Employees

Hiring and Retaining Staff

Our hiring policy is based on Equal Employment Opportunity for all applicants without regard to age, race, color, gender, gender identity, religion, creed, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, medical condition, veteran status, pregnancy or any other protected class as defined by federal, state or local law.

SAS’ success as a company and reputation as a best-in-class workplace help us attract the best and the brightest candidates. We focus on hiring talented individuals with the right knowledge, skills and cultural fit who have the same spirit of innovation and creativity and who thrive on challenging work. The culture at SAS is linked directly to its values and core competencies. This leads to dedicated, loyal employees who develop leading-edge solutions for customers. In 2010, SAS received more than 56,000 resumes and filled more than 700 positions.

SAS recruiters develop position-related, competency-based questions and culture-fit questions that are based on the company’s values. Teamwork and collaboration are part of our daily life at SAS. In order to ensure a good fit with the team, candidates also participate in team interviews. This often gives candidates an even better picture of the corporate culture and offers a glimpse into life as a SAS employee.

To ensure that employees take full advantage of their work experiences, SAS offers skills development, employee support, direct contact with managers, directors and the CEO as well as feedback surveys. As a result of our policies, we have a low staff turnover:

Diversity and Equal Opportunity

As with applicants, it is the policy of SAS to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all employees without regard to age, race, color, gender, gender identity, religion, creed, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, medical condition, veteran status, pregnancy or any other protected class as defined by federal, state or local law.

SAS is committed to providing a professional and safe work environment where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. SAS does not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, including sexual harassment, by managers, employees or any third parties. SAS strictly prohibits discriminatory practices, including sexual harassment. Harassment, whether verbal, written, physical or environmental, is unacceptable and will not be tolerated, whether it occurs in the workplace or at outside company or client-sponsored activities.

Any complaint brought forward will be investigated and resolved appropriately. All employees are obligated to report all perceived incidents of harassment or discrimination, regardless of the position of the alleged offender. In 2010, there were zero reports or incidents of harassment or discrimination.

SAS draws strength from the unique talents and abilities of a diverse workforce and commits to creating a safe environment where the best workers do their best work. It is SAS policy to foster an environment characterized by respect for lifestyle, cultural and ethnic differences. This policy is put into action through a variety of internal initiatives, community outreach programs and scholarship opportunities.

SAS values diversity, not because it is legally required, but because it makes good business sense. The best products and services come from a workplace where varying viewpoints are welcomed and encouraged.

The Women’s Initiative Network (WIN), launched in January 2010, is a community of SAS employees who empower, encourage and inspire women to pursue excellence in their careers and fulfillment in their personal lives. The mission of WIN is to foster a global community across SAS to:

• Develop leadership capabilities among women workers.
• Expand and strengthen internal and external professional networks and affiliation.
• Showcase SAS thought leaders and expose participants to external visionaries.
• Contribute to community efforts to attract young women to careers in science and technology.

By sharing time, expertise and passion with those beyond the walls of SAS, they act as ambassadors for the corporation and for careers in science and technology.

• Lunch-n-learns with SAS leaders: Agile Career Development and What Does Innovation Look Like?
• Industry thought leader events: “How to Perform Like a Rock Star” by Orna Drawas.
• Networking events: "Building Relationships Across SAS" – an event in SAS’ new state of the art building to network with both SAS peers and executives.
• Community events – partnering with The Science House at North Carolina State University to promote science and math to middle school and high school female students; group participation in the Race for the Cure. Training and employment for individuals with autism: SAS food service operations employs six autistic employees.
• F.A.S.T. (Food And Service Training): Students from Wake Tech and Wake County Schools. These students receive credit for their Occupational Course of Study for graduation. Fifty-five students from nine schools participated in 2010.
• SUCCEED: Adult students with developmental disabilities from the Compensatory Education Program through Wake Tech. These students need work experience that will help them find a full-time job. SAS employed eight students in 2010.
• TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication related handicapped Children) is an employment supported program through the University of North Carolina to help individuals with autism. SAS employed seven employees in this program in 2010.

In 2008, SAS initiated the R3 program, which exemplifies our commitment to “Recognize, Recruit and Retain” women and minorities in various professional arenas. Affirmative outreach has proven to be an invaluable tool in creating an inclusive environment and helps us prepare the future workforce. In additional to developing core technical skills, we hope to provide our students with the richest experience possible and also provide personal and professional development. Students work with mentors and are able to work on challenging projects that provide the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in a global marketplace. The goal of the program is to create a career pathway leading to employment with SAS for the successful student.

Students in the R3 program receive not only core skills training, but professional development and mentorship as well. In May 2010, the program had 17 returning students and four new students.

