• silicon.com
• Technology
• Software

By Felicity Ussher, 2 March 2000 00:15

NEWS Jim Goodnight, president and CEO of SAS Institute, told Silicon.com that businesses can save money by building schools and restaurants on site. In an Agenda Setters interview, Goodnight claimed his staff turnover was five times lower than average - and he said it was worth spending millions of dollars a year on employee perks. He argued: "The industry average is somewhere between 18 and 20 per cent a year turnover in employees - whereas here it's only four per cent. There was a recent article in the Harvard Business Review that estimated we save as much as $75m each year because of our employee retention. If you actually look at all the benefits we provide they sum up to somewhere near $75m a year, so it's really a trade-off: you can either spend your $75m on your people to keep them, or you can waste it on the recruiting." Goodnight said the main costs of employee turnover lay in hiring and training new employees, and losing productivity while positions lie vacant. The SAS campus includes schools, restaurants and leisure facilities. He added the company wasn't planning to change its benefits policy, just as it hasn't changed its software hire scheme in 30 years. Goodnight said the SAS Institute is focussed on beating Microsoft in the decision-support space, and Web-enabling all its products. You can watch the full Agenda Setters interview with Jim Goodnight in the Knowledge Management channel (http://www.silicon.com/a36090 ).