Perks gone wild - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Perks gone wild - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog It started with free MMs. Now theres a country club, on-site Montessori daycare, on-site doctors and nurses, 35-hour work week, live piano music during lunch, 50.000 square foot fitness center, swimming pools, no dress-code, masseur, on-site car detailing. And more. If you need assistance in adopting a child or finding a college for your child or a nursing home for a parent, they have people to help you with that too. SAS Institutes perks are legendary, and the Software Companys 9.000 employees certainly know they have it good. Normally IT companies have employee turnover rates of 20%. At SAS its 3% which saves them an estimated $80 million a year in recruting costs alone. Conservatively. Why do they do it? Are they na?ve altruists? Jeff Chambers, director of human resources at SAS, puts it like this: No, were not altruistic by any stretch of the imagination. This is a for-profit business and we do all these things because it makes good business sense. There are four interesting points to notice about what SAS is doing: 1: It works Their annual report for 2004 rightly brags about their 28th consecutive year of growth and prosperity, a record unmatched in the software industry. Their revenues in 2004 was $1.5 billion. Thats pretty impressive. 2: Its possible because theyre privately owned CEO Jim Goodnight refuses to take the company public because it might change the way employees are treated and destroy their ability to make long-term plans: You cant just have a weak quarter and then all of a sudden start bailing out and cutting things. I am basically my own board. So, I dont have to worry about pressure from the board or being fired if I dont improve earnings. Theres no possible way I can tell you what my earnings are going to be to the penny each quarter. Theres only one way to get there to the penny you have to cook the books. 3: Theyre committed to treating their people well Goodnight says it very simply: If the employees are happy, they make the customers happy. If they make the customers happy, they make me happy. 4: Its not the perks SAS employees are happy and stay at the company for years doing good, creative work. But thats not because of the perks because no amount of perks can make up for lousy leadership, a bad atmosphere or a lack of respect for employees. The truth is this: The perks, combined with Goodnights and the companys attitude, make people feel valued and thats whats making them happy. This is good news for companies that dont have as much money in the bank as SAS. Its not the (expensive) perks, its the commitment to your employees happiness that makes a difference. And that doesnt take country clubs and Montessori schools but can be done on a much tighter budget. Most of the information in this post comes from the piece 60 minutes did on them back in 2003. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related