It’s the heyday of flex-work models, but the future of work is so much more, with opportunities ready to be tackled along the spectrum of workforce transformation, new people practices, and next-generation HR models.

SAP’s Holistic Future of Work Agenda: Shaping the Next World of Work

Managing the future of work holistically is a strategic imperative to build a resilient, agile, and innovative organization that is future-fit for the digital age. As global provider of leading-edge human experience management () software, 51ˇçÁ÷has been putting its focus on designing a holistic future of work agenda that empowers its more than 100,000 people across the globe to thrive while creating value for its customers.

The agenda is SAP’s north star to reimagine work at its core. It considers business elements and strategic HR components along three dimensions to create a sustainable work experience for its global and diverse workforce:

• Future of Workforce, aiming to define a target picture for a future-proof workforce at SAP
• Future of People Practices, making new, flexible, and healthy work “work” for everyone
• Future of HR, reimagining the way how HR functions need to operate in future along a strategic HR master plan

Future-Proof the Workforce

Accelerated digitalization and technology advances fuel the need for skill transformations across large portions of today’s workforce. The shift of skills as well as demographic changes result in a shortage of available talent, emphasizing the necessity of a clear understanding of future workforce demands. At the same time, this increases the competition for available talent in the market.

SAP’s workforce transformation is based on scenario modeling to provide a clear understanding of what our workforce will need to look like five to 10 years down the road and how it will be composed. From these projections, we can derive a strategy to define the target picture with the right mix of permanent employees, gig workers, as well as the use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI). HR leaders play a crucial role by engaging in systematic resource planning in line with business strategy requirements.

To future-proof their workforce, organizations need to prioritize continuous employee development through up- and reskilling. One example of this commitment is SAP’s internal talent marketplace, which offers project work, fellowships, or mentoring opportunities. Employees can take on respective assignments and apply their expertise where it is most needed while also acquiring new skills on the job: a win-win for everybody.

Leading-Edge People Practices

People are the heartbeat of every organization. To meet ever-changing employee needs, organizations need to create innovative and effective strategies to attract, develop, engage, and retain top talent, as well as constantly challenge and evolve their people and workplace practices.

Empowerment Through Flexibility
Flexibility is in more demand than ever, making it a strong lever for outstanding employee experience. With Pledge to Flex, 51ˇçÁ÷offers a hybrid work model that empowers employees to decide with their managers when, where, and how they work best in alignment with customer and business requirements.

There is measurable success to the advantages of flexibility: SAP’s recent global future of work pulse survey revealed that over 80% of the workforce feel at least as or even more productive, satisfied, and engaged through hybrid work. The grand majority also believes that flexibility increases SAP’s attractiveness as employer.

Providing the best setup for every team with the right balance between office and remote work is one of the key elements in making hybrid work “work” for everyone. At the same time, the office remains the number one place to meet and support cultural affiliation, networking, and onboarding of new joiners.

To promote SAP’s hybrid work approach with Pledge to Flex, we launched the internal “I’m In” campaign, encouraging employees to find the right ratio of in-office and remote work. At SAP, we see that a combination of splitting time between remote work and two to three days of in-person office work per week seems to be a good practice, given that it fosters team spirit, engagement, and excitement about the organization.

Enablement for a Successful Transition
To navigate the added level of complexity in a hybrid landscape and build a routine, enablement and trainings are key. 51ˇçÁ÷supports employees, managers, and teams with hands-on tools and resources to balance team and individual needs while keeping customer requirements front and center.

One example is the Flex Team Workshop, allowing leaders and team members to jointly determine the hybrid work setup that best fits their needs in terms of productivity, collaboration, work-life balance, and, of course, business and customer requirements. Additionally, the Meeting Workout toolkit is a gamified approach to review and declutter meetings, making each interaction more valuable to everyone. And with “Lighten the Load” and “Are you OK?,” 51ˇçÁ÷runs powerful personalized programs to enhance employee health and people sustainability, while providing stress relief.

