Pros
Sage has been in the business of acquiring competition as a tool to dominate the market for decades. That worked fine when other large companies did the same thing, but the world has moved on and that model is no longer viable. So, it's changing in order to survive and grow. It's achieving that by getting rid of non-core assets globally - buildings and people basically. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that - there's no way Sage could have carried on the way it was - the competition is leaner, more agile and technologically has Sage on the back foot. It'll get there, I'm sure - but there's still more pain ahead for its workforce. Because Sage is still rapidly re-inventing itself, it's hard to leave a review that is constructive since reviewers experiences will relate to its current period of change and life before that. Did I enjoy it? Yes - hugely - great team spirit and support. My team, colleagues and immediate management were hugely passionate about what we did. Benefits were just about passable for a FTSE 100 company: - Good holiday (25 days running up to 28) - Pension contribution up to 9%. Not the best by a long chalk, but pretty good - Additional health packages available to suit needs - Buy/sell holiday if you need to - Flexible work from home options, for extended periods if you could justify it - 35 hr full time week - Reward gateway for discounts on products/services etc - There was a share save scheme. - Discretionary support for longer serving employees in times of need.
Cons
Salaries are humiliating. The bonus scheme was so small it hardly served as an incentive. (I'm not sure the bonus scheme still exists) The share scheme has been suspended. I doubt it'll return. This is a shame because it made up for poor salaries and was a good tool for employee retention. The appraisal experience was pointless. In principle it's a great idea; aligning employee needs to that of the business etc. In practice it was a bureaucratic waste of time that typically led to an awkward end of year review for both employee and line manager since it didn’t matter how good or bad you were, everyone got the same. Pay rises depended on performance but the increments on offer actively put employees off pursuing anything. Career opportunities are virtually non-existent. There have been cases where employees have used the appraisal process to progress agreeing goals with their line manager, work towards it all year, meet those targets, and then be told they will not be promoted or compensated. The only other theoretical way of advancement is 'in-band' progression. However, since this is all geared toward a sensible pay rise if goals are met, and Sage refuse to reward its staff through market rate compensation, the idea is folly. The new ethos is 'having to over-achieve to 'achieve''. The current restructuring is of course a difficult time for Sage but there won't be too many, if any people who fail to understand the need for that change - even when it affects their own positions. However, the way that change has been delivered is a shambles. Top tier management flown in to execute breed a culture of narcissism and set unachievable targets for the company to follow. It's an indicator that they do not understand or think they do not need to understand the nature of the business in order to bring about a successful restructure. The net result is the process is a lot more painful than it needs to be, and a lot skilled experienced people have left the business.
