Communication on Progress

Participant
Published
  • 21-Apr-2021
Time period
  • April 2020  –  April 2021
Format
  • Stand alone document – Basic COP Template
Differentiation Level
  • This COP qualifies for the Global Compact Active level
Self-assessment
  • Includes a CEO statement of continued support for the UN Global Compact and its ten principles
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Human Rights
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Labour
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Environment
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Anti-Corruption
  • Includes a measurement of outcomes
 
  • Statement of continued support by the Chief Executive Officer
  • Statement of the company's chief executive (CEO or equivalent) expressing continued support for the Global Compact and renewing the company's ongoing commitment to the initiative and its principles.

  • 21 April , 2021

    21st April , 2021
    To our stakeholders:

    I am pleased to confirm that SAGE reaffirms its support of the Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Zero Hunger, Good Health & Wellbeing and Gender equality.

    In this annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We also commit to sharing this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

    Sincerely yours,

    Sonia Kumar
    Director – Finance and Commercial Operations

Human Rights
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of human rights for the company (i.e. human rights risk-assessment). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on Human Rights.

  • 1. Whistle Blower Policy and Grievance Redressal Policy were launched in September 2020 with the following purpose: SAGE and its subsidiaries are committed to comply with foreign and domestic laws that apply to them, satisfying the Company’s Code of Conduct and Ethics, and particularly to assure that business is conducted with integrity and that the Company’s financial information is accurate. If potential violations of Company policies or applicable laws are not recognized and addressed promptly, the Company and those working for or with the Company could face governmental investigation and prosecution and be subject to fines, and other penalties. That can be costly. Consequently, to promote the highest ethical standards, the Company will maintain a workplace that facilitates reporting of potential violations of Company policies and applicable laws. Employees must be able to raise concerns about such potential violations easily and without any fear of retaliation. This is the purpose of this policy.

    2. Our SAGE India Annual Holiday list includes holidays from different regions/parts of India to ensure that we make reasonable accommodations for employees' religious observance and practices.

    3. Many platforms are available to employees to express their concerns freely, such as Speak your Mind, Company Townhalls, Weekly Manager Round Ups and Contact CEO.

    4. SAGE strictly adheres to the POSH policy. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, commonly referred to as the ‘PoSH Act’, is an Indian law enacted with the objective of making workplaces safer for women by preventing, prohibiting and redressing acts of sexual harassment against them at the workplace.

    5. For India’s most impoverished children and for the vast majority of the country’s youth, the four walls of a classroom are the only pathway to a better life. The pandemic has hit them hard as all schools and colleges closed down, thereby highly limiting these children for their right to education. Neo Vision is an NGO that aims to provide basic education and healthcare to underprivileged children. SAGE has tied up with Neo Vision, under the initiative of SAGE SAATHI, and organized a Corona War Concert. SAGE employees participated in it and helped raising funds for the NGO.

    6. Malnutrition and widespread prevalence of stunting, wasting, and nutritional deficiencies among women and children are well-recognized elements of India's profile in the Global Hunger Index. The pandemic has had a catastrophic effect on the poor. The country-wide lockdown led to a sudden cessation of economic activities and triggered large-scale unemployment, which in turn led to widespread hunger. SAGE was at the forefront to ensure that we extend a helping hand in this hour of need and took the following two initiatives.

    Initiative 1
    Description of Action
    Ladli Foundation's Project Rahat

    Ladli Foundation Trust is a grassroot-level non-profit organization working actively in fifty districts across ten states in India. Ladli is renowned for its unique initiatives aimed at empowering and rehabilitating lakhs of underprivileged and uneducated women and adolescents in slums and rural areas.

    Project Rahat is aimed at helping marginalized communities adversely affected by the COVID crisis, both by generating awareness and distributing essential materials.

    Initiative 2
    End Poverty, a civil society organization registered in 2009 and working in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. End Poverty has trained over 300 rural women to produce masks as per government standards. These masks are supplied to the local government bodies for further use. This support also gives employment to these rural women, helping them earn money during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement Human Rights policies, address Human Rights risks and respond to Human Rights violations.

  • 1. Whistle Blower Policy and Grievance Redressal Policy were launched in September 2020 with the following purpose: SAGE and its subsidiaries are committed to comply with foreign and domestic laws that apply to them, satisfying the Company’s Code of Conduct and Ethics, and particularly to assure that business is conducted with integrity and that the Company’s financial information is accurate. If potential violations of Company policies or applicable laws are not recognized and addressed promptly, the Company and those working for or with the Company could face governmental investigation and prosecution and be subject to fines, and other penalties. That can be costly. Consequently, to promote the highest ethical standards, the Company will maintain a workplace that facilitates reporting of potential violations of Company policies and applicable laws. Employees must be able to raise concerns about such potential violations easily and without any fear of retaliation. This is the purpose of this policy.

