The IT services giant climbed 35 spots in the Top 100 by systematically training its managers, operationalizing its values, and ensuring its CEO visibly leads the charge.
Across the 2026 Most Loved Workplaces® Top 100, a clear pattern emerges: the most successful companies build trust through accessible leadership and systematic employee listening, and they make culture real by operationalizing their values and training managers to be coaches. Few companies embody this playbook more effectively than Kyndryl, the world's largest IT infrastructure services provider, which skyrocketed to the #2 spot in the 2026 rankings.
Since its founding in 2021, Kyndryl has embarked on an intentional, system-wide culture transformation that demonstrates what it takes to earn employee love in an enterprise of over 80,000 people across 60 countries. The company’s approach provides a masterclass in turning abstract goals into tangible daily behaviors.
How Kyndryl does this: Manager-as-Coach Training at Scale
At the heart of Kyndryl's strategy is a recognition that culture is only as real as the manager who leads a team. To translate its desired culture—dubbed "The Kyndryl Way"—from a concept into a consistent employee experience, the company made a massive investment in its leaders.
Kyndryl trained nearly 6,000 people managers globally in dedicated "Leadership Behaviors" workshops. It also launched Leadership Development@Kyndryl, a comprehensive resource providing contemporary curriculum and tools for managers to hone their skills. The effort didn't stop with managers; the company rolled out Kyndryl Leadership Behavior training and badges for all employees to help them activate The Kyndryl Way in their own roles.
The result of this systematic upskilling is a clear alignment between intention and reality. A remarkable 88% of Kyndryl employees report that their manager's behavior is consistent with The Kyndryl Way, validating the program's impact on the ground.
How Kyndryl does this: Operationalized Values
For many companies, values are posters on a wall. At Kyndryl, they are the operating system. The Kyndryl Way, introduced in 2022, is a services-led culture centered on collaboration, excellence, and mutual responsibility. Rather than simply talking about these principles, the company embeds them directly into its core processes.
The manager training is the most prominent example, but the cultural framework informs everything from performance management to process simplification. By making its values the explicit foundation for leadership development and employee recognition (through badging), Kyndryl ensures that living the culture is a visible, measurable, and career-enhancing activity for its entire workforce.
How Kyndryl does this: The Accessible, Culture-Setting CEO
To make a culture feel authentic, employees must see it modeled at the very top. Martin Schroeter, Kyndryl's Chairman & CEO, actively champions The Kyndryl Way through direct and frequent engagement. He holds quarterly business updates for all employees and conducts global site visits to connect with teams directly.
This visibility reinforces the people-first message central to the company's identity as a services business. As Martin Schroeter states, the principle guides both internal and external interactions:
As a services business, Kyndryl puts people at the center of everything we do. It's a principle that underpins our culture and our long-term growth, guiding how we show up for our customers and for each other every single day.
This direct line from the CEO's actions and words to the company's stated values builds a foundation of trust that is critical in a large, distributed organization.
How Kyndryl does this: Systematic Employee Listening & Action
Kyndryl creates a feedback loop to ensure its culture initiatives are resonating and to identify areas for improvement. The company’s Annual Engagement Survey is a primary tool for gathering employee sentiment at scale.
Crucially, Kyndryl has built credibility that this feedback will be used constructively. The data shows that a large percentage of employees believe positive change will happen as a result of their input. This