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…

(10) All of these benefits are geared toward employees having a better work experience and/or a better balance between their work lives and their personal lives. The company’s commitment to work-life balance is evident in SAS’s 35-hour workweek, which clearly recognizes the importance of employee’s personal lives. (11) In reflecting on the company’s generous benefits package, David Russo, SAS’s head of human resources says: “To some people, this looks like the Good Ship Lollipop, floating down the stream. It’s not. It’s part of a soundly designed strategy.” That strategy is intended “to make it impossible for people not to do their work.”(12)

Extraordinary Employee Benefits: At What Cost? While SAS goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure that employees are satisfied, the company expects and demands productivity and performance results in return. The owners of SAS want employees to be satisfied because they believe satisfied employees will be excellent performers and will provide exceptional service to the company’s customers. “If you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company. (