Sage and Business Partners – working together
In 1981, Sage was established in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and over the last 24 years, has developed into the leading supplier of business management software for small to medium-sized businesses in the UK. With 4.4 million customers worldwide, and 600,000 in the UK alone, Sage has built up a deep understanding of the needs of all sizes and types of business. Supported by close relationships with Business Partners, Sage is able to offer this expertise right on your doorstep – for both software and support.
As a Sage Business Partner, we are able to visit you on-site to discuss your needs, to recommend the most appropriate package, to install and configure any software, and to provide training and after-sales support.
We would now like to take this opportunity to introduce you to a brand new service called Sage HR Advice. This complements the services that we, as your Sage Partner, can offer you, and is a cost-effective way to ensure you remain compliant with employment law and human resource issues.
Compliance
Consider the following ten simple questions:
- Are you satisfied that your contracts are up-to-date and fulfil all legislative requirements?
- Are your policies for dismissal, discipline and grievance up-to-date with the legislation that came into effect in October 2004?
- Are you confident that your processes for dismissing staff are fair, consistent and reduce your risk of being taken to a tribunal?
- Do your recruitment processes ensure that you recruit in a non-discriminatory fashion?
- Do you have a staff handbook, company rules and/or code of conduct that sets clear standards of behaviour for all employees?
- Are you ready for the new Data Protection, Road Transport Directive and Transfer of Undertakings Regulations that impact in 2005?
- Does your business adopt clear probationary and performance review processes?
- Does your staff handbook include policies for data protection, harassment, equal opportunities, grievance and sickness?
- Do your employees’ hours of work take into account the Working Time Directive?
- Do your part-time, temporary and fixed-term employees all receive the same benefits, pro-rata, as full-time staff?
If you answer ‘No’ or are uncertain of the answer to any of the above questions, Sage HR Advice could be the ideal solution for your business.
Sage HR Advice
Sage HR Advice is a legally-reliable human resource service. It translates employment law into plain English, as well as advising you how to manage your employees.
Website
A comprehensive, easy-to-use website full of guidance and advice, divided into three sections and 45 topics. It translates the law into plain English and is continually updated with the latest developments in human resource management and employment law.
Document templates
This complete suite of HR documentation comprises over 100 procedures, step-by-step guides, letters, policies, forms and contracts of employment. These documents download instantly in Microsoft Word format for you to print onto company-headed paper.
FAQs
An online bank of answers to businesses’ frequently-asked human resource and employment law questions. Sage updates this database continually with the answers to questions asked of HR professionals.
Alerts
Proactive e-mail alerts tell you what you need to know and do ahead of legally required change, and give you the tools to remain compliant.
Monthly newsletters
Keep up to date with the latest developments in human resource management and employment law, delivered straight to your inbox.
Sage HR Advice Professional
Sage HR Advice Professional allows you to speak, or correspond by e-mail, with a legally-qualified human resource and employment law expert.
Professional Advice
Speak with a human resource and employment law expert to receive legally-reliable advice about your employee issues. You can make contact by telephone, 9-5 weekdays, and receive instant, practical advice. Telephone calls are charged at local rate, and you are not restricted in the number of calls that you can make during your 12-month subscription. Alternatively, e-mail your query and receive a response within 48 hours.
Compliance Trail
If you need a history of advice on which you have acted, the Sage HR Advice Professional service can supply you with an appropriate report, detailing website usage, documents downloaded, e-mail traffic and telephone calls.
Quality Service
Qualified professionals field your queries, with an average of over 10 years’ hands-on human resource experience. All calls are recorded and, where appropriate, a follow-up e-mail clarifies the main points of the advice given. The advice is not legalistic, but practical and tailored to your specific situation. Incidences are case number driven, so that Sage can easily refer to the history of an issue. Sage endeavours to provide continuity, so you can build a relationship with one advisor, to save you from unnecessarily repeating information to different people.
Sage HR Advice Tailored Solutions
Once you have subscribed to Sage HR Advice Professional, you can ake advantage of tailored solutions to further assist in the human esource delivery of your business.
AUDIT
There are two levels of audit for individual companies:
- Compliance Review (1 – 2 days*) – designed to ensure your core documents, contracts of employment and company handbook, are compliant.
- Full Audit (2 – 6 days*) – thorough review of all relevant documents, policies and procedures, including recommendations for change and improvements.
It may be possible to conduct the Compliance Review remotely via telephone and e-mail. The Full Audit is likely to require at least one visit to your place of business.
* Estimated time required, depending on complexity and number of documents to be reviewed.
DOCUMENT MAINTENANCE
Following an Audit, Sage can maintain all your documents, policies and procedures. This is a proactive maintenance service that will help you remain compliant with all legislative changes. You will be advised of
changes that are necessary, be provided with redrafted documents and be guided how to communicate changes to your business.
REVIEW MEETINGS
You can arrange for a Sage HR Advice Professional to visit you to assist you and your team with all your employment matters. Visits may be arranged for a frequency of your choice. The adviser will be dedicated to your account and will, where possible, take any calls you make to the advice line between visits.
TRAINING
Sage HR Advice training can be delivered to your professionals, managers and/or staff. Depending on the audience, the training can be technical, practical or both. Each training course is tailored to the customer’s specific needs.
INTRANET
To complement the Audit, Document Maintenance, Review Meetings and Training services, Sage can also build your own-branded secure website to host all your relevant documents, policies and procedures.
