page_title: SAS Institute
section_title: Benefits
hierarchical_section_title: SAS Institute / Workplace / Benefits
caption_attribution_description: English: SAS Canadian HQ, 280 King St East, Toronto
context_page_description: SAS Institute is an American multinational developer of analytics software based in Cary, North Carolina. SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software, which helps access, manage, analyze and report on data to aid in decision-making. The company is the world's largest privately held software business and its software is used by most of the Fortune 500.
  SAS Institute started as a project at North Carolina State University to create a statistical analysis system that was originally used primarily by agricultural departments at universities in the late 1960s. It became an independent, private business led by current CEO James Goodnight and three other project leaders from the university in 1976. SAS grew from $10 million in revenues in 1980 to $1.1 billion by 2000. A larger proportion of these revenues are spent on research and development than at most other software companies; at one point more than double the industry average.
context_section_description: SAS offers on-site day care services to its employees for 850 children for about a third of the normal cost. Medical services are provided to employees and their families for free and 80% of the cost is covered for specialists. Employees are encouraged to work 35-hour weeks and have free access to a recreation and fitness center as well as life counseling services. It also hosts a summer camp for children and operates on-site cafeterias and cafes. 22.5 tons of M&Ms are provided each year, in jars that are re-filled every Wednesday. Similar amenities are provided at its other offices besides its headquarters.
  95 percent of a company's assets drive out the front gate every night, the CEO must see to it that they return the following day.
  — James Goodnight, quoted in Management: Inventing and Delivering Its Future
  SAS spokespeople say its employee benefits are provided for business, not altruistic, reasons. The company evaluates new benefits using three criteria: whether it would benefit the company culture, whether it would serve a significant number of employees and whether it would save more money than is spent on it. According to academics, the company's practices improve the loyalty, focus and creativity of its staff. Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer from the Stanford Graduate School of Business estimated that the company saves $60–$80 million annually in expenses related to employee turnover. SAS has an annual employee turnover of three to five percent, while the software industry's average is 20 to 25 percent. According to USA Today, the workplace culture has created "intensely loyal" staff who care about the company's well-being.  Even though there are unlimited sick days, the average employee takes only two. The 40,000 free medical visits provided to employees annually are estimated to cost the company US$4.5 million, but save it US$5 million due to the employee productivity lost when staff spend their work-hours in waiting rooms at other hospitals.
caption: SAS office in Toronto
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