The Future of Hiring at SAP: SAP Runs SmartRecruiters

Put simply, talent acquisition at SAP is complex. Hiring 20,000-25,000 people annually across 160 countries creates a complicated landscape that requires streamlined workflows, clear communication, and scalability.

“Last year, we were in the process of planning the optimization of our talent discovery tech stack and then something happened,” Eric Goldstein, global head of Talent Discovery for SAP, said. “We acquired SmartRecruiters in September, so we had to pivot in an agile way.”

SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors enables enterprises to manage the entire hiring lifecycle, from sourcing to onboarding, with AI-enabled recruiting capabilities that can result in faster time-to-hire, improved candidate experiences, and deeper analytics for workforce planning.

For SAP, this means adding much-needed rigor and precision to its global talent acquisition operations. This will not only elevate the quality of hires but also the candidate experience, which Goldstein identified as the “biggest game changer.”

Building a more intelligent hiring process

SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors helps optimize processes, increasing transparency and personalization. This means improved experiences and processes for candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters. “We have been through a time where we focused solely on the recruiter experience. Then it was fashionable to focus only on the candidates. Now we really see that with SmartRecruiters, it really is an enhanced experience for all stakeholders that are involved in the recruiting process,” Ilka Sagner-David, global head of Talent Discovery Solutions and Innovations at SAP, said.

Candidate perspective

Seventy percent of candidates that apply for jobs are mindful to take their valuable time to do so, Goldstein shared, reiterating that it is important for companies to match that commitment when shaping and delivering the candidate experience. With SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors as the foundation, it becomes possible for every pre-qualified applicant to interview, receive personalized and constructive feedback post-interview, and maintain 24×7 interaction with agentic AI built into SmartRecruiters.

“In our opinion, only responding with polite, automated rejection notes is not enough. [Candidates] need to be provided with some constructive, actionable feedback—and that’s what we [at SAP] are going to be able to do,” Goldstein said.

Hiring manager perspective

SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors can give hiring managers a more precise and consistent way to identify strong candidates, helping to reduce time-to-hire while improving hiring quality. AI-prompted interview questions focused on skills can support more relevant and structured conversations while greater transparency across interview panelists can create better alignment throughout the evaluation process. In addition, AI-supported feedback collection can make it easier for interviewers at SAP to capture timely, consistent insights, enabling its hiring teams to make more informed decisions with greater confidence. 

Recruiter perspective

Recruiters are often bogged down by manual tasks, such as outreach, prospect identification, and candidate screening, making it nearly impossible for them to step into the role of a trusted advisor. With SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors, recruiters can experience automated internal and external prospect identification, personalized outreach and prioritization of candidates, and, therefore, the ability to focus on higher value-add advisory and relationship management.

“It’s going to allow the recruiters to focus on relationship management with candidates and hiring managers, really challenging the feedback of how well the interview panel measures skills proficiency,” Goldstein said.

Bringing AI into the candidate journey

A key to the successful delivery of these benefits is SmartRecruiters Winston for SAP SuccessFactors, an AI-driven, candidate-facing agentic experience. At SAP Sapphire Orlando, Karl Baert, global head of People Solutions for SAP, demonstrated how Winston can facilitate the application experience for candidates.

In the demo, he acted as a candidate applying for an open position at SAP, showing how through a natural language conversation with Winston, he completed his application by uploading his CV and verifying some personal details with Winston. “All that information is very, very quickly brought together so with just a few questions my application is done,” Baert said, adding that “there’s also a few checks happening along the way because we want to make sure the data we are collecting is the right quality.”

Winston also collects feedback from the applicant. “Measuring the quality of your agent and what’s happening with it is important. It’s something that really needs to be actively monitored just to ensure that the information provided by the agent is accurate,” Baert said.

“The implementation of SmartRecruiters is the foundation for infusing AI into our processes,” Sagner-David said. But, she added, “we shouldn’t just plan to transfer everything tomorrow, but ensure we’re liberating AI when it makes sense.”

The next step

Currently, SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors is being implemented into SAP’s HR systems for two phases of user acceptance testing, with the global go-live expected in September.

SAP bringing SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors to life across its own organization is more than a technology rollout, it’s a glimpse into the future of hiring at scale: more intelligent, more human, and more connected. By combining AI, better experiences, and real-word enterprise rigor, SAP is not only transforming how it hires but also helping to define what modern hiring can look like for companies everywhere.

Learn more about SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors.