Employee trust in SAP board dips amid ongoing restructure

An internal SAP employee survey reveals declining confidence in leadership as the software giant's restructuring program continues, with trust in the executive board waning in the past six months. The restructuring - announced in January 2024 - now affects up to 10,000 roles. Trust in SAP's executive board fell to 59 percent, down six points from April, according to the internal survey. In an email seen by Bloomberg, SAP's chief human resources officer, Gina Vargiu-Breuer, said the company was involved in a "substantial transformation, which we know can create pressure and frustration." "The feedback shows that not every step has landed how it should," she said, adding that management is confident in the strategy. Staff confidence in the company's strategy was also lower at 70 percent, down from 77 percent in April, the survey said. A spokesperson for SAP told The Register: "SAP is currently undergoing a dynamic and successful transformation. The recent Unfiltered Pulse survey was designed to gather nuanced feedback from employees, focusing on both strengths and areas for improvement. Employees, for instance, have stated that helpful feedback as well as learning and development opportunities are supporting their growth. Results related to team culture are also positive worldwide. "However, the findings also clearly indicate that employee engagement and trust in the board require attention. Following increases in sentiment in the previous iteration, there has been a decrease in the recent Pulse survey. We greatly value this feedback and are taking targeted action in response. We are therefore implementing specific measures to address the input from our employees and to drive meaningful change." Microsoft-SAP pact aims to keep Euro cloud running in a crisis SAP's migration narrative suddenly looks messy as Kingfisher goes off-script SAP portal outage raises questions over vendor's cloud readiness Retail giant Kingfisher rejects SAP ERP upgrade plan In January last year, SAP announced a restructuring program likely to hit 8,000 jobs worldwide. Later, the vendor's European Works Council slammed the program as cost-cutting exercise disguised as transformation. It said SAP's management "did not adequately justify the business logic and did not provide accurate information about inefficiencies." SAP countered that the company-wide restructuring program was designed to prioritize strategic growth areas, including business AI, and had been handled "with care and empathy." By July, SAP said it had expanded the number of jobs affected by up to 20 percent amid shrinking operating income. CFO Dominik Asam told investors: "We now estimate that between 9,000 and 10,000 positions will be affected with the corresponding impact on restructuring provisions, cash out, and run rate savings after completion of the program. As compared to what we had indicated in the first quarter, we added about €800 million of restructuring expenses and cash out." ®