SAP forced its employees back to the office for 3 days a week

Back to the office

With a preparation period until April 2024, SAP's hybrid work schedule will go live worldwide from May, it was announced today in Budapest. The most important change in the plan, which includes several innovations, is that the previous system, which allowed for working exclusively from home, will be replaced by a hybrid work schedule with a greater emphasis on personal presence. This will require staff to spend 3 days a week either at the company's headquarters or in face-to-face meetings with clients and partners at an off-site location.

"This decision is the result of the recognition that face-to-face meetings and direct communication are indispensable in the long term for successful cooperation, the generation of new ideas, and the maintenance and acquisition of the organic development of corporate culture," said Szabolcs Pintér, Managing Director of SAP Hungary, explaining the announced change. "This change is closely aligned with SAP's global corporate transformation, innovation and cloud transformation goals", he added.

Hours spent in the office is high by regional comparison

As it is known, SAP Hungary developed its FlexWork work schedule in 2019 and introduced it in 2020, which provided a location-independent, goal-oriented, yet comfortable and flexible work environment, supported by a toolkit, cloud infrastructure and office equipment. FlexWork, developed from 2019, was also a perfect fit for the demands that companies faced in the first wave of the pandemic threat in spring 2020. With the aim of minimising the risk of infection and thus focusing on distance working, and with central and governmental requirements to work from home, FlexWork was able to be rolled out in record time.

"After the epidemic receded, we regulated the ratio of office and home working to the extent that colleagues had to act according to the agreement with their immediate supervisor, but at the same time it became a general recognition that in many life situations, a social, personal presence within the company and in work with customers and partners is justified," explains Krisztina Dobos-Horváth, HR Director at SAP Hungary. According to the company's internal statements, the proportion of hours spent in the office environment at the company's Hungarian headquarters is already high in comparison with other countries in the region, and there is an intense social life. "SAP now employs nearly 2,000 people in Hungary, an expansion of almost 100 percent in just a few years, much of which has had to be done through mandatory telecommuting. It is a sensible step to encourage the building and maintaining of personal relationships both within the company and with our partners and customers in order to strengthen the corporate culture," explains Krisztina Dobos-Horváth.

Számos has taken similar steps in the past, which you can read about here and here, among others.

photo: azevirodaja.hu