Live chat lets SAS employees connect with execs

SAS executives answer questions on employees’ minds in live webcast

What is the turnover percentage of employees? How is the company using social networks? What is going on with the Global Marketing Council?

These are a few questions tossed to senior executives in Leadership Live, a one-hour internal webcast launched in March that puts a leader at software company SAS in the hot seat.

“I wanted to get executives to start answering questions that they never answer,” said Karen Lee, senior director of internal communications at SAS.

Webcast guests have little time to prepare answers. Questions from employees worldwide are submitted just 30 minutes before the webcast is broadcast live through the SAS intranet.

“We really try to stick to the fact that we want to have a conversation with them like any employee would walk up to them and see them here on campus and ask them a question out of the blue and have them answer it,” Lee said.

The chat also features live questions from callers.

“It says a lot to other employees that these are unfiltered questions,” said Becky Graebe, managing editor of the SAS intranet. “When an executive answers a caller online, live on the show, it really does point out the fact that this is raw.”