BES Top 20: SAS Institute India:Employee Oriented Approach

SAS has been getting a place in the Best Employers Survey for quite sometime based on its seriousness towards employees. But if we compare its previous ratings, it has fallen down in the chart. The company is best known among employees for its strength in managing slowdown, and this is the reason the company has again performed better than its competitors.

In the revived market, SAS continued to focus on employees and adopted a couple of interesting programs for their benefit. To make it convenient for the female employees who have kids, the company has started a day-care program. Similarly, the company runs a unique program to help employees whose parents live with them. The program is called Parental Care Policy in which SAS offers assistance to employees whose parents need help and are not even able to find their way to bathroom on their own. According to the company, many of its employees have been benefited by this policy.

Furthermore, the company also promotes adoption of kids and offers assistance to employees who adopt kids. Without differentiating, SAS grants maternity leave to female members who have adopted kids. Similarly, the company boasts to run a number of programs to keep its employees happy.

The company insists on maintaining its culture that attracts talent to the organization. If the company is to be believed, many of the employees who had left the company earlier are again coming back. The company also trains its employees from time to time and claims to offer better career opportunities to its employees.

All said and done, SAS has fared low this year on the HR front and has slipped to #20 from #8 last year. However the employee scores have come to the rescue where it has maintained its scores. Even on the parameters such as job content, appraisal, and dream company industry, it has been average. But when it comes to the preferred employer parameter, the company stands out firmly at no less than #5 place, giving a sense of how the company has established its goodwill among employees. It is also so because the company did not lay off people even in 2009, when it was worst hit by the recession.

In addition, the company was never in a mad rush to hire employees and practiced caution, only scouting for people who were required.