Employment
We strive to ensure our people are proud to work for our Group. We encourage and foster a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and team spirit within a supportive environment. It is our goal to bring out the best in our people and to pursue practices that are sensitive to the needs of our people. We now employ more than 14,800 people and our employees are at the heart of our customer experience.
We have an equal opportunities policy that applies across the Group and this prohibits discrimination on grounds such as race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
We operate in a number of geographic regions, adhering to all relevant laws that apply and also supporting internationally accepted standards including those on human rights. Our policy includes, where practical, the continued employment of those who may become disabled during their employment. Our policies ensure that all decisions about the appointment, treatment and promotion of employees are based entirely on merit.
Our guiding principles continue to drive our culture and the Sage way of doing things. Trust, Integrity, Simplicity, Innovation and Agility are at the heart of behaviour in many parts of our business and we continue to work with our people to make these cultural traits ubiquitous.
Our priorities for 2007 were
- Ensuring equality of opportunity, fostering diversity and providing a safe workplace
- Encouraging our people to reach their full potential through training, career development and promotion from within where possible
- Communicating openly and transparently with our people and taking into account their feedback
- Recognising and rewarding our people for their contribution .
- Embedding our principles in all of our businesses
Examples of activity undertaken during 2007
- Enhanced policies in many countries such as maternity (UK) and flexible working (Portugal)
- New Wellness programme and employee handbook launched (North America)
- New or refreshed management development programmes introduced in several countries
- A talent management strategy to harness top talent in the businesses across the Group
- English lessons available to employees who wish to learn (Portugal, Spain)
- Training, development and reward programmes for employees at all levels continually developed and improved in line with business strategy and guiding principles (all regions)
- Employee surveys undertaken in all of our larger businesses
- Enhanced internal communication channels with CEO webcasts, introduction of podcasts and other media to enable greater connection and knowledge sharing
- New employee portal to improve communication (Portugal)
- Employee consultation forum established (South Africa)
- Awards schemes to reward behaviour aligned to the Principles introduced (UK, Germany, Spain, Poland, South Africa)
- Milestones awards programme to reward long service (North America, South Africa, UK and Poland)
- Employee creativity training (France)