Thread regarding SAP layoffs

I think we forget that once upon a time we were early talents. I remember joining a company and met a 40+ year old manager who was worried about being irrelevant in the future because they did not understand the latest technology. He asked me (a 20+ year old) to teach him the new stuff and I was happy to share. This is reality in the industry we are in - keep up or ship out ... I hate the current age discrimination practices and am tired of hearing about early talents too - but my mind and body can't keep as well as the youngsters ... any more.

SAP does not believe in employee development and re-training that would help them grow and expand within the company. The only type of fluffy training they are offered are skills such as lean and design thinking. Just take a look at the performance review process, the career development path section is always ignored because the management team does not care about the employee and HR couldn't care less. I've seen managers that would skip this process entirely because they are too "busy" and HR does not do any follow-up on this mandatory process even though they are supposed to be tracking the status to make sure it is done.

Instead of encouraging employees to expand their skills and knowledge on SAP and its products, they are pigeonholed into their existing job and responsibilities (many employees are OK with that because they are getting paid to do the same mindless tasks every day and they get to work from home). This "fitness exercise" is basically telling existing employees that you don't have the skills to take on the new challenges and you are untrainable. They are going to bring in some fresh, cheap and bright early talents to help them achieve their new goals and vision. Meanwhile, the unqualified and untrainable employees are kicked to the curb and were told "it is nothing personal, it is just business - Bye Bye"

This problem has been going on for years and will not change any time soon because there is no accountability among the management and HR teams. It is a very sad situation ... Meanwhile, the HR teams are accepting Best Employer and Diversity awards from different organizations and congratulating themselves on a job well done (they have achieved their KPIs and getting their bonus).

SAP used to hire for quality. In my country most recent hires (2017 and later), HR did not even do their third party check on the hiree credentials. I found out because there was a public listed document of an employee previous record and it was different from what the employee stated on her CV, which she passed to me to help her find a new job. Was absolutely disgusted. A lot of new hires are coming in from Father connections and even with fake job history. So much for HR.

But they have those really cool “HR Punks” tee shirts.

lol..that has to be the most ridiculous tag line ever. What is an HR Punk anyway? I picture Iggy Pop and Joey Ramone in a meeting with Billie Joe talking about headcount and “Early Talent”

I am sure those demographics analysis exist but they are for HR's "eyes only" because if the information is revealed to any management team or the general public, they will have a lot of explaining to do. They might have to return some of the diversity awards they won in the past. SAP HR leaders know exactly what I am talking about ...

it could also be interesting to look at the demographics of the "Catalysts" by age and gender......

So, from the comments from everyone here, it seems Diversity is only supported when its the “interest group” that is aligned with management interest? Is that what it means?

I am a full supporter of diversity programs at SAP but it makes me sick when they are in clear violation of age discrimination by forcing out senior employees out on a regular basis and refuses to consider fully qualified senior employees as new hires. Of course HR would not admit to this illegal practice but we should use one of our insightful data analysis tools to analyze the HR data (e.g. average age of employees - employed, terminated, new hires etc.) to reveal the true picture. Calling out Success Factors experts - I am sure someone in HR has access to this kind of information but he/she would be fired by bringing up this taboo topic. Mean while, SAP is constantly accepting diversity awards from different sources - how ironic ...

HR department is focused on its KPIs..... one of them is Employer Awards, another one is Diversity....

Can’t disagree with you there! The only decent Hr staff at SAP leave out of sheer frustration with the c-ap that was allowed to fester. I know 2 country HR directors who left because they were told to bury reports on corruption of the regional MDs. I knew compliance leaders in Germany who left for the same reason. The senior HR staff in regions work together with HQ compliance - only to assess the exposure of the company and once that’s determined to be limited or mitigated, they take no action against the offending leaders - just expendable low level field scapegoats necessary to demonstrate action has been taken.

I’ve seen region leaders order AEs to organise payments to CIOs and then fire the AE when it was uncovered.

I’ve seen false contracts created to support the quarterly bonus payments of regional MDs only for the local manager to get fired when the customer uncovered the false BOM. There is nothing these regional leaders won’t do, in full view of the BLIND eye of the executive team. Pun intended. You want authenticity? Get it elsewhere.

Totally agree! Well said.