Quick Apply for SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting

In view of the shortage of skilled workers and an almost empty labor market, recruiting must focus above all on the needs and wishes of its target groups.

To be attractive to skilled workers, companies must offer application options that are, above all, short and concise. The focus is clearly on mobile career pages and application functions.

Germany's most popular drugstore market, dm-drogerie markt, has recognized and implemented this potential. This is made possible by a new development from the IT consulting company for SAP cloud solutions in HR, Projekt0708, and Textkernel, a company specializing in AI for recruiting.

Cumbersome registration and tedious data entry not only make potential online shoppers despair, but also job seekers - who increasingly want to apply for jobs on the go.

In a recent survey of "Application Practice 2019," more than a quarter of the candidates surveyed said they also frequently apply via smartphone while on the move. Their expectations: time savings and efficiency. Companies would therefore do well to adapt their online recruiting to these expectations.

Apply: Anytime and from anywhere

The drugstore company dm is one of the employers that has risen to the challenge. The retailer, with more than 61,000 employees in 13 European countries, had already been using the on-premises SAP E-Recruiting system for several years.

The recruiting processes were therefore already established and digitized, including the online application: Applicants were first asked to register by system and then received their access data by mail (double opt-in process).

With these log-in data, the input on the website could then be continued. The procedure was quite proven, but no longer satisfied all requirements.

"At dm, we always want to be on the cutting edge in a digitalized world. That's why we decided to offer interested parties this opportunity to apply."

says Janine Fleck, Inhouse Consultant E-Recruiting at dmTech.

E-Recruiting: Moving to the cloud solution

Her colleague Amelie Schiborr, who is responsible for e-recruiting in the HR department Employee Recruitment, describes the solution she was looking for:

"We additionally wanted to provide a quick application option that could be used anytime, anywhere, so even on the go via smartphone."

In concrete terms, this meant providing an additional short application function that works without registration and with minimal effort for candidates.

That alone could have been solved by a company-specific in-house development, as Janine Fleck explains. But dm was already thinking ahead. The requirements for speed, agility and targeted candidate approach in the area of recruiting will continue to increase in the future, and already at that time, not all of the desired features could be mapped in the existing on-premises system.

That's why the decision was made to switch to SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, SAP's cloud solution. Designed as an end-to-end application for recruitment and recruitment marketing, the solution offers powerful selection and analysis tools.

Faster selection and individual applicant targeting across all channels promise employers competitive advantages in the battle for the best minds. Thus, the introduction of the new short application became part of a large overall project that was implemented with an international team using agile methods.

Projekt0708 was selected as the external service provider. The SAP specialist from Munich was able to convince in the final round among three providers with a functional proof of concept for the targeted solution.

As a solution for the short application, p78 Quick Apply was implemented for SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting. The add-on product complements the SAP standard and was realized by Projekt0708 together with Textkernel based on the SAP Cloud Platform.

The solution will soon be available in the SAP App Center. Comparable to guest access for online orders, job prospects can use it to easily and quickly submit their candidate data without having to register first.

The resume can be uploaded either from the smartphone or directly from the cloud.

"Using semantic technologies from Textkernel, Quick Apply extracts all the required data and automatically stores it in the relevant form fields in the recruiting system"

explains Janine Fleck.

This eliminates the need for time-consuming data entry. A final check of the data, one click - and the candidate is in the running.