What is the hiring process like at Sage?

Decent benefits to start with particularly for graduates, and the option of an office workspace if you prefer working onsite.

Where do we even begin? From an engineering standpoint, Sage offers some of the lowest compensation in the industry. Despite the challenges in retaining software engineers in today’s market, Sage is indifferent and often responds to criticism with a dismissive, “You can leave if you want to.” Over the years, Sage has gained a reputation for pushing back on employees who raise grievances, especially in cases involving discrimination. Their tactic often involves pressuring people out of the company through loyal “yes-men,” while offering empty promises of support. It's a hostile environment masked by corporate platitudes. Their latest debacle involves forcing employees back into the office three days a week, despite hiring some under the pretense of a remote work arrangement. They were careful not to explicitly state “remote” in contracts but gave assurances during the hiring process. Is Sage unaware of the abundance of remote engineering roles now available? Or is this just another way to nudge people out? Perhaps they’re hoping employees will quit rather than become eligible for redundancy packages? And then there’s HR. The official response to concerns about the forced return to office and the sudden reduction of benefits (such as cutting a 10% discount) is as cold as it gets: “If you can’t adapt to the changes, maybe Sage isn’t the place for you.” Where is the empathy? Where is the care and concern Sage claims to have for its employees? It’s becoming painfully clear that employees are seen as disposable, no matter how much they preach otherwise.

Good team Good benefits Great interview process

Set work from home days

- The benefits (bonus, healthcare, pension, work away) and initiatives (DE&I, flexible working) were a huge plus though these are being slowly chipped away and have too many catches - Large global, cross functional tech company for your CV that will potentially open doors for you - Some great people and some great talent to learn from - sometimes interesting work - Depending on role, team and location, salaries can be generous and well above the industry / local average

- Direction of strategy at Sage is constantly changing; project focus can switch without warning and new launches seemingly crop up overnight. This leaves delivery teams scrambling to get the work done with little resource or time, causing horrific stress that trickles from the top down and work that is poor quality . - The infrastructure and processes are shockingly disorganised for a company this size. Most of the data and tools used to plan and inform work are unreliable and barely fit for purpose. The company refuses to invest in more training, resource or tech to help people do their jobs properly. Getting anything done is often a painful, archaic and manual process that barely anyone adheres to anyway - SO MANY restrictions for employees and their work. There is absolutely no room for experimentation, improvement or creativity. We are also encouraged to be sustainable which means people have to carefully count their pennies for work trips to see their team, organise colleague socials, or expenses, yet the business will routinely fly select departments out for extravagant trips at overseas conferences, or waste cash on flying expensive drones around office sites for an end of year video… - Recently told the business that we have to return to the office for a mandatory 3 days a week - no exception. This is after several office closures, huge backlash from staff and knowing that the existing offices literally cannot accommodate all employees. Not only does this go against their value of ‘flexible human working’ (not to mention that this is unfair and not inclusive to all employee needs ) it’s also not at all practical, sustainable or realistic. Unless you arrive well before 9am or DON’T go in the days you might actually need to (not so flexible at all really…) you will struggle to even get a desk to do your work. Most people then sit all day on teams calls. And that’s not even considering that some offices require paid parking or huge commutes. And if you don’t comply, you’re at risk of not only being held back from opportunities and bonus, you can end up on performance review. This all makes any time you DO want to spend in the office stressful and distracting but also scared of punishment any time you do choose to wfh. - Part time, remote and work away contracts seem to be reserved the most senior, well-connected and smooth-talking staff it seems. - Management training is lacking which explains why management is poor. Many managers don’t know how to do the job but have been given undeserved authority and power because they shout the loudest, while others have no skills to lead but have had the responsibility thrust upon them with absolutely no support. - Promotion is near impossible and progression opportunities appear to be doled out at random - they are largely dependent on whether you’re lead by someone already embittered by the process and how generous HR are feeling on the day. Micromanagement, gatekeeping and gaslighting runs rampant and there is a refusal to share payscales or progression frameworks to help people move up. the only option is to overwork uncompensated until someone, somewhere decides it’s time for a reward - There’s a frighteningly large number of directors and seniors but only a small percentage of them actually contribute anything useful. Most just push back on the specialist staff who are doing all the donkey work meaning that everyone has to comply even if it‘s a bad decision. - HR are a challenge. Mental health issues get used against you at the first opportunity, processes are slow and if you dare to criticise the 180 on flexible working, you’ll be told to suck it up or leave. - Teams are put under enormous pressure with unmanageable, ever growing workloads and no off-ramp. Some people are terrified to take time off and they constantly request that everyone go above and beyond - all the time! When anonymous surveys are sent out and results show the above, nothing is done with the feedback - The company bewilderingly has an annual redundancy round. Everyone is in constant fear of their livelihood but still expected to do their very best work. Morale is terrible as a result. - As you can see there are now tonnes of fake positive reviews - which says it all

- Occasional free breakfast - Decent benefits such as being able to reclaim prescription and dental costs. -No weekend working, bank holidays off.

