CARY, NC – January 21, 2010 – SAS, the leader in business analytics, is No.1 on FORTUNE magazine’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. SAS was listed as one of the best for health care, child care and work-life balance. SAS has made the list all 13 years since it was first established in 1998. This is the seventh time SAS has been in the top 10 and the fifth time in the top five.
“The most important considerations for this year’s list were hiring and the ways in which companies are helping their employees weather the recession,” said FORTUNE Deputy Managing Editor Hank Gilman. “All 100 companies on our list are currently hiring, many of them aggressively, leading to more than 96,000 open job positions expected in the next year.”
SAS CEO Jim Goodnight said, “For 2010, I make the same promise that I did last year – SAS will have no layoffs. Too many companies worldwide sacrificed employees and benefits to cut costs in 2009. SAS took the opposite stance, and we have been rewarded in employee loyalty and overall success of the business. Maintaining this position throughout the downturn puts us in the best position to meet the expected market upturn.”
“In a tough economy, SAS did not waver from our commitment to our employees and the innovative culture that keeps them challenged and provides work-life balance,” said Jenn Mann, Vice President of Human Resources at SAS. “SAS’ continued success proves our core belief: Happy, healthy employees are more productive.”
SAS has long been recognized as an innovator in encouraging employee work-life balance. Employees at SAS headquarters in Cary, NC, enjoy on-site amenities including free health care, subsidized child care, a free 66,000-square-foot recreation and fitness center, and programs that promote employee wellness. As a result, SAS employees are unusually loyal. Annual turnover is about 4 percent in an industry in which 22 percent is the norm. This low turnover translates into long-term relationships with customers, knowledge retention, and low recruitment and training costs.
SAS produces software that helps companies worldwide in every industry transform their data into predictive insights about company performance, customers, markets, risks and more. SAS helps companies solve complex business problems, achieve key objectives and more effectively manage their information assets.
The full list and related stories appear in the Feb. 8 issue of FORTUNE, available on newsstands on Monday, Jan. 25, and now at fortune.com/bestcompanies.
To pick the 100 Best Companies, FORTUNE partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America. Two-thirds of a company’s score is based on the results of the Institute’s Trust Index survey, which is sent to a random sample of employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to their attitudes about the management’s credibility, job satisfaction and camaraderie. The other third of the scoring is based on the company’s responses to the Institute’s Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring, communication and diversity.
FORTUNE Feature
The esteemed FORTUNE ‚100 Best Places to Work For‘ 2010 list ranks SAS No. 1 this year.