Recently, a group of psychologists at the annual Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology conference met to present emerging research on the broken rung. Caitlynn Sendra, Ph.D., experience product scientist at 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors, who hosted the session, explained that because of the roles men and women historically held in society, our stereotypes around men and women can carry over into today’s workplace, even if not intentionally. “Men are stereotypically thought to be agentic, direct, and task-focused – traits historically associated with leaders. On the other hand, women are stereotyped to be nurturing, communal, and community-focused,” explained Sendra. Although this has led women to be seen as less leader-like, Sendra presented original research on how this may actually give women leaders an advantage when it comes to influencing organizational culture.

Throughout the session, the researchers presented data on several different sources of potential bias around women leaders, including 360-degree reviews, “high-potential” programs, and feedback. For example, Dr. Martin Lanik, CEO of Pinsight, demonstrated that men are three times more likely than women to be identified as “high potential.” Additionally, Dr. Stefanie Mockler, co-founder of The Violet Group, showed data indicating that managers tended to “soften” their feedback to women. The message of the session was clear: businesses need to be proactive in removing this bias from people processes in order to level the playing field for women leaders.

The session ended with a discussion about what HR leaders can do to help reduce bias towards women leaders. Providing training on bias awareness and reduction was one solution provided by the researchers. HR technology was also called out as a key piece of the puzzle.

At SAP, we’re working with organizations of all sizes to help drive more equitable and inclusive HR strategies that empower equitable experiences for every employee, including women. With embedded features throughout , our customers are provided with the tools they need to help detect and prevent unconscious bias while also gaining the insights required to make decisions that can cultivate a diverse and inclusive workforce. 

Here are three examples of how organizations are using 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions to help solve for the broken rung and other systemic biases in the workplace:

Sanlam

is one of the largest financial services groups in South Africa and believes building a diverse, future-ready workforce is key to becoming the unrivaled industry leader in Africa and to strengthening its position abroad. With 105,000 team members, including both permanent employees and contingent staff, Sanlam is committed to ensuring access and opportunity across its total workforce. 

With 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions, Sanlam is bridging the gap between permanent and contingent workers by providing a consistent experience for all workers. With visibility into the total workforce, management can identify skill gaps and offer all workers development opportunities that match future priorities. And with group-wide analytics, Sanlam’s leadership can set and actively track targets around race, gender, and disability.

“We have all the information we need at the drop of a hat,” said Ronel Pfotenhauer, 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors portfolio product owner, Sanlam Life Insurance Limited. “For instance, we can report on the number of Black, African females with five years of experience and an MBA as potential candidates for a leadership role, with 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions acting as a type of internal recruitment portal.”

The University of Toronto

The University of Toronto’s mission is to build a community where academic and learning opportunities are given to every member of its community, including 12,000 full-time and 14,000 part-time employees across three campuses. Its recent work on the anti-Black racism task force and similar initiatives to do with anti-semitism and anti-Asian racism demonstrates the organization’s commitment to ensuring the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion are deeply embedded in the fabric of everything it does.

With 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions, the University of Toronto is bringing a consistent look and feel to the employee experience, providing comprehensive learning programs and empowering people leaders to create the conditions for all talent to thrive. .

MOD Pizza

is dedicated to making positive social impacts in the lives of its employees and the communities it serves. The company strives to create a more equitable world full of opportunities for those who face barriers to steady employment, such as people formerly incarcerated as well as individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. It calls its community of employees the MOD Squad, and the MOD Squad is 10,000 employees strong and growing along with the company.

With 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions, MOD Pizza has redefined the value of HR data, processes, and experiences – putting the MOD Squad at the heart of its business success. All candidates and new hires are provided with a welcoming experience to help them feel supported and prepared. All employees are provided with on-demand digital training to encourage continuous learning and growth. And with multiple touchpoints to gather sentiment feedback, MOD Pizza can quickly identify areas for potential improvement.

“SAP’s dedication to people sustainability struck a chord with us. This focus continues to show us that 51·çÁ÷solutions are the right choice for MOD Pizza because they’re designed to create a fair future full of opportunities for our employees,” said Tara Gambill, senior director of Enterprise Systems, MOD Pizza LLC.

Carrie Klauss is global director of Solution Marketing at 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors.