Skills Development

Ongoing training and professional development enables employees to succeed at their current jobs and to branch out and apply their talents in new ways. SAS has a variety of organizations dedicated to training employees in various areas, such as:

• Leadership development.
• Sales training.
• Technical training.
• Interpersonal development.

Offerings include instructor-led classroom training, self-directed e-learning, Live Web training, coaching and other employee-focused offerings. These options help employees meet their work-related challenges and career-progression goals and prepare for future organizational needs. The company also offers ethics courses to help employees understand applicable rules and regulations to preserve the company's integrity, reputation, and the trust and confidence of customers, suppliers, business partners and the public. Other professional development opportunities are less structured, such as words@SAS, a recurring series of SAS Wide Web (intranet) articles focused on how to improve terminology management at SAS.

61 percent of full- and part-time employees took some type of professional training.

Of the full-time employees who took training, the average time spent in training was 23 hours. Part-time employees who took training spent an average of nine hours in training.

Counting all employees, the average number of hours of training per employee is 14 for full-time and five for part-time.

The total professional training hours for 2010 was over 82,000.

SAS takes a three-tier approach to developing our leaders – both current and emerging. In 2010, there were 30 offerings with 992 participants.

Management Fundamentals Program (MFP)
This program is designed for our new managers or those managers who would like to refresh themselves on the basics of management. MFP is a blended learning and development opportunity that provides managers with the critical knowledge and abilities essential to handle the normal day-to-day function of being a people manager. Employees practice new behaviors and skills, establish and build peer relationships while constructing a new mindset for being, and developing as, a manager. The result is an improved ability to navigate across the business toward cross-functional and more strategic goals.

The Leadership Challenge (TLC)
This program is for our general SAS leadership population. TLC is a two-day experiential workshop focusing on how SAS leaders motivate others to want to get extraordinary things done. Our goal is to teach leaders about five practices to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards.

Leadership and Energy for Performance (LE4P)
This program is targeted to higher-level leaders and teaches leaders how to enhance/manage their physical, emotional, mental and purposeful energy to more effectively lead themselves and others. This 90-day program begins with five days of facilitated coursework, discussion, feedback and introspection combining two research-based programs: the Corporate Athlete Course and The Leadership Challenge. The reminder of the 90 days is spent in biweekly classes, seminars, participant-led discussion groups and/or exercise classes in order to focus on expanding and managing personal energy and increasing the frequency of specific leadership behaviors. Our goal is to provide our leaders with a habit-forming model that can be used for repeatable results, continuous personal growth and consistent leadership enhancement.

SAS Global Career Framework
In 2010, SAS began the development and implementation of a comprehensive career development program called the SAS Global Career Framework. The framework was created in response to employees’ desire to have greater visibility to career paths and opportunities for development. It provides a structured approach to career development.

The Global Career Framework is comprised of three components:

• Infrastructure provides the basic foundation – transparency in the levels of jobs at SAS and consistency internationally and across business units. Central to the infrastructure are career ladders, which help employees understand what job opportunities exist within the company and what path is necessary for them to take in order to get there.
• Assessment provides support to SAS managers in understanding their organizations’ current skills and competencies, as well as how individuals and their organization are performing. It can also help highlight gaps and help managers better understand how to meet the current and future needs of business.
• Development provides the tools and resources that support managers in developing skills and competencies in individuals and teams. SAS provides user-friendly tools that employees and managers can use to chart career aspirations.

Health and Safety

The health and safety of our employees is paramount to our success. SAS seeks to provide a safe workplace environment for its employees. It complies with all applicable federal, state and local laws regarding safe work practices and working environment. The Security and Safety departments investigate any incidents that pose a danger to company employees or third parties and take measures to reduce or eliminate these hazards. The Risk Management Department provides additional training and resources to help identify and prevent similar incidents from causing injury or damage to individuals or property and also seeks reimbursement for loss or damage whenever possible.

To prevent work-related injuries, SAS educates employees about how to fit the tools and equipment at each work site to the needs of the employee.

Ergonomic staff (through the Risk Management Department) are trained to make individual work site analyses and provide specific suggestions for improving an employee’s work environment.

Health Care Center staff are equipped to evaluate and treat specific complaints whether or not they are work-related.

The Safe Work Skills Program addresses "labor-intensive" employee groups in the workplace (i.e., employees who frequently lift and bend as a requirement of their jobs). Annual attendance is required and includes an educational class on safe lifting, a healthy-back class where these skills are practiced safely in the actual work areas, and an ergo-safety site survey with subsequent meetings between employees and management to surface concerns.

In 2010, US operations had 18 workers’ compensation claims following injury-related incidences. The rate of compensation claims was 18 out of 5,804 US employees, or .003 percent. Among those claims, eight resulted in a total of 407 lost days