Leadership becomes more demanding in the new world of work. Leaders need to become even stronger facilitators when communicating direction and strategy in a hybrid environment. Critical skills to adjust to the evolving role of management include communicating and listening with empathy and being agile when connecting with people. Modern leadership today also includes to keep teams engaged and tackle Zoom fatigue in times of unprecedented change.

Next-Generation HR

A data-driven and agile HR approach is the foundation to bringing the future of workforce and people practices to life. With the help of leading-edge technology, the HR function can evolve while addressing the demand for scalable and flexible services to meet changing needs of employee and the business quickly and efficiently.

Besides technological advancements, the required skills for the future HR function will evolve as well. 51ˇçÁ÷focuses on a set of key themes:

• Experience management in HR, emphasizing the needs of employees, managers, or applicants from a HR consumer point of view
• Data-driven HR, leveraging advanced analytics to solve talent and organization related business problems and support decision-making
• Digital HR to reap the fruits of technological advances across the entire employee life cycle
• Agile HR, applying an agile mindset, values, principles, practices, and tools when serving the business

Capabilities like digital savviness, analytical skills, data interpretation, and an agile mindset will become must-have skills for successful HR work in the new era.

Stay Curious and Keep Learning

Looking ahead, it is fair to say that we are just scratching the surface when it comes to the many opportunities to shape the future of work. With an industry-leading hybrid work model in place, 51ˇçÁ÷built a strong foundation to tackle the workplace evolution as part of a holistic future of work agenda.

Getting the triad of future workforce planning, people practices, and next generation HR teams right sets the path to make organizations more future-ready while the world around us is changing at breakneck speed. In the end it all comes down to continuously learning and discovering what works best for the creation of outstanding employee experiences while driving sustainable business success — truly exciting times for HR!

Dr. Christian Schmeichel is chief future of work officer at SAP.

What does this new world of work look like for the more than 110,000 51ˇçÁ÷employees across the globe?

Hybrid Work: Our Way Forward

As part of our in the future, the Pledge to Flex program is SAP’s strategic response  to the changing demands of today’s — and tomorrow’s — workforce.

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51ˇçÁ÷has practiced remote work for decades and flexibility is part of the company’s DNA, but the pledge addresses the increased desire for more flexibility at work, which is a trend that 51ˇçÁ÷and many other companies see in the labor market. Aiming for the creation of a leading-edge working environment where employees can thrive, Pledge to Flex is based on empowerment and self-organization driving world-class innovation and productivity while meeting individual requirements.

Dr. Christian Schmeichel is senior vice president and chief future of work officer at SAP. He leads the global Future of Work organization, which designs innovative strategies how SAP’s employees work today and in the future. “Flexible work is a key differentiator for attracting and retaining world-class talent in a highly competitive labor market,” he says. “Getting it right sets the foundation for a successful journey into the future of work.”

True flexibility comes to life when employees get to choose from where they do their best work — whether that is in the office, remote, or at home. We see this as a hybrid approach, giving employees greater autonomy in line with business and customer requirements.

Hybrid work is not a new concept. What is new is the strategic imperative and the degree of participation, alongside an increased level of remote work.

51ˇçÁ÷is making a purposeful investment in supporting everyone to run at their personal best; all people get to participate and have conversations about what, when, how, and where they are working, as well as what options are available to them.

The transition to this new world of work is well underway at SAP, with the model implemented across 75 countries. Results of our latest employee survey suggest that Pledge to Flex is widely appreciated, with positive effects of hybrid work on employer attractiveness, empowerment, and productivity

Connecting Teams in the Age of Hybrid

Clear communication, continuous listening, and a focus on health and well-being are cornerstones of SAP’s success in this regard. But what does the right balance of working from the office and in remote locations look like?

Dan Barton, User Experience lead and co-founder of Bluestonex UK, a member of the 51ˇçÁ÷AppHaus Network, proposes: “Why should people return to the office if they can work remotely? [Companies must ] create a compelling reason for people to be in the office, and use the location as an opportunity to build a team culture.”

