Sentinel Technologies Wins with Culture and Connection

Announcer:
Welcome to the Recruiting Community Podcast, the go-to channel for talent acquisition leaders and practitioners. This show is brought to you by CXR, a trusted community of thousands connecting the best minds in the industry to explore topics like attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent. Hosted by Chris Hoyt and Jerry Crispin. We are thrilled to have you join the conversation.

Chris Hoyt:
All right. Welcome, everybody, to another Recruiting Community Podcast. I’m super excited today. Normally, we bring in talent leaders to present insights from our own community—hundreds of leaders, thousands of practitioners. But today is a little bit different.

We’re in Las Vegas—Sin City!—which is kind of exciting. We’re here for USA Today’s Top Workplaces 2025 awards, and we’ve got some award winners with us. We’re going to go through a series of interviews and have some questions we want to ask. But I want to start with some introductions. And before we get into you, Kelly, I want to talk about the company first, because I think it’s kind of interesting. You’re at Sentinel Technologies?

Kelly Duff:
Yes.

Chris Hoyt:
So Kelly, can you tell us a little bit about Sentinel Technologies for those who might not know?

Kelly Duff:
Sure! I can give you a little history too. Sentinel was founded in 1982. I always tell our new hires that we were kind of like a mom-and-pop shop—we fixed IBM computers. I actually work with a manager who used to use an air compressor to clean out keyboards and fax machines. Now he’s a vice president, so there’s some longevity in our company.

We’re a tech company. We find solutions to infrastructure challenges our customers might be facing. We work a lot with the cloud, and cybersecurity is always huge. We even have our own cybersecurity team called Fortis, which works on incident response and more. We handle everything from physical hardware to managing help desks.

Fun fact: I’m the voice of every customer’s help desk line because I have a background in radio. They thought I should do the voiceovers—even though I worked behind the scenes!

Chris Hoyt:
So if I call in and hit 9, I’m going to hear…

Kelly Duff:
“Thank you for calling Top Workplace. We’re here to help you. All calls will be monitored and recorded for your… pleasure.”

We have a variety of customers, including really large ones who’ve been with us for a long time. But we also focus on our people. We want the loyalty from our customers to translate to our employees.

Chris Hoyt:
How big is the organization?

Kelly Duff:
We’re about 750 people, based out of Downers Grove, just outside of Chicago. We have offices across the country, and we’ve also taken advantage of remote work—hiring people in Texas, Vegas (we’ve got someone here!), Florida, Nashville… basically hiring the right talent for the right roles.

It feels like a small company because everyone feels like a friend.

Chris Hoyt:
And your title is Employee Experience Manager?

Kelly Duff:
Yes! This is a role that was created by Sentinel. I’ve been doing this type of work my whole life—it just never had a title before. I’m the caretaker of the culture and the people, making sure everyone is engaged and has what they need. I’m all about the fun! I get to plan the parties, the swag, and make people feel like they belong.

I always clarify—I’m not HR. There’s a reason for that. I love HR, and our team is awesome, but people sometimes get nervous about going to HR. They associate it with discipline or getting fired.

Chris Hoyt:
HR does have a bit of a bad rap sometimes.

Kelly Duff:
Yeah. Some people say they’re neither “human” nor a “resource,” but I completely disagree. HR is key to any company’s success when it comes to people. They help you on your journey.

My role is more about listening, being an advocate, and also—stealing your great ideas! Patriotism is hard work!
Seventy percent of what I say, I got from someone else.

Chris Hoyt:
But your role is different. While both functions champion people, you have a different take on it.

Is it through your role that Sentinel connected with USA Today’s Top Workplaces?

Kelly Duff:
Actually, we’ve worked with Energage for a long time, doing local surveys—starting with the Chicago Tribune, then Detroit Free Press, and even Arizona Republic. When I took on this role, that’s when we moved into working with USA Today for the national awards.

Our history with Energage goes back about 15 years. We’ve been a national winner for the last five. When I started, they said, “We want you to take over our survey platforms—make sure employees are giving feedback and then use that data to make improvements.”

Even though we’re a winner, I always say we’re not perfect. There are always things we can do better—like communicating more effectively and providing growth opportunities.

Since the pandemic, people want more in-person connection again, even though we’re spread out across the country. So getting people together regularly has become important, and that showed up in our survey results.

Chris Hoyt:
That’s great. One of the things I love about this is that it’s not a popularity contest. These aren’t picked by a committee—they’re driven by employee feedback, which is powerful.

You’ve mentioned a few changes that came from those results. Can you highlight one that really stands out—something you’re doubling down on?

Kelly Duff:
Definitely connection. After the pandemic hit and we all went remote, nobody really knew what was going on. So I started by sending out newsletters that shared customer feedback. It was our way of saying, “Look, we know this is new for everyone, but here’s how we’re making a difference.”

Then we realized email overload was real. So we created a Teams space just for recognition—we call it “Applause.” That led to starting a book club, a wellbeing space, and other interest-based communities.

I’m a huge fan of talking about what I love with others who love the same thing. So we’ve created communities based on personal interests. Remote and hybrid work can be isolating, and this is how we combat that.

Now, people feel connected, like they’re making friends again and staying in the loop with what’s going on in the company.

Chris Hoyt:
So you’ve got virtual workspaces that let people connect around shared interests—and not necessarily work-related ones.

Kelly Duff:
Exactly! And that makes work fun.

Chris Hoyt:
Now you’re talking about culture. You’re talking about community. We love that.

All right, Kelly—last question we’re asking everyone. If you were going to take over USA Today for a day and write the front-page headline, what would it be?

Kelly Duff:
Big, bold letters: Sentinel Elevates People’s Experience by Taking It to the Next Level.

Chris Hoyt:
I love it. Congratulations on being a winner!

Kelly Duff:
Thank you so much. It was great being here.

Chris Hoyt:
Well done. If you want to check out future or past podcasts, you can go to cxr.works/podcast. And if you’d like to see all the other USA Today Top Workplaces 2025 interviews we’re doing today, head to cxr.org/usatoday. Thanks, everybody!

Announcer:
Thanks for listening to the Recruiting Community Podcast, where talent acquisition leaders connect, learn, and grow together. Be sure to visit cxr.works/podcast to explore past episodes, see what’s coming up next, and find out how you can join the conversation.

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