SAP's hybrid working system will be in operation worldwide from May 2024, with a preparatory period until April 2024. 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 working system with a greater emphasis on personal presence. This will require staff to spend three days a week either at the company's headquarters or in face-to-face meetings with clients and partners at external sites.

"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 an 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.

SAP Hungary developed and launched its FlexWork work schedule a few years ago, which provided a location-independent, goal-oriented, flexible work environment, supported by high-quality tools, cloud infrastructure, and office equipment. To minimise the risk of infection, and thus focusing on distance working, and with central and governmental requirements to work from home, SAP was able to implement FlexWork at record speed.

"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 situations in life, 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 compared to other countries in the region, and there is an intense social life.

"It is a sensible step to encourage the building and maintaining of personal relationships, both within the company and with our partners and customers, to strengthen our corporate culture," she says.

"Personally, I'm also pleased that SAP is taking a more assertive stance on the importance of direct involvement in business in the new working environment. We are facing a year in which the SAP S4/HANA migration has to be completed on time in the key mid to large-sized enterprise segment of the Hungarian economy. This requires an intensive dialogue with our partners and customers, which cannot take place exclusively through virtual channels," notes Szabolcs Pintér.