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The Pillars of an Award-Winning Program
SAS Software & Analytics was selected as a 2023 Campus Forward Award Winner for their unwavering commitment to seeking out and hiring early career talent, their emphasis on diversity & inclusion, and investments in nurturing and retaining the next generation of talent. Please see below for the highlights of their approach to early career recruitment.
Demonstrated Investment in Early Career Hiring
Curiosity is one of SAS’ core values, and it recognizes that early career talent is eager to bring their curious minds to help solve today’s business problems. SAS believes that innovation is not possible without differing perspectives and backgrounds, and its early career talent strategies are rooted in building highly-qualified, diverse talent pipelines. Early career talent also brings forward the next generation of tech skills given they are digital natives, which is core to driving innovation. SAS is rooted in academia and was established on a university campus, making early career talent the lifeblood of SAS. SAS is the founder and the future of analytics, and early career talent is critical to shaping that future.
Innovative and Multi-Faceted Approach to University Recruitment
The Early Career team at SAS approaches sourcing and recruiting interns and entry-level talent with an empathetic lens. By recognizing that these students have had their educational journeys significantly impacted by the pandemic and other world events, SAS finds ways to connect authentically with students and provide them value with each interaction. The team does this by utilizing Handshake to advertise and invite more students to apply to open roles and by hosting virtual events, which have included resume tips, career fair and virtual interviewing prep, and how to navigate offers. SAS also attends both in-person and virtual career fairs to meet students where they are. The SAS Early Career team revamped its recruitment process this year to emphasize the human touch and influenced hiring by encouraging managers to seek potential over perfection in candidates.
Overarching Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
SAS builds a pipeline of qualified and diverse talent across internship and early career positions by establishing strategic partnerships with Career Services departments at HBCUs. SAS hosts an annual HBCU STEM Connect event to connect students to HBCU alumni, hear about career opportunities, and learn about using Data for Good. In partnership with NC A&T, SAS launched the HBCU Academic Excellence Program that welcomed six students in STEM-focused majors to participate in mentorship opportunities with SAS employees who are HBCU alum. Students were selected by college advisors based on academic merit, leadership aspirations, and career interests in tech. SAS’ United in STEM Diversity Internship program provides the opportunity to receive mentorship and make meaningful contributions to the organization. Students in the program include individuals who identify as neurodiverse, disabled, Black or African American, Latinx, Indigenous, and other historically underrepresented students of color, females, and students affiliated with the US Military.
Impactful Internship Program
Modeling SAS’ Future of Work Model, the summer 2022 intern program was hybrid, giving interns the option to work at SAS headquarters, from home, or a combination of both. To kick off the internship, SAS brought all interns together for InternPalooza, a three-day onboarding event to set the stage for a summer of meaningful work and opportunities and programs to learn, grow, collaborate, and build community. This immersion in SAS’ unique corporate culture is grounded in its values of authenticity, passion, curiosity, and accountability. At the end of the internship, students have an opportunity to present their projects at an Intern Expo. These challenging projects significantly impact their customers and the company’s bottom-line. Some interns have received patents for their work and presented their projects to company executives. The SAS intern program builds intentional pipelines to meet future talent demands, with about 80% of technical interns joining SAS full-time upon graduation.
Growth and Development of the Next Generation of Talent
SAS continuously invests into its early career hires with programmatic hiring initiatives, strategic diversity goals and engagement, and opportunities for continuous learning and development. SAS offers multiple pathways for entry-level hires to get onboarded to the company, including a Technical Enablement Academy and a Marketing Rotational Program. These intentional training and enablement programs include full-time employee status, salary, and benefits, in addition to the opportunity to get paid to learn while they acclimate. SAS employs a full-time master’s level social worker who is primarily focused on supporting early career employees, and does so by implementing a series of events and check-ins. One of SAS’ Employee Inclusion Groups is the Young Professionals Network, which creates an open community for early career hires to network and engage with each other.