Vacancies for SAP consultants seem to be increasingly focusing on senior employees. This is rather unusual, as the best-performing teams consist of members with different levels of experience. In this blog post, we explain why it makes sense to look not only for senior consultants, but also mid-level or even junior colleagues.
‘Senior SAP consultant wanted.’ This is how virtually every vacancy in the world of SAP consulting starts these days. Due to an enormous shortage of knowledge, increasingly complex IT landscapes and ever-changing technology, every organisation wants to acquire new colleagues. Here’s a question, though: is looking for a senior consultant the most efficient route? We don’t think so. Here are four reasons to look beyond senior consultants:
1. Don’t follow the same script as your competitors
Every company wants to hire people who have years of experience and are fully independent. Unfortunately, these profiles are very scarce on the market – as we all know. In other words, everyone is fishing in the same small pond. That’s why it’s a good idea to adopt a different tactic to your competitors. For example, when filling more than one position, look for one senior colleague and one mid-level or junior colleague. The implementation will be quicker and smoother, while the mid-level or junior colleague will learn very quickly from the senior consultant.
2. Reinvigorate the environment
A person in their twenties will often look at things in a different way to someone who has been in the profession for decades. This can be refreshing and fun, and lead to surprising new ideas and solutions being generated. More traditional companies, in particular, can often learn a lot from the latest generation of talent coming through in business.
3. Look beyond traditional work experience for proof of ability
With the right guidance, a junior consultant can start working straight away. Having no work experience as an employee at a company doesn’t necessarily mean that they haven’t worked any hours during internships, in their own time or while studying. Hours worked come in all shapes and sizes. You could also adopt a system where each junior or mid-level staff member has a senior buddy who they can contact at any time with questions or advice.
4. Try to have a healthy balance sheet
Ideally, your team should consist of a mix of personalities and experiences. This became clear in the discussions we had with our customers from Belgium and the Netherlands. Companies strive for a healthy balance within their teams, which means having a mix of junior, mid-level and senior members. Our customers achieve the best results based on new ideas from recent graduates combined with the management of experienced consultants.
Assemble your perfect team
At Ctac, we can help your organisation assemble the perfect team. Our senior consultants are all used to coaching junior and mid-level employees. Junior and mid-level consultants can also contact their senior mentors if they have any questions or comments. Want to know how we can help you? Please do not hesitate to contact us. We are happy to share our knowledge on this subject with you.
Our next blog is about the development in the SAP consultancy market: What are the trends and where is the greatest demand: functional or technical?
