KEENA: ALL IN ON PEO

For more than 40 years, KEENA has been a trusted name in the Lake George region of upstate New York. Founded as a staffing company, KEENA has helped countless small businesses fulfill their workforce needs. Around 2001, the company added PEO services to the mix, although it was never a robust business line. That all changed a few years ago when Christina Gerarde took over the company from her mother. Like any new business leader would, she examined the state of the company and reflected on the type of services she wanted to offer. As she continued this process and spoke more with her team it became clear that PEO was the direction KEENA should take. That decision sparked a company transformation that’s included a rebrand, many new team members and a strong commitment to offering robust PEO services and expertise.

ASSEMBLING A STRONG TEAM

Gerarde always thought joining the family business was in the cards, but her parents had a strict five-year rule. She had to first work somewhere else for at least five years before she was able to join KEENA. When she finally did join the company, she immersed herself in the business from top to bottom.

“I spent a lot of time learning and doing every role in the company, even running the front desk,” Gerarde says, “I even delivered payroll back when I was in high school.”

Learning and growing on the job is a hallmark of the KEENA culture. The company prides itself on the ability for employees to learn, grow and pursue new responsibilities. The KEENA leadership team is a prime example.

Josh Lyons joined in 2016 and grew into the role of finance manager. Shawn Weinberger joined in an operations role, but has been instrumental in KEENA’s sales, marketing and re-brand efforts. Sam Rathbun rounds out the leadership team and serves as the general manager after initially starting on the staffing side of the business and in HR roles.

Shawn Weinberger, Sam Rathbun, & Christina Gerarde.

The entire KEENA team is a small, hands-on group of professionals who are deeply committed to serving their clients and supporting one another. As a small team with big goals, several core values underpin company culture and help make sure everyone moves in the same direction. After a lot of reflection and discussion, the team settled on these core values: collective responsibility, humble confidence, unwavering trust and respect, and effective communication.

“We relied on EOS [entrepreneurial operating system] to help develop these values with a lot of soul searching,” Rathbun says. “We hire and evaluate performance based on these values. We believe we can teach you the right skills if you share these values.”

Simply put, these values help create a collaborative culture where everyone supports each other. It helps make coming to work an enjoyable experience and creates an atmosphere that everyone wants to be a part of.

“This is the first place I’ve worked where I feel valued as a person first, and an employee second,” Lyons says.

EMBRACING PEO

After having relied on EOS to help organize and modernize the business and working through leadership courses, Rathbun and Gerarde came to the realization that staffing was not a path they wanted to move forward on.

“Sam and I were in a meeting, and we made the decision to go all in on PEO,” Gerarde recalls.

“It was clear that PEO most matched the direction we wanted to go in,” Rathbun adds.

That’s when the learning curve kicked in. Since PEO had been a stagnant line of business for so long, there was no company playbook or guide. The team had to learn a lot and get up to speed on industry best practices. They had to secure new partnerships and develop better benefits packages, too.

“NAPEO and the relationships we’ve made there have been incredibly helpful,” Gerarde says, “We got everything we needed to put all the pieces in place.”

There have been challenges along the way of course and new processes and procedures had to be created, but the biggest challenge is spreading the news about PEO. For most of its history, KEENA’s clients fell within a 30-mile radius, but the company is now focused on growing outside this boundary and even branching into other states. The decision to undertake a company rebrand has helped boost KEENA’s visibility and presence in the region.

The team didn’t want to lose the KEENA name since it’s so well known in the region, but the new logo helped spark a conversation about the new direction of the company. It represented a chance to bring new energy and renewed focus to the PEO offering.

The process has also included a new website, SEO program and partnership with a local marketing firm. Weinberger has led the charge on this effort, a reflection of the company’s willingness to play to peoples strengthens and allow him to tap into the creative side.

It may be a new sales and marketing strategy, but it still emphasizes the company’s roots as a community focused, hyper-local organization.

“We take a lot of pride in building real relationships with clients. It’s a hospitality focused approach to provide deep support which has helped with growth and attracting new clients,” Weinberger says.

This growth process and evolution of the company has been challenging, but also very rewarding. The team is united behind a shared vision and goals and deeply committed to helping everyone succeed. The team has come quite a long way in the last few years but knows there is a lot more potential in front of them.

“We went from truly not being able to sell PEO because we didn’t understand it, to now believing in it. We know working with a PEO is best for businesses,” Gerarde says.

The secret to KEENA’s renewed success?

“These three team members deserve all the credit in the word for where we’re at,” Gerarde believes.