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In the SAP world there are always peaks and troughs. One of the peaks we experienced recently was a major spike in companies implementing SAP SuccessFactors all at the same time.

These companies and consulting firms were all looking for the same talent, at the same time, in an area that already has a shallow talent pool.

With a lot of large scale government SAP projects like Department of Defence kicking off this year, we thought we’d share our views on what the effects were during the SAP SuccessFactors spike. Here is our list of the key impacts, what we learnt from it and what some of the challenges were for both contractors and clients.

Leaving a contract early

Maintaining reputation

People leaving their current contracts early due to the appeal of a large scale project was a major impact. It’s bad practice, it leaves your current employer in the lurch and it also taints your reputation. Your reputation in the SAP market, partially in Australia where the market is considered to be small, is the most important thing you have as a contractor. So, its best do everything you can to maintain a positive reputation that leaves a lasting and positive impression with your employer.

What can you offer?

So how can you stop contractors leaving as a client? A good way for clients to try and mitigate this is to be open with their SAP team about what the future plans are in terms of projects. Speak to each individual and work out what keys things you can do to build loyalty with them. For example, its not always about an increase in salary that people want. You might offer extra flexibility, more holiday allowance, or further training to enhance their skills. These are desirable aspects of any workplace.

Is the grass greener?

High turn over

The other thing to consider when moving into a large-scale project that require enormous resources requirements is often, they can turn over staff regularly. In Government projects things can change very quickly, funding can be pulled, or project cancelled.

Loss in skills

The flip side to this is that we have seen a lot of contractors over the year form very strong relationships with government departments. This has seen them contract consecutively for multiple years. Although this is good news, it also means that when the long contract finally ends your skills can be somewhat diluted.

Project scale

When working on such a large-scale SAP projects, you generally only get the opportunity to work on a small section of the program. This means that you don’t get the full end to end experience that smaller projects can offer. This may limit your future marketability to potential clients.

Where I was born & where I live

Citizenship

Government projects, especially Department of Defence, will primarily only be recruiting for Australian Citizens due to the need to have a security clearance. This will automatically limit the available talent pool. At an educated guess, approximately 50% - 60% of the SAP workforce in Australia are in fact Australian Citizens who can take up these contracts. This can impact to the project as they are unable to source the very best resource for the role.

The commute

Aside from being a Citizen, the location of these projects, often interstate, also reduces the size of talent pool. Most people have prior family or personal commitments so commuting for a role is not possible. It can also become a costly and tiring exercise to commute interstate each week and this can be a liability to the project as people can burn out and be more easily lured back home for another contract.

Make the decision that’s best for you and your future

There are many more impacts that these big projects can have on the market, so you really need to consider your current work circumstances and make an informed decision about your future before looking to move to any new role.

Have you had a recent experience with large scale projects? If you have we would love to hear your view on the positive or negative impacts that large scale projects have on the SAP market.

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