HRM / Organizational behaviour Case Study

Human Asset Management at SAS – A Success Story

OR

Abstract:
Human resource management had been a great success at SAS Institute, the world’s largest privately held software solutions provider, based at Cary, North Carolina. Since inception, the company designed innovative methods and benefit packages to retain employees. Attrition was always maintained at less than 5% at SAS, while the industry average was about 20%. For every vacancy announced by SAS, there was an overwhelming response from prospective employees. The customer retention was also high at SAS and was reflected in the 98% subscription renewal of SAS’ software by its clients. The profit and sales at SAS had seen continuous growth for almost three decades. The reason for all these was the company’s focus on managing the creativity in employees and reducing the hassles that employees faced while at work. SAS encouraged creativity, emphasized on an egalitarian atmosphere and also had day care and health care centers, recreation facilities and flexible working hours for its employees. The case discusses the HR strategies adopted by SAS and highlights its policy of creating satisfied employees to create satisfied customers.

The case provides ample scope for discussion on whether SAS’ successful policies and strategies can be adopted by other companies across the world, where attrition has been a cause of grave concern.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To discuss about best practices in HRM and success story of SAS
• To highlight the reasons for low attrition rate in SAS.

Keywords : SAS Institute, Human asset management, Employee retention, Creative capital, Attrition management, Employee benefit schemes, Employee training and motivation, Egalitarian work culture, Customer satisfaction, Customer retention, HRM Case Study, Best HR practices, Forbes’ Best companies, Best companies for working mothers, Business Intelligence software provider

Contents:

• Background
• Human Resources Management
• The guiding principles
• Voice of the employees
• Future challenges