Diversity at Sage

Diverse employees at Sage score the company 83/100 across various culture categories, placing Sage in the top 5% of companies on Comparably with 10,000+ Employees for Comparably's diversity score. The Diversity score provides insights into how diverse employees feel and rate their work experience at Sage across various culture dimensions.

Diversity and Inclusion at Sage

We want Sage to be a place where everyone can thrive which is why we have made it our ambition to knock down Sage’s barriers to equity and inclusion. We hold the firm belief that for our colleagues to achieve their full potential, we must have an inclusive culture, with diverse teams and equity by design. Guiding us is our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategy which brings to life our six key commitments and covers how we will track our progress against our targets. 

Commitments 

1. We have a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination of any kind. We will listen to our colleagues and communities, and act on what they tell us. 

2. Our workforce will reflect the diversity of the communities in which we work and live, at every level of our organisation.

3. We strive to create an inclusive culture in which leaders seek out and embrace wide-ranging opinions.

4. We will seek out and remove any barriers to equity and inclusion, so we can give everyone the same opportunity for success.

5. We know learning is a constant process. We will continually look to do better, to listen, and to learn.

6. We are open about our progress; we hold ourselves accountable when we get things wrong, celebrate when we get things right, and learn from both.

Colleague Success Networks:

We are immensely proud of our volunteer-led Colleague Success Networks. Formed based on shared identity and/or lived experience, they support our inclusive culture. You might have heard them referred to as Employee Resource Groups or Business Resource Groups in other organisations – we choose to use the term Colleague Success Networks because colleague success is at the heart of what the networks do.

Our networks amplify the voices of marginalised communities at Sage, providing a community for sharing experiences and identifying shared challenges. These challenges are fed back to the DEI team and senior leadership to resolve.

Our current networks include:

-Ability Network: The Ability Network provides an opportunity to connect, learn, and support people - and share knowledge and ideas in areas of visible and invisible disability and neurodiversity.

-BUILD Network (North America only): The BUILD (Blacks United in Leadership & Development) Network provides professional and social networking for Black colleagues and allies at Sage, promoting a positive and inclusive environment through education, networking and workplace collaboration.

-Embrace Network (UK & Ireland only): The Embrace Network connects and supports our global majority colleagues and drives meaningful change through education.

-Family Network: The Family Network connects people to provide support and share experiences for anyone juggling home and family life.

-Gender Alliance Network: The Gender Alliance Network raises awareness of key issues that people of marginalised genders face and promotes gender equality, diversity and inclusion.

-LIT Network (North America only): The LIT (LatinX Inspiring Thought) Network leads, connects and supports the professional and personal well-being of LatinX colleagues and allies through technology, education and advocacy.

-Pride Network: The Pride Network promotes LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion through awareness and education.

-Rise Network (North America only): The Rise Network connects and supports Asian colleagues and allies.

-Veterans Network (North America only): The Veterans Network connects Service Members, Veterans, and supporters across Sage.

-Womxn Network: The Womxn Network collaborates to promote colleague engagement and the hiring, mentoring, and retention of womxn.

More about us

-Our global gender goal is for there to be no more than 60% of any one gender in any leadership team by 2026. As of September 2022, 33% of our leadership teams met this goal.

-Our global Colleague Success Network participation goal is for there to be a minimum of 20% of colleagues actively involved in a Colleague Success Network by the end of 2024. As of September 2022, we were at 14% participation.

-UK Gender Pay Gap. In 2022, our gender pay gap in the UK was 9.2%. You can find the full 2022 UK gender pay gap report on our website.

-UK Ethnicity Pay Gap. Reporting our Ethnicity Pay Gap is not currently a legal requirement; however, we believe in being transparent and believe it is equally important for us to report on our Ethnicity Pay Gap as it is our Gender Pay Gap. In 2022, our ethnicity pay gap in the UK was 0.6%. You can find the full UK ethnicity pay gap report on our website.

Holding ourselves to account

-We have an established DEI governance structure including two DEI Boards alongside our DEI team. Chaired by our Chief People Officer, the DEI Advisory Board consists of five external experts and six internal C-Suite Ambassadors. It is responsible for challenging our strategy, benchmarking against global best practices, and driving constant innovation. The DEI Accountability Board is chaired by our Chief Executive Officer and is ultimately accountable for the success or failure of our DEI strategy.

-Each C-Suite DEI Ambassador has a focus area of one of our strategic dimensions of diversity, which are Disability, Gender, LGBTQ+, Neurodiversity, Race and Ethnicity, and Social Equity.

-After publishing our first global DEI strategy in 2021, we wanted to explore the lessons we have learned in the last two years, including what has and hasn’t worked, and what we will do differently as a result. You can read about this in our 2022 DEI Impact report.

Global Partnerships

To support us in delivering on our goals, we have formed lasting global partnerships with the following organisations: 

-Business Disability Forum (BDF) Through our BDF membership, we are pleased to report that in 2023 we have completed a comprehensive review of our workplace adjustments/accommodations processes. As a result, we are currently rolling out improved systems across all our locations to better support our colleagues. 

-Business in the Community (BITC) Through our BITC membership, we are proud sponsors of their 2023 UK regional insights research on race. The insight that we have garnered through the research’s findings is informing the improvement of our recruitment and career development strategies to ensure our colleagues from the global majority have equitable opportunities for progression. We are also a committed signatory to the Race at Work Charter.

-Neurodiversity in Business (NiB) Through our Neurodiversity in Business membership, we are a proud sponsor of their 2023 research project with Birkbeck University - Neurodiversity at work: demand, supply and gap analysis. We have incorporated the key insights into our neurodiversity action plan, as we look to improve ways of working to better accommodate neurodiversity recruit more neurodivergent colleagues and empower leaders to support them once they arrive at Sage.  

-Stonewall Diversity Champion. By virtue of our partnership with Stonewall, we can confidently identify our key priorities in line with LGBTQ+ inclusion for each coming year and measure our progress through their annual UK Workplace Equality Index. We have much to do but Stonewall benchmarking helps to keep us accountable.

-Valuable 500. Our commitments to the Valuable 500 include a better understanding of our colleagues so that we can set representation goals and continue to support our colleague-led Ability Networks.

Wellbeing:

No matter how good we are at our job, no matter our job title, we are all human and if our wellbeing is not in a good place, we will not be able to perform to our best.

At Sage, we recognise that well-being is the hallmark of the success of our colleagues, and we understand how important it is that our culture and values align with well-being in every way.

Our approach is holistic with our four pillars focusing on mind, body, finances, and community. Some of our wellbeing initiatives include our Employee Assistance Program, access to a network of global Healthy Mind Coaches who are trained mental health first aiders, free access to family support with Cleo, and free mindfulness and meditation for colleagues and their families with Calm.

We also offer five volunteering days a year for our colleagues to work with our charity partners via Sage Foundation, empowering them to do good within our communities – and feel good doing it!

For more information about Sage’s DEI work, please visit our DEI webpage, where you can read more about our strategy and the impact we’ve had so far.

Sage's Diversity & Inclusion Awards

Sage won 2 awards in 2021, 1 award in 2020, 2 awards in 2019, and 1 award in 2018. Sage won Best Company for Women 2021 and Best Company for Diversity 2021.

Best Company for Women 2021 (Large Companies)

Best Company for Diversity 2021 (Large Companies)

Best Company For Women 2020 (Large Companies)

Best CEOs for Diversity 2019 (Large Companies)

Best CEOs for Women 2019 (Large Companies)

Best CEOs for Women 2018 (Small & Midsized Companies)