Retooling HR to attract millennials

MANILA, Philippines — As the millennial generation is set to take over the global workforce in the next couple of years, businesses are urged to retool their human resource units to attract the best talent in the market.

“Eight years from now, all industries, all economies, all around the world, if they are not digitized, they are going to be out of the business,” SAP chief human resources officer Stefan Ries said.

Ries said that by 2025, millennials would account for 75 percent of the global workforce, which means human resource managers must now begin the shift to digital business process solutions in the recruitment stage to lure in this generation.

“You need to deliver solutions that are app-like, and they can experience their employment from being  a candidate to learning to career development through their smart phone. That's the magic key,” Ries said.

He said that businesses that fail to adapt to the digital processes may lose access to an important talent pool.

“The new generation needs to take the lead, therefore, you have to switch technology right now, otherwise, you will miss the boat and you will not have those talents available and on board which are open and willing to drive the future of the company,”Ries said.

Ries, however, emphasized that technology alone may not be enough to attract and retain the top millennial candidates, as the younger generation highly values creating an impact in society.

This means that companies should start acknowledging social issues in the workplace such as gender diversity and inclusion.

“For millennials, it is very important that a company shows impact. They also need to know the purpose of a company  and how it  is going to improve the lives of people,” Ries said.

To be able to address both the digital shift and social issues, SAP has introduced an HR recruitment software under its Success Factors brand, which helps HR managers scan job applicant credentials without bias, which would also help companies create an equal talent pool of men and women.

“It looks at the CVs in real time. Much faster than recruiters can do and of course gives faster proposals to the recruiters or the hiring manager,” Ries said.

Ries acknowledged that in some countries there isn't always an equal representation of male and female workers. He said the software could help improve the situation.

As a global company, Ries admitted that SAP leadership roles have been concentrated on men, but the firm has been working to provide an equal share of leader roles to women in recent years.

He said that eight years ago, the share of female leaders within the company was below 17 percent. At present, the company is nearing its 2017 goal of 25 percent.

“We believe that diversity and inclusion is something very natural because our customers are also highly diverse. So we need to reflect that in our working environment,” Ries said.

While it is rather challenging to incorporate an equal share of leader roles in some countries due to cultural issues, Ries explained that this is not the case for the Philippines.

The chief human resource officer described the Philippines a “dreamland” noting that SAP's operations in the country employs almost an equal share of men and women in leadership positions.

Apart from gender diversity, SAP is also emphasizing the importance of inclusion in the workplace, particularly giving more opportunities to individuals with autism.

Ries said that about two and half years ago, the company started its Autism Matters project, which aims to dedicate one percent of its workforce to employees in the Austic spectrum.

“Of course you don't give them customer facing roles because that's out of their comfort zone. But they work heavily in testing, quality checks engineering functions. Where they use their biggest assets. And their biggest assets is having where that kind of spectrum is. So they are able to dive very deeply where a specific topic is,” Ries explained.

While technology and the fulfilling social purposes may be a huge draw to attracting millennial talent, Ries said to be able to retain the said talent is another story.

To be able to keep your talent, companies must work to enrich their learning processes, according to Ries. “Once you hire those people and they are in the company, you should give them a career path,” Ries said.