    2. Our SAGE India Annual Holiday list includes holidays from different regions/parts of India to ensure that we make reasonable accommodations for employees' religious observance and practices.

    3. Many platforms are available to employees to express their concerns freely, such as Speak your Mind, Company Townhalls, Weekly Manager Round Ups and Contact CEO.

    4. SAGE strictly adheres to the POSH policy. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, commonly referred to as the ‘PoSH Act’, is an Indian law enacted with the objective of making workplaces safer for women by preventing, prohibiting and redressing acts of sexual harassment against them at the workplace.

    5. For India’s most impoverished children and for the vast majority of the country’s youth, the four walls of a classroom are the only pathway to a better life. The pandemic has hit them hard as all schools and colleges closed down, thereby highly limiting these children for their right to education. Neo Vision is an NGO that aims to provide basic education and healthcare to underprivileged children. SAGE has tied up with Neo Vision, under the initiative of SAGE SAATHI, and organized a Corona War Concert. SAGE employees participated in it and helped raising funds for the NGO.

    6. Malnutrition and widespread prevalence of stunting, wasting, and nutritional deficiencies among women and children are well-recognized elements of India's profile in the Global Hunger Index. The pandemic has had a catastrophic effect on the poor. The country-wide lockdown led to a sudden cessation of economic activities and triggered large-scale unemployment, which in turn led to widespread hunger. SAGE was at the forefront to ensure that we extend a helping hand in this hour of need and took the following two initiatives.

    Initiative 1
    Description of Action
    Ladli Foundation's Project Rahat

    Ladli Foundation Trust is a grassroot-level non-profit organization working actively in fifty districts across ten states in India. Ladli is renowned for its unique initiatives aimed at empowering and rehabilitating lakhs of underprivileged and uneducated women and adolescents in slums and rural areas.

    Project Rahat is aimed at helping marginalized communities adversely affected by the COVID crisis, both by generating awareness and distributing essential materials.

    Initiative 2
    End Poverty, a civil society organization registered in 2009 and working in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. End Poverty has trained over 300 rural women to produce masks as per government standards. These masks are supplied to the local government bodies for further use. This support also gives employment to these rural women, helping them earn money during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates performance.

  • 1. Under POSH Act, we successfully trained 500+ employees with all getting their training completion certificate. We have a zero tolerance approach towards any act of sexual harassment.

    2.The funds raised through Corona War Concert were used to purchase laptops, cricket sets, badminton sets, emergency lights, some durries and a white board. 1. 2. Neo Vision runs its operations in a rented room. With the help of the funds generated Neo Vision was able to cover its expenses for three months.

    3. Ladli foundation successfully delivered ration packets. The donation drive was carried out in two slums in Ambedkar Nagar (Delhi). The kits were distributed to a total of 100 beneficiaries.

    4. SAGE transferred INR 40,000 to Project Baala and INR 10,000 to SHEOWS Vridh Ashram as a part of the COVID-19 relief initiative.

Labour
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of labour rights for the company (i.e. labour rights-related risks and opportunities). Description of written policies, public commitments and company goals on labour rights.

  • 1. The Minimum Wages Act has been enacted by the Parliament of India to ensure that workers are assured of a minimum wage for their work in certain employments, be it skilled or unskilled. The State enacted this Act taking into consideration that it may not be fair to leave the determination of wages entirely to market forces, as the bargaining power of the different sections of labor may not be the same. SAGE is 100% compliant with this Act.

    2. SAGE hires employees as full time, retainers, consultants, freelancers and interns. Every employment contract at SAGE is checked and verified by its legal team, management, HR and all stakeholders. These agreements are also reviewed from time to time to ensure that all terms and conditions are well defined. There is a complete transparency on the engagement terms.

    3. SAGE understands that all personal documents of the employees collected at the time of their joining are confidential and hence we shifted to digitalization in 2020 and none of the employees are now asked to submit physical documents. At SAGE we are already in the process of digitizing the employee documents/files submitted prior to this.

    4. Our recruitment policy is completely based on merit. SAGE is an equal opportunity employer, and this is clearly stated in all our policies and is visible in our actions. SAGE seeks to ensure that all job applicants receive equal treatment regardless of age, disability, gender, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, color, nationality, ethnicity or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. If employees notice any inequality or experience it themselves, they have every right to escalate it to the Grievance Cell immediately.

    5.SAGE launched Third Party Anti-Harassment and bullying policy to communicate that SAGE will not tolerate bullying or harassment, and that all SAGE employees will be treated with dignity and respect, free from harassment and bullying. The anti-bullying clause is made mandatory to be a part of ALL third-party contracts.

    6.Maternity, Paternity and Creche policies
    Maternity Policy. This policy is intended to allow employees, paid time off to bond with their child before returning to work,
    Paternity Policy. This policy is formulated to enable employees who are ‘to-be fathers’ to take time off following the birth of their newborn, cater to childcare needs and to support their spouses in coping with the responsibilities in the first few days after delivery.
    Crèche Policy is to support new parents to return to work and their professional commitments without compromising on their child’s safety.

    7. Health and Wellbeing
    Social distancing has changed workplaces, affecting all four dimensions of wellbeing: physical, mental, financial and social. The disruption and isolation have the potential to cause stress at multiple levels including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and suicidal tendencies. In response to the above, SAGE focused on building/maintaining strong relationships to help reduce stress in our employees. The pandemic dictated SAGE to rethink the wellbeing of their employees at many levels. Mental health is a big part of employee health and safety.

    Description of initiatives
    Policies: The Right to Voice (Whistle Blower) and Grievance Redressal Policy ensure that every employee has an equal stake in taking SAGE India forward. Third party anti-harassment and bullying policies are launched to help protect our people.
    Check-in Meetings: Fortnightly informal check-in meetings with the managing director through MS Teams, where employees connect with the MD on a one-to-one basis and he responds to each one personally. Also, we do Informal weekly check-in meetings between teams and also virtual chats with colleagues over a cup of coffee to bond, which have sustained connectivity.
    Grievance Redressal Channels: Contact CEO, Speak Your Mind, and HR Communication are in place to speed up query/complaint resolution, placing minimum stress on the employee.
    Ongoing Conversations: E-mail newsletters, launching documents/initiatives on best practices help employees connect to the organisation.
    Celebrating Together: These include professional landmarks, business wins, all company participative activities, such as ‘Life in the Lockdown’ Cartoon contests, Wellness Championship quiz, etc.

    Creating Together:
    1. Pictures are invited from employees regarding their lockdown views in ‘View from my window’ to create a SAGE gallery for all to view.
    2. Experimental cooks share recipes for the online SAGE lockdown culinary delights portal.
    Work-Life Balance: Continuously encouraging employees through messaging and dialogue to respect and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
    Health and Wellbeing: Yoga sessions everyday with the CEO.
    Friday Game Hour: We play games; engage in fun activities together every Friday for social bonding.
    Showcasing Talent: Inspiring employees to showcase their hidden talent, such as baking, gardening, makeup, painting, etc. by setting up sessions for others to learn and enjoy.
    Counselling Sessions:
    1. We’ve conducted 20 counselling sessions covering more than 500 employees till date.
    2. Counsellor and psychiatric/psychological help is available 24/7.
    Webinars: The following webinars were planned during COVID-19 to ensure mental wellbeing of our employees and their families
    Sessions launched on financial planning during COVID-19.
    • Managing Emotions at Work: Each emotion we experience needs to be acknowledged and managed. If unchecked, these ‘emotions’ are capable of hijacking our reasoning, leading to chaos, relationship breakdown and career derailment. At work, success does not only depend on how well you/your teams perform against the objectives, but also on how well we conduct ourselves and manage our teams and maintain workplace relationships.
    • Parenting session for employees to deal with the stress of handling work and children while working from home.
    • Finding work-life balance: The global pandemic has changed the way we work and the unexpected shift to remote working has triggered an increasing need to balance personal and professional lives.
    • Session on Music Therapy to motivate, help focus and manage stress.
    • Chronic Fatigue: The pandemic brought more changes in our lives in the past couple of months than most of us would have experienced throughout our life and hence many of us may have felt tired, drained and/or fatigued doing many things at once while confined in our homes.
    • Coping with Grief: Each individual has their own way of dealing with the situation; however due to the prolonged period of uncertainty, many of us may find it difficult to adapt, heal, and recover. There is no right or wrong way to grieve but there are healthy ways to cope and eventually move on with your life.
    • Dr Insta: Offering medical consultations online for all SAGE employees.
    • Attendance: We build continuous trust by doing away with attendance logging.
    • Protocols: Regular communication of safety protocols

    Rediscover the Joy of Giving
    SAGE India’s CSR initiative aims to supplement sustainable development in education and produce a significant learning outcome.
    To pursue this, SAGE India set up SAGE Saathi in March 2017. An exclusive joint venture between SAGE India and NGO Sakshi, it is a learning Centre that runs outcome-driven educational programmes for children from the most marginalized communities (slumdwellers, rag pickers, migrant laborer’s) who, in most cases, are the first-generation learners in their families.
    Under this initiative, the Centre caters to children from the age group of three to fourteen years, aiming to inculcate skills that help children find their footing in the world and lead an equal opportunity life through the following programmes:
    1. Early Childhood Care & Development focuses on young children (of day laborer’s), below the age of six years, by attending to their health, nutrition, education, and social development.
    2. Non-Formal Education prepares the school dropouts, aged six to fourteen years, for mainstream education by counseling their parents and encouraging them to continue their education.
    3. Remedial Education focuses on children in the age group of six to twelve years to stay in regular school and complete their education. These children are on the verge of dropping out of school due to bad grades.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions taken by the company to implement labour policies, address labour risks and respond to labour violations.

  • 1. The Minimum Wages Act has been enacted by the Parliament of India to ensure that workers are assured of a minimum wage for their work in certain employments, be it skilled or unskilled. The State enacted this Act taking into consideration that it may not be fair to leave the determination of wages entirely to market forces, as the bargaining power of the different sections of labor may not be the same. SAGE is 100% compliant with this Act.

    2. SAGE hires employees as full time, retainers, consultants, freelancers and interns. Every employment contract at SAGE is checked and verified by its legal team, management, HR and all stakeholders. These agreements are also reviewed from time to time to ensure that all terms and conditions are well defined. There is a complete transparency on the engagement terms.

    3. SAGE understands that all personal documents of the employees collected at the time of their joining are confidential and hence we shifted to digitalization in 2020 and none of the employees are now asked to submit physical documents. At SAGE we are already in the process of digitizing the employee documents/files submitted prior to this.

    4. Our recruitment policy is completely based on merit. SAGE is an equal opportunity employer, and this is clearly stated in all our policies and is visible in our actions. SAGE seeks to ensure that all job applicants receive equal treatment regardless of age, disability, gender, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, color, nationality, ethnicity or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. If employees notice any inequality or experience it themselves, they have every right to escalate it to the Grievance Cell immediately.

    5.SAGE launched Third Party Anti-Harassment and bullying policy to communicate that SAGE will not tolerate bullying or harassment, and that all SAGE employees will be treated with dignity and respect, free from harassment and bullying. The anti-bullying clause is made mandatory to be a part of ALL third-party contracts.

    6.Maternity, Paternity and Creche policies
    Maternity Policy. This policy is intended to allow employees, paid time off to bond with their child before returning to work,
    Paternity Policy. This policy is formulated to enable employees who are ‘to-be fathers’ to take time off following the birth of their newborn, cater to childcare needs and to support their spouses in coping with the responsibilities in the first few days after delivery.
    Crèche Policy is to support new parents to return to work and their professional commitments without compromising on their child’s safety.

    7. Health and Wellbeing
    Social distancing has changed workplaces, affecting all four dimensions of wellbeing: physical, mental, financial and social. The disruption and isolation have the potential to cause stress at multiple levels including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and suicidal tendencies. In response to the above, SAGE focused on building/maintaining strong relationships to help reduce stress in our employees. The pandemic dictated SAGE to rethink the wellbeing of their employees at many levels. Mental health is a big part of employee health and safety.

    Description of initiatives
    Policies: The Right to Voice (Whistle Blower) and Grievance Redressal Policy ensure that every employee has an equal stake in taking SAGE India forward. Third party anti-harassment and bullying policies are launched to help protect our people.
    Check-in Meetings: Fortnightly informal check-in meetings with the managing director through MS Teams, where employees connect with the MD on a one-to-one basis and he responds to each one personally. Also, we do Informal weekly check-in meetings between teams and also virtual chats with colleagues over a cup of coffee to bond, which have sustained connectivity.
    Grievance Redressal Channels: Contact CEO, Speak Your Mind, and HR Communication are in place to speed up query/complaint resolution, placing minimum stress on the employee.
    Ongoing Conversations: E-mail newsletters, launching documents/initiatives on best practices help employees connect to the organisation.
    Celebrating Together: These include professional landmarks, business wins, all company participative activities, such as ‘Life in the Lockdown’ Cartoon contests, Wellness Championship quiz, etc.

    Creating Together:
    1. Pictures are invited from employees regarding their lockdown views in ‘View from my window’ to create a SAGE gallery for all to view.
    2. Experimental cooks share recipes for the online SAGE lockdown culinary delights portal.
    Work-Life Balance: Continuously encouraging employees through messaging and dialogue to respect and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
    Health and Wellbeing: Yoga sessions everyday with the CEO.
    Friday Game Hour: We play games; engage in fun activities together every Friday for social bonding.
    Showcasing Talent: Inspiring employees to showcase their hidden talent, such as baking, gardening, makeup, painting, etc. by setting up sessions for others to learn and enjoy.
    Counselling Sessions:
    1. We’ve conducted 20 counselling sessions covering more than 500 employees till date.
    2. Counsellor and psychiatric/psychological help is available 24/7.
    Webinars: The following webinars were planned during COVID-19 to ensure mental wellbeing of our employees and their families
    Sessions launched on financial planning during COVID-19.
    • Managing Emotions at Work: Each emotion we experience needs to be acknowledged and managed. If unchecked, these ‘emotions’ are capable of hijacking our reasoning, leading to chaos, relationship breakdown and career derailment. At work, success does not only depend on how well you/your teams perform against the objectives, but also on how well we conduct ourselves and manage our teams and maintain workplace relationships.
    • Parenting session for employees to deal with the stress of handling work and children while working from home.
    • Finding work-life balance: The global pandemic has changed the way we work and the unexpected shift to remote working has triggered an increasing need to balance personal and professional lives.
    • Session on Music Therapy to motivate, help focus and manage stress.
    • Chronic Fatigue: The pandemic brought more changes in our lives in the past couple of months than most of us would have experienced throughout our life and hence many of us may have felt tired, drained and/or fatigued doing many things at once while confined in our homes.
    • Coping with Grief: Each individual has their own way of dealing with the situation; however due to the prolonged period of uncertainty, many of us may find it difficult to adapt, heal, and recover. There is no right or wrong way to grieve but there are healthy ways to cope and eventually move on with your life.
    • Dr Insta: Offering medical consultations online for all SAGE employees.
    • Attendance: We build continuous trust by doing away with attendance logging.
    • Protocols: Regular communication of safety protocols

    Rediscover the Joy of Giving
    SAGE India’s CSR initiative aims to supplement sustainable development in education and produce a significant learning outcome.
    To pursue this, SAGE India set up SAGE Saathi in March 2017. An exclusive joint venture between SAGE India and NGO Sakshi, it is a learning Centre that runs outcome-driven educational programmes for children from the most marginalized communities (slumdwellers, rag pickers, migrant laborer’s) who, in most cases, are the first-generation learners in their families.
    Under this initiative, the Centre caters to children from the age group of three to fourteen years, aiming to inculcate skills that help children find their footing in the world and lead an equal opportunity life through the following programmes:
    1. Early Childhood Care & Development focuses on young children (of day laborer’s), below the age of six years, by attending to their health, nutrition, education, and social development.
    2. Non-Formal Education prepares the school dropouts, aged six to fourteen years, for mainstream education by counseling their parents and encouraging them to continue their education.
    3. Remedial Education focuses on children in the age group of six to twelve years to stay in regular school and complete their education. These children are on the verge of dropping out of school due to bad grades.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates performance.

  • Outcome of wellbeing initiatives
    People:
     More trust in the organization, better relationships
     Overall, 76% saving of time and money.
     Stress levels are 5.84 on average (PSS scale) indicating low stress, building productivity.
    Planet:
     69% Less commuting (and associated stress)
     Less commuting means less carbon footprint.
     Reduced stress means a happier set of people.
    Profit (Business):
     67% employees are making better use of technology.
     Overall experience scores of employees working from home happily is 63%
     94% employees rated SAGE India as providing very good support in the lockdown.
    Impact on business function(s)/sub-function(s)
     Increased communication and enhanced productivity due to adaptability score of 92%
     Our managerial productivity score was 96%
     Team spirit across SAGE during the work-from-home was 97%

    We’ve conducted 20 counselling sessions covering more than 500 employees till date.
    Successfully conducting more than 10 sessions on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing for 500+ employees. Some of the sessions as below gathered 100% positive feedback from the employees.

    Women led initiatives outcomes.
    -• 51% of the workforce at SAGE are women. SAGE believes in creating a more inclusive workforce and continues to have a work environment conducive to the working of women employees.

    Women in Senior Leadership – In order to promote increasing representation of women in the leadership position SAGE has women in more than 50% of the senior leadership as Board members.

    • We have seen 100% return of mothers to work successfully

    OUTCOME SAGE SAATHI SCHOOL
    Under the three categories of SAGE SAATHI SCHOOL, the following has been the children roped in in each category.
    Program About Children strength
    Non-Formal Education (NFE) Preparing the school dropouts for mainstreaming – proactive tracking, helping them catch up on studies, enlightening the parents on the value of education 57
    Early Childhood Care & Development (ECCD) Care for young children below 6 yrs. Attending to their health/ nutrition / education/ social development, preparing them for primary school 79
    Remedial Education Help children stay in school and blossom, who are otherwise on the verge of dropping out due to bad grades that result not from incapability, but from inadequate school and parental support 76

Environment
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of environmental protection for the company (i.e. environmental risks and opportunities). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on environmental protection.

  • 1. All traditional CFL lights were replaced by energy efficient LED lights.
    2. The outdoor signage our office in Dehradun is installed with LED lights.
    3. SAGE is against the use of plastic/related materials and uses only paper/glass/ceramic cups for visitors’ /employees’ tea/coffee consumption.
    4. The new refurbished office spaces are made of re-usable furniture and fixtures though they are modular type of furniture. The desks are made of wood which can be reused and when discarded takes less time to decompose.
    5. The gifts given to employees as prize/awards for different events include plantable pencils or wooden or eco-friendly items.
    6. E-vouchers were given to all employees as a Diwali Gift in 2020. This saved time, logistic cost, and material handling.
    7. SAGE has gone paperless when it comes to issuing contract agreements/appointment letters to all staff hired at SAGE.
    8. Annual appraisals of 2020 were completely carried out as a paperless activity.
    9. Quarterly company newsletters which were being published as a hard copy till now have been replaced as e-newsletter.
    10. Introduction of e-platforms like HRMS & Happay have reduced consumption of paper.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement environmental policies, address environmental risks and respond to environmental incidents.

  • 1. All traditional CFL lights were replaced by energy efficient LED lights.
    2. The outdoor signage our office in Dehradun is installed with LED lights.
    3. SAGE is against the use of plastic/related materials and uses only paper/glass/ceramic cups for visitors’ /employees’ tea/coffee consumption.
    4. The new refurbished office spaces are made of re-usable furniture and fixtures though they are modular type of furniture. The desks are made of wood which can be reused and when discarded takes less time to decompose.
    5. The gifts given to employees as prize/awards for different events include plantable pencils or wooden or eco-friendly items.
    6. E-vouchers were given to all employees as a Diwali Gift in 2020. This saved time, logistic cost, and material handling.
    7. SAGE has gone paperless when it comes to issuing contract agreements/appointment letters to all staff hired at SAGE.
    8. Annual appraisals of 2020 were completely carried out as a paperless activity.
    9. Quarterly company newsletters which were being published as a hard copy till now have been replaced as e-newsletter.
    10. Introduction of e-platforms like HRMS & Happay have reduced consumption of paper.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates environmental performance.

  • Savings on electricity consumption due to LED lights installation.

    E-Vouchers were seamless in execution and was well appreciated by the staff.

    Going paperless has made storing data seamless and has helped us preventing loss of documents.

    E-platforms have led to reduction in turn around time of processing staff claims.

Anti-Corruption
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of anti-corruption for the company (i.e. anti-corruption risk-assessment). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on anti-corruption.

  • 1. SAGE has clearly laid down in its Code of Conduct that no employee shall indulge in bribery/corruption, which is defined as receiving or offering of an undue reward from or to any third party. SAGE ensures that this followed in all our actions that we undertake to conduct our Business. The Code of Conduct Policy is sent out two times in a year to all the SAGE India staff.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement anti-corruption policies, address anti-corruption risks and respond to incidents.

  • 1. SAGE has clearly laid down in its Code of Conduct that no employee shall indulge in bribery/corruption, which is defined as receiving or offering of an undue reward from or to any third party. SAGE ensures that this followed in all our actions that we undertake to conduct our Business. The Code of Conduct Policy is sent out two times in a year to all the SAGE India staff.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates anti-corruption performance.

  • SAGE has a zero tolerance approach towards anyone indulging in any kind of practices that are not ethical to business. We take a strict disciplinary against anyone found guilty of indulging in such practices.