Corporate Culture
SAS has a reputation as a good place to work. Its workplace benefits are based on the idea that they allow employees to focus completely on their work, by relieving staff of causes of outside stress that may be distracting. SAS CEO Jim Goodnight describes it as a triangle, where happy employees make happy customers, which makes a happy company. In academics it’s well-established that this approach is effective, but some feel it’s rarely implemented. In 2010, the on-site healthcare center saved the company an estimated $6 million. These benefits may also account for SAS' low turnover: SAS lost 3.7% of its employees in 2000, which is about one-tenth of competitors' rates.
Employees are given a large amount of autonomy and trust, all the while being well-compensated and well-taken care of. In return for those benefits, the company expects a high level of performance from its employees. As one employee put it, “Here, I know everything I do has an impact on the final product. That gives you a sense of responsibility to get things done right and on time… Here, a goof is a deliverable goof."
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