Today I'm celebrating the winner of corporate America's finest achievement.
It's the annual Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For award, and for the second year in a row, it goes to SAS Institute from Cary N.C. I like this award because it relies heavily on internal interviews with employees, crafted in such a way to guarantee a high level of authenticity - and good takeaways for leaders in all industries.
I've known co-founder Dr. Jim Goodnight since 2003, when his company hired me to speak at a customer summit in Las Vegas. Between 2003 and 2005, I spoke at six other events, from sales rallies to a product launch at the company's HQ. Over that stretch of time, I learned a great deal about the company's culture, and specifically Dr. Goodnight's math-based approach to regarding human beings (Read the SAS Institute case study, an excerpt from my book Saving The World At Work).
He's created a culture of leaders and managers that understand the people-customer-company model of reciprocity: Give to people, they give to customers, customers give to company. It's hard to do over time, though, especially if you are public company with Wall Street gamblers demanding budget cuts with each burp in the business cycle. That's why SAS Institute stays private.
But really, if you align HR, Finance and Operations to measure the same metrics, it's a business no brainer. Compete to be the best possible employer, and reward thoughtful innovations of the employee experience like you reward process and product improvements. It requires leaders to lead more, managers to manage better and a lot of trust to be distributed throughout the organization.
When I read the announcement yesterday, I was struck with one quote from an employee: "People stay at SAS in part because they are happy, but to dig a little deeper, I would argue that people don't leave SAS because they feel regarded -- seen, attended to and cared for. I have stayed for that reason, and love what I do for that reason." This explains two things about the company: Record low turnover, especially of high performers. Record high productivity, from sales to operations.
Why don't more leaders understand the secret here: 1- Notice your people as people. 2-Attend to their issues, both personal and professional. 3-Care about them as brothers and sisters, not profit or cost centers. Leaders that commit themselves to this must change hiring, employee experience design, succession plans (no bullies in management) and business process measurement. The payoff is simple: Leverage the norm of reciprocity and create a company that you can profit from, and be proud of later when you look back on your legacy.
Listen to a VERY insightful interview I participated in with Dr. Goodnight in 2008:
It's great to see the company and its founders recognized, Tim.
I remember one of those speaking events you had at SAS, in the atrium of Building R, our main R&D facility. Last week we held a "toast to being number 1" in that same space, and all employees on campus were invited to attend. Thousands of SAS employees filled the atrium space and the balconies to hear from Jim Goodnight and John Sall.
And I noticed that after the champagne toast, many of them went back to work! That's how dedicated they are to this place.
Posted by: Chris Hemedinger | January 22, 2011 at 05:36 AM