Programmed for Growth

Despite a shrinking economy, SAS continues to increase both its profits and its staffing levels. HRM caught up with VP of HR Jennifer Mann to find out how.

“Over 90% of our employees use the healthcare facility as their primary medical facility”
-Jennifer Mann, SAS

SAS is one of the largest software companies in the world. Currently it is listed as twentieth on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list, up nine places from its placement in 2008. What’s more, with consistent revenue growth and profitability since 1976, SAS continues to provide its clients, and its employees, with the depth of resources required to sustain excellence in product development and customer support. While many competitors have merged, changed ownership or simply vanished altogether, the privately held company has remained focused on its primary mission of delivering superior software and enhancing customer relationships for the last 30 years.

For Jennifer Mann, SAS has been her happy home for the last decade. She joined the firm as a Human Resources manager in 1998, and then became VP of HR last year. In her new role, Mann is responsible for developing and guiding SAS' HR vision and articulating the organization's strategy to help acquire, develop, reward, and retain the best talent. She currently leads a team of 113 employees, who partner with SAS business units to maximize the potential of SAS' greatest asset – the employees – to deliver quality advisory services.

And at SAS, employees really are the greatest asset, as, despite the current market circumstances, the firm has seen no layoffs at all over the last 12 months. In fact, while many organizations continue to flounder, the firm continues to grow. One question: How?

HRM. You had been at the company for about 10 years before you became VP of HR a year ago. Could you give us a little background about your time at the firm?   
Jennifer Mann. I actually have over 16 years of HR experience in three main industries: academia, high-tech and in the software industry. My focus has always been in several main areas throughout those 16 years, and they have primarily been in aligning HR with business objectives, and serving as a change agent – not only within the organization to drive business results, but also with helping change the way HR works with the organization.

At SAS specifically I have led three key initiatives that have been focused in the areas of performance management, organizational effectiveness and leadership development. I think there are three things that are important to being able to achieve those things successfully. The key is to build a strong working relationship with the leadership team, with an emphasis on truly understanding the business and operating with trust and mutual respect.

HRM. How have you found your interactions with the heads of the business?  Do they see HR the way you see it?
JM. Absolutely. I think SAS’s culture and strong focus on our employees reflects that HR is integral to all of that. It’s very important for us in human resources to understand what has made us successful, and how important the culture is so that HR can align our initiatives to meet the needs of that culture.

HRM. What are the main challenges you have faced in this first year?
JM. Well, it’s important to look at the growth that the company has experienced in recent years, which might help put some of the challenges into context.  Over the past ten years, the company has doubled its revenue, as well as its staff. 

So in 1998 when I joined the company, we had about $800 million in revenue with 5600 employees. Now, we have over $2 billion in revenue and over 11,000 employees globally. So we’ve seen incredible growth. Our global reach, our brand recognition and our employee and customer loyalty has just been incredible.

These are coveted results in any business setting, and it’s important to acknowledge that. With that being the case, the main areas that I have spent my time this year have been ensuring that our HR initiatives are aligned to support the business. We have grown significantly over the past 10 years, so it’s been important this past year to set up a structure that will help us continue in our success. 

Implementing programs that are focused on increasing employee and company performance has also been very important; and, being a software company, we’ve focused on leveraging our HR technology to improve efficiencies within human resources, as well as helping our organization make better business decisions.

HRM. So the company is still growing, and there haven’t been any layoffs at SAS at the moment. Is that true?
JM. That is correct. And I think we’re very fortunate at SAS to have a CEO who is committed to our employees. We’re privately held, and he believes our employees are the company’s greatest assets. And as such, he believes it’s our job in HR, and as managers throughout the company, to keep employees engaged and motivated so that they’ll come to work everyday.

Our CEO has continued that commitment even during these difficult economic times, by putting measures in place to protect the jobs of our employee. He’s actually stated, ‘We will not have layoffs this year, even if that means less revenue for SAS.’

HRM. We often hear people saying, ‘People are our greatest asset’, but you really have to put your money where your mouth is to back up comments like that.
JM. Oh absolutely, but we believe that if our employees are happy, then our customers will be happy, and that seems to be working for us. We’ve had less than five percent turnover in an industry that typically sees more than 20 percent. And likewise, our customer retention is key to our success and we have a 90 percent renewal model with our customers.

In addition, we license all of our software, so our business model is really set up for long-term relationships with our customers. Ultimately, the way we treat our employees is with our customers in mind.

HRM. Healthcare isn’t cheap, but you’re one of the few companies on Fortune’s 100 Greatest Companies to Work For list that pays 90 percent of their employees healthcare premiums, does that provide a real return on investment in terms of attracting and retaining people?
JM. You know, the two main reasons that we provide these things is because we have a strong focus on preventative care and maintenance, and the levels of coverage and reimbursement are really above average. That’s all part of our strategy to keep a healthy workforce.
I don’t know how familiar your readership is with the levels of coverage that we normally see in the US, but it would be completely normal for a healthcare program to cover, say, 20 physical therapy visits in a year. SAS covers 80.

