attractive for us as a good future source of highly qualified recruits.
Share-Based Employee Motivation
Only highly motivated employees can deliver the top-quality work that our customers demand. To retain them, we must offer competitive conditions. In addition to good salaries, we offer our employees many additional benefits. Profit sharing is one important motivational element. We awarded STARs to about 23,600 employees in 2007 in recognition of their performance. In addition, 2,500 executives and selected top performers were awarded a total of approximately 7,000,000 STARs under our Stock Option Plan 2007 (SAP SOP 2007) and 700,000 STARs under our Incentive Plan 2010 program. By offering stock purchase programs in 35 countries so that employees can buy subsidized shares, we also encourage them to adopt an entrepreneurial approach to their work.
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