Kronos celebrates 40 years of innovation and service plus five years in Indianapolis

In a very short time, workforce software and solutions innovator Kronos Incorporated has grown from being the new guys in town to a thriving operation employing 250 Kronites in Indianapolis and counting.

“We are, of course, a technology provider, but who we are as a company is much greater,” said Kristina Lengyel, Vice President – Global Professional Services, and TechPoint board member. “It’s our mission to help organizations shape and guide the next generation workforce. That starts with all Kronites, and Indy plays a vital role.

“Having access to and being selected by amazing hard-working young professionals from the heart of America is and will continue to be part of Kronos’ inviting and innovative culture. Our conducive work environment inspires all Kronites to advance their careers, share ideas, and explore innovative ways to attain our mission for Kronos and 30,000 customers worldwide.”

Kronos first made a name for itself as a manufacturer of time clocks, inventing the world’s first microprocessor-based time clock in the 1970s, but today the majority of Kronos’ revenue comes from software and services. The company provides cloud-based applications, as well as consulting, training and support services for workforce management and human capital management (HCM).

The Kronos Workforce Central suite is the industry’s leading workforce management solution purpose-built with industry-specific functionality that helps to drive better business outcomes by engaging employees, controlling labor costs, increasing productivity, and minimizing compliance risk. Kronos’ Workforce Ready suite is a full-suite, unified HCM platform that helps manage the entire employee lifecycle from pre-hire to retire. Kronos software and solutions are highly rated across all industries; from retail, banking, manufacturing and healthcare to state and local government, police and corrections and higher education. (See recent news of Workforce Ready integrating analytics dashboards from Indy start-up analytic.li)

The Indianapolis Technology Center launched in 2012, as a future pipeline of top talent for the Kronos Services Organization, and the Indy operation has been hiring at a brisk pace ever since. Nearly every aspect of the Kronos business is represented in Indianapolis, but the real heart and soul of the the Indy Tech center is its training and developing onboarding program that has already proven to be a great asset for growing and developing new talent into future consultants and project managers. And each new Indy-based Kronite attends an extensive 12-week technical onboarding and professional development program, SURGE, where attendees learn to problem solve, think innovatively, and deliver an outstanding customer experience.

According to Doug Ding, Practice Director, Professional Services at the Indianapolis Technology Center, more than 90 percent of the more than 200 recruits Kronos has hired through the center have come from Indiana post-secondary schools, including Ball State, Butler, Indiana University, Purdue University and IUPUI.

The $1.3 billion global company employs 5,300 worldwide, but its culture is anything but “corporate.” Even though Kronos was founded in 1977 — this week marks 40 years in business — it’s culture has more in common with startups and scale-ups than the typical corporate realm.

Browse the Kronos Indianapolis Technology Center offices at Spaces Indiana.

“That 100 percent starts with our CEO Aron Ain and the premium he puts on people, valuing people above everything else and making sure they have a great, inspiring place to work as well as an effective manager,” said Doug Ding. “Putting our people first and continuing to behave like a nimble startup is key to Kronos having a nearly 90 percent engagement rate among our employees worldwide, which is extremely rare for a global tech company like ours.”

CEO Aron Ain is one of the highest rated CEOs on Glassdoor, making the list for a second consecutive time this year. Incidentally, Aron Ain is the brother of founder Mark Ain. Aron took over as CEO in 2005, after working his entire professional career at Kronos, 38 of the company’s 40 years.

Kronos also ranked 17th on the Best Workplaces for Giving Back list by Fortune magazine, which is based on confidential surveys of more than 350,000 U.S. employees that measures how proud they are of their impact on the community, the difference they feel they make, and whether their work has special meaning. And finally, another recent survey by the Great Place to Work Institute found that 94 percent of Kronites say they are proud to work at Kronos and proud to tell others they work at the company.

Kronos structures what it calls its WorkInspired culture like a house with a foundation and four rooms. “Trust and transparency make up the foundation of our company culture,” Ding said. “Without trust and transparency the house would collapse.” The four rooms of the culture house include:

1. Caring for Each Other – (WorkInspired) Kronites caring for other Kronites. Committed to providing an engaging, transparent, collaborative, and high-trust employee experience.
2. Caring for Our Customers – Doing business with a customer-centric approach. Employees who love their jobs create raving fans as customers.
3. Caring for Our Families – (LiveInspired) Employee benefits to help maintain work/life balance include wellness programs, educational assistance, unlimited time off, workplace flexibility, parental leave, financial planning and more.
4. Caring for Our Communities – (GiveInspired) Supporting the next generation workforce and giving back to the communities where we live and work.

That caring theme is prominent throughout the Kronos organization. In fact, in Indianapolis, through the Kronos GiveInspired Program, employees are volunteering and mentoring students at Christel House Academy and the IPS School Corporation, and partnering with both on a variety of programs that advance STEM education in Indiana. It’s all part of the Kronos promise to provide an inspiring and caring place to work for each and every Kronite.

Another particularly interesting aspect of the Kronos culture is the accountability built into the annual review process, and that includes bottom up feedback for managers as well. Sixty percent of a Kronite’s review is based on what she or he did throughout the fiscal year, so the goals and metrics established and whether or not they were achieved. But the other 40 percent is based on how the employee did it — how well she or he worked with others.

“That kind of accountability really matters to people and is an ever-present incentive to be engaged, encouraging and supportive to one another,” said Doug Ding. “Perhaps even more significant is the way Kronites get to rate the effectiveness of their direct managers in our bi-annual global employee engagement surveys. The entire process and ongoing daily activities really helps you see things from a wider perspective and contributes to such a happy and productive workplace and culture.”