Huntsville's 'Best Places to Work' recognized

Company executives with their "Best Places to Work" awards.

Today is a celebration of business in Huntsville. A day that honors the city's "Best places to Work."
The annual Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County ceremony also recognized "Most Valuable Employees." In all, 12 company and 12 individual winners of the Chamber of Commerce’s 2013 Best Places to Work were announced to a sold out crowd today.
First Commercial Bank was the presenting sponsor of the sixth annual event at the Von Braun Center and the North Alabama Society for Human Resource Management was the host.

For Susie Vaughn of People Tec and Modern Technology Solutions this was getting to be a habit. Vaughn was named "MVE" for the fourth straight year while Modern Technology Solutions is a five-time winner, but MTSI competed for the first time in the "Large Company" category, moving up from "Medium."

Winners of the "Most Valuable Employees" award.

“Despite facing numerous challenges locally while dealing with a still-recovering economy, our business community still continued to be recognized as one of the nation’s leading places to launch, sustain and grow a business,” said Kim Lewis, the Chamber’s vice chair of Small Business and Events.

According to a press release from the Chamber, Quantum Workplace measured and selected companies based on the following criteria: Team effectiveness, retention probability, alignment with goals, trust with co-workers, manager effectiveness, trust in senior leaders, feeling valued and work engagement.

Once nominated, Quantum - a company that specializes in measuring workplace satisfaction around the country - administered a survey to employees and tabulated the results. Winners were based exclusively on the outcome of the employee surveys.

The Company winners (in no particular order) were:

Micro: (10-20 employees) - Five Stones Research Corp.; TriVector Services and Adams Homes.

Small: (21-35 employees) - Nesin Therapy Services; QTEC and Troy 7.

Medium: (36-149 employees) - Embassy Suites Hotel & Spa; PeopleTec and Willbrook Solutions.

Large: (150 and more employees) - Modern Technology Solutions Inc.; Intuitive Research Technology Corp. and URS.

The Most Valuable Employee winners (in no particular order) were:

MVE Micro: (10-20 employees) - Jo Ann Eddy Davis, Strategic Innovations; Eliza Kitchens, ADS Security; and Chasitie White, LEAN Frog Business Solutions.

MVE Small: (21-35 employees) - Mike Arthur, Iron Mountain Solutions; Serena Forbes, Trideum Corp.; and Terrie Pung, GATR Technologies.

MVE Medium: (36-149 employees) - Jennifer Broom, QuantiTech; Susie Vaughn, PeopleTec; and Mark Pepper, Canvas.

MVE Large: (150 and more employees) - Kathy Cagle, Modern Technology Solutions; Sandra Manning, ERC; and Jennifer Veal, Intuitive Research.