HRM. And do you find that your staff respond well to wellness initiatives, or do people see it as an interference in their own personal lives, being asked to exercise or eat better, and things like that?
JM. Actually I think they’re very appreciative to have these facilities and amenities available to them. We don’t force anyone to participate, but we certainly try to make it easier for them.

I know for me personally – working long hours, with two small children – the fact that I can walk right out the door and have a beautiful walking trail makes it easy for me to take a lunchtime jog, which would not otherwise happen. Also, having the healthcare facility, which is not only available to employees, but also to their dependents makes things so much easier. In fact, over 90 percent of our employees use the healthcare facility as their primary medical facility, and they don’t have to. It’s just an option that they have open to them.

HRM. With the way wellness and healthcare costs are rising in the US, do you think it’s likely that employees will be compelled to change their diets, or exercise every week if they are to receive healthcare benefits? Do you think that’s something that’s likely to happen in the not too distant future?
JM. I think over the next few weeks and months ahead, we’re all going to learn what the impact will be as the current administration makes its proposal and plans for healthcare reform.

All I know is that SAS already has a wonderful plan in place that, in my mind, would be a model for healthcare provided by organizations across this country. I’d love to have the opportunity to share the wonderful things that we’re doing here at SAS and be an example to other organizations.

HRM. And do you think that the administration is going to come to businesses to see how they respond to these challenges, as a way of guiding the country as a whole?
JM. Absolutely. In fact, that has already happened here at SAS. We have been contacted by our state governor’s office to give information about SAS’ healthcare plans and healthcare benefits, and as a result of that we have been invited to one of the regional healthcare reform forums that are being held over the next month.

HRM. So obviously, to continue to grow in the way you have over the last decade, you need to try and hold onto the best people. How are you going about doing that? How, at SAS, do you find the employees of tomorrow who are going to keep the company successful?
JM. Well, the beauty of the things that I’ve shared, the benefits and the programs that we offer has certainly gotten us a lot of employer brand recognition, not only here in the US, but across the globe.
 
And so, right now, while our recruitment efforts are really limited in core areas – we’re currently focused on research and development, for example – and we may not see that growth this year, we are going to continue to hire in key areas and continue our commitment to our customers to innovate in our R&D efforts.

HRM. And, at the moment, with the situation being as it is, does that make things easier or more difficult for you in terms of finding new people? Is it the case that there’s more good candidates, or is it the case that there’s just more candidates and it’s hard to filter the good from the bad?
JM. That’s a very good point actually. Certainly we see an increase in interest when we have more people in the labor market looking for jobs, and our research and development jobs are typically very highly skilled and very specialized, so that’s a tough thing to manage.

So I don’t know that the increased opportunities in the market, and more candidates looking for jobs is helping in those areas, but certainly in some of our other positions, you absolutely see an increase in candidates and that’s very healthy to see.

HRM. So as you come to the end of your first year as VP of HR, what have you got planned for the next 12 months?
JM. I think again we are continuing to staff, so we’re continuing to make sure that we are attracting the resources to meet our business objectives. With a strong focus on helping our customers optimize their business, we are looking for talent in operations research, so we’ll continue to have strategic hiring initiatives.

We want to continue to develop and grow our staff so that we can meet our demands now, and in the future, and a strong focus on retention of our key talent: identification of our high potentials, and building out development plans for those individuals. Another key area for us is on employee and overall company performance initiatives and things like performance management and organizational development efforts will always be a focus for us.

Healthcare: on your doorstep
Employees at SAS’ headquarters in North Carolina, have a number of on-site amenities. These include healthcare, daycare, recreation and fitness centers, and a lot of other programs that reward employee wellness.  Here, Jennifer Mann details why these things are so important – both from the perspective of employer and employee.

“Our goal here is to foster a culture that has a strong focus on trust and flexibility for our employees – and many of our HR programs are based around that philosophy. But our onsite amenities are there to help foster an environment of innovation and creativity, and we believe that the way to do that is to eliminate stressors and distractions for our employees, making it easier for them to focus on work.

Having onsite healthcare facilities, so that if they need to be seen for an illness they can be treated quickly, and having good quality care means that our employees are able to come back to work and be more productive quickly.

We have been able to see a true cost benefit to having those types of services available and we have a pretty extensive work/life department that focuses on relevant issues that may be top of mind for our employees.

So having programs focused on elder care, financial planning, or parenting of teams is very important to us; and having onsite recreation and fitness facilities, so that our employees can go exercise and stay healthy, and having a campus that has walking trails so that they’re encouraged to be physically fit are all very important to us at SAS.”

SAS: the facts
• SAS has customers in 114 countries and has more than 45,000 business, government and university sites
• SAS is 91st on the 2008 Fortune Global 500 list and 20th on the 2009 Best Companies To Work For list
• There are current 11,142 SAS employees worldwide
• The company was founded in1976 and is the world's largest privately held software company (prepackaged software).
• SAS has more than 400 offices and alliances globally.