ELGIN, Ill., Aug. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As employers across the economy cut headcount, freeze hiring, and redirect budgets toward AI to do more with fewer people, IW Technologies is marking its 50th anniversary by moving in the opposite direction. The POS hardware and technology lifecycle management company is using AI to make people more capable, not fewer, and will host the biggest Employee Appreciation Week in its history the week of August 24. For a company that has reached five decades, the message is deliberate: the people inside a business are the reason it lasts.
From August 24 through 27, IW will roll out the red carpet for the nearly 200 people behind the company four days of recognition and celebration at its Elgin headquarters, where the employees are the stars. A kickoff breakfast, food trucks, a DJ, and games including a dunk tank, Bags, and axe throwing fill the golden-anniversary week, building the kind of shared moments that turn coworkers into teammates. It is the largest employee celebration in IW’s 50-year history, and by design it is not a one-off.
“You don’t reach 50 years by treating people as a cost to manage,” said Darin Moorhouse, CEO and President of IW Technologies. “You reach it because generations of people chose to build something and keep building it. That’s why a week like this isn’t a perk. It’s a reflection of how we’ve operated for five decades. As a technology company, we know our most important operating system has always been our people.”
That reflection shows up year-round, not just in August. IW funds a 90-day wellness initiative called the IW Reboot and runs holiday traditions for employees and their families, including a Santa event that makes sure every child of an IW family receives a gift. IW earned Great Place To Work Certification this year on the strength of its own employees’ feedback.
“A celebration like this only means something if it reflects how you treat people the other 51 weeks of the year,” said Andrea Majcher, Human Resources Manager at IW Technologies. “When our people feel valued, that carries straight through to how they show up for our customers and partners.”
This year, that spotlight is brighter thanks to seven of IW’s longest-standing technology partners, who stepped up to sponsor Employee Appreciation Week and help put IW’s people center stage.
“Anyone can sponsor a booth. It takes a real partner to sponsor your people,” said Justin Lockefeer, Vice President of Sales at IW Technologies. “Elo, Zebra, Datalogic, HP, Epson, ScanSource, and Ingram Micro did exactly that. These aren’t vendor relationships. They’re partnerships built on trust earned over years, and we don’t take a single one for granted.”
Those seven are part of a wider network that has shaped IW’s story from the start. The company has never done the work alone: every rollout, every repair, every store it supports runs on technology built by its partners.
Fifty years in, IW’s thanks run in three directions: to the customers who have trusted it with their store technology across five decades, to every partner whose technology it deploys and stands behind, and above all to the people who show up every day to do the work. The company is betting its next 50 years on the same thing that carried it through the first: the technology will keep changing, but the people are what make it worth building.
About IW Technologies
IW Technologies provides POS hardware, deployment, field service, and lifecycle management across multi-site operations. From rollouts and break/fix to depot repair, IW supports store technology at scale, including store networking and low-voltage cabling. Founded in 1976 on refurbishment, repair, and reuse, IW was building a circular model before the term existed. For more information, contact (800) 544-5493 or info@weareiw.com, or visit weareiw.com.
