Sun Communities: Keeping employees engaged and motivated to delight guests and residents
Explore Sun Communities’ journey with SAP
Sun Communities Inc. knows that its people are key to offering uplifting vacation experiences and creating attractive places to live. To help nurture a supportive culture for a growing employee base, the company first deployed SAP SuccessFactors HCM more than a decade ago and continues to roll out the latest innovations offered by the suite.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partners |
| Construction and real estate | Southfield, Michigan | 3,800 employees | Veritas Prime and Semos Cloud |
people hired and onboarded in one day during an acquisition.
allotted for staffing a new resort with 300 employees.
President, Sun Communities Inc.
Encouraging employees to offer a top-notch service
Since 1975, Sun Communities has been welcoming residents and vacationers to its manufactured housing communities, holiday parks, and marinas. With more than 670 properties across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the company has grown to become one of the world’s largest real estate investment trusts.
A happy workforce is key to delivering the high levels of customer service on which Sun Communities prides itself. However, in a company with fluctuating staffing requirements due to seasonal demand, it was a challenge to create a culture where employees felt motivated to not only meet high customer expectations but exceed them.
To this end, Sun Communities needed HR technology that would allow it to establish efficient workforce management processes across a growing business. It also needed solutions that would help it communicate and engage with employees to create a nurturing and supportive working environment across all of its sites.
Providing a technology backbone for evolving HR operations
To better support evolving HR requirements, Sun Communities began a lasting relationship with SAP by replacing its on-premise legacy system with SAP SuccessFactors HCM in 2012. First came an implementation of the SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding, SAP SuccessFactors Learning, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll solutions at its North American sites. Deployed with help from SAP partner Veritas Prime, these solutions enable the company to manage complex and seasonal labor needs while handling diverse employment regulations in different regions.
Since then, Sun Communities has taken advantage of the latest updates and innovations offered by SAP SuccessFactors HCM. For example, it has just completed a deployment of the latest version of SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding.
Meanwhile, the company is working to integrate SAP SuccessFactors HCM with other solutions such as SAP Concur, allowing it to streamline spend management processes. In addition Qualtrics Employee Experience, an SAP endorsed app, is helping Sun Communities carry out quarterly employee pulse surveys. These are used by the senior leadership team to gain insights into workforce sentiment and take steps to address any key concerns.
Using the SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone solution, it has also created an employee services portal where employees can access HR information while getting the latest company updates. What’s more, integration between SAP SuccessFactors HCM and the JobPts solution from SAP partner Semos Cloud enables Sun Communities to offer an employee recognition program to motivate and reward staff for delivering outstanding customer service.
Sun Communities also uses the SAP SuccessFactors Incentive Management solution to manage incentive compensation for several thousand team members across a long list of commission plans that have varying levels of complexity. The solution offers the company greater control in modifying plans and incentive calculation rules.
As the company continues to expand through acquisition, so does the scale of its SAP software landscape. Sun Communities has just completed a deployment of SAP SuccessFactors HCM at its UK sites, aligning HR processes at its recently acquired Park Holidays business with those of the wider company.
Achieving efficient HR operations while engaging with employees
Using SAP SuccessFactors HCM, Sun Communities is running smooth and efficient HR processes across its operations. Thanks to advanced recruitment and onboarding functionality offered by the solution, the company can successfully meet the complex challenges of seasonal fluctuations in staffing requirements across hundreds of sites. It’s also confident of its ability to scale quickly to carry out large-scale recruitment and assimilation of new hires when launching a new site or making an acquisition.
The employee services portal and regular employee sentiment feedback gathered through surveys have improved communication between management and staff. Meanwhile, straightforward access to training videos and a well-established mentoring program enabled by SAP SuccessFactors Learning helps employees build their skills and achieve career goals, improving job satisfaction and staff retention.
For Sun Communities’ customers, the results are life-enhancing. Highly motivated teams with a can-do community spirit provide outstanding service to residents and guests—helping create attractive places to live and memorable vacation experiences.
Chief Administrative Officer, Sun Communities Inc.
Using the latest innovations to drive efficiency and nurture talent
Sun Communities continues its long-running relationship with SAP, taking advantage of recent technology innovations to streamline HR processes and develop employees’ skills. The company is currently looking into how AI can help staff do their jobs better and improve operational efficiency with a possible deployment of the Joule copilot. Other projects involving AI include automation of writing job descriptions and analyzing compensation data for bias to check that employees are rewarded fairly for the work they do.
In addition, a planned deployment of the SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace solution will integrate with other solutions in SAP SuccessFactors HCM. This will allow employees to quickly find new job opportunities and access mentoring support and new learning experiences—helping them expand their skills and enjoy a long and fulfilling career at Sun Communities.
Featured partners
One of the world’s leading HR transformation consultancies, Veritas Prime provides innovative solutions to help businesses reach their full potential. For more than a decade, experts from Veritas Prime have helped Sun Communications build and grow its cloud-based HR technology infrastructure based on SAP solutions.
Helping businesses make the best of the talent they have and create a thriving company culture, SAP partner Semos Cloud’s JobPts solution enables the creation of tailored recognition programs. Sun Communities integrated the solution with SAP SuccessFactors HCM to launch a scheme that rewards its employees for service excellence.