SUMMARY
The software industry has shown a robust growth in recent years, not only globally, but also in Brazil. The segment is composed mainly of small businesses, with intensive use of skilled labor. However, studies indicate that the sector is little concerned with the qualification of employees. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the demand frequently exceeds the supply. This relegates the concerns about managing people to a secondary place. The focus is on the development and formatting of the service itself. According to theoretical models, employee participation is vital to providing a good quality service, which may lead to customer satisfaction and his loyalty. Therefore it increases the profitability of the organization. The employee satisfaction can be achieved by the introduction of proper management of human resources, including good communication, training and development, teamwork, stimulus to participation and decision-making. On the other hand, several models have been proposed to assess customer satisfaction, which is the result of the perceived quality of service, perceived expectations and perceived value, according to one of the used models. Some studies report the existence of a significant and positive relationship between customer satisfaction and employee. In this context, it was tried to evaluate the impact of employee satisfaction on customer satisfaction, based on a theoretical model that has integrated HR practices and the customer satisfaction previous history. Through quantitative research, it was interviewed customers and employees from 50 companies in the software industry in Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, totaling a valid sample of 147 respondents for each group. The data were evaluated with the use of structural equation modeling by partial least squares method. Based on these results, it infers that the best HR practices in fact influence employee satisfaction and the perceived quality of the service positively influences the customer satisfaction. Nevertheless, it was not verified a significant relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.