Working with thousands of midsize organizations across the world, this is something we are seeing firsthand at 51·çÁ÷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 51·çÁ÷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  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 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 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 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 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 51·çÁ÷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 .

*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 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors.

The is here to help. Each year, this team of PhD-level organizational psychologists and HR technology market intelligence experts aggregate and synthesize data from a wide range of reputable business press resources that put forward HR trends and predictions and conduct a content analysis to derive key themes or “meta-trends.” For 2023, the analysis involved 73 resources, leading to a list of 346 individual trends, which were then categorized into seven broader meta-trends.

Below is a quick recap of the 2023 HR meta-trends and a few examples of how organizations of all sizes are using 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions to get ahead – and stay ahead – of the curve.

From Trend to Foundational: Employee Experience

If you do a quick comparison from past years’ meta-trends analyses, you’ll notice an elevated shift for the employee experience. To no surprise, this topic continues to dominate the conversation and has become a cornerstone for HR and business strategies. With the recognition that all HR meta-trends are shaped by and shapers of the employee experience, our team of experts have “graduated” employee experience from trend to a foundational principle.

“HR digitalization was a key objective in our transformation to address our work culture challenges. Our necessary to develop and engage our people was an important aspect enabling the execution of our business strategy.”

– Arun Serikar, Director Global HR Technology,

1. Winning the Race for Skills

With the combination of employees maintaining the upper hand in the job market and many parts of the world continuing to face relatively tight labor markets, the focus on skills-based hiring and employer brand has skyrocketed the race for skills into the number one slot for 2023.

“We knew that to continue to be an employer of choice, we wanted to satisfy the needs of our employees and applicants who were demanding an enhanced experience.”

– Cherilyn Nobleza, Executive Director HR Transformation and Analytics,

2. Mobilizing the Workforce for the Future

Organizations are continuing to lean into learning and development to keep employees engaged and properly skilled – and with economic uncertainty likely leading to a shift between external hiring and internal mobility, this topic remains top of mind.

“Thanks to , we have transformed into an organization that prioritizes learning and growth and our employee engagement has significantly increased. We are now composed of people with a habit of learning not once a month but a little bit every day.”

– Adela Giral Lopez, CHRO,

3. Adopting Emerging Technologies with Purpose

As artificial intelligence (AI) use cases within HR begin to span across the employee journey, employees are beginning to see the added value for help in completing basic tasks and receiving personalized recommendations. But for that comfort level to grow, it’s imperative that HR teams remain vigilant in ensuring the use of intelligent technology is fair and transparent.

“With support from SAP, we have been able to extend the functionality in 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions to create an innovative solution that helps employees identify and develop the skills that will be vital in the digital world and the future of our company.”

– Gabriel de Diego, HR Strategy and Transformation Director,

4. Making Flexible Work, Work

Who wouldn’t love a four-day work week? This is just one of the many options being considered – and, in some cases, implemented – as organizations continue to experiment with new flexible work options designed for where, when, and how work happens.

“ is helping us truly empower and engage our employees by creating one space where employees can find everything they need and get virtual support to get their work done – no matter where they are.”

– Yoav Ventura, Cofounder and Managing Partner,

5. Embedding Holistic Well-Being Everywhere

Although many have settled into the “next normal” from a working perspective, there are still a significant number of stressors at play that emphasize the need for organizations to continue their understanding, support, and prioritization of employees’ holistic well-being – including their mental, physical, emotional, and financial health.

“Regularly engaging with employees is critical to ensure everyone’s voice is heard, their needs are addressed, and there is a positive work environment that makes people want to stay with us.”

– Tennyson Devoe, Senior Director of Safety and Organizational Excellence,

6. Embracing the Complexity of DEI&B

In 2023 we’ll begin to see organizations take a “lifecycle approach,” meaning diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B) will be embedded across all people-related activities, with particular focus on practices related to talent acquisition and retention.

“51·çÁ÷solutions are helping us achieve our diversity and inclusion goals. Greater visibility into the total workforce and transparent, improved reporting capabilities allow us to set recruitment and succession targets around race, gender, and disability.”

– Jeanett Modise, Group HR Director,

7. Preparing People Leaders for Today and Tomorrow

Your next generation of leaders will play a significant role in the success of your organization and in 2023, it’s all about developing leadership and management skills across the workforce. Keep in mind – not every high-performing individual is a good fit for managing a team so alternative paths outside of the traditional career ladder should be made available.

