SAP Africa has been recognized as Africa’s best place to work by the internationally accredited Top Employers Institute at a gala awards ceremony recently held in Johannesburg. As well as securing first place in the category ‘Overall Top Employer Africa’, SAP Africa also secured first place in the ‘Industry IT Top Employer’ in South Africa category, as well as fifth place in the ‘Overall Top Employers South Africa’ category. The company was praised for its skills development efforts and its focus upon education, learning and employee development. The Top Employers Institute (formerly known as Best Employers) certifies excellence with regards to the conditions that employers create for their people. The global institute has just completed this year’s research into the employee conditions of a large number of employers in the Africa 2014 certification.
Key to the Top Employers review process was that participating companies meet stringent research criteria in order to receive certification. Participating organisations were assessed on the following employee-specific criteria: primary and secondary employee benefits and working conditions; training and development; career development opportunities and culture management. Based on independent research conducted by the Top Employers Institute, SAP Africa offers its employees outstanding working conditions and looks after its staff exceptionally well.
“Optimal employee conditions ensure that people develop themselves personally and professionally. Our comprehensive research concluded that SAP Africa provides an outstanding employment environment and nurtures and develops talent throughout all levels of the organisation,” said Samantha Crous, Regional Director Africa & Benelux, Top Employers Institute: “SAP Africa offers a wide range of creative initiatives, from secondary benefits and working conditions, to performance-management programmes, that are well-thought-out and truly aligned with the culture of their company.”
One of the factors that distinguished SAP Africa for these prestigious awards is SAP’s social investment strategy which focuses on education, skills development and entrepreneurship.
SAP recognises that promoting education and training is one of the best ways to improve the problem of skills shortages and chronic youth unemployment, an issue affecting the technology industry as a whole. SAP Africa launched their Skills for Africa programme in May this year, to support EMEA-wide workforce of the future efforts. Skills for Africa is targeted at five countries on the continent.
Working in close partnership with government, customers and partners, the initiative aims to upskill students from disadvantaged backgrounds not only with ICT skills, but with basic business acumen. Critical to its value proposition is that it focuses on upskilling for employability and this is where SAP partners and customers come into play, by offering internships to students post-training.
“As part of SAP Africa’s ambitious plans to accelerate SAP’s footprint into the African continent, it’s critical that we are recognized as an employer of choice, in order to retain our valuable workforce and attract the best talent,” said Pfungwa Serima, SAP Africa CEO.
“In order to be sustainably successful,winning organisations know that they cannot only focus on profits, but that they must prioritize human capital and motivate their employees. Putting measures in place to ensure that employees’ professional and human needs are met is key to optimizing the overall employment experience.”
SAP prides itself on the development of a diverse workplace environment which values risk-taking, respects individual talents and allows employees to work in such a way that is conducive to high performance in a fast-paced, global company.
Globally, SAP is also championing world-class exciting new initiatives like a supportive Early Talent programme and an initiative that specifically employs autistic individuals with their unique skills to aid us with software development.
