ON September 2015 | Page 6

For many years, we used email as the engine behind our peer-to-peer recognition system coupled with monthly recognition programs and our very own Atrion Oscar night that celebrates the unique traits of our employees. But, in constantly looking to evolve and improve our culture, this past May our recognition journey led us to investing in Kudos, a peer-to-peer recognition system that allows us to celebrate anyone as long as they have access to the Atrion system. At its most simple level, Kudos is a gamificaiton program that gives each employee a certain amount of “kudos” points to award to his or her coworkers. As a leading IT services firm, one might think that Atrion is solely focused the hard benefits of technology, like ROI, reduced cost, increased sales, improved client loyalty, increased output, etc. But we are just as focused on the soft benefits, specifically the way in which technology can enhance our culture and empower our employees. It’s why we invest in technologies like Kudos. After all, the right tools allow your employees to communicate more seamlessly, enjoy a heightened degree of transparency and share information expediently. Unfortunately, most companies don’t think about using technology to drive the soft outcomes they want, like improving culture and increasing empowerment. We mistakenly assume that amorphous-like goals cannot be solved by gadgets and gizmos and are solely the function of the human resources department. But they can. 5