An Interview with John McKenna, ConvergeOne CEO: ‘We Believe that Diversity of Thought, Perspective, and Background are Key Ingredients to Personal Fulfillment and Business Success’

“We value diversity in backgrounds and beliefs and provide an environment where individuals are encouraged to be who they are and be part of an incredible team.”

ConvergeOne is a leading IT services provider of collaboration and technology solutions for large and medium enterprises.

The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Bloomington, MN.

John McKenna, ConvergeOne CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Targeted attacks, compromised infrastructure, and cloud computing are three top risks for third parties. How do you address these challenges with your solution?

ConvergeOne Cyber Recovery Services provide a combination of the specialized and secure cyber vault and analytics technologies with traditional backup platforms, giving our customers the ability to recover their systems and data and resume operations as quickly as possible. Our customers rest easier knowing that their data is protected and recoverable in the event of a ransomware or malware infection.

With our cybersecurity practice, we engage in WAVES – a proprietary, industry-leading methodology that allows us to fully assess and analyze a customer environment before prescribing mission-critical solutions. This process helps ensure we provide complete solution recommendations.

As a result of our quick and decisive actions to the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed business resiliency solutions that enabled hundreds of customers and thousands of global users to move to work from home and customer support remote configurations.We also accelerated our portfolio alignment with expanded cloud offers to better assist customers as they navigate their new dynamic readiness strategy.

Q. Providing flawless and reliable IT services needs experts in the house. How did you manage to form your dream team?

We believe in the power of connection. We strive to attract talent – a highly-skilled, specialized team at the top of their game to support our solutions. We value diversity in backgrounds and beliefs and provide an environment where individuals are encouraged to be who they are and be part of an incredible team. Through our career opportunities and team member referral programs, we connect individuals with the resources they need to be great every day.

Moreover, to attract high-caliber talent, we leverage social media platforms such as LinkedIn. We utilize Circa to promote jobs on a national network of over 600 local employment and diversity sites across the country. We also encourage our team members to manage their careers and explore opportunities within the company. We actively post our open jobs and support the cross-pollination of our talent. We welcome talented individuals to check out careers with ConvergeOne. We also offer an attractive and comprehensive Benefits platform, including 401(k) plan, medical, dental, vision, paid parental leave, In-Vitro fertility treatment coverage, legal/ID theft plans, pet insurance, and many well-being programs.

Last but not least, one of the most valuable things a ConvergeOne team member can do is recommend someone to join our team. Team members can receive up to $5,000 for bringing a friend on board.

Q.Growing the company based on employees' passions must be the priority. Do you ask your employees what they are interested in doing and how they would like to see their career unfold?

Our leaders play an integral role in engaging and communicating with our team members. We provide on-going support and resources to our managers to assist their team members in achieving their potential. Through our partnership with Gartner, we offer Manager Success Series workshops. Among these webinars, they provide our leaders with tools to conduct effective performance discussions, coach to connect, communicate with impact, and manage top talent.

We have developed resources for managers and team members to have career conversations. A career conversation is a discussion between a team member and their manager that supports the team member in developing career goals and an action plan for achieving these goals. This conversation will not always result in a specific decision or plan right away but will set the stage for a team member to later clarify goals and set plans. Team members and managers may have several career conversations over time.

We also promote annual performance review discussions. A key part of the review meeting is to focus on career development opportunities and goal setting.

Q. A good workplace stresses teamwork while still encouraging individual achievement and creativity. Does your company follow the same strategy?

We believe that our team is the most valuable asset and that without them success would not be possible. Recognizing our team and their achievements is an important part of who we are, especially those who go above and beyond the expected to support our business, mission, and values.

We are proud to offer recognition programs that allow peer-to-peer recognition of colleagues for exemplary performance and contributions, as well as celebrated for their service. Our recognition program includes the following:

Chairman's Recognition: This program was created to recognize team members whose conduct, work ethic, and achievement align with ConvergeOne's values, and whose effort and contributions exceed the expectations of their position. John researches each nomination and personally communicates awards to recipients. There is a monetary award given to recipients of this prestigious award.

Raving Fans: Everyone at ConvergeOne touches the customer in some way and plays a role in delivering a great customer experience. Whether you are in sales, engineering, fulfillment, ordinance, every interaction, and workflow impacts the customer journey and perception of the company. Raving Fans is a way to recognize when a colleague goes above and beyond.

Spot Bonus Program: This program is designed for colleagues to recognize a team member's contribution to a specific project or task when they occur. It is a monetary award given in recognition of a noteworthy achievement or goal.

Years of Service Milestone Awards: The heart and soul of ConvergeOne has always been – and will continue to be – our people. Our success relies on energetic, knowledgeable, and passionate team members to be present in every corner of the company. Team members will receive a congratulatory certificate along with access to the ‘Years of Service Awards’ gallery to select a milestone anniversary gift. Years of Service awards are given in five-year increments of service.

Q. What does the future hold for ConvergeOne and its employees? Are exciting things on the way?

Our mission is to shape the future of collaboration and digital infrastructure technology and services including the industries. We believe this creates tremendous opportunities for our team members to grow personally and professionally.

We believe that Diversity and Inclusion (D+I) are socially and strategically the right things to do. We recognize that we will achieve greater success by providing team members with an environment that respects the dignity of every individual, fosters trust, and allows every team member the ability to nurture their talent as individuals and as part of a collaborative team.

We understand that our work to achieve greater diversity and inclusion in our organization can also improve the world around us. By celebrating the unique backgrounds and traditions of others, we can gain a greater appreciation for the diversity that surrounds us, and the perspectives and lifestyles that we encounter every day. We are proud of our progress and encourage you to read more about our Commitment to D+I.

“We’ve spent decades building upon our technology offerings which span the core technology markets, customer experience, cybersecurity, data center, enterprise networking, and unified communications.”