KECH, Inc. Named Best Places to Work in Kentucky Award Winner in 2021

Williamsburg, KY – March 10, 2021 – KECH, Inc. is excited to announce our recognition as a 2021 Best Places to Work in Kentucky Award Winner! But this year we are moving on up – KECH was included in the mid-size business category that consists of companies with 150-499 employees. This is the third consecutive year that KECH has been selected for this honor by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Kentucky Society for Human Resource Management (KYSHRM).

The selection process is based on an assessment of the company’s employee policies and procedures and the results of an internal employee survey. For more details about Best Places to Work in Kentucky, visit www.bestplacestoworkky.com. As most business owners know, 2020 was a difficult year, and changes to the work environment had to be made very quickly to keep employees safe. KECH was able to deploy a work at home model for 99% of our employees within two weeks. Additionally, due to our adaptability and dedication to operational excellence throughout the pandemic, KECH grew significantly in Kentucky and expanded to Texas during the latter half of the year.

Moving from a mostly brick and mortar model to a work at home environment is a big change for contact center employees. KECH’s culture is very focused on treating our employees right and promoting employee engagement so we had to figure out how to continue that practice virtually. Even though we were not physically together, we were able to stay connected through fun virtual games that we ran every few weeks such as “Guess the Number of Candies in the Picture of the Candy Jar”; “Pumpkin Coloring Contest” with a drawing by our own Whitley Davenport (Trainer and Quality Analyst on one of our DOD programs); and even virtual Bingo and Pictionary get togethers in the evening.

“Our team continues to come up with creative ways to connect with our employees and make them feel valued which has helped us to be recognized as a “Best Place to Work in KY” for the 3rd year in row!” Chris Carpenter, CEO commented. Kevin Woznick, COO, added “At KECH, we appreciate and recognize hard work, so it is gratifying to know our employees helped to vote KECH as a great place to work again.”

Interested partners are encouraged to visit the KECH, Inc. website (www.kechco.com) to learn more about how we can help you enhance your operations through our full suite of services.

KECH, Inc. received a Community Partnership award from Whitley County

Williamsburg, KY – September 18, 2020 – KECH, Inc. is excited to announce our Community Partnership award from the Whitley County School District! In February 2020, KECH started a partnership with Whitley County High School to launch a career training program. As a business owner in the Whitley County area, KECH is dedicated to helping the area thrive by adding new jobs/careers at our Williamsburg KY headquarters. The KECH Learning Center program provides training to high school students who do not plan to, or have delayed attending college/university, and want to be trained for a career with growth potential in the contact center environment.

The program teaches the students contact center 101:

• Understanding and using all types of technology, including Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Automated Call Distribution (ACD), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Workforce Optimization (WFO), Surveys, and emerging technologies such as chatbots and other AI
• Customer service and soft skills such as building rapport with callers, active listening, how to handle challenging customers, and more
• Career pathing through career opportunities available within a contact center
• Understanding the types of contact centers, especially focused on Federal government, and the requirements for eligibility to work on a Federal contract

The program is designed to not only teach students about a contact center career but also provide valuable life skills that can be applied to any type of profession, including resume writing, mock interviews, employee expectations for attendance, timeliness, productivity, etc. The goal of the program is to provide students with the necessary skills to obtain a contact center job with KECH or other local contact centers in the area. During the summer of 2020, KECH employed about half of the students that participated in the program.

The partnership has been a very rewarding experience for the KECH team. Many of our KECH team members were key contributors to helping us develop and implement the program. We would like to recognize the following employees for their dedication and hard work on the program: Christie Angel, Joe Creech, Lauren Creech, Whitley Davenport, Crystal Early, Kristen Gentry, Felicia Huddleston, Jesse King, Jeremy Lambdin, Tiffany Lawson, Cody Rae McVey, Eileen Morrow, Rodney Ramsey, Justin Richardson, Andrew Roaden, Brittany Strunk, and Travis Woznick.