In a recent IDC survey sponsored by SAP, HR leaders from midsize organizations ranked “increasing employee production/efficiency” as the top business priority to drive growth. And what is the top strategy these organizations plan to use to improve productivity? For 70% of the respondents, the answer lies within the upskilling and reskilling of their employees.*
Working with thousands of midsize organizations across the world, this is something we are seeing firsthand at SAP SuccessFactors. Organizations of all sizes are feeling the added pressure of economic uncertainty, rising customer demands, and an employee-driven market. But for midsize organizations, the runway to get it right is often far shorter than that of their large enterprise peers.
According to IDC, “To keep pace with change, organizations are finding ways to reskill workforces at scale.”
What does that look like? Here are six ways our midsize customers are driving growth by using SAP SuccessFactors solutions to help power their reskilling and upskilling initiatives:
1. Adopting an Integrated Approach to Learning and Talent
Although HR technology solutions are often defined as a specific point within the employee life cycle, those lines are continuing to blur as the way we work, learn, and interact continues to evolve. Using any or all the SAP SuccessFactors Talent Management solutions helps organizations to better align with a holistic talent management strategy and ensure end-to-end versus “dead end” experiences.
2. Identifying the Skills Gap (and More) with Embedded Talent Intelligence
Competing for and effectively retaining top talent is one of the top challenges for midsize organizations. And if – or when – the predictions come true, the skills gap will only continue to widen. Giving our midsize customers visibility into the skills they have and the skills they need creates a competitive edge. But then we go a step – or a few steps – further to expand beyond skills with a “whole self” approach that encompasses all things skills as well as individual competencies, aspirations, and preferences. This is core to not only assessing skills but delivering talent experiences that help to accelerate reskilling and drive internal mobility.
3. Serving Up Personalized Recommendations and Experiences via a Talent Marketplace
When it comes to today’s digital experiences, our consumer and employee expectations are similar – make it easy, intuitive, relevant, and valuable to me. Tying back into adopting an integrated approach to learning and talent, our customers are using the SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace solution to help support their upskilling and reskilling initiatives by matching employees to projects, learnings, mentors, dynamic teams, and more – and serving up recommended matches in one all-for-me place. Tying back to identifying the skills gap with embedded talent intelligence, the opportunities presented are reflective of a unique balance of what is best or desired by the individual and what is needed for the organization.
4. Offering Anytime, Anywhere Learning for All Employees
Building new skills is dependent on having adequate resources, including time, to build new skills. As growth-focused organizations take advantage of new working models and the ability to expand their talent footprint beyond the traditional workplace, they are turning to learning management systems capable of supporting a wide-variety of learning needs. For example, with the SAP SuccessFactors Learning solution, our midsize customers can deliver content based on learner’s interests, goals, content preferences, and more – in the office, at home, or on their mobile device.
5. Driving Engagement with Continuous Performance Management
As IDC calls out in its findings, matching employee goals with business goals is key to improving productivity and overall performance. And this is an area where our midsize customers see near immediate value as they make the shift from offline and annual employee reviews to digital and continuous performance management. With the SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals solution, business goals and objectives can be automatically cascaded to all levels and across all departments to help ensure alignment. In addition, ongoing coaching and feedback helps to make employees feel supported and keep performance on track. This helps to solve the problem of communication gaps or the feeling of uncertainty that can be common in fast-paced environments.
6. Enabling – and Recognizing – Dynamic Teams across the Organization
If you are working or have ever worked in a midsize organization, the concept of a dynamic team should be familiar. There is a special project, it requires a mix of skill sets from across the organization, and you need to come together quickly to solve the challenge or make the next big thing a reality. With the dynamic team capabilities within SAP SuccessFactors solutions, our midsize customers can create, manage, and track the progress of these teams. This can provide unique visibility into team success with objectives and key results (OKRs), the new skills employees are gaining by being part of these teams, and how best to optimize these teams – and potentially the organizational structure – to drive agility and improved performance.
For additional insights from the IDC research sponsored by SAP, read the Info Snapshot: Five Tips to Increase Workplace Productivity.
*Source: Five Tips to Increase Workplace Productivity, an IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by SAP, April 2023, IDC Doc. #US50551823.
Carrie Klauss is global director of Solution Marketing at SAP SuccessFactors.