As vaccinations increase and COVID-19 restrictions ease, companies across the globe are revisiting their work policies to address employee feedback for greater flexibility. The global shift to working from home has led to new employee preferences and better understanding of how productivity and collaboration can successfully continue despite working remotely.
SAP has embraced a location-agnostic work style for decades. By doing this, we have built a truly global workforce and supported employees with mobile technology to enable work to happen from anywhere, anytime.
Our recent employee surveys on work style post-COVID show that this continued work flexibility is desired. Over 80% of SAP employees say they want a mix of working from home or remote with some time in the office.
Today, SAP is building on our proven ways of remote work that our employees have enjoyed across the world for decades into a new global framework that is entirely flexible and trust based. We continue to believe in a workplace based on trust and empowerment because employees are at the heart of what we do.
Today, SAP pledges to provide a setup that fits every role, style, and location with:
- A 100% flexible and trust-based workplace as the norm, not the exception
- An inclusive environment in which people can work from home, at the office, or remotely, so everyone is empowered to run at their personal best, driving success for SAP’s customers
- Flexible work schedules, so employees can decide when they work aligned with business needs
- Inspiring office designs tailored for creativity, collaboration, community, and focused work, enabling employees to find the right space for every task
- Office buildings that prioritize sustainability and health
- An approach that meets local regulations across the many regions where our employees work
Our pledge to flex is designed to ensure employees have what they need to be productive, creative, and inspired while running the business responsibly and meeting business requirements. And, as we have seen in industry surveys, women and recent graduates particularly desire and benefit from a flexible work environment. With our pledge, we hope and believe SAP will be a preferred company for these groups of valuable employees.
A centerpiece of SAP’s flexible work approach is our technology. SAP SuccessFactors software provides an end-to-end human experience management (HXM) solution from employees’ onboarding throughout their career development – improving engagement, growth, and retention wherever they work. Qualtrics enables us to stay connected with employee sentiment by providing instant visibility into the employee’s lived experience across the globe. To enable easy and smooth collaboration regardless of where people are located, we are working on integration of Microsoft Teams across our portfolio, allowing a broader choice of access tools.
At SAP, we are honored and humbled to be chosen multiple times as employer of choice in the countries where we are located. Our pledge to flex is another expression of our profound respect for our employees.
Christian Klein is CEO of SAP SE.
