Jeff Chambers is vice-president of human resources at SAS, the world's largest privately owned software company. At such a company, employees are the most important asset because the company can't produce any software or provide any service without good, quality people.

Part of Jeff's job is to find and keep such employees. Finding people who want to work at SAS isn't difficult; there are about 93,000 applicants for 500 jobs. The challenge is to screen those people to find those who fit in best.

The company assesses future labour requirements, prepares job analyses to see what various jobs entail, and then tries to find employees within the firm to meet those future needs. If they are not available, the company must search outside the firm to find the best people. Its strategic plan calls for interviewing, testing, and evaluating prospects. Spending more time in the hiring process means spending less time later trying to replace workers who were not a good fit in the firm.

In the future, there will be a great demand for skilled workers; thus, employee retention is critical at SAS. Evidence of how successfully the company retains people is the fact that turnover each year is about 4 percent, way below the industry average. One way to keep employees is to promote from within, and that means training people to move up within the organization. Such training includes in-house classes, online training, internships, and apprenticeships. Of course, managers get management training to keep them up to date and more qualified for promotion.

Keeping employees means more than providing them with a satisfying job and a good chance for promotion. It also means providing employee benefits that employees want and need. That includes health care, day care, and an in-house recreation centre. Medical insurance carries over to retired workers as well. SAS tries to accommodate the needs of individual workers as much as possible. If someone needs to take off early, he or she can. Employees can work from home (telecommuting) if they prefer. The company also has job sharing and flextime.

At a company like SAS, performance evaluations are very important. That's why the company doesn't use a simple form like so many others do. Instead, the company works closely with each employee to make sure the person understands the goals of the firm and how she or he fits into those goals.

SAS has a great relationship with its customers. The company spends 25 percent of its bottom line on research and development (R&D). Its quality products result in customer retention rates in the 98-percent range. The company treats its employees with the same care that it treats its customers. Because employees are so happy and turnover is so low, the company has more funds to invest in R&D and more happy customers. All this leads to more business and therefore the need to hire even more people.

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SAS

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1			What skills appear to be most important togetting hired at SAS: technical skills, peopleskills, team-building skills, or some combination?Which skills would you expect prospectiveworkers to lack the most?
2			After watching this video, do you think thatbeing a human resource manager at a hightechfirm would be an interesting and challengingjob? Why or why not?
3			Is there more to human resource managementthan you first believed? What are someduties you hadn’t previously anticipated forthis position?