SAS CEO sceptical about benefits of working from home

Jim Goodnight believes face-to-face working improves innovation and productivity

While many organisations are embracing the trend of allowing employees to work from home more often, SAS CEO Jim Goodnight remains sceptical about the benefits of remote working, suggesting that being in the office increases productivity and innovation.

Goodnight made the comments as part of a panel discussion on business practices at a SAS Premier Business Leadership conference in Amsterdam.

The SAS CEO's views on the subject working at home vs. working in the the office appear to align him with Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who earlier this year banned employees from working at home in order to foster innovation and collaboration.

"We recently did some remodelling of our R&D building and the architect's suggestion was we build some very large rooms and put lots of beanbags in there so the new-millennials [younger employees] would have a place to lounge and talk to each other because that's how they work," Goodnight told the audience at the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam.

"I told him no, we're not going to do that! They can sit at a regular desk like the rest of us, there are no beanbags yet," he joked, adding that SAS likes its employees to be able to speak to each other at the office.

"We just really believe in face-to-face communication, running into each other in the corridor, sitting down to lunch with somebody or a casual discussion in the break room: it means so much more for productivity and innovation.

"We like people coming to work," Goodnight concluded.