This Year’s Best Employer
According to Fortune magazine, SAS is the best company to work for. Here’s why:
- A 300-acre campus near Raleigh, North Carolina for 4,200 employees
- Average tenure for employees of ten years with annual turnover at 2%
- Typical work week is 35 hours with many employees setting their own schedules
- No sick day policy: If an employee is sick, he or she decides whether to stay home (the average taken annually is two days)
- A healthcare center with a staff of 56 including four physicians—and services are free to employees (last year 90% of employees and their families made 40,000 visits)
- An on-site 66,000-square-foot recreation and fitness center with gym, weight room, billiards hall, sauna, hair salon, manicurist, Olympic-size pool, and massage
- On-site workday sports leagues
- Two subsidized daycare centers for 600 children
- Dry cleaning, car detailing, a book exchange, a meditation garden, an in-season tax-prep vendor, and an orthotics store
- Three subsidized cafeterias (and they provide takeout for family dinners)
- Off-campus SAS family nights
- Two paid artists-in-residence
- Free M&Ms—22.5 tons a year or 11 pounds per employee
CEO Jim Goodnight explains the SAS approach this way: “My chief assets drive out the gate every day. My job is to make sure they come back.” (“SAS: A new no. 1 best employer,” David A. Kaplan, January 22, 2010)
SAS is the world’s largest privately-held software business with revenues of $2.3 billion. It has been on Fortune’s list of Best Companies to Work For for 13 straight years.
Companies make the list based on the results of the Great Place to Work Institute’s Trust Index survey sent to a random sample of employees (two-thirds of the company’s score comes from this) and the company’s responses to the Institute’s Culture Audit (one-third). You can see the complete list by clicking here.
To read more about employee satisfaction and engagement, click on these articles:
- Increasing Employee Satisfaction in a Time of Decline
- Best and Worst for Employees
- The Well-Being of Those You Keep
- 10 Steps to a Successful Workplace
- Valuing Employees—and HR
- The 3 Factors That Motivate Employees
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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