Business Insight Zone

Last week I found out from my friend David B. Thomas that his company, SAS Institute, has won yet another award for being a great place to work. (You may remember Dave from last summer’s exchange about “Social Media Manager” — the title that he and I both bear.)

This time around, SAS won the Big Kahuna award in the category — the coveted #1 slot in FORTUNE magazine’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” It comes as little surprise, since SAS has made the list in each of the 13 years that FORTUNE has compiled it.

Lest you think that SAS sacrifices its bottom line to coddle its employees, you should know that it is the largest privately held software company in the world, and that it continues to grow steadily.

Dave was nice enough to field a few questions about his experience with the company. My questions and his answers follow.

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How long have you worked for SAS? What roles have you held there?

I’ve been at SAS since May of 2007. I started as a corporate PR representative, working with local media and national general media, and overseeing our awards program, including the Fortune Best Companies Award. I handed that off when I took the job of Social Media Manager in January 2009.

Based on your own career experience, what distinguishes SAS as a great place to work?

A lot of companies talk about work/life balance, but SAS really does believe in it and practice it every day. If I have to stay home with my son when he gets sick, there is absolutely no stigma in that. If I want to go to the gym in the afternoon (something I don’t do often enough), that’s seen as a positive thing.

The benefits all have a bottom-line value, but even in tough times like this past year, SAS sticks to its guns. Jim Goodnight announced at the beginning of 2009 that we would take a hit to the profits rather than lay anyone off. That was the most principled stand by a CEO I’ve ever experienced.

Plus, they really do trust employees. I saw that in the creation of our social media policies. We talked a lot about the upside and the downside, but there was very little discussion of enforcement and penalties because that’s not the way management thinks around here. And the outcome is we haven’t needed heavy-handed enforcement or penalties.

SAS is no stranger to this type of award. What is the company doing to sustain its performance as a great place to work, given prevailing conditions in the economy?

The Fortune #1 ranking was only one of our big pieces of news today. The second was that we achieved 2.2 percent growth in 2009 with total revenues of $2.31 billion. Even in a really tough year, we managed to increase revenue and be profitable. That’s the validation that our commitment to employees works and is an integral part of our business strategy, not a superfluous add-on.

In your view, what’s the very first thing an average company could do to mimic SAS’s success as a great place to work?

Try to take the long view. If you truly want to build a company with lasting potential, plan for your success five or ten or 20 years down the road, not quarter by quarter. Give your employees a stake in the outcome and show them that you trust them to do their best, and chances are they will. And don’t block their access to social media!

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Thanks to Dave for taking the time to share his thoughts — and congratulations to SAS for its sterling performance.

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Related:

• David B. Thomas on “Social media at Fortune’s Best Company to Work for in America”
• In defense of “Social Media Manager.”

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Category: Management, Social media, The working life