Hiring is moving to SmartRecruiters. Your Employee Central decides how smoothly.
SmartRecruiters partner · Canada and the United States
SAP acquired SmartRecruiters in 2025 and connected it to SuccessFactors in 2026. Job data and users now flow from SuccessFactors into SmartRecruiters, so the state of your Employee Central sets the quality of every new requisition.
SmartRecruiters now reads from SuccessFactors.
One sign-on, one navigation
Recruiters, hiring managers and approvers sign on once and move between SuccessFactors and SmartRecruiters in one experience.
Job data flows in from SuccessFactors
Job families, cost centres and locations flow from SuccessFactors into SmartRecruiters, so new roles open with them already set. Users created in SuccessFactors appear in SmartRecruiters with their permissions.
Winston and Joule, working together
SAP says SmartRecruiters’ AI companion, Winston, and Joule will work together as connected agents beginning in 2026, with fraud detection, consent management and applicant data transferability planned.
Capabilities and timing depend on your SAP contract and release. We check what applies to your tenant before anyone plans around it.
No. The question is when moving pays off for you.
SAP says it will honour all SuccessFactors Recruiting contracts and that customers will not be required to migrate. That turns the move into a business decision, with three sensible paths.
Move now
When hiring volume is high, recruiters work around Recruiting today, or you want Winston and the connected agents early.
Move at renewal
When Recruiting works well enough and a contract or release date gives you a natural point to plan the move without rushing it.
Stay and connect
When Recruiting fits how you hire. You keep it, and use the integration paths SAP describes for current customers.
Whichever path you take, the same Employee Central data feeds it. Getting that right is never wasted work.
Ten things to have in place before you move hiring.
Tick what is true today. The first four matter most, because SmartRecruiters inherits them from SuccessFactors.
Employee Central foundation
- Job families, cost centres and locations are clean They now flow into every new role in SmartRecruiters. Errors here become errors on every requisition.
- Positions and requisition approvals match how you hire Who can open a role, and who approves it, should be the same in both systems.
- User accounts and permissions you would copy as they are Users created in SuccessFactors arrive in SmartRecruiters with their permissions.
- Single sign-on working for recruiters, hiring managers and approvers One sign-on is part of the connected experience. It should work on day one, not after go-live.
Hiring process
- One agreed hiring process for each type of role Not one per region or per recruiter. Agree it with HR before anything is configured.
- The offer-to-hire handover into Employee Central and Onboarding is designed This is where a candidate becomes an employee. It is the step most worth testing.
- Career site, job templates and requisition fields agreed with HR and legal Decided once, in one place, before the build.
Candidate data and AI
- You know which candidate data moves and which stays behind With retention rules agreed under Québec Law 25 and the privacy law where you hire.
- Candidates are told when AI assists, and a recruiter reviews Winston can assist screening and matching. Consent, transparency and recruiter review are decided up front.
- You know which hiring reports move and which stay in SuccessFactors So the CHRO’s numbers do not change meaning on the day you switch.
Four stages from deciding to hiring in SmartRecruiters.
Pick the one that sounds like your team today.
Deciding
You run SuccessFactors Recruiting or another tool and need to decide whether and when to move.
A readiness review: your Employee Central data, hiring process and integrations checked, and a recommendation on the path and timing, with the reasons written down.
Preparing Employee Central
You have decided to move and know the job, location or permission data needs work first.
We clean the data at the source, redesign permission roles and agree the hiring process with HR, so SmartRecruiters starts from a clean copy.
Moving
You are configuring SmartRecruiters and connecting it to SuccessFactors.
We configure, connect and test the offer-to-hire handover into Employee Central and Onboarding, move the candidate data you decided to keep, and support recruiters through the switch.
Live and improving
Recruiters work in SmartRecruiters and SAP keeps shipping new capability.
We run it with you: each SAP release tested, AI features reviewed before they reach candidates, and the integration watched so hires land cleanly in Employee Central.
Your recruiting lead and your HRIS lead sign off the design before anything is configured.
Hiring decisions stay with people. When Winston assists screening or matching, a recruiter reviews the result and candidates are told how AI is used.
- The hiring process signed off by HR before configuration
- Every change to the Employee Central integration recorded with its reason and approver
- AI use in screening reviewed with your legal team
- Candidate data retention agreed before migration
Questions HR and IT ask before they move.
Do we have to move from SuccessFactors Recruiting to SmartRecruiters?
No. SAP says it will honour all SuccessFactors Recruiting contracts and that customers will not be required to migrate. Whether and when to move is a business decision based on your hiring volume, how well Recruiting fits your process and how soon you want SmartRecruiters’ AI.
What flows between SuccessFactors and SmartRecruiters?
According to SAP, job families, cost centres and locations flow from SuccessFactors into SmartRecruiters, users created in SuccessFactors appear in SmartRecruiters with their permissions, and recruiters, hiring managers and approvers get one sign-on and one navigation.
Do job postings have to be in French in Quebec?
Yes. Under Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, a job posting published in another language must also be published in French, at the same time, through the same kind of channel and reaching a comparable audience, and application forms must be available in French. We set up your SmartRecruiters career site, posting templates and candidate messages for this, following the rules your legal team confirms.
Does Employee Central stay the system of record?
Yes. SmartRecruiters runs the hiring process. Employee Central stays where the person’s record lives once they are hired, which is why the offer-to-hire handover is the step we test hardest.
How do you handle AI in candidate screening?
We agree with your HR and legal teams where Winston may assist, make sure a recruiter reviews the result, and tell candidates how AI is used. We support your privacy team’s impact assessment under Québec Law 25 and the rules where you hire.
Can you take over a SmartRecruiters or Recruiting program another provider began?
Yes. We review what is live first, agree the handover with your HR and IT teams, and carry the work on from there.
Is EC Experts a SmartRecruiters partner?
We are an SAP Silver Partner, and SmartRecruiters is part of SAP. Our team includes a consultant certified in SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors, and we implement and run the SuccessFactors side of the connection.
Do you work with employers in the United States?
Yes. Our Montréal and Toronto hubs are on Eastern time, and we plan US rollouts around the hiring rules that differ from state to state, such as pay ranges in job postings and background-check consent.
How do we start?
With the checklist on this page, then a readiness review. You get a recommendation on the path and timing, and the gaps to close first.
Sources
Tell us where your hiring runs today.
Bring your recruiting lead and your HRIS lead. We will tell you plainly which path makes sense and what we would do first.
Our services
- HCM Advisory SAP SuccessFactors strategy, readiness assessments and workforce technology roadmaps for Canadian enterprises and federal programs.
- Implementation End-to-end SAP SuccessFactors implementation: Employee Central, EC Payroll, Talent, with the same senior team from design to go-live.
- Support & Managed Services Managed services for SAP SuccessFactors that the CHRO and the CIO can both check: each release tested against your configuration, every change on record, and a takeover from another provider when you need one.
- SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors Design, implementation, integration and adoption of SmartRecruiters for SAP SuccessFactors customers, with responsible AI governance.
- Insights Practitioner perspectives on SAP SuccessFactors, Employee Central, change management and HR technology strategy.