Vermont Business Magazine and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce announced last Thursday the top 27 Best Places to Work in Vermont for 2014. The awards program was created in 2006 and is presented in partnership with the Society for Human Resource Management, Vermont State Council (SHRM), the Vermont Department of Labor and the Vermont Department of Economic Development and Best Companies Group.

This statewide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Vermont, benefiting the state’s economy, its workforce and businesses.
To be considered for participation, companies had to fulfill the following eligibility requirements:

• Have at least 15 employees working in Vermont;
• Be a for-profit or not-for-profit business or government entity;
• Be a publicly or privately held business;
• Have a facility in the state of Vermont; and
• Must be in business a minimum of 1 year.

Companies from across the state entered the two-part process to determine the Best Places to Work in Vermont. The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25 percent of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75 percent of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process in Vermont and also analyzed the data and used their expertise to determine the final rankings.

Only those companies who reached a high level of recognition based on the evaluations are considered one of the “Best Places to Work” and are listed below.