Could be so much better... - Anonymous employee Sage Employee Review

3.0
27 Sept 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are worse companies than Sage and there are better. Many of the pros are theoretical; in reality, you are unlikely to be allowed time to attend a Sage Foundation Day due to workload and you are lucky if you can take one or two per year. The terms and conditions of employment are generally very good including share save schemes, above industry standard pensions and long holidays. The company is also willing to allow flexible working. Facilities in Newcastle are very good (and there are ambitious plans to update them). There are some great people at Sage.

Cons

The annual performance review process is being abused by team managers and leading to constant unconscious bullying. Bell-curve ratings cause mistrust between colleagues, a dog-eat-dog culture with a serious lack of co-operation heavily impacting delivery and putting the very future of the company at risk. The number of staff absent with depression as mentioned in earlier reviews must be addressed as it’s causing problems at all levels. The review process, bullying and depression levels are all linked. I do hope the best people at Sage persevere as the problems with staff appraisal could be addressed overnight to vastly improve our Glassdoor rating, attract the best and help us deliver a fantastic customer experience.

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Sage Response
8y
Thanks for your feedback. You're correct, our colleagues are encouraged to use their 5 volunteer days per year with a charity of their choice, and 1000s of hours of volunteering has happened, plus the Sage Foundation's $1million challenge has seen our CFO, Steve Hare hosting a series of 5km runs with colleagues across the globe. During 2015/16 there was a widely recognized lack of effective performance management at Sage. Some colleagues were under performing and were getting away with it, to the detriment of Sage and their fellow colleagues. Year end 2016 we applied a ranked distribution to push managers into a position where they had to manage underperformers. In order for Sage to succeed in the future, we had to address underperformance because we knew if it continued, Sage wouldn’t! Since applying the distribution, we have invested in the development of our managers through a program called Leading@Sage and we have begun to see a shift in managers being able and more willing to address underperformance, as well as recognize and appreciate great performance. For this year-end review process, we are not applying a forced distribution this is recognition that our management community are now more able to effectively manage and lead our colleague population. It's also great that our new interim CPO is dedicated to improve colleague engagement across Sage as well as introducing a number of well-being programmes. Thanks again.

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Pros

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Cons

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2.0
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Pros

was hired as remote and get to have that honored, but have been openly told no career progression because of remote status. decent pay

Cons

Leadership instability: Seven manager changes during my relatively short tenure. Unrealistic targets: A sales quota set at 1,100% growth (not a typo). Slow product development: Getting anything actioned on the product side takes far too long. Product management turnover: Three product manager changes, resulting in no meaningful deliverables in over three years. Misaligned hiring priorities: Greater emphasis on DEI optics than on hiring people positioned to drive growth. Internal vs. customer focus: More energy spent on internal events than on product enhancements. Lack of accountability (the biggest issue): No one takes ownership. Responsibility gets passed around constantly — for example, client cancellations going unprocessed because they impact someone's numbers. Managers have openly encouraged pushing the work onto someone else rather than handling it.

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