SAS Software Ltd
We, the undersigned, commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the value Serving Personnel, both Regular and Reservists, Veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.
The Armed Forces Covenant
An enduring covenant between the people of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government and all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families
The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.
Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.
This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding this Covenant.
Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant
1.1 We SAS Software Ltd will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen;
- and in some circumstances that special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our commitment
2.1 SAS Software Ltd recognises the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by pledging to the following:
- Armed Forces Friendly
- UK Service Veterans And Leavers
- UK Service Spouses And Partners
- Flexible Leave For Spouses
- UK Reservists
- UK Cadets
- Armed Forces Day
- Discounts
- Armed Forces Charities
We also pledge the following:
promoting the fact that we are an armed forces-friendly organisation by: o publicising our signature of the Covenant internally and educating staff on our commitments, responsibilities and policies related to the Covenant o celebrating signature of the Covenant externally with our customers, partners and suppliers seeking to support the employment of veterans young and old and working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), in order to establish a tailored employment pathway for Service Leavers by: o guaranteeing a job interview where applicants meet the minimum role specification criteria o providing new-hire employees with coaching and mentoring support to ease the transition into civilian employment and a new job role striving to support the employment of Service spouses and partners and working with Forces Families Jobs (FFJ): o guaranteeing a job interview where applicants meet the minimum role specification criteria o providing new-hire employees with coaching and mentoring support to ease the transition into a new job role offering a degree of flexibility in granting leave for Service spouses and partners before, during and after a partners deployment reinforced by Human Resources policies for flexible leave and flexible working in UK locations supporting our employees who choose to be members of the Reserve forces with a Human Resources policy that provides an additional ten days paid leave per annum for Reservist training obligations offering support to our local cadet units, either in our local community or in local schools, where possible: o offering paid leave and/or flexible working hours for teams / departments undertaking group volunteering activities o granting all SAS UK staff to claim three days paid leave and/or flexible hours for individual staff volunteering with recognised charities and local community organisations raising funds for Armed Forces related charities with a Human Resources policy which enables individual staff can pursue their own charitable aims with paid time off and/or financial sponsorship from SAS providing discounts on SAS learning and development products and services, including: o free Base SAS software elearning courses and Base SAS software Certification exams for veterans, service members, and their spouses transitioning into new careers; o 50% discount on classroom and Live Web training and SAS technical elearning for veterans, service members, and their spouses transitioning into new careers; o free access to SAS software and digital learning resources to increase skills and capabilities in data literacy, data visualisation, data analytics, data science and artificial intelligence for veterans, service members, and their spouses transitioning into new careers.
2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.