Founded in 1976 by Dr. James Goodnight and Dr. John Sall, both professors at North Carolina State University, SAS Institute, Inc. provides business intelligence (BI) software and services at more than 40,000 customer sites worldwide, including 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. SAS, which stands for “statistical analysis software,” is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. It is the world’s largest privately held software company, having over 100 offices worldwide with approximately 10,000 employees. With an unbroken record of growth and profitability, SAS had revenue of $1.18 billion in 2002 and invested about 25 percent of revenues into research and development. (1) The phenomenal success story of SAS is, in no small part, due to …show more content…
Satisfied employees make for satisfied customers, and satisfied customers make for an ongoing stream of revenue and profits for SAS. SAS’s leaders recognize both the benefits and costs associated with keeping employees satisfied. One of the most significant benefits for SAS is a very low annual turnover rate. The company’s turnover rate is less than four percent, as compared to approximately 25 percent for the industry as a whole. This low turnover saves the company about $70 million annually in employee replacement costs. (14) On the cost side, of course, is the company’s monetary outlay for the various programs. David Russo, the human resources director, argues that the employee replacement cost savings more than pays for the company’s generous benefits. “That’s the beauty of it,” says Russo. “There’s no way I could spend all the money we save.” (15) Perhaps of more concern on the “cost side” is the potential for employees failing to perform. In commenting on the company’s performance expectations for employees, Goodnight says: “I like to be around happy people, but if they don’t get that next release out, they’re not going to be very happy.” (16) Pondering the likelihood that SAS employees would take advantage of the company’s relaxed atmosphere, John Sall, co-owner of SAS, observes: “I can’t imagine that playing Ping-Pong would be more interesting than work.” (17) David Russo adds
Retention of key employees: the entering into of the Plan, and subsequent contributions made to the
The reality in today’s work place is that employees are more inclined to always be on the lookout for a new and better employment opportunity if they feel that the company does not value them as an employee. In order for our company to get a better understanding on what will better control the turnover rate and what program will be the most effective. There first must be an understanding at what level of risk we currently are in, and this is accomplished by looking at two determining factors of impact and likelihood. (De Vore, 2013)
D. Consequences for recruitment and retention of top talent: Matthew Rice’s article outlines the compensation and talent strategies that minimize employee turnover. Talent audits are used to identify top performers, investing in employee engagement strategies to improve retention of the existing team, and eliminate employees’ reasons to leave by offering job activities and development opportunities, and this because: “A talent audit is a critical first step in understanding your risk profile and where you need to invest time, energy and capital to limit your turnover risk” (Rice, 2011, p. 32). If applicable, describe any consequences this scenario has had for the organization 's ability to recruit and/or retain top talent. The research provides insight in how changes in
High employee turnover has monetary costs. Though estimates vary, most experts agree that turnover costs, when all things are considered, equals at least 25% of a leaving employee’s annual wages (Silva & Toledo, 2009). For example, for an employee making $25,000 per year, the total turnover costs associated with replacing that employee would be at least $6,250. This includes cost of prescreening measures such as drug tests, background checks, application reviews, interviews, pre-employment training and other recruitment costs (Dolfin, 2006). It also includes implicit cost associated with on the job training and the productivity loss experienced by other employees that must help acclimate new employees to their environment
Retaining employees is one way the turnover rate can decrease, Branham (2000), focuses on retaining valuable employees by incorporating four key elements. The first key elements is, “be a company that people want to work for”. There are many companies that have been labeled as, “employers of choice”. These employers all have something in common, which is how they value their employers (Branham, 2000). They treat their employees with respect and like family. With being an “employer of choice,” people are the most valuable asset; not just customers but employees too. Many companies go above and beyond for their customers, but not for their employees, yet they wonder why they are losing valuable talent.