Building a strong team culture with both onsite and remote working opportunities is key to success. As such, 51ˇçÁ÷places focus on the creation of easy-to-use tools to build relationships, foster collaboration, and focus on health in any work environment.

Flex Team Workshop

There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to hybrid work, so managers and teams must define new ways of working that best meet business requirements while supporting individual needs. To facilitate the process, 51ˇçÁ÷AppHaus and the global Future of Work team co-created the so called as an innovative methodology for team development. The approach helps managers and employees jointly determine a setup that drives collaboration and productivity while putting business and customer requirements front and center and supporting the work-life balance of team members.

“Who would have thought that a simple new work breakfast series that started in the 51ˇçÁ÷AppHaus became an integral part of 51ˇçÁ÷Human Resources,” shares Andreas Hauser, senior vice president and head of 51ˇçÁ÷AppHaus Network. “We co-created the new Flex Team Workshop with the Future of Work organization, and the workshop format was so successful within 51ˇçÁ÷that we decided to also make it . This effort contributes to our vision of hybrid work and lets teams successfully create their own next way of working.”

In 2022, Flex Team Workshop has been introduced globally at 51ˇçÁ÷and has over 850 trained facilitators. It was listed among the finalists of the and the German , a testament to the importance of how teams organize themselves in a hybrid world.

Enablement material is available to all 51ˇçÁ÷customers and partners as a free resource within .

Key elements of the Flex Team Workshop format include:

• Running the 90-minute workshop as self-service tool
• Understanding business needs and each team member’s requirements
• Aligning on key activities and social interactions in the office as well as when working remotely
• Building consensus on a tangible hybrid work plan

FlexConnect App

The FlexConnect App is the digital counterpart that brings flex work to life when working in the office. It supports employees to organize their work week and book work spaces and meeting rooms.

A social component allows people to connect with team members and colleagues by showing who else is in the office and where to find them. Together with the so-called “moments together onsite,” which are ideas for creating compelling reasons to return to the office, the experience of togetherness strengthens social coherence, which is particularly important in the age of hybrid.

Health as Imperative

A changing work model requires state-of-the-art health and well-being offerings acknowledging that happy and healthy employees drive the greatest value to customers and communities. Hence the health, safety, and well-being of our people is a business imperative, with a holistic focus on mental and physical health. Further underlining our commitment, we are proud to be among the first global corporations to have signed the .

Health offerings for 51ˇçÁ÷employees include:

• Are You OK?, a company-wide
• Employee Assistance Program with 24/7 confidential support and psychological counseling
• Healthy leadership training for managers
• 51ˇçÁ÷Global Mindfulness Practice program with trainings on mindfulness and emotional intelligence
• On-demand trainings for employees in physical health

In the End, It’s All About People

Making an organization future-proof must be top of mind for every leader. It requires organizations to be more resilient, adapt to strategic changes, and have flexible organizational models along with a culture that embraces disruption and change.

In the end, it is people creating, executing, and running all of this to be successful in the new world of work. People are therefore front and center in everything we do.

The phone call came on a Friday night, Schmeichel remembers: “Did I want to go to Japan as HR director? I was given time to decide until Monday.”

At the time, Schmeichel already had a track record of various HR executive roles at SAP. Born in Cologne, Germany, he acquired a PhD in Business Administration and went on to work in corporate finance and as a strategy consultant with a McKinsey spin-off. In 2005, he joined 51ˇçÁ÷where his roles included, among others, head of HR strategy, COO for HR, and HR business partner lead for four 51ˇçÁ÷Executive Board members.

Moving to Tokyo in 2013, Schmeichel encountered a country undergoing fundamental change after the Fukushima earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear catastrophes. “It was fascinating to see this huge country gearing up to be prepared for potentially disruptive events of the future,” Schmeichel says. There was a deep business transformation underway with a focus on rebuilding things as some regions of Japan had been completely destroyed.

“But it also left a lasting impression with me how strongly people’s safety featured in all those considerations. With the catastrophe being so fresh in everybody’s mind, there was a fundamental focus on health and well-being – on what’s really important in our lives.”