Topics and Documents
Topics
The online Sage HR Advice service contains over 45 topics. These include:
Starters
- Attracting the applicant
- Offering the job
- Recruitment guidelines
- and restrictions
- Selecting the right
- person
- Staff handbook
Employees
- Absence due to illness
- Adoption leave and pay
- Appraisal
- Discipline
- Emergency leave for
- dependents
- Employment records
- Equal opportunities
- Fixed term employees
- Flexible working
- Grievances
- Health and safety
- Holidays
- Hours of work/rest
- breaks
- Human rights
- Information and
- consultation
- Maternity rights
- Parental leave
- Part-time workers
- Paternity leave and pay
- Pay
- Poor performance
- Stakeholder pensions
- Time off for public duties
- Time off for study and
- training
- Trade unions
- Transfer of undertakings
- Use of computers
- Varying the contract of
- employment
- Whistle blowing
Leavers
- Compromise agreements
- Constructive dismissal
- Dismissal with notice
- Dismissal without notice
- Expiry of a fixed term
- contract
- Frustration of contract
- Giving references
- Redundancy
- Resignation
- Retirement
- Termination by mutual agreement
Documents
Sage HR Advice includes over 100 document templates. Listed below is just a selection of those included in the service
Forms: Including application, job specification, appraisal, and absence request forms.
Step-by-step guides: Including step-by-step guides to conducting a disciplinary hearing, performing an interview, dealing with allegations of misconduct and job sharing.
Letters: Including offer of employment, requesting a reference, confirmation of warning and reasons for dismissal letters.
Policies: Including equal opportunities, alcohol and drug abuse, no smoking and redundancy policies.
Procedures: Including capability, grievance, notifying absence and parental leave procedures.
Other: Including contracts of employment, company rules, staff handbook and performance review. Please note that the topics and documents contained in Sage HR Advice are subject to continual review and update, and therefore we reserve the right to change any of the topics and documents referred to above.
Frequently-Asked Questions
Question: How is Sage HR Advice different to its competitors?
There are a number of ways in which the service stands out from the competition:
- Proactive: Sage doesn’t react to change, but instead tells you about forthcoming events in advance and provides you with all the tools you need to remain compliant.
- Commercial: Sage doesn’t just advise on legal issues, but also offer practical guidance on managing your employees effectively and adopting best practice.
- Plain English: The service translates the law into plain English, so that everyone can understand it.
Question: Can I rely on the advice?
Yes. Sage stands behind the accuracy of the advice given. If you provide all the details of an issue and follow Sage’s advice to the letter, if the advice proves inaccurate and you suffer a loss as a result, Sage will compensate you for the advice provided up to the value of £20,000 per incident. To put this in context, the average compensation award from employment tribunals is around £7,000. Please note that whilst Sage is happy to support you on issues that arose prior to buying the service, Sage’s legal reliability only applies to those matters that arose after purchase.
Question: Does Sage provide legal representation in tribunals?
No. There are a number of reasons for this:
- Sage’s research shows that businesses would rather use their own lawyers than an unknown quantity.
- Most businesses have legal representation covered by their general business insurance, so to pay Sage would mean paying for it twice.
- You would in effect be paying an ‘insurance policy’ for something you may never need – Sage’s prices are so competitive because you are being charged only for what you need to use on a day-to-day basis. Sage can, however, recommend appropriate legal counsel, and no matter who your lawyer is Sage would be happy to provide you with a comprehensive report containing a detailed history of every piece of advice you have acted upon from Sage HR Advice.
Question: If I subscribe to the service, for how long am I tied in?
The minimum period of subscription is a 12-month contract. At the end of 12 months, you are under absolutely no obligation to renew, and unlike some other providers of similar services, Sage does not tie you into long contracts that you cannot break.
Question: Are there any offers available?
- If you have SageCover on another Sage product at the time you purchase Sage HR Advice or Sage HR Advice Professional, you are entitled to a 10% discount.
- If you purchase the HR service and are already subscribing to Sage Health & Safety Advice, you may benefit from an additional 10% saving.
Additional Sage Services
Health & Safety Advice
Sage Health & Safety Advice is a legally reliable service that translates health and safety law into plain English, explains your obligations and helps you fulfil them.
The service contains a complete suite of health and safety documentation - over 80 procedures, step-by-step guides, letters, policies and forms – everything from a risk assessment form to a fire safety policy. It also gives you access to over 40 topics in a comprehensive website, ranging from risk assessment to working with machinery. This is all backed by a bank of FAQs, proactive alerts and monthly newsletters. As with Sage HR Advice, the Professional service allows you speak to, or e-mail, qualified health and safety experts and receive legally-reliable advice.
Did you know?
Are you aware of your health and safety obligations?
- Did you know that in 2003/04, an estimated 2.2 million people suffered from ill-health that they considered to be work-related?
- Did you know that the number of reported injuries resulting in an employee being absent from work for three or more days in 2003/04 was 129,143?
- Did you know that over 33% of all reported major injuries in 2003/04 were caused by slipping and tripping?
- Do you have an accident book that all employees are aware of that is used to record incidents?
- Are your health and safety insurance certificates properly displayed?
- Do you carry out regular health and safety assessments and take documented precautions to address the risks identified?
- Are you aware of your, your employees’ and your organisation’s obligations and responsibilities in law for health and safety?