SAS is a recognized company that creates business analyst software for all types of businesses. The acronym SAS stands for “statistical analysis system.” It was created at North Carolina State University as a project to analyze agricultural research. SAS’s founder decided to transform this research project into a viable company of its own, where he could provide business consulting services to large and small businesses alike. Shortly after becoming a company they were able to run software applications across all platforms of the business by using multivendor architecture for which it is known today for. SAS’s internal culture has remained the same since it first started, which has made them successful enough to spread
SAS Institute of Cary, North Carolina is an organization that fosters innovation, employee loyalty, and customer satisfaction. Over the past three decades, SAS Institute became the largest private software developer and enjoys a history of continued growth in every year of its existence. The success of SAS Institute is a result of its primary resource—its creative capital—which is entrenched in the company through its culture, Human Resource practices, communication, and employee motivation.
“Bottom-up” decision management philosophy was followed in SAS. Customer and employee feedback lead to many new product innovations. Internal promotion and employee referral were prominent in SAS.
Goodnight and the other SAS leaders expect nothing less than superior performance from the employees, and they continue to get it. The employees are loyal and committed to the company, and they are productive; so loyal, committed, and productive, in fact, that only a small percentage of the employees ever leave once they have been hired at SAS. They have the employees who don’t want to leave the work even if they get little more money somewhere else as they want the peace they get in SAS. (Drucker 1974, Chaffee 1985)
I have always believed customers are the focal point of any business. I found that having satisfied customers does not mean you are doing a good job. It may mean the customers are satisfied because their expectations are so low and there is no one else doing any better. Having
Workforce turnover is a complex and important issue amongst today's organisations. It is perhaps one of the most often cited cause of increased cost and decreased productivity. No wonder people management has become an important frontier to extract and create more value from company assets. On comprehending the articles, it has become evident that organisations have moved beyond the traditional approach of only investing in core business activities, to invest in employee retention strategies. Many organisations, for example St. George Bank
Many companies look to salaries and benefits as the first places to cut back when looking to make changes that involve cost-saving. When this happens, it is inevitable that some employees will leave the company to seek employment elsewhere. The employees that remain, whether they stay voluntarily or because they could not find employment elsewhere, are often resentful. Motivation decreases, taking job performance along with it. Employees lose their company loyalty and may even become angry enough to purposefully sabotage the company.
In The year 2012 when we had a high recession, the customers were no longer buying SAS’s products and the entire analytic software industry was affected, Goodnight decided that no one was going home. Everyone understood the situation and they made sure that they wasted no time in getting work done. This lead to a good recovery in the revenues. The employees showed their boss how much they can be trusted and how much they understand the freedom given to them. Last but not least, is the stress free environment that they
The business model of SAS is such that it in general it offers services coupled with software. Unlike typical firms in the industry it follows an annual software subscription model. Rather than sell its software, SAS leases to its customers - a strategy of immense importance in understanding the company’s relationship to its users. The fact that leases must be renewable annually creates a tremendous emphasis on customer satisfaction and quality in addition to stabilising its revenue. Furthermore, its products are made based on what customers require and its developmental process is almost wholly customer driven. There is also a strong focus on employee satisfaction leading to customer retention and loyalty which SAS
A hole is left the absence of an employee either by termination or quitting by choice (Kaur & Vijay, 2016). High employee turnover leaves more holes the employer has to address and becomes expensive (Likhitkar & Verma, 2015). An average cost of $3, 328 to search, hire and train the replacement for a $10 per hour employee (Sadler & Evans, 2016). A median turnover rate of 67% for part-time employees is roughly half of the cost if not more (Oviedo-Garcia & Vega-Vazquez, 2014). Most companies are adopting the impersonalizing contact, online application process, and pre-employment skills test, while ignoring the impact of high turnover rates (Nguyen, Nica, & Bose, 2015). Research suggests an employee’s lack of job satisfaction in part due to a shortage of incentives for front line managers (Chang & Zhang, 2016). Additionally, Millennial employees look for challenging environments, which a contribution or suggestion is valued (Cravens, Oliver, & Oishi, 2015).