- Job advert initially said after 6 months it would go from £24K to £26K however upon month 5 we were informed that an assessment was required in order to reach the next pay bracket which was not communicated across during the recruitment process. - CSAT's are counted against you despite the fact that the customer dislikes the company and product not necessary the service. It's almost impossible to have these removed from your name so you spend the whole month trying to get 18 10/10 CSAT's because anything lower will cause your performance to drop. -Constant micro-managing from when you first log in to when you take your lunch. Lunches can change on Verint frequently so it must be refreshed and checked constantly in order to meet adherence. -Holidays are extremely difficult to grab a hold of, some days you can book 4.5 hours off which isn't ideal when you're trying to plan a break away. First come first serve basis and holidays are only released so that 2-3 people per department can have the time off. -Pushed to upsell and focus on create rate despite being a customer support/technical support job but they're called valuable conversations when in reality it's sales. If the customer's dislike the updates on the current software they're on, it's extremely unlikely they'll want to buy another product from you. It's common sense. -Average call handle target is 14-15 minutes, so if you get a customer who has called back and fobbed off by other agents just so they can meet their target, you could be stuck between getting your average call handling lower or wanting to actually help the customer. Regardless you're screwed whatever you do. - Extremely high turn over, three people in my team left within 12 months. Yet management seems to be surprised why people are leaving despite giving them free breakfast and maybe a free meal.

The recruitment and onboarding process has been excellent so far. Communication was clear at every stage, from the interview scheduling to the job offer. HR provided timely updates and detailed instructions for preboarding, which made the experience stress-free. Everyone I interacted with was friendly and professional, and I already feel valued as a future team member.

No complain everything is just perfect

You will learn very quickly what matters most to you in life and what not to do as a leader.

Sage is a place that could be great but is too consumed with ‘leaders’ competing and prioritizing their egos off the back of the real workers. We’re currently being subjected to a Canadian takeover at every level. The Canadians are only promoting and hiring one another, while icing out truly talented and well qualified colleagues in the US. It’s a disaster that’s been in the making as the US has carried the weight of growth targets globally for years. Now their Canadian leader is in power, resulting in blatant countrymen favoritism. These are the typical dynamics at Sage. A lack of psychological safety, toxicity, a general state of being unsafe because very few are genuine and can be trusted. To top this off, the constant demands are nothing short of absurd and unrealistic. It’s as if all have selective memory loss of the poor YoY decisions by ‘leaders’ they elected and those they gave a job on a silver undeserving plater or kept on the books for far too many years. Good people have left, will continue leaving, and are planning their escape daily. We are escaping an environment where ‘leaders” gossip constantly about what should be confidential HR matters - nothing you disclose is ever safe and will be spread snd weaponized against you. Their ‘leaders’ are more concerned with power tripping off work that the real talent is delivering vs truly leading, cultivating safe environments and elevating talent worthy of carrying the honor of leading people. What I’ve shared is only the tip of the iceberg. My advice is run and never look back. Your talent, sanity, loved ones will thank you for choosing to walk away from an environment that will deplete, devalue and dispose of you in the most dishonorable manner that you can imagine.

Really smooth onboarding and an extremely welcoming team - culture seems exactly as advertised during my interview process Particularly impressed by the benefits - wellbeing seems to be very much prioritised

Nothing as of yet in terms of cons

I’ve loved working at Sage since I first started. I’ve felt so welcomed and supported. From the onboarding mentor ,Sarah, to my manager ,Jeff, I have felt guided and helped. Being from a background which did not have anything to do without accountancy, I was scared of being thrown in the deep end within the sales roll. My assumptions were proven false with the 121 help and onboarding process provided by the company. Due to the unwavering support I’ve become confident on all the products provided here at Sage and also gained a significant amount of knowledge on Accountancy practises. I truly feel as though my career in sales would not have been able to flourish without this wonderful opportunity. I’d encourage everyone to consider working at Sage. The positivity of the company and the support of everyone within it goes unmatched.

I dont have anything negative to say.

Good culture, flexible working conditions. Internal recruitment policy.

Role changes with no pay increase. No transparency around restructures and redundancies. Job cuts unannounced only affected colleagues are notified.

they have benefits, that's the only pro

-Onboarding process was done incorrectly, had to wait 2 months for salary to be fixed -so much micro management, it drove me crazy -so much unnecessary extra work asked to be done on a daily basis -lots of old/outdated processes, like still having to create quotes on an Excel workbook instead of using a CRM -there's no sandbox environments for the systems used, all changes are done in production -no documentation on how to do things, no proper training process -some of the mandatory trainings don't make sense when the employee is not customer facing I could keep going but I doubt anything will change