“Energize Recruitment partners with SAP for the provision of permanent recruitment to address the problems of attracting niche skills in the EMEA region”

Background & Scope:

Serving more than 82,000 customers worldwide, SAP is the largest enterprise software company in the world with headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. Today, SAP employs more than 53,000 people in over 50 countries.

SAP‘s vision is for companies of all sizes – including small business and midsize companies – to become best-run businesses. In today's challenging business environment, companies need clarity across all aspects of their business in order to act quickly with increased insight, efficiency, and flexibility. By using SAP solutions companies can reduce costs, and optimize performance. To help its customers get the most out of their IT investments so that they can maximize their business performance, SAP professionals deliver the highest level of service and support.

In 2010 SAP embarked on a recruitment drive in EMEA across all of their industry sectors as they looked to bring a higher percentage of consultancy services back in-house rather than through partners. Energize took on in excess of 40 permanent vacancies in a 6 month period which were focused around the following areas: EWM, Logistics (Aerospace & Railways), SAP TM, Oil & Gas (IS-Oil), Mining (IS-MIN) Banking, Insurance (FS-CD) and Retail (IS-Retail).

The Challenge:

SAP required a recruitment partner who could provide true headhunting skills as they sought personnel in niche candidate driven sectors. Due to the fact that these candidates were in high demand most worked as freelancers and therefore the first challenge was to offer them something competitive on a permanent basis.

Furthermore, it was also important that Energize sourced these individuals quickly as SAP had projects that were under-resourced at the time. As a lot of these Consultants were based throughout the world so organising interviews and engaging with candidates was always going to difficult logistically.

Finally Energize needed to appreciate the differences in cultures when approaching candidates across EMEA.

The Solution:

Energize immediately mobilised an account management team comprising of a Director and five dedicated experienced SAP Consultants. These Consultants were split into relevant vertical markets mainly dependant on their language skills and network of candidates. This way of working mirrored the structure of the recruitment team internally at SAP. 

Energize and SAP quickly identified target competitors and the shortlist process was drawn up within 2 weeks. The two companies met at the office in Feltham on a bi-weekly basis in order to keep the lines of communication fully open and discuss any issues that had arisen. Due to the aggressive nature of the recruitment drive and the global nature of the candidate pool, it was agreed that some final interviews would take place via video conference, reducing time to hire.

In order to make the recruitment process even smoother Energize were responsible for referencing the candidate during the early stages with either customers or previous companies.

The Result:
 
Within five weeks of starting the project Energize had secured their first offer into the Transport & Logistics Hub for a Principal Consultant working with the SAP TM module. This vacancy had been live for almost 6 months.

Over the course of the next five months this success continued with Energize managing to engage and place a blend of Solution Architects, Senior Consultants, Principal Consultants and Pre-Sales Consultants within the prescribed timeframes. Energize also managed to adhere to strict SLA’s set by SAP finishing the project with the following ratios:

• For every 1.5 CV’s sent an interview was requested.
• For every 10 Interviews organised 4 offers were made.
• For every 10 offers that were made 8 candidates accepted.

Client Feedback:

“I have worked with Energize in an effective way. The team of consultants that support me are dedicated and professional. Energize deliver good quality candidates to our challenging requirements and work tirelessly to find the ‘one in a million’ candidate”.

Head of Recruitment, SAP (UK)