Workforce management software and services company Kronos Incorporated won the Exceptional Employer Award during TechPoint’s 21st annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

WATCH VIDEO: Gerry Dick interviews Kronos Incorporated Practice Director Doug Ding.
WATCH VIDEO: Kronos Incorporated accepts Exceptional Employer Mira Award.

Over the past four decades, Kronos has grown from a start-up into the leading global workforce management and HR software provider. The Indianapolis Tech Center of Excellence (ITC) at Kronos has played a pivotal role in helping the company reach more than $1.5B in revenue growth since opening its doors in 2012. And with the launch of the company’s revolutionary Workforce Dimensions software suite (bit.ly/2B2r1t4), Kronos is again reshaping the future of workforce management for its more than 35,000 global customers with the help of Indiana’s best future tech leaders.

The Mira Awards judges use established criteria to evaluate all nominees, but one of the X-factors of judging the Exceptional Employer Award category includes: “Would I want to work for this company?” The judges were unanimous that Kronos would be their choice because of how complete the company is and how focused they are on providing employees every opportunity to grow and excel and live their best professional lives.

Far beyond amenities and listed values, Kronos demonstrated to the judges that the company’s commitment to excellence as a great place to work is embedded into its culture through both policy and practice, as well as constant evaluation up and down the supervisory ladder to identify areas of improvement and affect change.

Kronos Incorporated celebrates the moment the company wins the Exceptional Employer Award.
Kronos Incorporated Practice Director Doug Ding (and special helper).

The second-largest Kronos office in North America after its original headquarters in Massachusetts, the Kronos Indianapolis location recruits 95% of its employees, which are called “Kronites,” from local universities, including Purdue, IU, Ball State, Butler, DePauw, and IUPUI. Candidates participate in an Interview Blitz, an innovative day-long interview for which Kronos won the People’s Choice Mira Award for Best Tech Event in 2018. New hires attend SURGE, an extensive 8-week technical onboarding program that provides the resources and skills needed to prepare the next generation of Kronos services professionals. More than 275 solution consultants and project managers have completed SURGE training to date and have advanced to roles throughout Kronos.

Kronos strongly believes its employees and culture brand of WorkInspired are strategic assets for business advancement. In fact, in 2018, Kronos CEO Aron Ain released an award-winning book on employee engagement as a growth strategy (bit.ly/2VfLExw) and regularly travels to Kronos offices around the world to celebrate achievements with employees. 

Kronos acknowledges that it can’t deliver great products without having great people, so they invest in Kronite-focused initiatives the same way they would any other strategic initiative, and it shows. In January 2019, employee engagement soared to an all-time high of 89% globally, far above global IT benchmarks. This impressed the judges significantly, because at a time when up to 80% of employees are reportedly disengaged at work, Kronites across the company’s global offices are engaged at levels high above the average company and even exceeding levels that are considered “good engagement.”

To continue to enhance its culture, Kronos is leaning in hard on the belief that every Kronite deserves a great manager. Because employee engagement is strongly linked to manager performance, Kronos implemented a Manager Effectiveness Index (MEI) where employees rate managers as part of the company’s biannual engagement survey.

In addition to tuition reimbursement and student loan repayment financial assistance, Kronos offers training opportunities to build leadership skills, improve public speaking, and establish influence in the workplace. They are also committed to supporting a diverse and inclusive work environment through education and certification programs for veterans, social affinity support groups, and Women in Business.

TechPoint, the nonprofit, industry-led growth accelerator for Indiana’s tech ecosystem, honored the successes and innovation of Indiana people, places, companies and products during the 21st annual and first-ever virtual Mira Awards gala with presenting sponsors Eli Lilly and Company, Genesys, Infosys, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Salesforce.

WATCH RECORDING OF EVENT BROADCAST

A total of 15 award winners and honorees were chosen from the 129 outstanding people, places companies and products that were selected as nominees for their achievements during the 2019 calendar year. Forty-eight independent, volunteer judges spent more than 850 total hours evaluating applications, interviewing nominees, and selecting this year’s winners. Judges included company founders, CEOs and presidents, CTOs, CIOs, and other subject matter experts.

SEE ALL 2020 MIRA AWARD WINNERS

The Mira Awards are named after the first of the brilliant variable stars to be discovered – the Mira Star. It is also the Latin root meaning “worthy of admiration, wonderful, marvelous.” The awards represent the best of tech in Indiana each year.