SAS Sweden: best workplace for fourth year in a row

In a recession, employee satisfaction is especially important, says SAS Institute

STOCKHOLM  (Mar. 25, 2010)  –  For the fourth consecutive year, SAS, the leader business analytics software and services, has been named by Great Place to Work Institute as Sweden's best workplace among organizations with up to 250 employees.

“Still participating after four years is a way to ensure that we’re staying on the right path,” says Liselotte Jansson, Managing Director at SAS Institute Sweden. She points out that it’s especially important to thrive in your working environment during a recession. In an uncertain market, she explains, customer commitment is crucial. Job security and satisfaction therefore become a fundamental precondition for meeting customer demands. 

“We’ve succeeded in building an excellent team. In this recent recession, we early stated that there wouldn’t be any layoffs. This has enabled our employees to focus on doing their joba, instead of worrying of losing them,” says Jansson.

Each year, Great Place to Work Institute names the country’s best workplaces based on employee relationships with management, the organization and each other, as well as job satisfaction. The awards were presented on March 25, at a ceremony at Nalen, in Stockholm. SAS also received the award for Best Internal Communications.

Despite winning four consecutive times, Jansson plans to continue participating in the program.

“This isn’t just something you do once. It’s a great way to follow up and ensure that we’re on the right path. It’s important to always keep one ear to the ground and work on your weaknesses,” she says. 

And SAS certainly seems to be on the right path. That path, according to Jansson, ensures that everyone in the company has a great deal of respect for one another, and that everyone can be creative, given plenty of freedom in the course of their duties. 

“We continually improve by having the right people in the right places, making sure everyone can reach their goals. This creates a positive cycle: a good atmosphere contributes to good results; good results make work more enjoyable, which in turn creates a good atmosphere and satisfaction, and so on,” says Jansson.

Employee satisfaction is part of SAS Institute’s business perspective. Since its founding in the US in 1976, SAS’s philosophy has been that if you treat your employees as if they make a difference in the company, they will. The concept is simple: satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers, which in the end improve the company’s results. 

“It’s important that the efforts to create the right conditions for employees to succeed also appear in the bottom line. And despite the recession, we had good earnings last year. When the company is doing well, employees step up performance in order to achieve the company’s goals. They become more aware of customer needs, which helps them perform even better,” says Jansson.

For more information please visit:  www.sas.com/sweden

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