Motivating Employees

SAS (pronounced "sass") once stood for "statistical analysis system." It began at North Carolina State University as a project led by Anthony James Barr to analyze agricultural research. Demand for such software capabilities began to grow, James Goodnight and John Sal teamed up with Barr and The SAS Institute was founded in 1976 to help customers in all sorts of industries – from pharmaceutical companies and banks to academic and governmental entities (About SAS, 2015).  With more than 11,000 employees, the SAS Institute is the largest privately owned software company in the world with approximately $2.3 billion in revenues.  Revenues have increased as SAS every year since it was founded in 1976.

SAS does a lot of various task to motivate employees.  For 13 years in a row, it was included in Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work for in America”, and in 2010 SAS was ranked first.  Managers believe employees should be interested and involved in the work they are doing and feel they are making meaningful contributions.  Pay and bonuses are linked to performance, and the company emphasizes fair treatment in numerous ways.  According to Jim Goodnight, “that a founding and enduring principle of the company is that managers should treat employees the way the managers want to be treated themselves.”  

All employees who work for SAS have their own private offices, SAS headquarters boasts a very attractive work environment, with atriums overlooking rolling hills and artwork adorning the walls. Employees have access to the latest technology, two low-cost on-site child care facilities, a summer camp, three subsidized cafeterias with high chairs so employees can eat lunch with their children, a 66,000-square-foot fitness and recreation center with an Olympic-size pool, on-site medical care, a putting green, and access to all kind of services ranging from a book exchange and car detailing to dry cleaning and massages (George, J.M., & Jones, G.R. 2012).

Intrinsic Motivation is motivation that comes from within the employee.  Employees who are intrinsically motivated often remark that their work gives them a sense of accomplishment and achievement or that they feel that they are doing something worthwhile.  SAS encourages employees to be creative and experience the thrill of developing successful new products.  Also, SAS encourages its employees to change jobs within the company so they continue to be interested in their work and don’t grow bored with what they’re doing.  Finally, the SAS Institute does new product development internally. Although this approach might take longer, SAS believes it is beneficial because employees find that developing new products is interesting work (George, J.M., & Jones, G.R. 2012).