When Kyndryl emerged as a standalone entity in 2021, spinning off from IBM during the height of the global pandemic, the odds were stacked against it. With 80,000 employees spread across more than 60 countries, the newly independent technology services company faced a daunting dual challenge: Build a new business while simultaneously cultivating a distinct company culture—all in a remote-first world.
Yet just three years later, Kyndryl has navigated that transformation and thrived. Under the leadership of Maryjo Charbonnier, the company’s chief human resources officer, the company has garnered more than 60 workplace awards, many based on employee feedback.
“Our journey is a testament to how a company can reinvent itself by placing culture at the heart of its transformation,” Charbonnier said.
See also: IBM’s Nickle LaMoreaux discusses her role in the Kyndryl transformation
From product-centric to people-centric
A spin-off often brings operational and cultural uncertainty, especially when breaking away from a legacy brand as storied as IBM. For Kyndryl, success hinged on a dramatic culture reset. “When we became an independent, publicly traded company, Kyndryl needed to move from a product-centric culture to a people-centric culture,” said Charbonnier.
That transformation began before the company even had a name. The leadership team anchored its vision around a strong purpose: Together, each of us advances the vital systems that power human progress. It also established a bold ambition to become a partner and employer of choice.
The Kyndryl Way, the company’s cultural blueprint, was central to this transformation. This framework emphasizes being restless, empathetic and devoted—values that shape how Kyndryls (as employees are called) engage with each other and customers. It also champions agility, flattening hierarchies to become “flat, fast and focused.”
Cultural change, Charbonnier said, “is a deliberate process and a unique opportunity we have as a young company.”
That process involved redefining behaviors and overhauling more than 50 HR systems and processes in just two years—a feat that typically takes most companies five years.
Transforming culture at scale is never frictionless. Charbonnier and her team recognized that employee buy-in would be critical. “We knew the quick adoption of the leadership behaviours and The Kyndryl Way were crucial to our success,” she explained.
To drive alignment, Kyndryl gathered 800 of its top executives for a leadership summit. Each was tasked with creating an action plan to live out the company’s values. Nearly 6,000 managers participated in workshops, while employees at all levels were offered training, digital badges and performance incentives tied to the new behaviors.
The results speak for themselves: within the first year, 88% of employees agreed that their manager’s behavior aligned with The Kyndryl Way. And despite the turbulence of transformation, employee engagement scores have remained consistently above the industry average.
“Our transformation was very intentional, and we consistently sought feedback from Kyndryls every step of the way,” said Charbonnier.
Talent at the center
At the heart of Kyndryl’s strategy is its commitment to being a talent-centric company—a philosophy rooted in the belief that employee skills are its most valuable asset.
“As a services company, our skills are the way we bring value to our customers,” said Charbonnier. “So, we’re invested in Kyndryls’ skills and careers.”
This investment includes the launch of a global skills and careers framework, a transparent and unified system that gives every employee visibility into their roles, competencies and growth opportunities. With Kyndryl Compass, a new performance management system, development goals are central, not just outcomes.
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More than 90% of employees have completed their career profiles, helping Kyndryl better match talent to customer needs. And learning is no afterthought. In 2024 alone, employees completed 2.3 million hours of training through a mobile-first platform offering more than 100,000 courses.
“This is essential as we focus on making Kyndryl the place for restlessly curious people to grow in their professions and build market-leading, in-demand skills,” Charbonnier said.
Beyond skills, the company prioritizes wellbeing and flexibility. Its Kyndryl Be Well program supports physical, mental and financial health, while hybrid work arrangements empower teams to choose how and where they work best.
Lessons in leading cultural transformation
Charbonnier knows that transformation does not happen by chance. “You have to spend as much time managing the change as you do on the change itself,” she said.
To ensure change would stick, Kyndryl implemented a structured, repeatable process—one that Charbonnier likens to a washing machine. “We had back-to-back releases of change, and we engineered a cycle we could rinse, wash, repeat,” she said.
This cycle began by engaging internal critics early, identifying executive sponsors and staging each rollout through leadership forums before scaling to the entire company. “We could roll a new change out to the organisation in four to eight weeks,” she said.
She also stressed the importance of cross-functional leadership. A dedicated governance committee comprising the head of communications, chief marketing officer, chief transformation officer, and Charbonnier herself co-leads the cultural evolution.
“Culture is not owned by one person,” she said, “but is deliberately co-led by a cross-functional group.”
Josephine Tan wrote this story for HRM Asia. Find more from this author at HRMAsia.com.
