It didn’t surprise us that employee experience roles, including Chief People Officer (CPO), topped LinkedIn’s list of fastest-growing job titles for 2022. While these roles may have dominated the professional networking site’s Jobs on the Rise report this year, we long ago made a commitment to an employee-centric culture. We brought in our first CPO this year, Kelly Demaitre, as we continued our investment in our Karsun team. Throughout this year, we continued our journey to building a culture where everyone can Grow with Karsun and Do Extraordinary. 

Creating a Collaborative and Diverse Culture

This year Karsun won its second Best CEOs for Diversity award from Comparably.com. The rating site asks current employees to rank leadership, including our CEO Sundar Vaidyanathan, on traits associated with diverse and inclusive spaces. For the second year in a row, we also won a Best Company Outlook award from the site. Part of our commitment to an open, collaborative environment is facilitating small and large gatherings where Karsun team members ask questions and learn about the future of the organization. This includes our monthly Coffee and Lunch with Leadership programs. Hosted by the Karsun executive team, small employee groups share their experiences and provide direct feedback to the highest level decision makers in our organization for review and action.

Our executives also host recurring All Hands and Fireside chat events throughout the year. For the first time this year, those All Hands events included new Core Value, Do Extraordinary, and Team MVP awards. More than 20 people were recognized for their commitment to excellence, innovation, teamwork, integrity, and incorporating fun while doing extraordinary for Karsun customers. 

Another unique fireside event was this year’s Celebrating Women Leaders session. In this moderated session, women leaders across our company shared their experiences managing large teams, growing their careers, and excelling in the IT industry. This is one of several events Karsun engaged in for Women’s History Month. In addition to the fireside chat, we also sponsored the Future of Work: Pandemic Pivot virtual conference for International Women’s Day and appeared at local events in the Washington, D.C. region, including the Women in Technology Career Fair

In addition to special events, Karsun also launched new training and professional development programs this year. As our team members still hone their technical skills through bootcamps and other offerings included in Karsun Academy, we also offered new comprehensive management and people leader training. For those based near our newly reopened Herndon, Virginia office, we hosted offsites with opportunities to collaborate in person.  

While most Karsun roles have the option to work 100% remotely, we are also proud that our local employees continually rate their experience working with us highly. For the second year in a row, Comparably ranked us a Best Company in Washington, D.C. and among the Best Companies for Perks and Benefits. Meanwhile, the Oklahoman named us among the Top Workplaces in Oklahoma. Comparably also described Karsun as a place where we solve interesting engineering problemsencourage flex work, and grew together as we overcame pandemic challenges.

Recognition for our commitment to flexibility and investment in valuable perks and benefits underscores the importance of a good workplace experience for our employees. At a recent All Hands, we announced new benefits for the coming year, including enhanced Paid Leave and new Parental Leave offerings. Maintaining this commitment to the employee experience is essential to our culture and growth. We hope you join us as we discover what’s next together.