SAP's D&I leader believes effective initiatives focus on impact rather than action. The result has been remarkable progress in moving women into leadership positions around the world.
By Valerie Gomez
SAP SE, a German multinational software corporation, is recognized as a leader in the development of enterprise software to strengthen customer relations and manage business operations. Now it is becoming a leader in the development of effective processes for executing Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) on a global basis due to the insightful leadership of Anka Wittenberg, Senior VP, Chief Diversity Officer at SAP SE. Her goal is simple – make an impact in the global D&I space – but achieving that goal is incredibly complex because of persistent cultural differences around the globe.
The SAP approach to advancing global D&I is largely based on building a network of relationships between SAP business units and with customers. From top management down, SAP SE is focused on meeting the challenge of continually attracting, retaining, and developing diverse top talent in a highly competitive environment and believes achieving a high level of D&I is critical to success.
SAP focuses on D&I for three reasons: customer orientation, innovation, and employee engagement. To achieve progress, Wittenberg works with the SAP board, heads of corporate units, and development and learning teams to develop and execute D&I strategies that work for SAP and its customers.
The first strategic goal focused on gender intelligence. In 2011, 18 percent of women were in leadership positions. SAP wanted its management to consist of 25 percent female leaders by the end of 2017, a goal reached in July 2017. The response was to set another goal of growing the percentage of leadership positions held by women by 1 percent each year and to achieve 30 percent by 2022.
How did SAP achieve such remarkable results?
"Throwing millions of dollars at D&I program is not enough. We first sought Edge Certification which requires a structured approach to assessing gender in the organization," Wittenberg explained. The certification process assesses policies, promotions, perceptions, HR analytics and other factors. Once certification was earned in North America, the assessment was rolled out globally.
"What is important to me as the global chief diversity officer is that I have the same taxonomy being used throughout the world. We need to understand the specific blind spots in each country or region. For example, Germany has clear issues about attracting women. In the U.S., the issues are about promoting women. In Latin America, we have a problem with retaining women," she said.
Looking for Authenticity
Attracting the next generation of talent and ensuring new hires include diverse people is a competitive strategy.
"We just started a new campaign called 'Bring Your Whole Self to Work,'" Wittenberg said. "We are looking for people who are authentic, and we want to see the whole person and not just the corporate person."
This is a program at the heart of the four D&I buckets – gender intelligence, generations, personal identity, and disabled or differently abled people. To drive diversity through the organization, a D&I council was established in each region, and through the councils, Wittenberg adjusts the global corporate program to work on a local level.
Human Resources (HR) and D&I realized it needed to adjust its common leadership style to the needs of the younger generation in order to compete for talent. One approach was to establish the “SAP Talk” program, in which immediate feedback is given to employees throughout the year. Younger people are used to getting immediate responses due to social media and do not want annual performance reviews. They want to know how they are doing now and to have equal opportunities to offer their own feedback. However, SAP HR and D&I do not focus on one group when developing strategies.
"We already have flexible work arrangements which suits all generations, including older employees who care for elderly family members. We are now doing a pilot program in Germany where all posted positions are part-time, but the person can request it be full-time," Wittenberg explained.
SAP's leadership often looks at an existing process with a new perspective and discovers new solutions, something the company is good at doing. Wittenberg works with a variety of SAP teams to develop effective D&I programs. She worked with the development team to design an assessment tool that evaluates job postings to identify bias language.
In another example, her team developed the “Focus on Insight” training program by working with the SAP learning department. The program has seven modules: gender intelligence, LGBT, generations, culture, ethnicity, leading a diverse team, and business case for D&I. It is a program available to all 86,000 employees who can do it online, virtually or use pieces like when having a team meeting. The agility of the program reflects the same agility offered employees through flexible work arrangements. People can work and learn in a way that best fits their needs.
Wittenberg is also in the nascent stage of working with the innovation officer to utilize technology to assemble teams without bias, in the belief a team put together by machine would clearly be diverse.
Transparency in All Efforts
SAP shares its findings with customers through a customer advisory board in order to discover what customers are doing that works well in HR and D&I, and to determine how the company can use technology to enable change in the diversity space. For example, the customer advisory board is playing an important role in helping SAP work toward the machine-assembled team.
Sharing information with customers reflects a belief that transparency leads to progress.
"We share all of our quarterly numbers, like the percent of women in leadership positions, by board area and by region with managers and employees," Wittenberg says. "Transparency leads to solutions because it leads to people owning the goals and processes. We implemented regional councils to promote commitment which is why the heads of the regional councils are not HR or D&I team members. It is the head of sales, the CFO, or someone else in the business." This is one way Wittenberg identifies the blind spots mentioned earlier in various areas.
There are numerous Employee Network Groups, and they help drive D&I. In one case, an ENG began working with the Autism at Work program in India, helping nonverbal children with communication. SAP donated the iPads, noticing a clear connection between how technology works and the way the brain works.
"We started working with autistic adults in software testing and quality assurance. I went to the board and asked them to set a company goal of hiring 650 people with autism by the year 2020. The program was rolled out globally, and today there are 120 people with autism who work across the organization," Wittenberg said.
This is a good example of how Wittenberg sees and grabs opportunities in the D&I space.