The KB Kulture Club is one of our secret ingredients.

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KB Kulture ClubBy David Strickland, Vice President of Kenton Brothers

The KB Kulture Club is a group of KB team members from different roles and backgrounds. They discuss opportunities and obstacles for our staff and company and then offer suggestions for celebration and change. The goals of the club are challenging… and the Kulture Club has done an amazing job delivering!

KB Kulture Club Goals

  • Increase Team Member Engagement
  • Reduce Turnover
  • Increase Creativity and Innovation
  • Improve Customer Experience and Satisfaction
  • Improve Morale
  • Recruit Great People
  • Encourage Diversity
  • Help New Hires Get Up To Speed (Onboarding)

One of the best things about the KB Kulture Club is the diversity of the employees. We have technicians, operational staff, sales professionals as well as managers and executive representation.

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Kulture Club Rules

There are no titles in the room and everyone must feel free and safe to openly challenge tough topics.

This environment leads to great discussion and innovative solutions. The work done by the Kulture Club has also led to some great paradigm shifts in perceptions for everyone.

We asked Alana Hanly, one of our club members, what is her favorite part of the club? “I think I enjoy the communication with all of the different people involved. Listening to my coworkers from different teams gives me a new and broader perspective on the things we discuss.”

In 2022, the Kulture Club made a big impact.

In 2022, the Kulture Club influenced everything from getting a vending machine in our breakroom to the establishment of a Health Savings Account option being offered as a part of our benefits package.

They highlighted our need to praise the everyday heros in the company as well as help recognize those that go above and beyond. They also created a group of awards and celebrations for the best team members at KB. The awards and celebrations were voted on by their peers and truly had a big impact. The awards represented every facet of the company.

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Employee Engagement Matters

According to a 2022 Gallup report, a dismally low 32% of employees in the United States feel engaged with their work. This means that 68% of the team members in an organization no longer feel a part of the team. “The engagement elements that declined the most from early 2021 to 2022 were employees’ level of agreement that they have clear expectations, the right materials and equipment, the opportunity to do what they do best every day, and a connection to the mission or purpose of their organization”.

What’s worse is that the actively disengaged rose to 16% in 2022. Actively disengaged employees are disgruntled and disloyal and will actively work against company goals.

A company’s culture is the manifestation of the employees doing the work every day. How they talk about their work, their teammates and their leadership. The Kenton Brothers Kulture Club did a great job changing and improving the engagement of our team members in 2022! We’ve seen the team members buy in to the monthly get togethers, contribute to innovation and dedicate themselves to stronger customer relationships. It’s exciting to watch and to see the impact they are having.

Congratulations on a great 2022 KB Kulture Club. We can’t wait to see what you do in 2023!

The Kenton Brothers 2022 MacGyver Award goes to…

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2022 MacGyver AwardBy Gina Stuelke, CEO of Kenton Brothers

We relived part of our history recently in thinking of Bill Kenton–some of you had the privilege of knowing him—he was the 2nd generation founding Kenton involved in the company from the time he was 12 until he passed away at 91 in 2010. In the early years of KB, he ran our service team and became known for his response when a tech would call in to the office to express frustration on a job–he would say “Well, IT DIDN’T GROW THERE – figure it out!”

In his honor, in 2015 we created an award to pay tribute to the KB security professional who has the tenacity and creative problem solving aptitude to get the job done while overcoming any adversity they may encounter. I liken this ability to the famous TV show and character from the 1980’s called MacGyver. MacGyver could pretty much solve any predicament with some ingenuity and the use of a paper clip or multi-tool Swiss Army knife! The definition of ‘to MacGyver’ something at KB is to fix something in a resourceful and improvisational way.

Congratulations Ryan McCourt!

This year’s prestigious ‘MacGyver award’ as voted by his peers went to Ryan McCourt!

Ryan is a hardworking professional who is proud of his craft. He has a beautiful wife and new baby girl who motivate him to be hard working and successful.

Ryan, you’ve earned the title! Thank you for being a great human and for making KB look so good!

Milestone Hosts Kenton Brothers at Powder Creek Shooting Park

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Milestone Hosts Kenton Brothers at Powder Creek Shooting Park“SPICED ICE” – Partnerships

SPICED ICE is the acronym for our core values. The acronym stands for Service, Quality, Partnerships, Integrity, Continuous Learning, Ethics, Dependability, Innovation, Customer Focus, and Employee Focus.

As part of the SPICED ICE we practice daily here at Kenton Brothers, we recently had an opportunity to focus on “partnerships”. Milestone’s Channel Business Manager for the southern region, Tyler Green, and National Sales Manager, Armand Steffens, graciously invited our Kenton Brothers field staff to blast off some steam at Powder Creek Shooting Park.

Powder Creek Shooting Park

Milestone Hosts Kenton Brothers at Powder Creek Shooting ParkPowder Creek Shooting Park is located at 8601 Monticello Rd, Lenexa, KS 66227. It is Kansas City’s premier shotgun shooting park that was established in 1949, originally known as “Kansas Field and Gun Dog Association”. They currently are a member-owned and operated facility with shooting options of trap, skeet, 5-stand, sporting clays, and archery.

Our team was happy to get together outside of working hours. Some of the participants had experience shooting shotguns, but for some this was a new experience. That created plenty of opportunities for teamwork and coaching. There was a little competition between some of the technicians, Austin Daniel and Jeremy Shinneman.

“It started out pretty chill, but then became more competitive near the end. Austin ALMOST beat Jeremy on the scorecard” – Paul Bennett

We’re proud to be a team-oriented workplace and love opportunities to spend quality time with our partners. We appreciate the Milestone team for offering this thrilling chance to build on our relationship!

KB Picnic! One Big Happy Family

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KB PicnicBy Courtney Emra, Lead Customer Service/Sales Assistant at Kenton Brothers

At Kenton Brothers, we take pride in being customer focused as well as employee focused. Both of these are key Core Values. We use the acronym “SPICED ICE” to identify our values. The C and E in “ICE” stand for Customer Focus and Employee Focus.

One of the ways we focus on our employees is creating opportunities to get together outside of work. We provide lots of team-oriented activities; including happy hours, hot dog crawls, Pickleball tournaments and more. And the cherry on top is when we get to celebrate tiny new additions to our extended KB Family.

Recently, we organized a company-wide family picnic!

We decided to go to Longview Lake and reserved Shelter #11. Longview Lake is just minutes from south Kansas City and has almost 1,000 beautiful acres of wide open spaces that are perfect for gatherings. They also have 14 shelters you can reserve and tons of amenities.

Gene Ross grilled up hotdogs and burgers, and staff members brought side dishes/desserts in true potluck form. Michelle Fenton brought some fun yard games and many others brought their furry family members. Everyone had a great time!

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