Employer of Choice, Verified

Employer of Choice, Verified

What 36 people told Sacramento about working at KIME

Every company says it's a great place to work. It's on the careers page. It's in the recruitment deck. It's in the interview, somewhere between the tour and the offer.

KIME has said it too — but we've always tried to say it differently. For years, we've talked about being an Employer of Choice not as a slogan but as a promise with structure behind it: real career pathways, real education, real autonomy, real transparency, and real participation in the value we create together. A promise like that has one weakness, though. As long as the company is the one making the claim, it's still just a claim.

This month, that changed.

KIME has been named the #2 Best Place to Work in Sacramento in the Small Business category by the Sacramento Business Journal. And the reason this award matters more than most is simple: we didn't win it. You did.

An Award With No Judges

Here's how Best Places to Work actually works, because it's different from most business awards.

There's no panel reviewing a written application. No pitch. No presentation from leadership about how great the culture is. Of all the organizations that enter across the region, the Sacramento Business Journal honors 55 companies — and then ranks the Top 3 in each of the Small, Midsize, and Large Business categories. The entire result is determined by one thing: an anonymous, research-validated survey of the people who work there, measuring the workplace factors that actually drive engagement and satisfaction.

Thirty-six KIME team members completed the survey. Along the way, you shared 109 written comments. Nobody's answers were visible to anyone at KIME — not leadership, not Talent & Culture, not anyone. Which means every number below is something our team said when no one was watching.

KIME finished #2 in Small Business, with only a fraction of a point separating the top three companies.

The Numbers Our People Put Up

Our overall score was 95.13 out of 100. For context: the average score among small-company finalists — companies already good enough to be honored — was 91. The benchmark set by the Top 3 small companies was 95. We matched the best.

97.22% of our team is highly engaged. Of 36 respondents, 35 were rated highly engaged — highly favorable, willing to advocate for the organization, intending to stay, giving high discretionary effort. One was moderately engaged. Zero — not one person — was barely engaged or disengaged.

That number deserves a second look. The top-scoring Best Places to Work — anywhere, at any size — create workplaces where 97% of employees are engaged. That is the ceiling of this entire field. It's where we already are.

And on the statement “the senior leaders of the organization value people as their most important resource,” KIME scored 97 — above the 96 benchmark of the Top 3 small companies, and within two points of the top 5% of Best Places to Work nationally. Year after year, feeling valued proves to be one of the single largest drivers of engagement. Our team says they feel it.

One Word

The survey asked our team a deceptively simple question: what one word best describes your work environment?

Out of every word thirty-six people could have chosen — independently, anonymously, with no coordination — the top answer at KIME was:

 EXCELLENCE.

If you've been at KIME for any length of time, you know that word isn't decoration here. It's a core value. It's how we define the promise to the people we serve — listen first, be curious, give them a plan. It's the standard behind Foundations, Fellowship, and everything KIMEU teaches. We chose that word for ourselves years ago as a statement of intent.

Our team just chose it back. Not as an aspiration — as a description.

In Your Own Words

The written comments are, honestly, the best part of the report. A few of them, exactly as your teammates wrote them:

“Ever since I started at KIME, it's been nothing short of excellent. It's clear to see the promotional pathway, I've been given all the tools needed for current and future success and I am surrounded by knowledgeable, professional, and most importantly, good people who care about what they do.”

— KIME team member, 2026 Best Places to Work survey

“They care about us as individuals and do not allow anyone to fall behind. If a coworker is struggling with performance our leaders will take personal time to improve their skills and knowledge base. Autonomy is promoted above all else giving us control over work-life balance.”

— KIME team member, 2026 Best Places to Work survey

“I no longer feel stagnant in my career and feel there are further growth opportunities for me.”

— KIME team member, 2026 Best Places to Work survey

“I never feel like I can't do the right thing.”

— KIME team member, 2026 Best Places to Work survey

What those comments are actually about: autonomy, mentorship and growth that's real. Leaders who invest in people when they struggle instead of writing them off. The freedom to do right by patients. Feeling at home from day one. Nobody handed our team those themes — they're simply what people reached for when asked to describe their experience. They happen to be the exact things we've spent years trying to build.

Why This One Is Different

KIME has won recognition before, and we're proud of all of it. But most awards evaluate what an organization does. This one measures what it feels like to be part of it — and the only people qualified to answer that question are the ones living it.

That's what makes this the most meaningful external validation the Employer of Choice promise has ever received. An Employer of Choice isn't something a company can declare. It's a verdict that can only be rendered by the people who chose the employer — and who keep choosing it every day. Thirty-six of us just rendered it, anonymously, to the entire Sacramento business community.

It's also worth saying: this didn't happen by accident, and it didn't happen fast. It's the compound result of ten years of decisions — how we recruit, how we teach, how we share success, what we're transparent about, and whether we actually deliver on what we promise people when they join. Culture is built the same way performance is built.

 Within repeated patterns.

The Next Benchmark

One more thing, because standing still has never been the KIME way.

Our growth means that next year, we'll compete in the Midsize Business category — a bigger field, a new benchmark, and a fresh challenge. We'll take it in the same way we earned this one: not by campaigning for an award, but by continuing to build the kind of company that 36 anonymous voices — and someday many more — will vouch for without being asked.

To everyone who took the survey, and to everyone who makes KIME what those comments describe: thank you. This recognition belongs to you.

#2 Best Place to Work in Sacramento. Decided by our people.