Schmeichel’s years in Japan certainly provided a learning experience for turbulent times such as a few years later and his new role as chief future of work officer.

SAP’s Holistic Future of Work Agenda

With the creation of the chief future of work officer position in 2021, 51ˇçÁ÷became one of just a few other companies to have someone managing this topic holistically at the C-suite level. Given Schmeichel’s more than 20 years in HR executive roles, this was a perfect opportunity for him to bring together all his expertise and knowledge to make sure that 51ˇçÁ÷is a front-runner in this important area.

“Historically, 51ˇçÁ÷has a track record of creating state-of-the-art, leading-edge working environments,” he says. “But with the world changing at breakneck speed and the war for talent becoming even more intense, we at 51ˇçÁ÷– just like any other corporation – have to get one thing right and that is continuously being an attractive employer moving forward.”

Schmeichel considers the global pandemic as a catalyst for workplace change that was already underway. “What started out as crisis management in March 2020 evolved into our innovative flagship program Pledge to Flex, among other things,” he says.

He regards SAP’s workplace flexibility as an advantage over competitors that have announced that they will mandate their employees come into the office again several days per week. With its Pledge to Flex program, 51ˇçÁ÷chose a more flexible approach. The hybrid working model is a frame in which everyone – in line with business requirements – is empowered to find the best balance between working regularly in the office and remotely.

“The combination of flex time, flex location, and flex workspace opens doors for talent that we otherwise couldn’t tap into,” Schmeichel explains. “We don’t want to miss out on an awesome developer, just because they are also taking care of young children or elderly relatives.”

A mix of data-driven insights and feedback from 51ˇçÁ÷employees enables Schmeichel and his team to learn how their initiatives are being received. “Almost 90% of our employees confirm that Pledge to Flex is the right way to go,” he says. “We are currently making sure that the program becomes a reality for all our 105,000 employees across all of our 75 countries.”

For employees, more flexibility also means more responsibility and self-organization though, while managers need to come up with new and modern ways of holding the team together and checking in on team members. Schmeichel and the Future of Work team understand this can lead to additional strain, but also great opportunity for enhanced performance.

“Health – and mental health in particular – are important parts of the holistic Future of Work team’s agenda,” he says. “We have to make sure that people are able to work in a sustainable way.” With initiatives such as , 51ˇçÁ÷Mental Health Day, or SAP’s mindfulness practice, the company encourages its employees to self-reflect on what is important in life for them and also take a particular look on their mental health and well-being.

A Deep Glimpse into the Crystal Ball: Creating a Target Picture for the Future-Proof SAP

But the future of work at 51ˇçÁ÷encompasses much more than adjusting to the new post-pandemic normal. One of the most important steps to undertake when gearing up for the future is to create a strategic target picture. Taking an evolutionary approach for SAP’s workforce planning, Schmeichel’s team develops a vision of what 51ˇçÁ÷could look like five to 10 years from now.

“If we know, for example, the future ratio between permanent and temporary labor, the future skills demand, or the mix of locations people will work from, we can derive from that how our people strategy and our workplace practices will need to evolve,” he says. “Hiring practices, location strategy, learning strategy – all that needs to be part of an evolving future of work agenda.”

With a clear picture of the current and future workforce and the anticipated changes in work practices and environment, it becomes obvious that HR has to evolve as well.

“If we want to serve our 51ˇçÁ÷workforce to the best extent as an HR organization over the upcoming years, we will need to leverage our digital capabilities much more. We need to simplify topics wherever it makes sense to free up time and capacity for value-adding services such as talent management or personal conversations,” Schmeichel says.

The strategic workforce planning part of the Future of Work team is closely collaborating with 51ˇçÁ÷business leaders, HR business partners, as well as controlling and corporate strategy. Key figures such as headcounts and financials are going into the target picture, but also information on the skills the workforce will need to develop.

Schmeichel explains: “We still cannot predict the future, but we can maybe ask the right questions to come up with good answers and scenario planning to have a better grasp of what may happen.”

