People


Our strategic goal is to be an admired employer.  This means that people will want to join Sage as a place of choice, achievement and opportunity, and one where they can be genuinely successful and fulfilled in their careers.  People who work with us will recognise that the environment we create maximises their potential and is a place where innovation and creativity can flourish.


All of our operating companies are working towards these aims.  We continue to adopt a consultative approach with our employees through many means including focus groups, employee committees and employee surveys.  This work is locally-led to ensure it is meaningful and relevant to our people.


In terms of furthering our people agenda, this year we have encouraged our businesses to focus on talent, equity and engagement.  Targets for improvement are set locally and approved at Group level.

Talent

As talent is critical to the future growth and success of Sage we have worked at a global level to introduce new processes to identify and nurture emerging talent during the year.  This process includes a review of talent at both a regional and a global level as well as succession planning for senior roles.

Other activities include:

  • Leadership training and development in UK, Spain, Portugal, Australia, North America
  • Coaching for improvement programme in Australia
  • Development of relationships with local Universities in the UK and Portugal
  • Recruitment market research to identify the expectations of today’s talent pool in Portugal 

Equity

Diversity and fairness has always been a part of the way Sage does business. This year we introduced a global “code of ethics” into the business as part of our compliance framework. 

This sets out the standards which all operating companies are expected to meet regarding diversity and fairness amongst other things and communicates to employees our stance.  Our operating companies have been working on embedding this into their businesses. 

An example of this is the introduction of a new diversity plan across all Spanish businesses to ensure equal opportunities.  This required a review of all HR processes to ensure complete application of equal opportunities in all divisions.

Engagement

One of our strategic goals is to be an employer of choice.  Many of our operating companies chose to focus on employee engagement levels and how to improve employee satisfaction and thus improve the customer experience and ultimately business performance. 

This is especially important during a period of economic uncertainty and during the year we did need to restructure in some parts of the business which led to a limited number of redundancies.  In keeping with our principles these changes were well communicated and employees affected were supported through the process and given help to find other roles.

Areas of activity included:

  • Employee surveys in Australia, UK, France and Spain
  • Sage Guiding Principles Awards introduced in Australia, UK and North America (Spain launched theirs in 2007)
  • Ask Me! A new peer to peer Q & A service in North America helping people get access to the right information and support to help them and to service the customer better
  • New global leadership programme – see the case study
  • New reward and benefits programme in North America
  • Move to a new purpose designed office facility near to Lucern,
  • Switzerland for many Sage Switzerland employees
  • A new online employee learning centre in North America
  • Professional internship programme in Portugal

Case Study: Leadership

Sage aspires to be the most admired and respected business software and services provider in the world and we have to deliver this in an environment of increasing customer expectations and fierce competition. 

As we continue to shape our strategy and look to our future needs the time is right to focus on Leadership in Sage and define the leadership qualities we need to be successful in the future.  Over the course of 2008 a team of global leaders has developed an aspirational leadership standard against which all of our current leaders and emerging talent will be benchmarked. 

The new standard sets out our vision for what successful leadership will be in Sage and defines the behavioural and cultural attributes we need and expect.  Roll-out and integration at a local level has begun and will be continued into 2009 with the launch of a global educational programme for senior leaders.