How dm-drogerie markt organizes its recruiting across countries
Introduction of SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting in the retail sector
Company / Industry
dm-drogerie markt GmbH + Co KG / Retail trade
Range of services
The first dm store opened in Karlsruhe in 1973. Today, dm is present in 13 European countries with more than 3,700 stores. Around 62,500 employees work in Europe to make shopping at dm an experience - around 41,000 of them in Germany.
Website
www.dm.de
Careers page (incl. p78 Candidate UI)
www.dm-jobs.com
A streamlined, intuitive and state-of-the-art online application process for job applicants, lean and standardized recruiting processes in the dm sales area and a fresh, exciting careers website: The international drugstore company dm-drogerie markt achieved these goals with the introduction of SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, supported by its implementation partner.
Read the case study in the 3rd edition of S@PPORT 2021.
The drugstore company dm wanted to reorganize its recruiting and was looking for a suitable system and external support. The evaluation was to be carried out as part of a proof of concept based on defined use cases. The potential software providers and service providers were therefore asked to first implement specific use cases as examples. “As part of the agile project development, it was important for us to give our future users an impression of what a new solution could look like in advance,” explains Dominik Hucker, IT product manager for employee systems at dmTECH, dm's IT subsidiary. Hucker and his colleague Amelie Schiborr, who is responsible for e-recruiting in the HR department, are jointly managing the project to introduce the new e-recruiting system.
recruiting system
Roll-Outs
career website
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The most convincing overall concept was presented jointly by SAP and projekt0708 on the basis of SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting. As a proof of concept, the Munich-based IT service and consulting company projekt0708 presented an additional development for SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting based on the SAP Cloud Platform, which allows job applicants to apply for desired positions at dm on their mobile devices without time-consuming registration.
One of the most important requirements for the new recruiting system, as Schiborr explains, was an application option with reduced hurdles - but not the only one. The list of criteria was extensive: the company was looking for a transnational, company-wide system that would map all existing processes for external and internal applicants and also be scalable for new application processes, e.g. via social media platforms such as Xing or LinkedIn. It was initially to be introduced in the countries in which dm operates: Slovakia, Croatia, Germany and Austria. Hucker describes the criteria for the individual stakeholder groups - such as applicants, store managers and recruiters: “For job applicants, the effort involved in applying should be minimized; information on the geographical location of the advertised positions is also important here.”
Decentralized processes are one of the special features of the retail sector, including in recruiting. It is not uncommon for interested candidates to apply in person with their paper-based application documents directly in the dm stores (“walk-in candidates”). These processes in the individual stores also had to be taken into account in the new recruiting system.
The recruiters were to be effectively supported in the pre-selection of applicants in particular.
A relaunch of the careers website was also on the agenda at the same time. The main requirement here was a seamless transition from content pages to vacant positions in the job portal.
New recruiting system in four countries in the dm sales area
All the requirements of the individual stakeholder groups were discussed and collected at the beginning in extensive workshops with user representatives. The changeover to SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting at the Croatian and Slovakian locations was completed within eleven months. No comparable solution had been in use there before, with Microsoft Excel or manual paper processes being used for the most part. The locations in Germany and Austria originally used SAP E-Recruiting, which was based on-premises, and then switched to SAP SuccessFactors.
As a result, a digitalized workflow was implemented for the first time at the company locations in Slovakia and Croatia. The introduction of SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting also brought the desired improvements at the German and Austrian branches:
Short application app
With the new p78 Candidate UI, applicants now only need to enter a few key details. The CV can be uploaded either from a smartphone or from the cloud. Required data is extracted automatically, eliminating the need for registration and data entry. The information on the jobs on offer has also been optimized for interested parties: Vacancies are now directly visualized using a geo-map.
For branch managers, the streamlined processes primarily mean a reduction in workload and an increase in efficiency when searching for employees. “The new application guides users intuitively through the entire process,” says Hucker. The new add-on also provides support here, as paper documents, such as the CV, can be photographed using a smartphone and processed automatically as described.
With the integrated cockpit, recruitment managers have a comprehensive overview of all application processes, can use tracking and analysis tools in the new system and create their own reports.
Career site: From information to interaction
According to dm, the new transnational career site in particular represents great added value. With the help of the SAP SuccessFactors Career Site Builder, the site can now be managed and updated directly by the HR department. In addition, there are extensive customer-specific adaptations based on the “Career Site Components” from projekt0708, a “construction kit” for designing attractive career sites. “It was an intensive, laborious process. As a result, we succeeded in creating a seamless link between the content and the applicant portal,” summarizes Schiborr.
While dm is already planning further improvements, users also benefit from the continuous further development of the system by the manufacturer itself. The project managers appreciate the ongoing support provided by the implementation partner.
In a further step, the roll-out of the new recruiting system is planned for 2020 at other locations in dm's distribution area.