“Our talent strategy brings stronger engagement through clear objective setting, , and development conversations. We have the opportunity to improve internal mobility through succession planning capability, creating a diverse talent pipeline at all levels.”

– Fiona Brunskill, Director of People and Cultural Change,

For additional insights on the meta-trends and how you can prepare for what’s next, read the full report, .

Carrie Klauss is global director of Solution Marketing at 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors.

In today’s uncertain and still highly virtual times, the need for human interaction is greater than ever before. There has been a lot of discussion around the impact of the pandemic on organizations, specifically on recruiting strategies. It is important to also take note of the current sentiment among the growing pool of candidates. Just like recruiters will face, or are already facing, high volumes of applications, candidates will face or are already facing high volumes of recruitment activities, whether initiated by them or the organizations with which they are engaging.

Many say this unprecedented shift means that the power now lies with the employer. But candidates have also shifted the way they evaluate their future employers. Even before the global pandemic, showed that 35 percent of candidates consider social, environmental, and humanitarian actions as key criteria for what matters most when searching for a job. That sentiment of “what really matters” is only growing to include stability, flexibility, and transparency.

Whether recruiting for a single opening, hundreds of openings, or looking internally to fill the gaps, the challenge remains. How do you deliver the right candidate experience to attract the right talent? And how do you ensure they select you when you select them?

This is where technology comes into play. The twist is that the goal of technology is not to replace those personal interactions that are so important in today’s times. The goal of technology is to increase across the entire recruiting continuum to first ensure those interactions are as meaningful as possible and second free up time for recruiters to focus on the area they know best – finding the right match for an organization.

Looking across the end-to-end recruiting process, , several examples of capabilities are designed to increase recruiter efficiency:

• Planning: Evergreen and duplicate requisitions, anti-bias job description language and salary recommendations driven by artificial intelligence (AI)
• Sourcing: Global job board distribution, talent pool recommendations, behavioral-based nurture campaigns, automated applicant communications and notifications
• Screening: Embedded pre-screening questions, automated applicant ranking, automated removal of EEOC identifiers
• Selecting: Next-stage workflow automation, integrated interview scheduling, automated creation and distribution of interview guides, automated feedback rankings
• Hiring: Mass-initiation of offers and approvals, digital offers with e-signature through
• Onboarding: Automated initiation for new hires

Together these capabilities help to eliminate countless hours of tactical recruiting tasks and reduce cycle times while improving the outputs. This allows for acting more strategically and focusing time where it matters most – getting to know potential future employees.

1. Better understand audiences and how best to engage with them

Spend time evaluating the types of candidates you are attracting and how they are or are not engaging. Use analytics to see which sources are resulting in new hires and the path required to get there. Review both external and internal career sites to ensure messaging is a true representation of what is important to the company. Create, test, and tweak audience-specific landing pages to increase the engagement with specific applicant pools.

2. Increase personal interaction time with top candidates and hiring managers

Focus more time on the upfront intake process. What skills and certifications are needed to be successful in this job? What has worked and not worked with employees in similar roles? What questions will really help determine if a candidate is a good match? Then spend more time talking with top candidates — and maybe extending that list — to really gauge if they will be a good fit, not just on paper but culturally.

3. Gain insights into how people feel about the company and candidate experience

Take advantage of the opportunity the career site presents for gathering feedback from those you are trying to attract. Was is easy to find what they needed? Do they have a clear understanding of what the company does and the opportunities available? Are they clear on next steps once they apply? Do not limit this feedback channel to those who make it through your entire process. With the , embedded surveys and the resulting insights can be leveraged to know if you are making the most of first impressions or missing the mark.

4. Continually optimize and measure

Having insights and ideas is one thing; having the time to put them into practice is a game changer. Move to a more strategic approach of evaluating the candidate experience from end to end and reviewing on a continuous basis. Make sure you are leveraging all available capabilities to make it as convenient and easy as possible for future employees. And if you identify a gap or bottleneck, spend time resolving it versus working around it.

A good recruiter has a keen sense of communicating the right message and selecting the right talent but needs the right tools to be successful. For recruiters who are struggling to focus on what really matters – interacting with candidates in meaningful and impactful ways – it is time for a change.

To learn how to redesign a recruiting strategy to increase efficiency and drive better outcomes, explore the .

Carrie Klauss is senior manager of Solution Marketing for 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors.