Recruitment And Onboarding Cost Reduction

Evidence and data. Interviewees mentioned that with Sage People, their organizations streamlined both recruiting and onboarding processes, which reduced reliance on third-party providers and eliminated associated costs. They noted that Sage People centralized candidate data, automated key steps in the hiring and onboarding journey and removed manual HR tasks previously required for onboarding. Interviewees described Sage People’s contribution to recruitment and onboarding improvement in the following ways:

• Elimination of third-party recruitment costs. The lead systems analyst at a media firm said that prior to using Sage People, their recruiting and onboarding processes were fully managed by a third-party provider. After transitioning those processes into Sage People, the organization “eliminated third-party costs-related to recruiting and onboarding.”
  The CPO at a manufacturing firm similarly noted: “Previously, we had no internal recruiters. We worked with agencies for our hiring needs.” They added that after adopting Sage People, the organization no longer incurs agency fees and now operates with internal recruiters. They explained: “On average, we would spend from £200,000 to £500,000 per year for recruiting only to agency fees … but now, Sage People improves the overall recruiting and onboarding process from initial communication with candidates onward.”

• Streamlining of onboarding and removal of manual setup work. The people system partner at a pharmaceutical firm shared that Sage People significantly reduced time spent on onboarding activities. They said: “We do a lot of recruitment, and Sage People has helped save time. The system pretty much handles everything.” They explained that new hires move seamlessly from candidate to employee without HR manually creating profiles for each onboarding cycle.
  The lead systems analyst at a media organization also noted that Sage People now fully handles onboarding, which they said is “eliminating manual processes and integrations with third-party providers” while enabling real-time tracking of onboarding progress. And the CPO at a manufacturing firm further highlighted the automation benefits of onboarding. They said: “[With Sage People,] applicant details automatically populate in the HR system.” The CPO estimated saving about one FTE equivalent in each region for onboarding, which totals four FTEs across the firm’s operations.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Prior to using Sage People, the composite recruited employees through a third-party agency.

• The fully burdened annual salary for a recruiter is £40,500.

• The composite gradually deploys the recruitment functionality across its four countries of operations.

• The composite has an 80% productivity recapture rate, which means 80% of the time saved through efficiency improvements is used for productive work.

Risks. Risks that could impact the realization of this benefit include:

• The organization’s prior recruiting process and internal capabilities.

• The organization’s countries of operations.

• The salaries of recruiter and HR specialists.

• The organization’s prior onboarding process and environment.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of £828,000.

HR Analytics And Reports Savings

Evidence and data. Interviewees said that prior to using Sage People, reporting for audits and board meetings required extensive manual work and that data was scattered in spreadsheets, separate systems, and inconsistencies across regions. They highlighted that Sage People’s pre-configured dashboards, audit trails, and real-time data views streamlined these processes by centralizing information and reducing the effort required to collect, validate, and compile HR data. As a result, their organization experienced improvements in audit preparation, compliance reporting, and leadership reporting efficiency.

• Audit preparation efficiencies. The people system partner at a pharmaceutical firm noted, “Audits are very strict in our industry, and it would take a long time to gather the data … but Sage People’s approval workflows and audit trails massively improved the process.” They highlighted that annual audits now rely on a comprehensive pre-built report in Sage People.
  The CPO at a manufacturing firm described similar improvements: “Sage People made B Corp, CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), and parent-company audits very easy by providing real-time, accurate information on any field. Pre-Sage, the process would have been a manual nightmare, and we would have needed up to two HR [workers] just to stay on top of the data.”

• Faster people data retrieval. The head of people at a recruiting firm said, “Responding to audit data requests improved from half a day of work to just 10 to 15 minutes occurring a few times a year.” They added that the process of creating board reports also improved significantly: “It would take weeks [to collect the data and build a report] instead of just an email now. … Overall, we have saved about one FTE or 40 hours per week for data admin management, compared to just 30 minutes of work now to get the data collection done.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite undergoes five audits yearly.

• Two HR analysts dedicate five days per year to audit reports.

• The fully burdened annual salary for an HR analyst is £49,950.

• The composite’s HR team produces board reports twice per year.

Risks. Risks that could impact the realization of this benefit include:

• The number of audits the organization performs annually.

• The number of board reports the organization produces annually.

• The salaries of HR specialists.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of £116,000.

HR Efficiency Improvements

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that Sage People’s self-service capabilities and automated workflows reduced the volume of HR emails and tickets, enabling HR teams to reallocate time toward higher-value tasks. They noted that tasks that previously required HR manual intervention (e.g., updating employee details, processing title or salary changes, managing probation periods, supporting basic access issues) are now handled directly by managers or automated in the system, which improved both efficiency and data accuracy.

• The lead systems analyst at a media firm highlighted that single sign-On (SSO) “really reduced the amount of support requests to HR, mainly around resetting people’s passwords.” They also added that Sage People manager-initiated workflows now automate updates like job title changes: “Before, managers would contact HR. Now it’s initiated through Sage People, goes through an automated approval process, and updates records without much HR intervention.”

• The people system partner at a pharmaceutical firm described how automation replaced previously manual tasks. They said: “Our organization’s HR specialist in India was doing everything manually. Now, many of these tasks are automated. … For instance, with probation periods notifications to employees, everything is now triggered automatically, from the date to the email sent to the employee saying their probation period has passed. This has freed up time they used to spend doing this.” The interviewee also noted, “HR requests have dropped a lot as managers can now submit their own transactions for title changes, salary updates, or department moves — all captured in the system’s approval trail, and without having to send an email to HR.” They said this provides “drastic time savings for the HR team.”

• The CPO at a manufacturing firm highlighted additional benefits of workflow automation benefits: “There are a lot of tasks now automated that would have been a saga before. Now, when someone is leaving the company, IT gets automatically notified now. Before, HR would have to manually notify the team.”

• The head of people at a recruiting firm noted that self-service capabilities of Sage People reduced HR ticket volume. They said, “For PTO requests, HR previously received three to four tickets per week, which has now dropped to zero.” They added: “Overall [with Sage People], the HR tickets fell by more than 30% — from 50 to 60 per day to 20 now.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite’s HR ticket volume prior to using Sage People was 15,600 annually.

• Because the composite organization increases adoption of Sage People over time, the percent of tickets reduced of tickets is 35% in Year 1, 37% in Year 2, and 39% in Year 3.

• The average time per ticket is 20 minutes.

• The fully burdened hourly salary for an HR specialist is £24.

• The composite has a 90% productivity recapture rate, which means 90% of the time saved through HR tickets efficiency improvements is used for productive work.

Risks. Risks that could impact the realization of this benefit include:

• The organization’s prior number of HR tickets.

• The average resolution time per ticket.

• The salaries of HR specialists.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of £97,000.

Performance Review Time Savings

Evidence and data. Interviewees said that prior to using Sage People, their organizations either lacked formal performance review processes or relied on disparate systems and manual files that required significant effort from managers to locate the right information. They explained that Sage People centralizes employee data, standardizes review workflows, and provides structure scorecards and competency frameworks. As a result, managers spend less time preparing review and more time engaging in meaningful performance discussions with their teams.

• The CPO at a manufacturing firm noted, “Managers now have a proper performance manager solution where there are insights.” They added that Sage People “helps track objectives and ensures integrity in the scores they are giving, which, in turn, strengthens leadership interactions.”

• The head of people at a recruiting firm described the shift from having “no proper performance review before” to having a fully embedded process using Sage People’s competency framework. They said: “Managers now do performance reviews regularly. … It gives us the data on employee performance and behaviors, and it gives us a score.” They further explained that managers gained visibility into performance patterns across the business — going from a single metric to four to five metrics that help identify intervention areas and respond to performance issues rapidly.

• Overall, interviewees reported that Sage People’s centralized and structured performance management environment significantly reduced the time managers spend searching for information, preparing evaluations, and following up manually.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization’s managers perform two reviews per employee annually.

• The composite organization has 150 managers who perform performance reviews.

• The average time saved per review is 30 minutes.

• The average fully burdened hourly salary for a manager is £41.

Risks. Risks that could impact the realization of this benefit include:

• The number of managers at the organization who conduct performance reviews.

• The number of performance reviews per employee.

• The average salaries for the organization’s managers.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of £73,000.

Legacy Systems Cost Savings

Evidence and data. Interviewees mentioned that prior to using Sage People, their organizations relied on a mix of legacy HR tools, standalone solutions, and manual integrations that generated licensing costs and required dedicated developer resources to maintain. But they explained with Sage People, their organizations were able to consolidate these disparate systems into a single cloud-based platform, eliminating multiple legacy tools and reducing associated operating costs.

• The lead systems analyst at a media firm described their organization’s prior environment: “Before, we had several standalone tools, but none of them was integrated. … Each came with separate license costs and required dedicated support.”

• The CPO at a manufacturing company also noted cost savings associated with payroll consolidation, explaining that their organization benefited from no longer maintaining a separate payroll system because Sage People includes these capabilities.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization’s annual cost of legacy systems was £90,000 annually.

• Two developers were fully dedicated to the previous systems.

• The fully burdened annual salary for a developer is £70,000.

• The composite has an 80% productivity recapture rate, which means 80% of the time saved through efficiency improvements is used for productive work.

Risks. Risks that could impact the realization of this benefit include:

• The number of legacy systems the organization replaces with Sage People.

• The annual cost of legacy systems.

• The number of developers dedicated to prior solutions.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of £402,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Improved workforce visibility and strategic decision-making. Interviewees noted that Sage People provided their organizations with a level of insight and visibility into workforce data that was previously not available due to their fragmented and manual environments. They said that after the deployment of Sage People, their companies improved their ability to monitor organizational trends, identify issues early, and make more informed decisions based on accurate and real-time data. The CPO at a manufacturing firm said: “The people dashboard view is distributed to our executive team regularly. It provides an overview of the organization and how it’s structured by profile. It also provides information on employee engagement. It’s a rich platform of insights to the company that drives thinking and decision-making.”

• Enhanced HR process transparency and accuracy. Interviewees reported that Sage People significantly improved the transparency, consistency, and accuracy of people data across their organizations. By centralizing employee information in one system, Sage People provided their organizations with real-time, reliable data. The people system partner at a pharmaceutical company said: “The data is more accurate with Sage People because of the overall approval process in place. … Managers can look back at the changes that took place previously. So they now have a view on the history, which helps them in their decisions.” The same interviewee also noted: “As soon as changes take place and are effective, they are visible to the employee right away. This is an important improvement for employees to get real-time accurate information on their data.”

• Retained high-quality talent through tightening talent performance management. Interviewees said Sage People improved visibility into high and low performers, strengthened the integrity of performance scoring, and enabled earlier and targeted intervention that improved overall workforce outcomes. Some interviewees also reported improved recruitment quality. The head of people at a recruiting firm said: “With Sage People, we have real-time data coming through from the system around both performance and behavior. … We’re able to respond to performance issues in no time.” They also added: “Having this data helped us having interventions early on, which then helped increase our performance target turnaround from 20% to 50%.”
  The CPO at a manufacturing company described the impact of Sage People on candidates and retention. They said: “With Sage People’s [recruiting capabilities], we have good quality candidates and no difficulty recruiting. … With the data collected through the platform, we’re retaining the right people.”

• Improved employee and manager experience and engagement. Interviewees said Sage People improved both the employee and manager experience across their organizations. Prior to using Sage People, employees had access to disconnected tools, limited visibility, and lack of intuitive interfaces. With Sage People, they gained self-service access to their information, while managers benefited from visibility into their teams and streamlined workflows that replaced previous manual steps.
  The lead systems analyst at a media firm emphasized the contrast with their organization’s prior environment, “Sage People is more intuitive from a user experience perspective — much more than our previous systems.” They added that Sage People consolidates information and reduces frictions for users: “It’s a one-stop shop where we can find all employee data from work details to rewards information. Everything is contained within this one system, and employees no longer have to look through different places.” Interviewees also said Sage People’s configurability and branded experience contribute to a more engaging and modern platform for employees. The lead systems analyst in media explained: “The look and feel of Sage People is very important. It’s more engaging for employees and managers. We can brand the platform with our own corporate colors, which helps make the platform more engaging.”

• Reduced errors and improved HR process reliability. Interviewees noted that Sage People reduced the risk of human error and improved the reliability of HR processes. Prior manual steps and spreadsheets created inconsistencies in employee data and introduced risk for errors. But they explained that with Sage People, approvals, workflows, and data updates are automated and controlled within a single platform, ensuring that changes follow the correct flows and remain transparent, trackable, and compliance. The people system partner at a pharmaceutical company mentioned, “With automation, we know that the risk of errors is reduced.” They further explained that Sage People’s sandbox environment adds an additional safeguard by allowing the HR team to test changes safely.
  The CPO at a manufacturing firm highlighted how Sage People has strengthened reliability and governance across HR processes. They explained that the platform enforces proper authorization steps before new hires move from candidate status into active employment, ensuring that payroll actions cannot occur without the required approvals. They said: “Sage People helps with our internal rules and processes. Nobody is recruited until they are activated as an employee in the system, and nobody is placed on a payroll unless they’ve gone through the proper authorization process.”

• Enhanced employer brand and talent attraction. The CPO at a manufacturing firm described improved brand awareness and candidate quality driven by Sage People’s recruitment capability, integrations, and branded candidate journey: “Sage People helps us promote awareness of our brand. We can have direct applications through our website, which is connected to the platform. It’s also connected to our company’s social media pages, so it’s improved our visibility on there. We now have people writing to us wanting to seek opportunities, which never happened before.”

• Strengthened security and compliance. Interviewees reported that Sage People’s secure architecture, access controls, and authorization processes improved their organization’s security posture and supported compliance with data protection requirements. The lead system analyst in media said: “The underlying architecture is very secure. We had a cyberattack a few years ago with thousands of applications coming through the recruiting portal, but they never infiltrated. That really reassured us from the security aspects. … We’re able to encrypt certain data in the platform we weren’t able to do before.”
  The CPO at a manufacturing company said: “An important aspect is on the protection of data. Being cloud-based, it complies with all legislative requirements. It has restricted access, so we know the data is safe and secure.”

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Sage People and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Configurability and scalability by internal HR teams. Interviewees highlighted having the ability to configure Sage People flows and fields without custom code, which enables faster adjustments for evolving needs or when organizational changes are introduced. The lead system analyst at a media firm noted: “From a configuration perspective, it’s highly configurable and there is no coding needed. We can have different kind of automations, visuals, and graphics implemented in the platform.”
  The people system partner at a pharmaceutical firm described how Sage People’s sandbox environment helps with the configuration of the platform. They said, “The Sandbox helps minimizing errors with flows and testing some configurations before going in production.”

• Integration capabilities. Interviewees mentioned that Sage People integrated with other platforms they were using, enabling flow of information across platforms. The lead systems analyst at a media firm said: “We have several integration with other systems. … For instance, we linked Sage People to our intranet, which allows users to see only content relevant to their job family. It’s giving us the ability to pinpoint information we want certain communities of employees to see.” 

• Multicountry deployment. Interviewees from organizations operating across regions or planning expansion highlighted the value of Sage People’s ability to localize processes and user experiences. The people system partner in pharmaceuticals said: “Sage People is so scalable that it was easy to tailor it to different countries’ specific needs. … We are planning to implement translations and customize the experience for each country for a more personalized experience.”

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).