Every company wants to be seen by their employees as a great place to work. Few companies have succeeded in creating such a great workplace as KENTECH, a leading investigative background check technology company co-founded by husband-and-wife duo Anna Fong and Kenneth Coats.
Fong and Coats have built the company and decided early on what lane they would take based on their identified strengths. Fong takes the role of COO, which comprises job duties like “coaching, strategizing, and constantly challenging our company and team members to innovate the customer and industry environment.” In other words, Fong is responsible for creating an environment where employees feel empowered to do their best work.
Considering the multifaceted nature of a background check technology company, Fong’s success in co-creating such a thriving organization with her husband is nothing short of astounding. From technology development to investigative analysts and more traditional administrative and sales positions, a company like KENTECH has a lot of moving pieces. For Fong to have successfully brought together these teams under their shared mission and goals is an incredible accomplishment.
Creating a people-first workplace culture
Although KENTECH is fundamentally a technology company, its leaders recognize that any technology is only as good as the people who power it. After all, the purpose of a background check is to ensure that a person is who they say they are and is a great fit for a job, rental opportunity, or anything else that requires a character assessment to be conducted. It takes great people to find great people.
Fong likes to describe her role in the company as that of an “integrator.” “As the integrator in this business, my goal is to give my team the resources, tools, and training they need to produce the highest quality result,” she says. “Each day in my weekly schedule is dedicated to a specific aspect of the business, allowing me to dive deep into different areas with undivided focus. I block out strategic time for individual departments, where I collaborate with the leads who manage those areas. This approach ensures that I’m not just touching on each part of the business superficially but giving thoughtful attention to the unique challenges and opportunities within each department. By carving out these dedicated focus blocks, I can drive forward initiatives with clarity and purpose, ensuring every part of the business gets the strategic input it needs to thrive.”
Given that integration is one of KENTECH’s core tenets as a technology provider — striving to create technology that integrates seamlessly into its clients’ operations — it makes sense that Fong, Coats, and the rest of their team have made such a firm investment in making their workplace culture feel cohesive and seamless.
As Fong describes her weekly duties, “My role is to support my team in leading their teams and ensuring they have the resources and tools they need to succeed and keep growing. Mondays — one of my favorite days of the week — consist of departmental meetings with my leads. These meetings are scheduled, have an agenda, and keep us on track for our quarterly to annual goals.”
The KENTECH team meets those goals. According to the company’s website, the sophisticated tools offered by KENTECH’s technology allow it to deliver digital background and security checks up to 75% faster than traditional methods. This makes KENTECH an ideal partner for businesses, government agencies, housing agencies, educational institutions, and others looking to streamline their background check process.
How workplace culture influences business success
Indeed, workplace culture is one of the core indicators of a business’s success. Leaders may think of employee happiness as a “lower priority” compared to core business functions, but what they don’t realize is that workplace culture is fundamental to support operations.
Happy employees are more productive, and workplaces that are known to have happier employees have more success recruiting and retaining top talent. These factors combined allow businesses to see up to 33% higher revenue, according to a study by Gallup.
The contributions Fong has made in the KENTECH workplace and the impact she has made have not gone unnoticed. KENTECH was recently announced to be listed on the Great Place to Work list for the second year in a row, with a massive 78% of employees saying that the company is a great place to work. Other key statistics include 100% of employees saying that they are “given the resources and equipment to do my job” and 100% agreeing that “when you join the company, you are made to feel welcome.”
“The secret to success is that your employees define your company’s success,” said Kenneth Coats in a recent announcement of this honor. “If they believe in themselves, the product, and the company, they will do great work.”
Under the leadership of Anna Fong and her husband, Kenneth Coats, KENTECH has grown to become one of the leading background check technology providers in the nation. Thanks to Fong’s focus on creating a collaborative, team-centric, and growth-minded culture, KENTECH has revolutionized the background check field in ways that will positively impact hiring. The business world needs more leaders like Anna Fong, who invest in their employees and workplace culture to ensure everyone can thrive.