Building SAP Teams - Why Does SAP Recruitment Look Different?

In many organizations, SAP projects are among the most important and simultaneously most demanding initiatives in the entire company. Migrating to SAP S/4HANA, implementing new modules, international rollouts, or projects related to compliance and security directly impact finance, logistics, production, or reporting. Despite this, recruitment for SAP projects is still often treated like standard IT recruitment..
This is where one appears among the most serious mistakes, which can cost the company months of delays and hundreds of thousands of euros in additional costs.

SAP recruitment looks different because the SAP ecosystem itself looks different than a typical IT environment.

SAP is not „ordinary IT.”.

In classic IT projects, companies most often look for developers in a specific technology, such as Java, .NET, or Python. In the case of SAP, the situation is much more complex, because SAP is not a single technology, but an entire ecosystem of modules, systems, and business processes. An SAP consultant is very often not just a technical person. They are someone who combines technological knowledge with a very good understanding of business processes in areas such as finance, controlling, logistics, purchasing, sales, or HR.

That's why in SAP projects, it's crucial not only to have a technological fit but, above all, a fit with the process and the project. An SAP FI consultant who has worked on rollouts in manufacturing companies may not be suitable for a project in the retail industry. An ABAP developer who has worked on system maintenance may not necessarily be a good choice for an S/4HANA migration project. The differences between the projects are so significant that they require a very precise match of competencies.

Limited availability of SAP specialists

Another major difference is candidate availability. The SAP specialist market, especially in Europe, is a very mature market. Many consultants work on a contract basis, often on long-term projects, and the best specialists very rarely actively look for work. This means that publishing a job advertisement and waiting for CVs will mostly not yield the desired results.

In SAP recruitment, direct search, your network of contacts, and knowledge of the market and the availability of specific specialists are of great importance. It is often crucial to reach candidates who are not actively looking for a job but might consider a change of project for the right offer, rate, or professional challenge.

The biggest challenges in SAP recruitment

One of the most common problems in SAP projects is a skills mismatch. On paper, a candidate may look perfect – many years of experience, knowledge of a module, participation in projects. It turns out during the project that the person only worked on system maintenance, not implementation, or was responsible for a small part of the project, not an entire area. In SAP projects, such differences are extremely significant.

Another challenge is competence verification. Many companies lack the internal expertise to technically verify SAP consultants. As a result, recruitment decisions are made based on HR interviews and general project manager discussions. This increases the risk of hiring someone mismatched for the project, which can generate very high costs in the case of SAP.

The third, and one of the biggest, problems is timing. Very often, recruitment for SAP projects starts too late – only when the project is already starting or when delays appear. In such a situation, the company has a very limited choice of candidates, must accept higher rates, and make quick, not always optimal decisions.
This, in turn, significantly increases the risk of the entire project.

Why doesn't standard IT recruitment work for SAP projects?

The standard recruitment process in IT is most often based on publishing job postings, screening CVs, and conducting interviews. In the case of SAP, this approach often doesn't work because a large portion of the market consists of passive candidates who don't respond to job postings. Additionally, in SAP projects, it's crucial not only to match the candidate to the position but, above all, to the specific project – its stage, industry, scale, and team.

This is why effective SAP recruitment often resembles building a project team more than standard recruitment for a position.

What does effective SAP team building look like?

Effective SAP team building starts much earlier than most companies assume. Ideally, this process begins at the planning stage, even 2-6 months before the project starts. At this time, you can analyze the market, check for specialist availability, estimate rates, and plan the team structure.

The next step is to map the market and available competencies. It's not just about finding one person for one position, but about building an entire team with complementary competencies – functional consultants, technical consultants, architects, integration specialists, security specialists, or data migration specialists.

Verifying candidates„ skills is also a very important element - not only based on their CV, but above all on the projects they participated in, the scope of their responsibilities, and the role they played in the project. The difference between someone who ”participated in a project" and someone who was responsible for a given area is huge.

In many SAP projects, a flexible collaboration model based on contractors and body leasing also works very well. This allows for faster team building, better matching of competencies to specific project stages, and long-term cost optimization.

SAP Recruitment as an Element of Project Strategy

One of the most important conclusions from many SAP projects is that recruitment should not be treated as a separate HR process, but as an element of the project strategy.
When we start recruitment, which specialists we choose, and in what model they will work, directly impacts the success of the entire project.

Companies that treat SAP recruitment purely operationally often struggle
with problems such as delays, budget overruns, or the need to replace team members during the project. On the other hand, organizations that approach SAP team building
strategically, they are able to significantly reduce project risk, shorten lead times, and better control costs.

Summary

SAP projects are projects of high complexity and significant impact on the functioning of the entire organization. Therefore, building an SAP team should not be treated like standard IT recruitment. It requires market knowledge, access to specialists, the ability to verify competencies, and proper time planning for the process.

In practice, this means that SAP recruitment is not just an HR process, but above all a risk management element in the project.

Build your SAP team risk-free – check specialist availability today

If you're planning an SAP implementation, migration to S/4HANA, or expanding your SAP team, it's worth checking early on:

• availability of specialists on the market,
• real rates,
• time needed to build a team,
• Possible cooperation models.
  
  

Band Lukardi Talents supports companies in building SAP and IT teams – both in permanent and contract recruitment models.

Contact us to check the availability of specialists and the real possibilities of building a team for your project.