Kristin Johnson is a “curve-breaker.”
That’s what Darren Rysedorph, founder and CEO of IT service provider Sage IT, said of his high-performing employee, who has autism. Kristin started working at Sage IT as a paid intern and is now a full-time office assistant.
“We have a scoreboard to track work, and Kristin is always at 100 percent,” Rysedorph said. “I’ve never seen her not be at 100 percent.”
Rysedorph pointed out that none of his other employees, with or without a disability, can match Kristin’s track record.
That’s the curve she broke.
Like many employees with disabilities, Kristin is a high performing employee, upending employers’ expectations.
“People think that people like me who have autism may not be smart or able to do work,” Kristin said. “But I have great long-term memory, and if you show me how to do a task once, I can memorize it.”
Part of Kristin’s job is to keep inventory up to date and make sure the technical team’s backpacks are always ready for a trip to customer sites. That’s no small feat because one of Sage IT’s differentiators is the speed with which it responds to customers.
“We are paid to be the IT department by companies that aren’t big enough to have their own IT department,” Rysedorph said. “One of the things that separates us from our competition is our speed. When one of our clients clicks on chat support, we respond within 10 seconds, which is unheard of.”
That kind of speed requires efficiency.
“For the response times to be that quick, a lot of other things need to be taken care of,” he said. “Inventory needs to be maintained; backpacks need to be checked every night. We have trunk kits in our cars. Cars need to be gassed and ready. We sometimes detect outages before the client does and send a car right away.”
The tech team was spending too much time doing that organizational work, and it was taking time away from service clients with the kind of response times Sage IT promises. “Our technicians need to be spending their time helping our clients, not checking and replenishing inventory,” Rysedorph said. “And they need to know that when they go out in the field, they have everything they need.
That’s where Kristin comes in.
“I check inventory and make sure we have enough cables and adaptors and if we are low on anything I order it,” she says. The backpacks are replenished every night.
In addition to managing inventory, Kristin communicates with the techs via the company’s Slack channel, which allows her to reach the in the field or in the office to make sure they get what they need where and when they need it.”
“Kristin’s been critical in keeping the back end running for us and keeping our techs in the game,” Rysedorph said. “She’s been super consistent throughout her time here and we’re happy to have her.”
Sage IT partnered with PRIDE Industries to find the right person for the position. Judi Adams, Director of Sales and Client Success for Sage, is also a member of The Michael Ziegler PRIDE Industries Foundation Advisory Board and familiar with the benefits that people with disabilities bring to the organizations they work for.
“I’ve been involved with PRIDE Industries since 2004,” she said. “So, I knew that hiring people with disabilities is no different from hiring anyone else. Everyone has abilities. You find out what people excel in, and that’s what they bring to a company—what they do in their roles.”
“I saw we had an amazing opportunity to bring someone in who can do things that the technicians don’t have time to do, so they can spend more time servicing clients in the field,” Adams said. “I knew we could count on PRIDE Industries to help us find a high performing employee.”
They found that great employee in Kristin Johnson, the curve blower.
“Every week we go over the scoreboards for the team, and like Darren said Kristin is always at 100 percent,” said Adams. “And she’s so excited to be part of the team. One of the things I love most is seeing her get off the bus and come over here with such enthusiasm.”
And Kristin is confident in the value she brings. “My job makes the whole business run more smoothly,” she said. She would like to see more companies take a chance on hiring people with disabilities. “They should,” she said. “We are capable, and we want to work.”