Leading the Way for Customers and Partners

As chief future of work officer, the overall vision and mission of Schmeichel and his team is to support SAP’s own business transformation while also positioning 51ˇçÁ÷to drive other companies to become .

“Right now is probably a once-in-a-generation opportunity that might bring us as a society to the next level, rethinking the way how we live and work for the better,” he says. “We are laying the strategic groundwork today and it’s important that we don’t lose the momentum the global pandemic gave us in this regard.”

Other companies are looking to 51ˇçÁ÷for inspiration on how to manage the future of work topic holistically, including the ways in which 51ˇçÁ÷is leveraging its own technology.

“We share with our customers how we are doing it,” Schmeichel says. “A question I often get is how SAP’s Future of Work team is organized. In fact, we have set up ourselves in agile topic clusters that cover all our important subject matters such as strategy, innovation, workforce planning, Pledge to Flex, future of work insights, health and well-being, people technology, and so on. We have flat hierarchies so we can strategize and execute very fast.”

He adds, “Getting to shape the future of work right for 51ˇçÁ÷as one of the most exciting companies and to an extent also for our customers and partners is something I’m very passionate about. But working with my team that shares this vision is what really puts the fun in what I’m doing. And that’s very appropriate as, at the end of the day, future of work is also about having a fun workplace.”

Many companies have always been investing heavily in how their workforce can work best, whether they are developers, sales and services employees, or in administration. Each has individual needs, but what they all have in common is that they need access to a computer in order to fulfill their tasks. They use a keyboard, a mouse, and touch as the de-facto, standard interaction with the machine. This technology hasn’t evolved much over recent years.

At offices, we are used to working according to ergonomic standards whereas in our home offices we may not have these standards available.

Next Generation of User Experience – From ‘Touch Less’ to ‘Touchless’

Did you know that, on average, 25% of a work day is spent using a mouse, accounting for thousands of clicks and scrolls? We switch between the keyboard and mouse up to 2,000 times per day. In an internal pilot at 51ˇçÁ÷with 35 users from different departments, almost 500 kilometers of mouse-movement distance was measured within six weeks.

This not only costs a lot of time but also causes stress-related diseases, such as repetitive strain injuries (RSI), also known as ‘mouse arm.’

With the eye-tracking solution NUIA from 51ˇçÁ÷partner 4tiitoo GmbH Munich, it is possible to provide an innovative tool to employees, working to address their ergonomic situation, reduce mouse movements and mouse-keyboard swaps, and improve efficiency and appearance during customer calls.

All 51ˇçÁ÷colleagues can order this solution to use in the office and even their home offices.

Following its pledge to flex, SAP’s future of work plans include monitors equipped with eye-trackers by default and the ability to download necessary software just by scanning a QR code.

Eye-Tracking Supports Accessibility

51ˇçÁ÷supports individual accessibility needs above the standard functionalities with this interaction opportunity, which perfectly matches for an inclusive workplace.

“People are the most important resource we have in technology,” says Sabine Bendiek, chief people and operating officer and member of the Executive Board of 51ˇçÁ÷SE. “Therefore, people have to be put at the center. It should always be about doing the right thing for people, empowering them to thrive.”

The User Experience EMEA Services Team has the eye-tracking expertise and works together with 4tiitoo. The team covers even more advanced use cases, such as completely touchless, gaze-controlled scenarios, and is ready to provide 51ˇçÁ÷customers with tailored services around this innovation topic. One of those is now live within 51ˇçÁ÷Labs Munich at Munich Urban Colab, working with the Technical University of Munich.

This story also appeared on the German 51ˇçÁ÷News Center.

51ˇçÁ÷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 51ˇçÁ÷employees say they want a mix of working from home or remote with some time in the office.

Today, 51ˇçÁ÷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, 51ˇçÁ÷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 51ˇçÁ÷will be a preferred company for these groups of valuable employees.

A centerpiece of SAP’s flexible work approach is our technology. 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 51ˇçÁ÷SE.