Peachtree 2012 Annual Report Download - page 46

Equipping our people
Our priorities focus on the following:
Communication
Our goals unite our people behind a common purpose; and cross
border collaboration is key to our success. To facilitate global
communication, we have invested in Cisco’s Telepresence and
WebEx capabilities in all our key locations. Already we are seeing
remote teams working seamlessly together and, at the same time,
reducing travel costs. Our global enterprise platform, Open…, is a
collaboration tool providing a social network where everyone
across Sage, regardless of their location, can talk, share, create
and innovate within teams.
Leadership
During 2012 we created a community called the Global Leadership
Team, comprising our top 30 key leaders who are accountable for
driving our global priorities. To support our new way of working,
we have introduced a common set of executive competencies
against which each will be measured in respect of their long-term
capability, and their short-term performance and reward. This is
supported by systematic investment in their development, resulting
in true global succession planning. A new global mobility policy
enables us to move our talent around the globe, with over 40
assignments in2012.
Accolades
We are proud to call ourselves much more than a software
provider and our customer experience continues to be recognised.
This year we earned the accolade of European Call Centre and
Customer Service – large Contact Centre of the year award.
In South Africa, we have won ‘Best Companies to Work For’
in our category for the second year in a row, and most recently
in North America – ‘Texas Best Company to Work For’.
Diversity
As a global company we aim to treat our people with dignity and
respect. We emphasise the importance of treating individuals in
a non-discriminatory manner across the full employment lifecycle,
including hiring, reward, development, promotions, mobility and
departure. Training is provided to those making decisions on these
factors so that no individual is disadvantaged and to prevent
discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, belief, race,
creed, age, disability, sexual orientation, ethnic origin or marital
status. In many of our operational companies we have guidelines
to help our businesses meet the Group requirements and to
manage diversity within the context of different national legislation
and cultures. At Sage we are proud of the various initiatives taking
place globally related to gender, age, disadvantaged backgrounds,
disabilities and ethnic minorities. These include internships,
apprenticeships, disability awards and targets; schemes to support
ethnic minorities and those with disadvantaged backgrounds.
Highlights of which can be found in the Corporate Responsibility
section on page 45.
People and organisation continued
Board diversity
29%
Top leadership diversity
24%
Total workforce diversity
46%
2012 2011
Total Members 7 8
Women 2 2
% 29% 25%
2012 2011
Total Members 99 97
Women 24 25
% 24% 26%
2012 2011
Total Members 13,509 12,389
Women 6,214 5,451
% 46% 44%
Gender
At Sage we value the aims and objectives of The Davies Report on
Women on Boards. In considering appointments to the Board and
to senior executive positions, it is our policy to evaluate the skills,
experience and knowledge required by a particular role with due
regard for the benet of diversity on the Board and at senior
management level and make an appointment accordingly. The
Board of Sage currently comprises 29% women and we would
expect to maintain a similar balance through 2013 to 2015. It is of
the utmost importance to maintain strong leadership at Sage and
we will therefore continue to appoint only the most appropriate
candidates. Our top leadership population is 24% female; the
majority of our core operating companies have top leadership
teams in excess of 20% female; and 46% of our total workforce
prole is female.
Examples of some of the local gender specic-initiatives include
Spain with a Gender Diversity Plan to help ensure equality and
Portugal’s Womens’ Day celebration. The UK has an Enterprise for
Women network aimed at supporting and encouraging womens’
career development which includes running networking events,
training sessions, bi-monthly newspapers and a Twitter account
with many followers. Currently, in the UK, 39% of employees
are females with 35.5% of those in leadership positions. Other
highlights include North America, whose leadership teams have
worked towards comprising 30% women, while in South Africa
we have 62% female employees and 48% women in
leadership teams.
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