dm: Transforming recruiting across borders to connect applicants with the right jobs
Attracting new talent and creating satisfied employees
dm-drogerie markt, known throughout Europe as dm, is the first choice for millions of shoppers in 14 countries. As a leading employer, dm wanted to implement a system that would support its employees in all aspects. To begin this journey, dm’s IT subsidiary dmTECH worked with the drugstore retailer to implement SAP SuccessFactors solutions, which helped digitalize recruiting and centralize the management of employee data by moving it to the cloud.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Retail | Karlsruhe, Germany | 66,000 employees | projekt0708 and Pentos |
of employees benefit from
centralized recruiting.
IT Product Manager for Recruiting Systems, dmTECH GmbH
Keeping up with job applicants’ demands in a competitive market
Practically everyone in Germany has visited a drugstore run by dm-drogerie markt GmbH + Co. KG. More than 3,945 stores in 14 countries sell a wide range of health and wellness products and everyday household items in addition to photo services. Across those stores, more than 71,620 employees help shoppers find what they need as part of an exemplary customer experience that sets dm apart from its competitors. Naturally, dm also distributes its products through its Web shop. When it comes to the digital dm experience, dm is supported by its own IT subsidiary dmTECH.
Since the company’s founding in 1973, people have remained at the core of dm’s mission. The brand was built upon a strong belief in the importance of long-term employee satisfaction, and the company is dedicated to looking after employees and giving them opportunities for success. However, more recently, an outdated recruiting process began to get in the way of connecting people with fulfilling job experiences at dm.
dm stores in different countries relied on wildly different recruiting technology and applications ranging from traditional on-premise recruiting systems to spreadsheets and manual paper-based processes. These outdated technologies and processes made work harder for applicants, recruiters, and hiring managers. The entire company was also seeing a significant increase in demand for mobile applications – and its technology simply wasn’t prepared for this shift.
dm knew it was time to transform its complicated recruiting processes into a unified recruiting strategy built for the needs of applicants and recruiters in the digital era.
IT Product Manager for Recruiting Systems, dmTECH GmbH
Guiding candidates through a short and intuitive application process
dm’s list of requirements for the technology centerpiece of its recruiting transformation was long.
The company sought a cross-border, enterprise-wide system that could map all existing processes for external and internal applicants while scaling for new application processes (for instance, on career Web sites such as XING or LinkedIn). This system would need to meet the individual needs of people all along the recruiting experience, including applicants, store managers, and recruiters.
For the benefit of applicants and the business alike, the SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting solution fulfilled the immediate need to build a responsive, intuitive, and mobile-ready online application using add-ons for SAP SuccessFactors solutions built by projekt0708. The solution guides applicants as they apply and helps them use intuitive tools for taking pictures of and uploading their résumés. Recruiters and HR professionals can take advantage of the solution’s analytics and reporting features.
dm decided to use the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting solutions because of the suite approach to harmonize the employee and candidate data. The company lacked a standardized approach for maintaining employee master data and organizational data, and it was unable to gain global insights, which impacted visibility of overall HR operations. Now, dm has a global database that feeds recruiting as well as other global systems.
All local payroll systems can be provided with employee and organizational data recording to the needs of local interfaces. SAP Integration Suite, part of SAP Business Technology Platform, offers a wide range of different possibilities to support this approach. The ability to have a localized model means employees can use their local language, which has generated positive feedback.
Saving time and driving efficiencies
A short and intuitive digital application for job applicants, lean and uniform recruiting processes, and a fresh, exciting career Web site – dm achieved all this and more with the add-on from projekt0708 based on SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting.
Implementation partner projekt0708 GmbH supported the company throughout its journey to modern recruiting. The Munich-based IT service used a custom add-on for SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, which allowed job prospects to quickly apply for positions on mobile devices by uploading their résumés.
Now, applicants across Europe need to provide only a few pieces of information using the new customer user interface short application available on mobile and desktop devices. They can upload their résumés from a smartphone or the cloud, and the application extracts the important data automatically. No more account registration or manual data entry required. The new recruiting process is designed to quickly connect candidates with jobs, and there’s even a geomap feature that provides candidates insight into real-time job vacancies.
For the first time, employees and managers can use a self-service approach when updating and accessing their data, which also benefits HR teams by reducing manual work. Store managers and the local HR team in countries using SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central won’t need to manually send reports (such as reports about the number of employees on parental leave) to the global reporting team. This saves everyone time and administrative effort. dm now can work more efficiently with one unified interface for other global dm systems.
Pentos AG, an SAP partner, worked on the implementation of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central for the first five countries chosen for the project, and dm is benefitting from the consultancy’s expertise in the integration of payroll systems. Pentos will support dm in the rollout to additional countries over the next years.
IT Project Manager for Employee Central, dmTECH GmbH
Extending the cloud’s reach to applicants and managers at more stores
In the coming years, dm plans to implement SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central in additional countries of operation.
Featured partners
projekt0708 GmbH is an HR IT service and consulting partner. The company specializes in cloud solutions for HR from SAP (including SAP SuccessFactors solutions), the SAP ERP Human Capital Management solution, and SAP Concur solutions. For more than 13 years, this SAP gold partner has helped companies across industries transform with SAP solutions.
Pentos AG helps businesses achieve 360-degree HR with efficient, innovative, and user-friendly processes based on best practices. The company offers consulting and implementation services for SAP SuccessFactors solutions and specializes in integrations with SAP and third-party systems.