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Best Minneapolis / St. Paul Places to Work 2019: Alarm.com

The Business Journal's 21st annual Best Places to Work awards honor 60 Minnesota employers and four individuals for fostering engaging workplaces.

Alarm.com has a number of tangible benefits it offers employees. These include 100 percent employer-paid medical benefits, or additional money in an employee's paycheck if they opt out of medical insurance through the company; a cash bonus program; a holiday pay and shift incentive program; and an employee referral program that gives up-front and recurring bonuses for employee referrals who stay with Alarm.com.

Alarm.com Top Place To Work Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities
For more about why this company is a BPTW, we asked Vice President of Customer Operations Jason Dacosta:

How many jobs do you have open, and where do you post your job openings?

We currently have 82 job openings companywide for positions such as customer support, software engineering, product management, sales and more. We typically post internally or on Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Indeed.

What's your most effective practice in retaining employees?

At Alarm.com, we put a premium on hiring for culture, values and competencies more so than technical skill set. We believe if a candidate is passionate about technology, we can train them! Who we bring on is important to us. In fact, our retention rate was greater than 90 percent here at CORE (customer operations and reseller education office) in Q1 of 2019. Employees at Alarm.com have a clear career path with opportunity to learn and develop in their current and future roles. Our BITW (Best in the World) mindset is alive in everything we do, especially when it comes to being an employer of choice. Our all-hands-on-deck mentality is perhaps one of the most inspiring elements of our workplace culture and something our employees greatly value. Every person in the organization is ready and willing to chip in when help is needed. Team members regularly make time to help train partners or customers, jump on the phones when call volume gets too busy, and pitch in when another teammate cannot be in the office. No matter who you are in the company, everyone bands together to help.

How do you plan to make MSPBJ's list of Best Places to Work next year?
  • We hold each other accountable through authentic and constant communication. We will continue to foster an environment that is viewed as more than a job; it becomes a significant positive influence on our employees' lives.
  • Focus on our team and work environment. We will continue to focus on what drives us forward and makes our business successful: our team. We proactively ask employees for feedback, and we take action on the feedback offered. Providing a healthy, interactive and energetic workplace environment is critical for employee engagement. We take advantage of recognition opportunities whenever possible. Each week, we have over 15 different small-group meetings do shout-outs that are shared directly with the individual they are recognizing. We even keep it fun in the way we communicate: Our all-hands meeting has been themed The Meat Raffle. We raffle off steaks when our employees ask a good question! We try to infuse fun into everything we do. For example, when we have to staff for a particularly busy day, we like to give it a name/theme/pun. This focus on people and organizational health is well-represented through our adopted motto, which our leaders often use to sign off on company emails, "Onward and upward."
  • Incorporating new ideas. We will continue to build out people-focused initiatives and programs, including our Culture Club, COREterly theme meetings and employee focus groups. We will continue with our BITW mentality — always striving for greatness and never settling for less.

What's the best part of doing business in Minnesota?

People come to Minnesota for the parks and lakes, education, and affordable living, as well as to be part of close-knit communities that share Midwestern values of strong work ethic and loyalty. In fact, I relocated here and started our CORE office from the ground up 15 years ago and built a team dedicated to being BITW. The first person I hired is still with us today. The team stays after hours for bonding sessions over game night or other shared hobbies and interests. This culture makes our employees want to refer their friends. We always recruit locally because we find these values and family-centric lifestyles contribute to our culture in the Minnesota CORE office.

Rank: 12

First-time winner
Score: 91.9366
Top local executive: Jason Dacosta
Minnesota employees: 166
Business: Security technology
City: Bloomington
Web: Alarm.com Careers

Media Contact

Stephanie Kinney

Alarm.com Public Relations

press@alarm.com