Hiring Workday® Pros in Germany (the Right Way)

Workday® have seen immense growth in EMEA in recent years, and Germany is no exception.  

Despite the significant increase in new deployments in the region, we still face the long-standing challenge of candidate demand, which offsets the positive aspects.

Workday® roles are difficult to recruit for in any context, as there are niches within niches, and specialised skill sets that are incredibly tricky to find. So, if you take into account that the Workday® talent pool in Germany is still relatively small, we understand that hiring managers have quite the task if they’re looking to fill their Workday® vacancies. 

Have no fear, we’re here to help. Let’s take a look at some of the problems you might face when hiring Workday® pros in Germany, and how to solve them. 

The geographical barriers

It makes sense that if you’re working in Germany, you need someone German speaking when hiring for your Workday® roles. However, finding people with the right language skills is incredibly tough.  

When you’re working with such a small talent pool to start with, geographical and language barriers will only harper your search even more. You’ll be excluding highly skilled professionals based on these criteria. 

Ask yourself, is it absolutely essential that this person speaks German? Does the candidate even need to be based in Germany, or can they do this role remotely, with occasional travel to the office if needed?  

If you open your search to candidates from other geographical locations, who may not speak German, but speak other widely-used languages, you can tap into a much broader talent pool. You will instantly give yourself access to more elite talent, and people that are capable of joining your organisation and making the impact you expect of them in this Workday® role. 

The niche knowledge gap

Internal talent acquisition teams have a mammoth task. They have to try and learn how to recruit for every skill set, in every department, for the whole organisation. When a skill set as niche as Workday® comes along, it’s understandable that you might run into some problems. 

Recruiting for Workday® roles requires a deep understanding of the platform and its ecosystem. You need to have this expertise to be able to screen and assess candidates effectively. Without the niche knowledge of the ecosystem, and a strong network within it, you’ll find yourself spending time you don’t have, looking at candidates that just aren’t relevant for what you need.  

The solution? Partnering with a specialist Workday® Recruitment Consultancy, like Focus on WD. When you can receive relevant candidate profiles within a matter of hours or days, rather than weeks or months, your time to hire greatly reduces, and the likelihood of a successful, lengthy tenure for the candidate increases. This saves you a lot of time and money in the long run.  

The interview process

Here at Focus on WD, we have discovered a theme. It certainly isn’t exclusive to Germany, but is definitely prevalent in the region. 

There is a big difference between an efficient and an urgent interview process. German organisations tend to be great at the ‘efficiency’ part, but fall down when it comes to urgency. 

The demand for Workday® professionals is high, so any delays in the interview and decision-making process could result in you losing out on top candidates to your competitors. If they get through the interviews and onto the offer stage with another company before you’ve even given feedback on a first meeting, you’ll lose out on them, and your hiring process will be extended. 

Best thing to do here is streamline your interview and decision-making processes, to strike a balance between efficiency and urgency. Ensure prompt feedback and follow-up with the candidates to keep the momentum going, and make sure your organisation is at the forefront of their job search.  

This is also another great opportunity to take advantage of a partnership with a specialist Workday® Recruitment Consultancy. At Focus on WD, we understand, and have extensive experience of, interview processes for every type of Workday® role in every corner of the globe. We can advise on how to streamline your processes and ensure the lines of communication between yourself and the candidates are kept alive and kicking. This way, you won’t lose out on the talent you need to organisations that just managed to move that little bit faster. 

The closing conundrum

So, you’ve managed to find a top candidate that you would like to join your Workday® team. You’ve reached the offer stage, but then you find yourself unable to close the deal to secure them. 

This is very common in the Workday® ecosystem. Talent demand is incredibly high, so the competition between yourselves and other organisations gets hotter and hotter. It can come down to the package you are offering, the time it takes to handle these negotiations, or differences such as location, flexibility, career progression etc.. It doesn’t take a lot to move you into second place when a candidate is considering where they should move to. 

It takes current and in-depth insights into the ecosystem, and a strong relationship with the candidate, to understand what it’s going to take to bring that candidate on board. If it’s going to come down to just slight differences in package, or taking an extra few hours to get an offer reviewed, you need to try and stay on top of things as best as possible.  

You can do this yourself, or with your internal acquisition team, however, the smartest move would be to use a Recruitment Consultancy. Focus on WD understand the ins and outs of the Workday® ecosystem, which organisations offer which packages, which candidates care more about this over that, and most importantly, how to close a Workday® candidate. 

In conclusion, if you’re struggling to hire Workday® professionals in Germany, it’s probably down to a combination of the factors above. If you’re building a Workday® team, you know you have an uphill struggle ahead of you. However, there are solutions to these challenges that will save you time, effort, and money, and you can hire Workday® pros in Germany the right way. 

If you think partnering with a specialist Workday® Recruitment Consultancy is the right way for you, get in touch with Focus on WD today. You can leverage our expertise, streamline your hiring processes, and secure top-tier Workday® professionals for your organisation.